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[ { "answer_id": 20279, "author": "agarza", "author_id": 23193, "author_profile": "https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/23193", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The recommended hardware for OctoPi is <a href=\"https://octoprint.org/download/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">listed</a> as:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Recommended hardware: Raspberry Pi 3B, 3B+, 4B or Zero 2. Expect print artifacts and long loading times with other options, especially when adding a webcam or installing third-party plugins.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Now if we compare the specification of the two Pi units:</p>\n<div class=\"s-table-container\">\n<table class=\"s-table\">\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Raspberry Pi</th>\n<th>Processor</th>\n<th>RAM</th>\n</tr>\n</thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-400-unit/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">400</a></td>\n<td>BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 @ 1.8GHz</td>\n<td>4GB LPDDR4-3200</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-4-model-b/specifications/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">4B</a></td>\n<td>BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 @ 1.5GHz</td>\n<td>1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB LPDDR4-3200</td>\n</tr>\n</tbody>\n</table>\n</div>\n<p>So they are very close in capabilities. The 4B has a slightly slower processor but does have the ability to have more RAM. The 400 does come with a keyboard but its feasibility would depend on your usage (probably not much for OctoPi).</p>\n<p>Given the slight disparity in specs, the Raspberry Pi 400 should work fine for OctoPi.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 20281, "author": "Mołot", "author_id": 20803, "author_profile": "https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/20803", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>While the server will work, there are some challenges.</p>\n<p>Raspberry Pi 400 lacks the camera and screen connectors, specifically:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>2-lane MIPI DSI display port</li>\n<li>2-lane MIPI CSI camera port</li>\n</ul>\n<p>so you can't use Pi screens and camera modules. You need to find compatible USB webcam if you want to make time lapse of your print or stream your build to oversee it. If you want to add a touch screen, you need to use HDMI+USB one, as most of the screens dedicated for Pi won't work without DSI port.</p>\n<p>Pi 4b has:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>2 × USB 3.0 ports</li>\n<li>2 × USB 2.0 ports</li>\n</ul>\n<p>Pi 400:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>2 × USB 3.0</li>\n<li>1 × USB 2.0</li>\n</ul>\n<p>One of these will be, of course, occupied by the printer, so if you want to connect a touchscreen and webcam, with 4b you still have up to three usb ports free, when with 400 you are all out.</p>\n<p>Built-in keyboard is somewhat redeeming quality, especially if you are old time console jockey and don't need a mouse or touchscreens, and 20% faster CPU is nothing to sneeze at if you want to use AI plugin to oversee your print. For end users not interested in any kind of hardware hacking, 400 being already assembled with case and cooling is a great benefit, too.</p>\n<p><strong>In summary</strong>: it's compatible, faster and more convenient for end users, but less hackable. It's also significantly cheaper during 2022/2023 Pi Shortage, sometimes being available at MSRP and in stock.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/5/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 9, "author": "dmahr", "author_id": 37, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/37", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Based on the <a href=\"http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/16617?phase=definition\">example questions asked in the definition phase</a>, I think Academia.StackExchange will have more subjective questions than technical questions. Many of the people who have committed to this site, including myself, seek advice and wisdom from those who have more experience in academia about people, institutions, etiquette, best practices, and personal preferences--all very subjective ideas. This is very different from the objective questions and answers about programming found on other StackExchange sites. </p>\n\n<p>Some of these subjective questions will veer too far from the realm of usefulness. But some will be very useful. If you look at the top voted questions on many StackExchange sites, the open-ended ones are often the most popular. Nonetheless, the StackExchange blog has some <a href=\"http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/09/good-subjective-bad-subjective/\">general guidelines</a> for which of these \"subjective\" questions should be allowed:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <ul>\n <li>Great subjective questions inspire answers that explain “why” and “how”.</li>\n <li>Great subjective questions tend to have long, not short, answers.</li>\n <li>Great subjective questions have a constructive, fair, and impartial tone.</li>\n <li>Great subjective questions invite sharing experiences over opinions.</li>\n <li>Great subjective questions insist that opinion be backed up with facts and references. </li>\n <li>Great subjective questions are more than just mindless social fun.</li>\n </ul>\n</blockquote>\n" }, { "answer_id": 10, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Yes, we should allow some of these sort of questions here. Occasionally.</p>\n\n<p>But certainly <strong>not</strong> during the private beta, when we're trying to build up a body of exemplary questions and answers.</p>\n\n<p>I think this question <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/49/96\">https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/49/96</a> , and any others like it, should be considered as deletion candidates <strong>during the private beta</strong>.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 15, "author": "Sylvain Peyronnet", "author_id": 43, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/43", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I voted to close on the particular example of the <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/49/96\">What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a professor?</a> question, but I think that most of the time the question can be rephrased to focus on the specific case of the OP. Here, jeremy is considering moving to academia, he can be really specific and ask targeted informations.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 22, "author": "Stefano Borini", "author_id": 5, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/5", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Ok, here are my 2c.</p>\n\n<p>We all agree this SE can be more opinion-based than the rest of the club. Most of the stuff we deal with are relative to local lore, habits, or unwritten rules of conduct that may or may not depend on the institute, country, contract type, and professor attitude, and group mechanics. </p>\n\n<p>About the question under discussion, yes, it is potentially less on-topic than the rest, but it's only one, not a class of questions. We take the tooth out once and for all. the question just sits there with its (mostly good) answers, it's technically \"on-topic\" for the site, and it's very likely to be asked in the future by anyone having this curiosity.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 25, "author": "Jeremy", "author_id": 69, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/69", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Well, I think it's a good question ;)</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/8", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 13, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I know I'm answering my own question, but I want to put forth the argument that <strong>these style answers should be acceptable on this SE</strong>. In my mind, this SE serves the purpose of transmitting the \"lore\" of Academia to aspiring graduate students, new graduate students, new faculty, and the like. Much of this lore is not \"official\", but it is highly useful nonetheless.</p>\n\n<p>That being said, given that the answer to each question is likely going to vary significantly based on the particulars, I think we should customize the use of tags on this site to specify the particulars. Specifically, <strong>each question should have a tag that identifies the field of research</strong>; if none is there, the poster should be asked to provide one. This will always be relevant to the question; answers to a question about note-taking styles will be different for mathematics and history, for example. Additionally, we may want to consider asking for:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>BS/MA/PhD/postdoc/professorship</li>\n<li>country</li>\n<li>institution (not sure about this one)</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I strongly think we should add some text on the \"new question\" page strongly suggesting that the poster includes tags for each of these, if relevant to the topic.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 14, "author": "Robert Cartaino", "author_id": 100, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/100", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>There's nothing inherently wrong with questions that seek advice and wisdom from those who have more experience than themselves. And there's nothing wrong with sharing that wisdom here, if you can&hellip;</p>\n\n<p><strong>&hellip;back up your statements with constructive, sound reasoning.</strong></p>\n\n<p>But where these <em>questions</em> <strong>go wrong</strong> is when they become so generic as to stop soliciting hard-earned wisdom and <strong>veer towards simply polling the community.</strong> </p>\n\n<p>The blog post <a href=\"http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/09/good-subjective-bad-subjective/\"><strong>Good Subjective, Bad Subjective</strong></a> should be required reading for this community.</p>\n\n<p>The earmarks of <em>bad subjective</em> is when the answers fill with <em>\"I did this\"</em>, <em>\"I did that\"</em>, and <em>\"I did blah blah blah\"</em> responses. When answers don't even purport to explain why their solution is better than any other, it goes from being Q&amp;A to just a poll of the community. Overly broad questions are just soliciting a collection of random answers. Folks will vote this stuff up, but it's just not good Q&amp;A.