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Overview

How A Question Is Created​

Many questions are launched by Metaculus staff, but any logged-in user can propose a question. Proposed questions will be reviewed by a group of Question Curators appointed by Metaculus. Curators will select the best questions submitted, and help to edit the question to be clear, well-sourced, and aligned with our writing style.

Metaculus hosts questions on many topics, but our primary focus areas are Science, Technology, Effective Altruism, Artificial Intelligence, Health, Geopolitics, and Far-Future Forecasting (10 years or more in the future).

To create a question go to "Create a Question" in the top menu or click here.

Editing Permissions​

  • Admins can edit all questions at any time (however, once predictions have begun, great care is taken not to change a question's resolution terms unless necessary).
  • Question Curators can edit questions when they are Pending and Upcoming (before predictions have begun).
  • Authors can edit their questions when they are Drafts and Pending.

Submitting Your Own Question​

  1. If you have a basic idea for a question but don’t have time/energy to work out the details, you’re welcome to discuss it in our question idea thread or on our Discord channel.
  2. If you have a fully-formed question, with at least a couple of linked references and fairly careful unambiguous resolution criteria, submit it for review by our Question Curators! Your question has better chances of receiving prompt attention and approval from Curators if it's well-formed and nearly ready to publish.
  3. Metaculus hosts questions on many topics, but our primary focus areas are Science, Technology, Effective Altruism, Artificial Intelligence, Health, Geopolitics, and Far-Future Forecasting (10 years or more in the future). Questions on other topics, especially that require a lot of moderator effort to get launched, will be given lower priority and may be deferred until a later time.
  4. We regard submitted questions as suggestions and take a free hand in editing them. If you’re worried about having your name on a question that is altered from what you submit, or would like to see the question before it’s launched, please note this in the question itself; questions are hidden from public view until they are given “upcoming” status, and can be posted anonymously upon request.

Getting A Question Approved​

We currently receive a large volume of question submissions, many of which are interesting and well-written. That said, we try to approve just enough questions that they each can get the attention they deserve from our forecasters. Metaculus prioritizes questions on Science, Technology, Effective Altruism, Artificial Intelligence, Health, Geopolitics, and Far-Future Forecasting (10 years or more in the future); if your question falls into one of these categories and has not been reviewed by moderators after a week or two, or is otherwise very urgent or important, you can tag us with @moderators to get our attention.