Good or bad idea to cite your own experience? I choose neither. I have no problem with folks citing their experience, or not, as they desire. I also support other people asking what the basis of the answerers knowledge is. We can't force it though.

For me, a great subjective answer must follow the "Back it up" principle in that either the answer:

• Must be supported by citing specific sources
• Must be from the answerers personal experience. Either something they did, or witnessed directly.

As I did on another answer to your question I will likely downvote and/or challenge any unsourced answer. Often, as I think it did in this case, the answer will get vastly better.

As an alternative to citing personal experience, consider that StackExchange has our own system of tracking how likely people are to be giving good answers.

###Reputation### It is fairly easy to see how trusted a particular user is with the site, and any particular tag.

If you check out aramis you see that he has a significant amount of reputation here and on SciFi, he has a ton of reputation on RPG. That can give you a certain level of good feeling that his answer comes from a base of game knowledge.

Looking a bit farther, he is the #1 user on game-design here on B&CG. Using a little search-fu, you can pull up the answers directly to examine and judge for yourself.

TL;DR I think that Reputation and a little investigation can yield much of the information you are seeking. Newer members may have to be challenged more often to obtain their bona fides but once someone has a few thousand rep, you can generate a pretty good picture of their expertise.

Good or bad idea to cite your own experience? I choose neither. I have no problem with folks citing their experience, or not, as they desire. I also support other people asking what the basis of the answerers knowledge is. We can't force it though.

For me, a great subjective answer must follow the "Back it up" principle in that either the answer:

• Must be supported by citing specific sources
• Must be from the answerers personal experience. Either something they did, or witnessed directly.

As I did on another answer to your question I will likely downvote and/or challenge any unsourced answer. Often, as I think it did in this case, the answer will get vastly better.

As an alternative to citing personal experience, consider that StackExchange has our own system of tracking how likely people are to be giving good answers.

Reputation

It is fairly easy to see how trusted a particular user is with the site, and any particular tag.

If you check out aramis you see that he has a significant amount of reputation here and on SciFi, he has a ton of reputation on RPG. That can give you a certain level of good feeling that his answer comes from a base of game knowledge.

Looking a bit farther, he is the #1 user on game-design here on B&CG. Using a little search-fu, you can pull up the answers directly to examine and judge for yourself.

TL;DR I think that Reputation and a little investigation can yield much of the information you are seeking. Newer members may have to be challenged more often to obtain their bona fides but once someone has a few thousand rep, you can generate a pretty good picture of their expertise.

Good or bad idea to cite your own experience? I choose neither. I have no problem with folks citing their experience, or not, as they desire. I also support other people asking what the basis of the answerers knowledge is. We can't force it though.

For me, a great subjective answer must follow the "Back it up" principle in that either the answer:

• Must be supported by citing specific sources
• Must be from the answerers personal experience. Either something they did, or witnessed directly.

As I did on another answer to your question I will likely downvote and/or challenge any unsourced answer. Often, as I think it did in this case, the answer will get vastly better.

As an alternative to citing personal experience, consider that StackExchange has our own system of tracking how likely people are to be giving good answers.

###Reputation### It is fairly easy to see how trusted a particular user is with the site, and any particular tag.

If you check out aramis you see that he has a significant amount of reputation here and on SciFi, he has a ton of reputation on RPG. That can give you a certain level of good feeling that his answer comes from a base of game knowledge.

Looking a bit farther, he is the #1 user on game-design here on B&CG. Using a little search-fu, you can pull up the answers directly to examine and judge for yourself.

TL;DR I think that Reputation and a little investigation can yield much of the information you are seeking. Newer members may have to be challenged more often to obtain their bona fides but once someone has a few thousand rep, you can generate a pretty good picture of their expertise.

Good or bad idea to cite your own experience? I choose neither. I have no problem with folks citing their experience, or not, as they desire. I also support other people asking what the basis of the answerers knowledge is. We can't force it though.

For me, a great subjective answer must follow the "Back it up" principle in that either the answer:

• Must be supported by citing specific sources
• Must be from the answerers personal experience. Either something they did, or witnessed directly.

As I did on another answer to your question I will likely downvote and/or challenge any unsourced answer. Often, as I think it did in this case, the answer will get vastly better.

As an alternative to citing personal experience, consider that StackExchange has our own system of tracking how likely people are to be giving good answers.

###Reputation### It is fairly easy to see how trusted a particular user is with the site, and any particular tag.

If you check out aramis you see that he has a significant amount of reputation here and on SciFi, he has a ton of reputation on RPG. That can give you a certain level of good feeling that his answer comes from a base of game knowledge.

Looking a bit farther, he is the #1 user on game-design here on B&CG. Using a little search-fu, you can pull up the answers directly to examine and judge for yourself.

TL;DR I think that Reputation and a little investigation can yield much of the information you are seeking. Newer members may have to be challenged more often to obtain their bona fides but once someone has a few thousand rep, you can generate a pretty good picture of their expertise.