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2012/01/the-trouble-with-popularity/\"><strong>The Trouble with Popularity</strong></a></p>\n\n<p>It's a tough sell, but if you want this site to survive, you need a place where people are asking very interesting and challenging questions, not the uninspired poll questions that have all been asked 100 times before on every other site on the subject. If this site wants to rehash the same old conversations found in any random message forum, there's really no point in trying something different here. </p>\n\n<p>If we can avoid questions that are simply asking, <em>\"Let's hear what everyone has to say about&hellip;\"</em>, we can maintain the ideals of great Q&amp;A in the face of completely subjective topics. This is especially true early in the beta when the site is new. The earliest questions on a site will set the tone and topic of the site for a long time.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 31, "author": "Tangurena", "author_id": 109, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/109", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Many of my answers to advice questions tend to be of the \"in my experience\" category. For these questions, there is never enough information to be able to give a definitive correct answer. What we <em>can</em> do is give \"in that case, I did X and the consequences were Y\" type answers - then let the original poster determine which answer better fits their situation. Older folks have found that giving direct answers to questions to younger folks results in the advice getting ignored, so that more circumspect answers actually get listened to. As for your second link, I don't think that young folks understand just how much politics goes on in the real world. </p>\n\n<p>What we do as a \"community\" will change over time. Some of the other sites here preferred such answers in the past, but now discourage them. This has lead me to quit visiting a number of other stack exchange sites.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/12", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 18, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would not define \"higher education\" as including high school. The usual definition includes college and above (in other words, after having completed the equivalent of a high school degree). In practice, though, I would expect a SE devoted to academia to have most of its participants at the level of a graduate student (or at least \"rising\" graduate student). </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 20, "author": "Stefano Borini", "author_id": 5, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/5", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Is Academia only about PhD, postdoc and teaching positions? Are questions about Master's, Bachelor's, High School etc. off-topic?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This SE is about academics and Academia. Questions about Master and Bachelor degree are on-topic, unless they are specific to a given university course. That is, if your question is about required documentation to apply to university X, in my opinion it is on-topic. If it's about a course or a professor at a given university, it is off-topic.</p>\n\n<p>High school is off-topic.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 79, "author": "Artem Kaznatcheev", "author_id": 66, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/66", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I really like @JeffE's comment:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Most questions, even in the definition stage, seem to be from people who are (or aspire to be) employed in academia (as instructors or researchers), rather than people who are only enrolled in academia (as students).</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>And I think that is the guideline we should use for higher education means. Basically, education that leads towards academic life.</p>\n\n<p>So a question like</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I am a highschool senior aspiring to be a scientist. What should I focus on in undergrad?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Would be more about higher education than</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I have a bachelor's degree in accounting. Will a master's program increase my employability in finance?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Even though the second question is about a 'higher level' (Masters usually comes after Bachelors) of education, it is not higher in the sense of not really leading to academic life.</p>\n\n<p>That being said, I think we should be cautious about admission questions and advice for people applying to undergrad.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/17", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/24/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 28, "author": "Andy W", "author_id": 3, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/3", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>While the experience of individuals will be mostly limited to one particular field and likely a specific geographic area (e.g. Europe or U.S.A. or Australia etc.), I believe we should strive for answers that generalize across <em>all</em> fields and areas. Otherwise the utility of any particular question and answer is severely limited in scope.</p>\n\n<p>In anecdote, so far on the site I haven't seen any general advice given by individuals in STEM fields that don't in large part apply to social sciences. In general (I suspect) were likely to find more similarities than differences. </p>\n\n<p>Hopefully as the site grows differing perspectives become represented, so if pertinent differences between fields exist for any particular question they are noted, but I don't think assuming <em>a priori</em> that differences exist is a good idea. And forcing tags naturally perpetuates such an artificial division.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><strong>EDIT</strong></p>\n\n<p>To reify my perspective in address to the comments by @eykanal and @Henry, I think it best to be more specific about what I mean when I say advice should generalize to all fields. This does not simulataneously mean the answer is broad (and purportedly unuseable)!</p>\n\n<p>The vast majority of posters on the site so far are not from social science fields, yet it is difficult to come up with answers that, at least in some respects (if not entirely) are applicable to my personal experiences (criminology graduate student in the USA).</p>\n\n<p>For examples of questions/answers by people not within my field, but the responses IMO would be reasonable to generalize to my field;</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/173/3\">How important are my grades to the rest of my PhD career?</a>.</li>\n<li><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/101/3\">How do you judge the quality of a journal?</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/58/3\">Teaching Assistanships and research</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/18/3\">How do I select a graduate program?</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>You could arbitrarily insert into any of these questions specific field X (e.g. \"How important are my grades to the rest of my PhD career in Mathematics\"), but this immediately implies that experiences in other fields are not pertinent (which is not the case). Nor are the answers to the above \"too broad to be useful\" because they generalize across multiple fields.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>It is difficult to say much more speaking widespread about the site (so far we have all made very general statements, and we could all find anecdotal situations as evidence for our positions). But I don't see how suggesting such a tag system is benifitial to the site, and I believe it could be harmful.</p>\n\n<p>Asking for clarification on questions seems to be a regular occurence across the SE sites. Although it can be annoying at times, it is not a noxious enough problem to need such a novel solution as you are presenting.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>As a side note, although I understand the motivation of the original poster, the proposed usage of tags in this instance is a \"meta\" tag. See the SO blog post by Jeff Atwood on the subject, <a href=\"http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/08/the-death-of-meta-tags/\">The Death of Meta Tags</a> for why such tags should be avoided. Although you could probably argue for their utility in other respects, they certainly don't <em>describe the content of the question</em>.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 29, "author": "Henry", "author_id": 8, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/8", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'm inclined to agree with Andy that we'd really like to have questions which make sense across field and location, even if the answers don't. In other words, it seems more important to have <em>answers</em> specify the field and location, but get multiple answers reflecting different areas.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/21", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 27, "author": "Henry", "author_id": 8, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/8", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There's a narrow line between \"how does a person find short-term housing near such-and-such university\" and \"does anyone here have a place I can sublet for six months?\" If accommodation questions are allowed, both the phrasing and the answers will have to be very sternly moderated.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 30, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It seems to me that answers to such questions are going to age very badly: the answer I'd give for London today is very different to what it would have been 3 years ago, which would have been different again from ten years ago. That would seem to go against the StackExchange vision, where, as I understand it, the intention is to build a lot of content that ages well, and is not too localised in time or space.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/23", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/5/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 33, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I have some design skills. I suggest that people should think of (and post as answers) some things that could be said about this site. Attractive catchphrases and details are important to attract students. Examples would be like:</p>\n\n<p>\"Confused about the academic world? Turn your browser to Academia StackExchange for answers to your questions!\"</p>\n\n<p>This is just an example to start of your imaginations. A poster should appeal to a general audience, have a short catchy phrase, and contain a short description of what this site is about.</p>\n\n<p>I can produce black and white as well as colour versions in vector format suitable for a variety of sizes, and others who can design can also try as well!