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Most of the answers in islam.SE are based on references from islamqa.info, almost always being just a copy-paste answer.

I've made an analys of the links used in the questions and answers and I found out that the majority links are linking to islamqa.info. Being a member in this community, I've also noticed that most of the answers actually link back there, many times with a big blockquote and a few lines of text saying something like "yes it is haram", "all scholars agree on x". These answers also seem to be upvoted pretty much and fast (which is logically because its the most used source), while other answers, not linking back to that same source, tend to get either downvoted, or not upvoted much at all, even though its a well written answer.

So it seems that the answers ain't judged on their quality but rather on authority (which is subjective matter). Of course, an answer should have some authority, and to be able to back up claims.

How do you think it affect us as a community that most of the answers mostly are based on one source?

Disclaimer: I have no problem with answers linking to islamqa.info in general. As a person, if I know there are different of opinions in a subject, I would want both opinions to be stated (not only the opinion I follow), even though one opinion is stronger or more popular than another.

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    What one should do instead of writing a answer that is copy and pasted from is provide a link in the comments. About Islamqa.info, it provides many references to verses and hadiths and statement which many users try to use instead of finding other sources. Islamqa.info self-contradicts itself sometimes and if Islam SE users are using that, the answers can't be reliable as they don't always show different interpretations so people asking questions might not get a reliable answer.
    – Muslim_1234
    May 15, 2017 at 16:53

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It becomes highly problematic, since that's not at all what we're trying to do here: If people want an answer from IslamQA, well, there's already IslamQA for that. I like to think that we're aiming for a bar slightly higher than "IslamQA, except it's for people too lazy to search on IslamQA themselves."

If we're not bringing anything new to the table, we might as well just pack up and go home. We want experts in Islam who can produce new content and answer new questions, not just a copy farm of the same ol' same ol' that's already out there.

And that's not even getting into the fact that in many cases, such answers present IslamQA's opinion as the only answer to the question, even when that opinion is not universally held, which risks turning questions and subsequent answers into opinion-bait.

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