How does the system of 1st and 2nd Tiers work when editing alternate versions of questions?

Answer 1

This is higher-level WikiAnswers editing! Alternate versions of questions are created when someone edits a question (the old version becomes an alternate), when new alternates are created explicitly, and when new alternates are created implicitly by people who ask questions and say that they are the same as existing questions. All these alternates become redirects to the "primary" wording of the question. Every question wording on WikiAnswers is unique, so an alternate cannot exist for more than one question. We set a limit of 30 alternates for any one question. The thinking is that if a question can be asked in more than 30 different ways, it can probably be split into more than one question and deserves more than one consolidated answer. The problem with the 30-question limit comes when alternates contain spelling and grammar mistakes. For example, we want "How do you change a tire on a Camero?" to be an alternate for "How do you change a tire on a Camaro?" because that enables the question to be found by people who don't know how to spell the model name of their car (which is remarkably common). But if you allow for spelling and grammar mistakes, the number of alternate versions becomes limitless. There could be an infinite number of spelling and grammar mistakes. Therefore we created two tiers of alternate versions: a first tier for legitimate alternates, and a second tier for alternates with spelling and grammar mistakes. The first tier is limited to 30. The second tier is limitless. Advanced WikiAnswers contributors can manage the alternate versions through the "edit alternates" page.