</p>\n\n<p>I think this is a good idea and I would definitely put up a few posters on the bulletin board in my department.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 78, "author": "Artem Kaznatcheev", "author_id": 66, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/66", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would suggest picking particularly good questions from the site, and making a poster that just has the question in its usual SE theme (so that users will recognize the site if they come from the poster) and then says something like:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Want to know the answer? Come to academia.stackexchange.com</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This also allows you to make tailored posters for specific departments.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 80, "author": "Ran G.", "author_id": 324, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/324", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Another place to put a small banner is the side-bars of sister-SE sites, mainly TCS, MATH, physics, STATs, etc.</p>\n\n<p>This is how I learned about the existence of other SE's (and also about the existence of <em>meta</em>.. :).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 82, "author": "Jez", "author_id": 358, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/358", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think a lot of universities would be interested in this as a resource. At the University of Bath (United Kingdom) we have a small team devoted to generic skills development for postgraduates. Perhaps it's worth publicising to similar teams within other universities? PG student societies would also be interested, I think.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 87, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Well, since no designers answered the call, I'm going to expand it to designers. Since I'm a member of the \"not a designer\" crowd, I figured I'll make the first poster.</p>\n\n<h2><a href=\"http://erikdev.com/AcaSx.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">Click here to see an Academia.SE poster, which you should print and stick in public places in your university</a></h2>\n\n<p>It's not going to win any awards for awesome design, but it is better than nothing. My requests to the crowd are twofold:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Please print these out and put them in public areas. I'll probably kindly ask you to re-post it when the fall semester starts and the new crop of grad students show up.</p></li>\n<li><p>The original call for someone with some semblance of actual design skills still stands. Please feel free to make something that, you know, looks <em>good</em>.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://erikdev.com/AcaSx.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">Here's the same link again, just because I like writing links.</a> Please post it wherever it makes sense to post it.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 91, "author": "Suresh", "author_id": 346, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/346", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Is there a way to get a blurb on the Chronicle of Higher Education, or Inside Higher Ed ? there are some friendly bloggers there who might be willing to mention the site. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 106, "author": "Ivar Persson", "author_id": 314, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/314", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Could we somehow get Academia.edu interested? They had something like ask-a-question back in the day. I'm not sure what happened to it, but there definitely ought to be some scope for cooperation. I'm not very good at networking or making contact with humans in general, but what do others think of the idea. Perhaps we could form a contact committee?</p>\n\n<p>Another place to get grad-students, especially those in the depth of despair would be Phinished.org. </p>\n\n<p>Would sending a short email to one of the mailing lists (listservs) count as spam? Perhaps more senior people can comment on the appropriateness of such an act. At the very least we could offer a suggestion to take the more flamey (but important) topics to stackexchange, something like the entire Elsevier situation, discussion of responses, etc.</p>\n\n<p>I would appreciate hearing from the more experienced what they think of the appropriateness of these steps in terms of academic etiquette.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/24", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 43, "author": "InquilineKea", "author_id": 77, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/77", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.physicsforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=139\" rel=\"nofollow\">Physics Forums</a>. Check the Academic Guidance forum. Even people in other fields (like chemistry) end up going there.</li>\n<li>Reddits like <a href=\"http://www.reddit.com/r/AskAcademia\" rel=\"nofollow\">AskAcademia</a> and the private subreddit known as ScienceLounge (you have to be a panelist in <a href=\"http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience\" rel=\"nofollow\">/r/AskScience</a> to get in, but being a panelist isn't difficult at all).</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.thegradcafe.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Grad Cafe</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.physicsgre.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">PhysicsGRE.com</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.quora.com/Graduate-School\" rel=\"nofollow\">Quora</a> (the Academia and Graduate School sections) </li>\n<li>PhDComics used to have a Proceedings forum but now it's gone</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/graduate-school/\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Graduate School subforum of College Confidential</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://chronicle.com/forums/\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Chronicle</a> (though the forums there are more for faculty members)</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 77, "author": "Artem Kaznatcheev", "author_id": 66, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/66", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think it might be worthwhile to advertise on the Metas of existing academic or close-to-academic SEs. A partial list of ones I am familiar and see academics active on:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://cstheory.stackexchange.com/\">cstheory.SE</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://cogsci.stackexchange.com/\">cogsci.SE</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/\">linguistics.SE</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://math.stackexchange.com/\">math.SE</a> and <a href=\"https://mathoverflow.net/\">MathOverflow</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://scicomp.stackexchange.com/\">scicomp.SE</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I think it is alright to mention SE sites on the metas, but this will only come to the attention of the 'regulars' who tend to be pretty abreast with new SE sites anyways, so it might not get that many new academics. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 81, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"http://academia.edu/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Academia.edu</a> - social networking for people in Academia. I think they're claiming to have just passed 1 million users.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/36", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/62/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 40, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It's a good question, I was also wondering what one can do. In my experience on some forums, the best to do is usually to ignore them, because they usually enjoy the fight, but I'm not really familiar with the spam-flagging mechanism of SE. Does it prevent them to create a new account? </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 41, "author": "TCSGrad", "author_id": 79, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/79", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This <a href=\"http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/06/suspension-ban-or-hellban.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">blog</a> by Jeff seems to talk about such users, though I wonder whether it has been implemented in SE. Here's an excerpt:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>But in the absence of some system of law, the tiny minority of users out to do harm – intentionally or not – eventually drive out all the civil community members, leaving behind a lawless, chaotic badland.</p>\n<p>Our method of dealing with disruptive or destructive community members is simple: their accounts are placed in timed suspension. Initial suspension periods range from 1 to 7 days, and increase exponentially with each subsequent suspension. We prefer the term &quot;timed suspension&quot; to &quot;ban&quot; to emphasize that we do want users to come back to their accounts, if they can learn to refrain from engaging in those disruptive or problematic behaviors. It's not so much a punishment as a time for the user to cool down and reflect on the nature of their participation in our community. (Well, at least in theory.)</p>\n<p>Timed suspension works, but much like democracy itself, it is a highly imperfect, noisy system. The transparency provides ample evidence that moderators aren't secretly whisking people away in the middle of the night. But it can also be a bit too … entertaining for some members of the community, leading to hours and hours of meta-discussion about who is suspended, why they are suspended, whether it was fair, what the evidence is, how we are censoring people, and on and on and on. While a certain amount of introspection is important and necessary, it can also become a substitute for getting stuff done. This might naturally lead one to wonder – what if we could suspend problematic users without anyone knowing they had been suspended?</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>I'm wondering whether it would work here or not - Mods(since being in public beta, I don't think any of the normal users are mods anymore) should act on this...</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 42, "author": "Mad Scientist", "author_id": 201, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/201", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Spam flags on Stack Exchange sites carry a heavy penalty, 6 flags delete a post and the user gets -100 reputation for a successful spam flag against him. They should only be used for spam, posts that are purely promoting some product or site. </p>\n\n<p>If there are direct insults towards other users you can flag those posts or comments as offensive, enough offensive flags will also remove a post. If there is a general problem with the behaviour of a certain user you can flag for a moderator and use the \"other\" reason to explain the situation. This site doesn't have any community mods yet, so it will be handled by SE employees.