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Currently, the question Why is "taking a biscuit" a bad thing in the UK? has an answer which

  • is heavily downvoted (with a score of -19 last I saw),
  • describes activities many people would consider very disgusting,
  • doesn't cite any sources or otherwise back up its claim in any way,
  • has several comments refuting it, and
  • is currently the question's accepted answer.

I didn't see any reason why this answer could be worth keeping, so I flagged it as "rude or abusive." Somebody reviewed my flag but decided to leave the answer up.

Should we do something about this particular answer? Is there any reason we shouldn't just delete it?

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  • 1
    The accepted answer isn't rude or abusive to anyone per se. It's WRONG and totally invented.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Sep 26, 2019 at 4:45
  • Related:How far on the right side of the 'rude' line is implying that British people are irrational? and Can I undo a bounty that I accidentally opened for the wrong question?
    – Mari-Lou A
    Sep 26, 2019 at 4:48
  • 2
    @Mari-LouA Well, my thinking was that it's rude or abusive to post a totally made-up answer, especially one with potentially offensive content.
    – Tanner Swett
    Sep 26, 2019 at 4:53
  • 5
    Since Wikipedia has it (and four reliable citations) then it's not a made up answer. There is no offensive slang in the answer: it's perfectly objective. And if a site on the English language cannot discuss "potentially offensive" language and its origins then we are lost.
    – Andrew Leach Mod
    Sep 26, 2019 at 9:27
  • If an answer is believed to be wrong, it should be downvoted as not useful. This appears to be happening. If the real objection is actually that a wrong, hugely-downvoted answer is still at the top of the list, that should be addressed elsewhere.
    – Andrew Leach Mod
    Sep 26, 2019 at 9:45
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    @AndrewLeach In the Wikipedia link posted in the comments, the game has several different names (Soggy biscuit (also known as ookie cookie, limp biscuit, wet biscuit, shoot the cookie, jizzcuit, or cum on a cookie) ) but not a single mention of "take the biscuit". So, Wikipedia does NOT have it. In fact, there is no article for "take the biscuit" or "takes the biscuit" en.wikipedia.org/w/…
    – Mari-Lou A
    Sep 26, 2019 at 9:56
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    @Mari-LouA It is an answer to why "taking the biscuit" is a bad thing. Whether it is the right answer is a matter for individuals to vote on. It appears many people don't think it is the right answer.
    – Andrew Leach Mod
    Sep 26, 2019 at 10:00
  • The author made a fanciful leap of imagination and claimed something which is untrue "The name probably comes from adolescent boys' game of "limp biscuit"" @AndrewLeach It appears many people don't think it is the right answer. Only recently, thanks to a meta post complaining about the question. In the meantimes that answer has been copied by several websites and used as a bait for malware programmes.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Sep 26, 2019 at 10:00
  • @AndrewLeach you said Since Wikipedia has it (and four reliable citations) It doesn't. And it's not a made up answer Yes, it is.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Sep 26, 2019 at 10:08
  • @Mari-LouA Wikipedia has limp biscuit and four reliable citations. If you think that it's too much of a leap to ascribe the phrase to taking that biscuit then downvote the answer. But (to Tanner) describing activities which many people would find disgusting is not a reason to reject an answer.
    – Andrew Leach Mod
    Sep 26, 2019 at 10:11
  • We could put the text in a spoiler block. The answer already has a warning that it’s gross.
    – ColleenV
    Sep 26, 2019 at 10:13
  • @ColleenV It should be heavily downvoted, and everyone should see why (so no spoiler), even more so because the author has not to this day–see comments–even expressed the slightest hesitation that their answer is without foundation.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Sep 26, 2019 at 10:16
  • @Mari-LouA It is heavily downvoted, and anyone who wants to know why is not going to be stopped by a spoiler block. People who try to be careful about what they put in their brains will likely just take the community’s word for it not being worth their time.
    – ColleenV
    Sep 26, 2019 at 10:20
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    There are a lot of downvoted answers unsupported by research around...
    – user 66974
    Sep 26, 2019 at 13:52

1 Answer 1

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Heavily downvoted bad answers should be preserved as feedback for visitors, not deleted. They demonstrate the sorts of answers that are not welcomed by the community, and may prevent such answers in the future.

In this specific case, deletion of the answer may lead someone to believe the “soggy biscuit” thing has not been brought up before and cause them to post it again.

It will constantly require community intervention if we assume the soggy biscuit thing can’t be a credible answer, (which is what the comments seem to indicate) and we will lose the history of the previous, unaddressed criticisms of such an answer.

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