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Generally, we expect all questions here to be written from the point-of-view of genuine curiosity, and we expect all answers to be genuine attempts to provide real information and analysis that directly addresses the question.

However, the community has indicated that, if regulated carefully, Purim Torah - silly parodies of real Torah discussion - could be a worthy exception to this expectation. So, Purim Torah questions and their answers in kind are allowed, with the following regulations:

  • Purim Torah questions may only be posted between Rosh Chodesh Adar [Bet, if there is one] and a day or two after Purim. (In 2012, this corresponds to sundown on February 22 through dark on March 11.)

  • All Purim Torah questions must be tagged with exactly one tag: (or, on Meta, ).

  • All Purim Torah questions must include the following disclaimer code at the bottom:

    ---

    #This question is [Purim Torah](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purim_Torah) and is not intended to be taken completely seriously. See the [Purim Torah policy](http://meta.judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/797/).#

  • Purim Torah answers are only permitted on Purim Torah questions, not on sincere questions.

  • After the time period specified above, all Purim Torah questions will be closed as "too localized". At the discretion of the moderators, some exceptional questions may be re-opened during future years' Purim Torah seasons.

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I'll retrofit the disclaimer into the existing P"T questions when Rosh Chodesh rolls around, so that they'll pop to the front page in-season. – Isaac Moses♦ Feb 14 at 4:51
You can not restrict questions by Time. If a purim torah question is valid during Adar, it's also valid during Tishrei. – avi Feb 14 at 7:52
@avi, what do you mean by "can not"? – Isaac Moses♦ Feb 14 at 12:24
There is no mechanical mechanism – avi Feb 14 at 12:44
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@avi, There's no mechanical mechanism for a lot of stuff we enforce. – Isaac Moses♦ Feb 14 at 13:13
In Which time zone will we be enforcing this rule? And are you seriously suggesting that 5 minutes past some aribitrary point in time, a question that was 100% valid before, is now Not valid? This is ridiculous. – avi Feb 14 at 14:19
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It won't be enforced with to-the-minute or even to-the-hour precision. As stated, that which was 100% permissible to submit before will become not permissible to submit. – Isaac Moses♦ Feb 14 at 14:37
Rosh Chodesh Adar (I and II) is always a two day rosh chodesh. Is 30 Shevat / 30 Adar I included or excluded from play? – Double AA Feb 22 at 19:15
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@DoubleAA, depends when sanhedrin announces the new month. Stay tuned. – msh210♦ Feb 22 at 19:43
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@DoubleAA, They started in with the "Shoshanat Ya'akov" tune in my shul already this past Shabbat, at Birkat Hachodesh. I think the first day of Rosh Chodesh is fine. Note that in the post, I specified tonight at sundown as the start point for this year. Note also that as I said above, I think that we don't need to enforce the time limits with very close precision. We just want to keep this feature reasonably in check. – Isaac Moses♦ Feb 22 at 20:11
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@ShmuelBrill, It's actually five from last year. Three were asked bein hashemashot of the beginning of Rosh Chodesh this year. – Isaac Moses♦ Feb 23 at 3:31
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Maybe a mod should close all the posts sometime after purim and reopen them next year. – Double AA Mar 4 at 15:50
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@IsaacMoses Locking sounds good to me. Remember: number of total purim torah questions is directly proportional to number of mods on the site (assuming they both grow with age of the site). I think until/unless it becomes a significant burden, then let's do locking, and in the future we can rethink. – Double AA Mar 4 at 17:08
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Locking is a good idea. In future years, selected posts can be unlocked by petition (or at moderator discretion). They don't all have to be re-opened every year. – Monica Cellio Mar 6 at 15:46
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FWIW, Joel Spolsky endorsed this policy on the SE podcast (~33:50 - 36:40). – Isaac Moses♦ Mar 7 at 15:01
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