</p>\n\n<p>Both questions have been dealt with, one is closed and the other one deleted, so there is no need to do anything there at the moment. If you notice any further disruptive behaviour, I'd just flag for a moderator.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/39", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 47, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>In my mind, it should at least be possible for someone searching the site a month from now to find it helpful. It's a fine line, but there is a difference between \"A question about me\" and \"A question about people <em>like</em> me\".</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 48, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>To talk about the specific question, I would call it as localized and would probably prefer it with the following edits. All edits have been placed in <code>this form</code>. Rather than directly editing it, I wished to pass it through the community. I agree with @EpiGrad and I hope my edit provides for that difference.</p>\n\n<h2>(Edited) Question:</h2>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><strike>This is my situation: I've completed my masters in social psychology approximately 4 years ago. At this point I am about to complete my bachelors degree in fine arts. </strike><code>I have a background in Psychology and Fine Arts.</code> I've found that finding a job in the social sciences is pretty difficult, if not impossible without work experience (pretty much a vicious cycle).</p>\n\n<p>My passion lies with doing scientific research <em>and</em> making art. So ideally I would be able to do both, or use one to support the other.</p>\n\n<p>But since finding steady income with a degree in fine arts is even more impossible, I would very much like to provide a steady income for myself by working in the social sciences (preferably doing research). I've had countless bad jobs to support myself through both of my degrees, and I don't see myself becoming very happy doing that my whole life.</p>\n\n<p><strong>At this point, I have several options, and I would like some advice on what you think would be the best way of proceeding (the points are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and if you have a better idea, please, do suggest it):</strong></p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><strike>I could specialize myself even further, by doing a masters in visual anthropology or a related field (it would be useful for combining the arts and psychology degree (and I love this field of research), but I hear that there is not much work in this field, so the risk is having another worthless degree and wasting a lot of money and time).</strike></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p><code>I could do a masters (or even a PhD) in a field which aligns with my academic and research background. However, this could risk another worthless degree with no job and waste of time and money</code></p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><strike>I could move to another area, where hopefully social psychologists (without work experience, sigh) are in higher demand. Where I could get a job, earn a living and support my other passion (the fine arts).</strike></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p><code>I could move to a field which is in higher demand, get a job and support my other passions.</code></p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><strike>Continue working as a freelancer in the social sciences to build my experience in the field (not really something I'm looking forward to, as I've been doing this for a while now, and it didn't really amount to much. I got some assignments, but in general felt i was doing the same as someone with a steady job, but with a lot less pay, and a lot less security.).</strike></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p><code>I could freelance to build experience but this is usually as taxing as a normal job minus job security and pay.</code></p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><strike>Maybe after point 1. try to find a suitable phd career path (something I would love, but I think the chances of this happening are pretty slim, so this might not be very attainable).</strike></li>\n</ol>\n" }, { "answer_id": 49, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would cite as an example of \"too localized\" the following question: </p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/381/suggestions-for-mathematics-courses-that-would-be-essential-for-research-in-homo\">Suggestions for mathematics courses that would be essential for research in homological algebra and ring theory</a></p>\n\n<p>The original post asks for information on what courses to take for a specific concentration within a specific program in a specific university drawn from the same school's course catalog. That would definitely fall under \"too localized\" rubric, in my opinion.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 1488, "author": "Ben Bitdiddle", "author_id": 24384, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/24384", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In my experience, \"too localized\" is code for \"uninteresting,\" and questions that are sufficiently juicy but only useful to a specific person are almost never closed as \"too localized.\"</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/45", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 47, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>In my mind, it should at least be possible for someone searching the site a month from now to find it helpful. It's a fine line, but there is a difference between \"A question about me\" and \"A question about people <em>like</em> me\".</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 48, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>To talk about the specific question, I would call it as localized and would probably prefer it with the following edits. All edits have been placed in <code>this form</code>. Rather than directly editing it, I wished to pass it through the community. I agree with @EpiGrad and I hope my edit provides for that difference.</p>\n\n<h2>(Edited) Question:</h2>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><strike>This is my situation: I've completed my masters in social psychology approximately 4 years ago. At this point I am about to complete my bachelors degree in fine arts. </strike><code>I have a background in Psychology and Fine Arts.</code> I've found that finding a job in the social sciences is pretty difficult, if not impossible without work experience (pretty much a vicious cycle).</p>\n\n<p>My passion lies with doing scientific research <em>and</em> making art. So ideally I would be able to do both, or use one to support the other.</p>\n\n<p>But since finding steady income with a degree in fine arts is even more impossible, I would very much like to provide a steady income for myself by working in the social sciences (preferably doing research). I've had countless bad jobs to support myself through both of my degrees, and I don't see myself becoming very happy doing that my whole life.</p>\n\n<p><strong>At this point, I have several options, and I would like some advice on what you think would be the best way of proceeding (the points are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and if you have a better idea, please, do suggest it):</strong></p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><strike>I could specialize myself even further, by doing a masters in visual anthropology or a related field (it would be useful for combining the arts and psychology degree (and I love this field of research), but I hear that there is not much work in this field, so the risk is having another worthless degree and wasting a lot of money and time).</strike></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p><code>I could do a masters (or even a PhD) in a field which aligns with my academic and research background. However, this could risk another worthless degree with no job and waste of time and money</code></p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><strike>I could move to another area, where hopefully social psychologists (without work experience, sigh) are in higher demand. Where I could get a job, earn a living and support my other passion (the fine arts).</strike></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p><code>I could move to a field which is in higher demand, get a job and support my other passions.</code></p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><strike>Continue working as a freelancer in the social sciences to build my experience in the field (not really something I'm looking forward to, as I've been doing this for a while now, and it didn't really amount to much. I got some assignments, but in general felt i was doing the same as someone with a steady job, but with a lot less pay, and a lot less security.).</strike></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p><code>I could freelance to build experience but this is usually as taxing as a normal job minus job security and pay.</code></p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><strike>Maybe after point 1. try to find a suitable phd career path (something I would love, but I think the chances of this happening are pretty slim, so this might not be very attainable).</strike></li>\n</ol>\n" }, { "answer_id": 49, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would cite as an example of \"too localized\" the following question: </p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/381/suggestions-for-mathematics-courses-that-would-be-essential-for-research-in-homo\">Suggestions for mathematics courses that would be essential for research in homological algebra and ring theory</a></p>\n\n<p>The original post asks for information on what courses to take for a specific concentration within a specific program in a specific university drawn from the same school's course catalog. That would definitely fall under \"too localized\" rubric, in my opinion.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 1488, "author": "Ben Bitdiddle", "author_id": 24384, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/24384", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In my experience, \"too localized\" is code for \"uninteresting,\" and questions that are sufficiently juicy but only useful to a specific person are almost never closed as \"too localized.