user6166: I noticed that the template for replying to id-requests has become something like

Name of the manga/anime
Picture with evidence
Synopsis
Link(s) to sources

Coincidently I came across some old one-liner answers from 2013. There will probably be more of those around.

https://anime.stackexchange.com/a/2606/6166 
https://anime.stackexchange.com/a/6231/6166

At that time it was apparently accepted to give one-liner answers, while now they would be voted down or suggested to edit with more evidence. If such answers are encountered much after date, should they be flagged according to the current standard that is set out? Or should they be left alone as it might become a tedious job cleaning them all up and not really worth it?

user24: I'm not convinced this is worth the effort to clean up. Of course, any improvements are always welcome, but I think there are probably other things which are more critical to improve, e.g. ID request titles. If you encounter an answer like this in "the wild" and feel like cleaning it up, go for it, but I have a hard time believing it's worth anyone's time to actively search these out.
However, this is something that we can find relatively easily, unlike poorly titled questions. I wrote a data explorer query for this purpose (mostly by cutting and pasting stuff from other queries). It returns a list of all answers with a given tag sorted by their length in characters, and some other meta data related to them. While this could be improved by dealing with links and images better, it should be useful at least for finding the worst offenders if you feel so inclined.
With that said, a word of caution. You can certainly find most of the answers which need more detail this way, but the false positive rate is also large (probably over 50% even if you only look at the shortest few dozen answers). Many of the answers, including some with a very low character count, are nonetheless perfectly complete answers to the question which anyone can verify. If you are going to do this, I suggest focusing on the ones which need additional information to be verifiable by someone who has not watched/read the series, not just anything which is short. I also agree with nhahtdh's answer to prioritize accepted answers and to tailor edits to the question as best as possible.

user1398: As there are currently around 500+ questions under identification-request, I think it is possible to clean up old answers. There is no need to do it all at once - just do a few at a time - to avoid getting tired at the workload and also preventing the active list from being flooded with old questions.
I suggest prioritize editing answers which have been accepted, or confirmed by the OP to be the answer via comment. Low-quality answers which are added later on, or those that the editor cannot be sure to answer the question, should be left alone (or flagged).
When editing, please try your best to match the details in the question. The synopsis alone may not have much similarity to the description in the question. I understand this is effort unrewarded, but if one cares about the quality of the sites, reputation doesn't really matter.

6166: <p>I noticed that the template for replying to id-requests has become something like</p>

<ul>
<li>Name of the manga/anime</li>
<li>Picture with evidence</li>
<li>Synopsis</li>
<li>Link(s) to sources</li>
</ul>

<p>Coincidently I came across some old one-liner answers from 2013. There will probably be more of those around.</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/a/2606/6166">https://anime.stackexchange.com/a/2606/6166</a>  </li>
<li><a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/a/6231/6166">https://anime.stackexchange.com/a/6231/6166</a></li>
</ul>

<p>At that time it was apparently accepted to give one-liner answers, while now they would be voted down or suggested to edit with more evidence. If such answers are encountered much after date, should they be flagged according to the current standard that is set out? Or should they be left alone as it might become a tedious job cleaning them all up and not really worth it?</p>
 24: <p>I'm not convinced this is worth the effort to clean up. Of course, any improvements are always welcome, but I think there are probably other things which are more critical to improve, e.g. ID request titles. If you encounter an answer like this in "the wild" and feel like cleaning it up, go for it, but I have a hard time believing it's worth anyone's time to actively search these out.</p>

<p>However, this is something that we can find relatively easily, unlike poorly titled questions. I wrote <a href="http://data.stackexchange.com/anime/revision/221414/290628/shortest-answers-by-tag?TagName=identification-request" rel="nofollow noreferrer">a data explorer query</a> for this purpose (mostly by cutting and pasting stuff from other queries). It returns a list of all answers with a given tag sorted by their length in characters, and some other meta data related to them. While this could be improved by dealing with links and images better, it should be useful at least for finding the worst offenders if you feel so inclined.</p>

<p>With that said, a word of caution. You can certainly find most of the answers which need more detail this way, but the false positive rate is also large (probably over 50% even if you only look at the shortest few dozen answers). Many of the answers, including some with a very low character count, are nonetheless perfectly complete answers to the question which anyone can verify. If you are going to do this, I suggest focusing on the ones which <em>need</em> additional information to be verifiable by someone who has not watched/read the series, not just anything which is short. I also agree with <a href="https://anime.meta.stackexchange.com/a/1094">nhahtdh's answer</a> to prioritize accepted answers and to tailor edits to the question as best as possible.</p>
 1398: <p>As there are currently around 500+ questions under <a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/identification-request" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;identification-request&#39;" rel="tag">identification-request</a>, I think it is possible to clean up old answers. There is no need to do it all at once - just do a few at a time - to avoid getting tired at the workload and also preventing the active list from being flooded with old questions.</p>

<p>I suggest prioritize editing answers which have been accepted, or confirmed by the OP to be the answer via comment. Low-quality answers which are added later on, or those that the editor cannot be sure to answer the question, should be left alone (or flagged).</p>

<p>When editing, please try your best to match the details in the question. The synopsis alone may not have much similarity to the description in the question. I understand this is effort unrewarded, but if one cares about the quality of the sites, reputation doesn't really matter.</p>
