Use requests (open) for posts that ask for a specific and well-defined request from the broad EA community. The request can be very important for your effort to do more good, or it can be something trivial that you are just curious about. Make sure to say how important your request is, and why it’s important. It’s helpful if you can supply time limits, extra information needed, and be responsive to questions in the comments.
For posts that are a broader call to action, use the opportunities to take action tag.
For posts that only ask for responses to a question (and not e.g. detailed feedback, funding, etc.), we recommend creating a Question rather than using this topic. Do this by creating a “New Question” (in the same menu as “New Post”). This will be listed on the “All Questions” page.
After a request has been completed, or if it’s no longer relevant, downvote this topic and add requests (closed). This can be done by anyone, not just the original poster.
Do people have thoughts on when we should regard a request as “closed” when the post contains no explicit deadline or other relevant criteria? Some options:
Close the request after a certain number of weeks or months has elapsed since the post’s publication.
Do what feels intuitive in each case.
Never close requests that do not naturally expire.
I haven’t been engaging much with these sorts of posts, and don’t have a strong preference for one of these options over the others.