\"</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/55", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/260/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 62, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Certainly not. There's a risk as it is that there are several posters treating this site as a careers advice forum. That's only slightly mitigated by the fact that they're asking about academic careers.</p>\n\n<p>Whereas the post in question, was seeking careers advice for a future career <strong>outside</strong> academia.</p>\n\n<p>This question should be downvoted and closed.</p>\n\n<p>Indeed, all careers-advice questions should be closed, whether about careers in or out of academia, as off-topic.</p>\n\n<p>This is not a forum; nor should it be a careers advice centre.</p>\n\n<p>There may be questions related to careers in academia which would fit under the usual StackExchange remit: that is, questions to which there are factual objective answers, that are of interest to the broader internet, and not localised to a specific place, specific time, or specific narrow readership.</p>\n\n<p>But the example given is not such a question.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 63, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think there is a thin line between academia and industry, and in general, I wouldn't exclude questions concerning industry that are related to research (after all, the New Oxford American definition of academia is \"the environment or community concerned with the pursuit of research, education, and scholarship\", so I would say that somehow, a company like Microsoft Research could fit in). </p>\n\n<p>That being said, it's clearly not a forum where one could ask for particular advices, and I think the rule that there should be no \"question about me\" but only \"question for people like me\" should also apply in this case. In other words, if someone asks what companies are active in research in a given field, I don't see any problem. But I think questions like \"I've done a Master in X, where can I go find a job?\" should closed as off-topic. So, in your bullet list, I wouldn't have any problems with the first two, and be careful about the last one. </p>\n\n<p>As for the question you mention, I think the question was wrongly formulated, there was not enough context given, in particular what kind of jobs was the OP looking for. And the question of the edge form computational astrophysics over analytical/observational astrophysics was a bit too localized without any further explanation. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 67, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I think we should allow these questions, as long as there's a particular link to academia in the question. This site is about <em>academia</em>, not <em>people with advanced degrees</em>.</p>\n\n<p>But there are definitely some questions I can see being appropriate to this site that serve as examples as to why I don't think there should just be a blanket ban.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Dealing with, or working in, areas of academia with a heavy industry focus - engineering, pharmaceuticals, etc.</li>\n<li>Transitioning to and from academia and industry. Are there ways to do research outside the \"Ivory Tower\"? How do Business-Academia partnerships work? Once I leave academia, can I come back? What's the environment like at research companies - or government labs, compared to universities.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Those are just two that popped to mind. I think since academia can lead into industry, and isn't solely devoted to the perpetuation of itself, questions about the interaction between the two can work on this site, as long as its not just a job question where the OP happens to have a Masters.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/60", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 65, "author": "Adam Lear", "author_id": 23, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>There are no plans right now to introduce any sort of notification feature along these lines. Stack Exchange is by design avoiding social networking features, including things like this.</p>\n\n<p>Adding a feature that'd allow someone to ping a user from anywhere would go against the design philosophy we've adopted here. Comment notifications are a concession to the fact that the intended use of comments is for clarifications and they often involve some amount of back-and-forth communication. </p>\n\n<p>In the example you give, eykanal should've posted that comment on your answer instead of on the question. It's unfortunate that you didn't get notified, but it's entirely by design.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 69, "author": "Mad Scientist", "author_id": 201, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/201", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you want to be available for contacting at any time, just hang out in the main chat room of the site. As long as you were recently in a chat room, you can be pinged there and the notification will land in your global inbox. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 617, "author": "Chris Gregg", "author_id": 4461, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4461", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This recent question:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11972/is-it-my-responsibility-to-point-out-that-a-paper-has-been-plagiarized-from-anot\">Is it my responsibility to point out that a paper has been plagiarized from another researcher&#39;s blog?</a></p>\n\n<p>seems like a good reason to provide moderators (at least) the ability to ping a particular user. For those who haven't read the thread, the OP has a question about alerting a blog owner about plagiarism against the blog owner, and it turns out that the blog owner is @Suresh, a member of this community.</p>\n\n<p>Obviously, there are other methods (the OP can contact @Suresh through his blog, or more sneakily through a previous comment where \"@Suresh\" would send Suresh a message), but I think it would be a good idea to allow moderators the ability to email/ping a user (and maybe this is already the case). </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 618, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think notifications are really beneficial. I think private messages are not generally useful and go against what I like about the SE network. There might be a few cases where a private conversation would be useful, but I think that they are few and far between.</p>\n\n<p>Chat provides a means of alerting a user while keeping everything out in the open. I personally think it is much better than @user type notifications buried in comments.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 619, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>We did try setting <a href=\"https://physics.meta.stackexchange.com/q/1159/4066\">something like this up on Physics</a>.</p>\n<p>It's a question on meta, where people who want to be pingable, each give a single answer, in which they state the specialities on which they want to be pinged.</p>\n<p>And then, in theory, if anyone wants to ping you about a question, they can just leave a comment on that meta answer, with a link pointing to the question. Once you've answered the question, the comment can then be deleted.</p>\n<p>Nice theory, huh?</p>\n<p>Only thing is, it's almost never been used.</p>\n<p>It's also worth quoting what <a href=\"https://physics.meta.stackexchange.com/users/124/david-z\">David Z</a> said in a <a href=\"https://physics.meta.stackexchange.com/a/1156/4066\">related meta.physics question</a>:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Sure, having a meta question where people can &quot;register&quot; their interest in being pinged sounds fine - at least, there's no rule against it. It wouldn't hurt to try it and see if it helps at all. It wouldn't be <a href=\"/questions/tagged/featured\" class=\"post-tag moderator-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;featured&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">featured</a> forever, but we could probably put <a href=\"/questions/tagged/faq\" class=\"post-tag moderator-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;faq&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">faq</a> on it if you word it the right way (e.g. &quot;How can I ask someone specific to answer a question?&quot;).</p>\n<p>However, I would encourage anyone who would be interested in participating in such a system to also do the following three things:</p>\n<ol>\n<li>Include your areas of expertise (those in which you would like to be &quot;pinged&quot; if a pinging system were available) in your profile text blurb. If you have enough reputation to have a &quot;user card&quot; (the thing that pops up when the mouse hovers over your gravatar), then make sure your areas of expertise show up there.</li>\n<li>Also include those areas in your chat profile.</li>\n<li>Stay logged into <a href=\"http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/2496/academia\">our chat room</a> as much as possible, and check it periodically to see if you've been &quot;requested.&quot; Let's make that the central place to recruit people to help with specific questions.</li>\n</ol>\n<p>I think this is the best way to use the existing system to accomplish the goal here - and at worst, it's not going to interfere with the meta post.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>(I've amended the links to point to academia rather than physics)</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/64", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 191, "author": "userJT", "author_id": 1537, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1537", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think we should allow domain specific questions and cultivate domains within this server. </p>\n\n<p>we should delineate the domain in the question title and use tags </p>\n\n<p>e.g., tag medicine, life-sciences, mathematics, physics, psychology, etc...</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 194, "author": "Piotr Migdal", "author_id": 49, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/49", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>IMHO there are two things:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>questions explicitly related to a selected discipline,</li>\n<li>questions where it is implicit or not well defined.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>In the first case we may consider migration to a dedicated SE site (especially if it is technical; if not - it may stay here).</p>\n\n<p>In the second case when the asking person may be not aware if a specific issue works in the same way in every country, in every field etc.