As it's been explained to me, "way back when", the gods had to approve Q&A questions. But then the QandAEditors clan was founded, and a change was made. QandAEditors were given the charge of either editing, SOPWifying questions that didn't belong, or deleting absolute rubbish. The approval system for Q&A was abandoned, and all questions, approved or otherwise were made visible to everyone.
The last remaining visible artifact of the old system is that when visitors view the section categories, they see a list of "Approved" questions, and a list of "Unapproved" ones. I feel that this distinction is misleading; it gives the impression that there's some difference, when in reality, the fact that the question still exists in the section is evidence that the QandAEditors approve of it. Under the current system, there is no difference between an approved Q&A, and an unapproved one. Yet there is a segregation of the two subcategories on the page that lists the questions.
Yesterday I submitted a patch that removed this segregation, so that instead of there being a list of approved questions, followed by a list of unapproved questions, there would now be only one list called 'Questions:'. This seemed like a good idea to me, and a few people so far have agreed.
The patch has undergone early testing and seems to work out fine. But after some conversation with several monks in the CB, I'm beginning to wonder if removing all last remnants of the old unwieldy approval system is really the right way to go. Some people I've talked with are fine seeing the segregation of approved and unapproved questions go away. After all, no question has been approved since early 2000. But others would rather see Catagorized Questions and Answers brought into the same (or similar) approval system as the other sections of the Monastery, such as Seekers of Perl Wisdom. At best, I haven't gained a good feeling for what the Monastery really wants.
I have to admit, I can see advantages both ways, though I do know that I am not familiar enough with site code yet to understand what is involved in reinstating the approval system for Q&A. That sounds like a big job, and I'm not sure what would be gained that isn't already being handled by the QandAEditors. But I'm interested in hearing opinions before venturing farther down the path of removing the approval/unapproval distinction.
Dave