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The current custom off-topic close reason for medical advice is the following

Personal medical questions are off-topic on Biology. We can not safely answer questions for your specific situation and you should always consult a doctor for medical advice.

I propose to change it to include health advice:

Personal medical questions and health advice are off-topic on Biology. We can not safely answer questions for your specific situation and you should always consult a doctor for medical advice.

As discussed in this previous meta post, I think health questions are not a good fit for the site and should be closed. This concerns mostly questions like "Is X healthy?" that are not about understanding biological mechanisms.

If there are no objections, I'll change the close reason to my proposed new wording. I'm open to any suggestions on a better wording, or any other feedback on the issue.

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  • $\begingroup$ +1 I think this is a good idea. $\endgroup$
    – Chris Mod
    Oct 16, 2014 at 13:13
  • $\begingroup$ +1 seconded, and still of the opinion that the previous featured question and now the current featured question were too close to health advice for my comfort. $\endgroup$
    – Atl LED
    Oct 16, 2014 at 15:25
  • $\begingroup$ Looks good to me. Go for it! $\endgroup$
    – MattDMo
    Oct 16, 2014 at 17:29
  • $\begingroup$ I also agree with the change. @AtlLED, which Qs are you referring to? $\endgroup$
    – fileunderwater
    Oct 17, 2014 at 9:07
  • $\begingroup$ this one and this one $\endgroup$
    – Atl LED
    Oct 17, 2014 at 14:42
  • $\begingroup$ It looks like there will soon be a place to re-route these. $\endgroup$
    – Susan
    Oct 18, 2014 at 16:35
  • $\begingroup$ @Susan This place WILL lead to legal issues, I'm afraid... $\endgroup$
    – Raoul
    Oct 20, 2014 at 10:33
  • $\begingroup$ @Raoul I've had similar concerns.... $\endgroup$
    – Susan
    Oct 20, 2014 at 10:35
  • $\begingroup$ I rolled back my edit since I saw that you have already implemented it with that wording. Could you change can not to cannot? The latter is used almost exclusively in modern English. $\endgroup$
    – terdon on strike
    Oct 25, 2014 at 12:43
  • $\begingroup$ Skeptics may use a version of this as a close reason. Is that okay? $\endgroup$
    – HDE 226868
    Mar 8, 2015 at 17:52

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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This is now done, health advice is added to the personal medical questions close reason.

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  • $\begingroup$ I'd like to add that there is a possibility for some apparent health questions to be in scope for Physical Fitness beta. They take some nutrition/health questions. $\endgroup$
    – J. Musser
    Oct 20, 2014 at 23:05
  • $\begingroup$ The clarification on health advice should be added to the help pages as well (currently only "personal medical questions" are mentioned there). This is what new users (hopefully) read for guidance, not the close-reason texts. $\endgroup$
    – fileunderwater
    Oct 25, 2014 at 20:53
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @fileunderwater done $\endgroup$
    – Mad Scientist - on strike
    Oct 26, 2014 at 10:32

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