</p>\n\n<p>So my approach is the following:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>encourage to add some additional data (e.g. field, country),</li>\n<li>encourage general answers if they make sense,</li>\n<li>then, post factum, change the question title e.g. to <em>How to blah-blah in CS in EU?</em> (if the later are affecting the answers).</li>\n</ul>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/72", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/324/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 74, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It's a good remark. In general, I think it can be good to leave the time for the OP to reformulate the question before closing, but there should be some kind of time limit. For instance, <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/518/do-professors-at-private-universities-have-more-freedom-than-professors-at-publi\">this question</a> has been there for 4 days, and it is still quite vague. </p>\n\n<p>Is there some kind of mechanisms to trigger a poll to close a question? </p>\n\n<p>EDIT: After seeing Artem's answer, I realized that it was possible to reopen a question. In this case, I change my opinion, and think that indeed, it should be better to vote to close any poor quality question immediately, leave a comment, and see if the OP edit his/her question accordingly. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 75, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>The main problem here is that there are far fewer moderators, so most posts don't reach the number of close votes necessary to close. The solution to this is (1) flag offending posts so that site-wide mods can vote to close, and (2) vote to close if you have the capability to do so.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 76, "author": "Artem Kaznatcheev", "author_id": 66, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/66", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I wanted to offer an alternative to @CharlesMorisset's answer.</p>\n\n<p>Closing a question is not an end-all to a question. It is not deleting (which is almost never done). The OP can <em>edit a question after it is closed</em>, thus I think vague or very-weak questions should be proactively closed with a comment letting the user know that they should edit their question and request for re-open on meta.</p>\n\n<p>Three reason I think we should close questions:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>If a vague question is not closed, then someone might spend time trying to answer the question. After, the original question cannot be made unvague because it might render the original answer off-topic. I don't think we are in a slum for questions, but it is very easy to ask poor questions, and we should try to avoid those.</p></li>\n<li><p>Asking bad questions is sometimes a chronic condition. In the beta period, a single user seeding with a lot of poor questions can really lower the quality of a site. I think there might have been issues with this in the early period of cogsci.SE. Closing a question sends a very clear message to the user that their question is not upto the standards of the site.</p></li>\n<li><p>We are not starved for questions, and we have a lot of academics on the site who seem to be participating actively. However, I think this SE is particularly vulnerable to quick weak questions that can overwhelm the front page and make it hard to attract new users, or scare away existing expertise.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>In other words: I think we have reasons for closing, and not many against it.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/73", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/167/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 84, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>Yes</strong>. This community, while still small, has had it's share of low-quality questions and trolls, and internal moderators could handle that sort of stuff much quicker than outside. </p>\n\n<p>Also, people here so far have been very forthcoming with discussions, and if a moderator acted in a way which upset the community, I have faith that the community would discuss it in meta in a healthy way, and if necessary the mod would reverse the action. We've got a good crowd here :)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 85, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I agree, there has been recently several low quality posts, where it seemed that the intention was just to ask as many questions as possible, without taking the time to address the comments and concerns on previous posts. There has also been a spam yesterday, but the SE moderators removed it quite quickly. </p>\n\n<p>And as eykanal mentioned, I think that if there were any problem, the community would easily sort it out on the meta. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/83", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 84, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>Yes</strong>. This community, while still small, has had it's share of low-quality questions and trolls, and internal moderators could handle that sort of stuff much quicker than outside. </p>\n\n<p>Also, people here so far have been very forthcoming with discussions, and if a moderator acted in a way which upset the community, I have faith that the community would discuss it in meta in a healthy way, and if necessary the mod would reverse the action. We've got a good crowd here :)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 85, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I agree, there has been recently several low quality posts, where it seemed that the intention was just to ask as many questions as possible, without taking the time to address the comments and concerns on previous posts. There has also been a spam yesterday, but the SE moderators removed it quite quickly. </p>\n\n<p>And as eykanal mentioned, I think that if there were any problem, the community would easily sort it out on the meta. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/94", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 84, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>Yes</strong>. This community, while still small, has had it's share of low-quality questions and trolls, and internal moderators could handle that sort of stuff much quicker than outside. </p>\n\n<p>Also, people here so far have been very forthcoming with discussions, and if a moderator acted in a way which upset the community, I have faith that the community would discuss it in meta in a healthy way, and if necessary the mod would reverse the action. We've got a good crowd here :)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 85, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I agree, there has been recently several low quality posts, where it seemed that the intention was just to ask as many questions as possible, without taking the time to address the comments and concerns on previous posts. There has also been a spam yesterday, but the SE moderators removed it quite quickly. </p>\n\n<p>And as eykanal mentioned, I think that if there were any problem, the community would easily sort it out on the meta. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/99", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/49/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 112, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You make a good point. For me, what I really want to avoid, are questions like: \"I like this and that, what program should I choose?\" or \"shall I take this class or this other class?\", I can see a lot like that on Reddit, and this is hardly generalizable. </p>\n\n<p>I have the feeling that many questions asked by undergraduate students looking for a program are usually not generalizable, and that's the main problem. However, in this case, the question you mention is very general (how to prepare for university as an adult rather than after leaving high-school). </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 113, "author": "Anonymous Mathematician", "author_id": 612, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/612", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>What I wonder about undergraduate admissions questions is whether anybody here can seriously address them, in a deeper or better informed way than just repeating information available from their college's admissions web site. I think very few faculty and almost no students could do this, at least in the sorts of systems I'm familiar with (private research university in the U.S.). For example, I have no idea how admissions officers evaluate applications from adults, or how the criteria vary between schools.</p>\n\n<p>There are plenty of widespread ideas about how admissions decisions are made, which may or may not be true. Unless we either get answers from people involved in the process or get answers that point to authoritative information sources, there's a real likelihood of voting answers up based on how widely they are believed rather than how true they are.</p>\n\n<p>I'd also be a little concerned if admissions officers started showing up to answer questions, since I imagine that would be incredibly popular and could easily take over the entire site.</p>\n\n<p>So I'd be inclined not to expand the site's mission to include undergraduate admissions questions, even though this particular question is important and well formulated.</p>\n\n<p>As for other sorts of undergraduate questions, I think there's less of an issue than with admissions questions, but I'd still restrict the focus quite a bit. From my perspective, a good undergraduate question should either deal with students who hope to become academics or with how academia works. I imagine that most requests for undergraduate advice would not fall into these categories, but some would.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 114, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Is this site supposed to be for serious academics of graduate level and above, or not? The FAQ says that it is.</p>\n\n<p>If we welcome undergrad questions, let's be explicit, (and anyone who wants a serious academic site, can go look elswhere). How junior do we go? Kindergarten and above?</p>\n\n<p>But if we're sticking with the FAQ as it is, then let's close and delete all undergraduate (and lower) questions. On-topic vs off-topic counts for more than upvotes.</p>\n\n<p>Candidates for closure as off-topic:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/1407/96\">Attending university as an adult freshman</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/1417/96\">Distance Learning vs Free Online Education</a></li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 278, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I \"request to expand academia to include undergrad questions\".\nI know that \"Please do not bring undergraduate questions to academia. The Academia FAQ makes it clear that such questions are off-topic. They will be closed, and then deleted. Repeated deletions will earn you the suspension of your question-asking rights.\"\nYou might \"doubt that a new site is really needed for undergraduates, and this site appears to support a smaller audience than some sites.\"\nSo if academia S.E. still doesn't want to \"cater for undergraduates\", I propose a new site <a href=\"http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/47320/undergraduate\">http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/47320/undergraduate</a></p>\n\n<p>quotes from <a href=\"https://area51.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/8165/is-this-proposal-needed-considering-academia-can-be-expanded-in-scope-via-its-m/8170#comment13588_8170\">https://area51.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/8165/is-this-proposal-needed-considering-academia-can-be-expanded-in-scope-via-its-m/8170#comment13588_8170</a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4807, "author": "Allure", "author_id": 84834, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/84834", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think AC.SE should <strong>stop excluding undergraduates</strong>. Reasons:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Undergraduates are academics too. <a href=\"https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/academia\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">The dictionary</a> defines academia as &quot;the life, community, or world of teachers, schools, and education&quot;, which includes undergraduates. Notably this definition also includes high schools and primary schools and even kindergartens, but as <a href=\"https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/academia\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">another dictionary</a> points out &quot;academia&quot; usually refers to universities.</li>\n<li>Because undergraduate admissions is an essential part of most universities, questions about undergraduate admissions should not be excluded. I've only seen <a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/113/84834\">two objections to including this</a>. The first is that nobody &quot;here&quot; can answer them. The other is that if the people who can actually answer them shows up, they might swamp the SE. Neither are convincing. First, professors aren't the only people in academia, and we already have questions which most professors probably cannot answer (<a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/93341/if-i-request-a-paper-through-my-university-library-must-they-pay-a-substantial\">example</a>). Besides, that's kind of the point of SE - one can get answers from whoever knows them, regardless of who they are; furthermore if one doesn't know the answer chances are someone else does, and they can write an answer. Secondly, there are also a lot of questions about graduate admissions. I don't see why a canonical answer ala <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/38237/how-does-the-admissions-process-work-for-ph-d-programs-in-the-us-particularly\">this one</a> wouldn't work for undergraduate admissions.</li>\n<li>Many undergraduate questions are answerable, in fact <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/undergraduate\">many of them</a> are already asked, upvoted, and answered.</li>\n<li>If undergraduate questions aren't asked here, where should they be asked? I certainly can't imagine an &quot;Undergraduate.SE&quot; since that would overlap so seriously with this one.</li>\n<li>Finally one could argue that undergraduate questions are often <a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/112/84834\">not-generalizable</a>. I don't find this convincing. First, the two examples (&quot;which program should I choose?&quot; and &quot;which course should I take?&quot;) are both applicable to graduate studies as well. Second, one can always vote to close.</li>\n</ul>\n<p>I think AC.SE should set its scope as all things specific to universities, including undergraduate concerns. (This would mean that questions on university housing is also within scope.)</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/111", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 116, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think that all of this discussion will fit in very well into most academic discussion forums. It's a discussion you're after, after all.</p>\n\n<p>StackExchange is not a forum, and is not a place for discussion. It's a place for questions with factual objective answers.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 117, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I somewhat agree with @EnergyNumbers; the questions, as you phrased them, are discussion questions, and are not suited to this forum. The first asks for pure opinion, the second asks for speculation, and the third asks for conjecture. The fourth is actually applicable, but I would suggest that a simple google search may be useful in providing an answer.</p>\n\n<p>That being said, if you have a directed question about how the process works, or how to best pursue tenure, or questions about departmental handling of providing tenure, that would be applicable. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/115", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/411/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 119, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It's a good question, I've been also wondering what we could do about increasing the number of visits. We've had several discussions on the meta about publicizing the site, but I'm sorry to say that I've been a bit too busy lately to really take care of that. </p>\n\n<p>I guess one of the good suggestions was to contact academia.edu, and see if we could come up with some kind of unofficial partnership. Is there anyone with a good account on academia.edu who would be ready to contact the organizers? </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 120, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>One of the stats you see on area51 is the number of daily users. If you've been watching that number, it's been steadily rising over the past few months. There are a few mod tools that show statistics, and it definitely looks like we're growing, albeit pretty slowly. I don't think we're at immediate risk of being shut down.</p>\n\n<p>That being said, we could probably benefit significantly from some in-house advertising. Personally, I'm a fan of posting flyers, as they're cheap, easy to post, and pretty visible (in the right areas). <a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/87/73\">I posted a pretty mediocre one earlier</a>, and if anyone else wants to make one that looks more professional (or less professional, I'm not judging you) please go ahead.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 122, "author": "Jeromy Anglim", "author_id": 62, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/62", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think the causation is reciprocal, but that \"we\" can choose to ask more questions.</p>\n\n<p>Web traffic ultimately tends to largely be driven by Google. And this is generated by having lots of unique and high quality content. If you look at <a href=\"http://stackexchange.com/sites#questionsperday\">http://stackexchange.com/sites#questionsperday</a> you'll see that the ratio of questions to visits seems fairly predictable. It does vary, presumably based on the content domain, but as a rough ballpark it is often around 1 visit per day for each question on the site.</p>\n\n<p>Thus, I think active users should be encouraged to ask more questions. The site has an excellent answer rate. I don't think the site would be overwhelmed.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 530, "author": "earthling", "author_id": 2692, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2692", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I notice that there are some members - especially those with very high 'scores' - who have 50x as many answers as questions.</p>\n\n<p>Perhaps those members, who clearly know a lot, could be encouraged to ask questions for which they already know the answers. After all SE sites allow you to answer your own question.</p>\n\n<p>Also, in case anyone feels it is being arrogant to post a question you already know the answer to, I would say that my greatest concerns are that I might not even know enough to know which questions I should be asking and I would not consider it arrogant to ask and answer a question that you know many people <em>should be asking</em>.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/118", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/346/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 124, "author": "Adam Lear", "author_id": 23, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1051/what-do-principal-investigators-pis-look-for-in-prospective-post-docs\">What do principal investigators (PIs) look for in prospective post docs?</a></p>\n\n<p>What do you think about this question and its answers? Vote and comment to let everyone know.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 125, "author": "Adam Lear", "author_id": 23, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1018/a-major-journal-in-my-field-is-published-by-elsevier-how-can-we-move-the-field\">A major journal in my field is published by Elsevier. How can we move the field to a less objectionable, more open publisher?</a></p>\n\n<p>What do you think about this question and its answers? Vote and comment to let everyone know.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 126, "author": "Adam Lear", "author_id": 23, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/963/considerations-when-negotiating-a-promotion-from-postdoc-to-researcher\">Considerations when negotiating a promotion from postdoc to researcher?</a></p>\n\n<p>What do you think about this question and its answers? Vote and comment to let everyone know.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 127, "author": "Adam Lear", "author_id": 23, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1006/how-should-students-approach-quals\">How should students approach quals?</a></p>\n\n<p>What do you think about this question and its answers? Vote and comment to let everyone know.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 128, "author": "Adam Lear", "author_id": 23, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/966/at-what-point-do-you-decide-to-jump-into-research\">At what point do you decide to jump into research?</a></p>\n\n<p>What do you think about this question and its answers? Vote and comment to let everyone know.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 129, "author": "Adam Lear", "author_id": 23, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/958/priority-of-application-materials-for-admission-decision\">Priority of application materials for admission decision</a></p>\n\n<p>What do you think about this question and its answers? Vote and comment to let everyone know.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 130, "author": "Adam Lear", "author_id": 23, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/933/how-important-are-citations-when-applying-for-jobs-or-promotions\">How important are citations when applying for jobs or promotions?</a></p>\n\n<p>What do you think about this question and its answers? Vote and comment to let everyone know.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 131, "author": "Adam Lear", "author_id": 23, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/987/data-publication-basics-where-why-how-and-when-should-i-publish-my-unpublis\">Data publication basics - where, why, how, and when should I publish my unpublished data?</a></p>\n\n<p>What do you think about this question and its answers? Vote and comment to let everyone know.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 132, "author": "Adam Lear", "author_id": 23, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1004/can-a-researcher-get-his-full-salary-from-a-european-project\">Can a researcher get his full salary from a European Project?</a></p>\n\n<p>What do you think about this question and its answers? Vote and comment to let everyone know.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 133, "author": "Adam Lear", "author_id": 23, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/946/interview-strategies-for-faculty-positions-focus-on-their-research-or-your-own\">Interview strategies for faculty positions - to focus on their research or your own?</a></p>\n\n<p>What do you think about this question and its answers? Vote and comment to let everyone know.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/123", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 139, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I agree that there has been several low quality questions recently, but I guess it's a combination between the fact that the \"regulars\", and in particular those who have been there from the beginning, have somehow run out of questions to ask, and that Academia SE starts to be found on search engines, thus attracting a diverse population. </p>\n\n<p>I guess that any site such as this one is bound to attract the population asking how to apply for this particular program, and what's the best university, and we shouldn't worry too much about that. However, I agree that it also means that we are not attracting enough academics. </p>\n\n<p>In order to fix it, I'd say that we \"just\" need to publicise the site more. But I honestly don't know how :( </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 140, "author": "Suresh", "author_id": 346, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/346", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I don't think the flood of low-quality questions is in itself a bad thing, but what is a problem is the lack of new academic users asking higher-level questions. We got some promotion on the SE blog/G+ feed that's probably drawing in the generic users. I too don't know how to promote things better, except to keep hitting on places like Inside Higher Ed. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 141, "author": "Hauser", "author_id": 213, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/213", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I agree but I don't think it's a major problem as long as such questions don't get much upvotes. It's still the kind of most upvoted questions on a SE site that drives me to participate regularly or not at all on that site. Here Academia.se does pretty well. There is a lot high-quality content.</p>\n\n<p>Also, if too much low quality questions are on the front page, pushing some of the better questions with unaccepted answers to the top is a good way of attracting new academcis and not drive them away by the flood of low quality questions.</p>\n\n<p>The low quality questions I noticed in the recent past here were often very localized personal advice questions with bad titles (\"What should I do\"), unuseful tags, no clear personal context. I'm not really sure if such questions are on/off-topic. There are student consultants for this at local universities. The answers will often vary pretty much for different nations and university bureaucracies. So a question tagged with <em>personal advice</em> should also have a <em>nation</em> tag, otherwise it's hard for new user asking the same low quality question here to find that one and we produce a lot of duplicates/noise. <strong>Noise/redundancy is what drives the majority of interesting user away in my opinion, rather than low quality questions</strong>. Most suggested criterions when voting to close a question (too localized, not a real question,...) try exactly to avoid this noise and redundancy, low quality is rather handled by rep voting/filtering. Questions on which uni's to choose/are best are imho off-topic, there are \"rankings\" and choosing the best uni with the highest demands on students is often not the best choice for the average student. </p>\n\n<p>If my SE feed is full of low quality redundant questions, I unsubscribe. There are now so many SE sites, that browsing SE via feeds is the only way for me to notice new and interesting questions, browsing <a href=\"http://stackexchange.com/questions\">http://stackexchange.com/questions</a> or a specifics site's frontpage is too time-consuming. <strong>So what you can do as a high rep user with privileges is edit and tag question titles in a clear way, avoid redundancy</strong>. Redundant/duplicate questions should be deleted instead of being closed and therefore still popping up in my feed. If I cant deselect all the <em>personal advise</em> questions on <a href=\"http://stackexchange.com/filters\">http://stackexchange.com/filters</a> because they are not tagged as such, it's likely I unsubscribe.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 222, "author": "Eminem", "author_id": 1556, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1556", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>What may be low quality to you may not be so to the next person. Lets ask the question. What criteria determines a quality question on Academia SE? And as you have pointed out, there are varying level of quality of questions. Are we only abiding by 'Low' and 'High' quality or are we going to introduce some middle ground?</p>\n\n<p>We would not want to detract others from the site by merely closing their perceived low quality question. And especially closing their question without a valid reason. This I had found to be a real nuisance on SO when what I perceived to be be a totally valid question. Giving a general reason (e.g. This question is not a good fit for Stack Overflow ..) is open to abuse by moderators who merely just wants to 'clean up low quality questions'. Being curtious in ones answer and <strong>giving an appropriate reason</strong> when closing questions is the way to go instead of the plonking down a generalised answer leaving the person who asked the question at times scratching their heads. If you have moderator rights (which can be perceived as senior), then behave accordingly. As academics we are more precise in our ways when answering our assignment/research questions, lets do the same for the questions on A.SE.</p>\n\n<p>We must bear in mind that people from all over the world with <strong>vast cultural differences</strong> vists the SE sites. Being mindful of this is of utmost importance. Politeness and curtiousness is the right and safe route to take when answering questions. Would you be short and abrupt when answering an 'high quality' question? I would think not. hence we should show respect when answering/closing questions of those that may not be aware that their question is perceived to be 'low quality'.</p>\n\n<p>Given the name of the website (academia.stack...), if one just glances at that while knowing that the 'stackexchange' sites answers questions, one would think that you could ask any academic related question including ones like 'which unviersity is best to study flying pigs'. Let me put that as an example. I know there is a 'Golf' stackexchange site, hence my thoughts would be I can ask anything thats Golf related including 'Is it legal to eat pork chops while playing a round of golf'. Disclaimer, I no absolutely nothing about the game of golf. But these are the questions we should expect and its all on how we handle these questions. I think it will grow your reputation in more than just points when one can handle that scenario's accordingly.</p>\n\n<p>Attracting academics. Of course we want to attract new academics. Those that are brand spanking new, those that left academia and came back as well as those that has been around forever. The experienced academics can sift through a pile of questions with ease picking up only what they need and ignoring the rest without breaking a sweat or batting and eyelash. I would think that the majority of people asking questions would generally be newbies. We want these newbies to stay. A sure fire way of driving away a newbie is to treat them and their question with disrespect.</p>\n\n<p>So whilst it may be frustrating that there are 'low quality' questions about, I would rather have those questions around and close them with appropriate comments/reasons. The world is full of 'low quality' questions. There's no escaping it.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/138", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 145, "author": "Suresh", "author_id": 346, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/346", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>My feeling (mentioned in comments) is that the second part of the question (asking for references to work studying this issue) is legitimate and concrete. The first part involves discussion and so is not well suited. This also eliminates the need to discuss \"why\" one should care about the issue - I personally think that's troll bait, but there's no point arguing it on the forum itself. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 146, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think a subtly changing the question from what \"CAN\" be done to what \"IS\" being done might make it less \"discussion\" oriented without changing the meaning too much.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/144", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/319/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 150, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would definitely imagine this is on-topic. It's related to academia and specific to academics. I would suggest that, because recruitment/retention in academia requires specialized techniques not used in other fields—unique approaches to finding students, unqiue ways of selling the lab, unique methods for differentiating yourself—that such questions would be fine here.</p>\n\n<p>I'd love to hear what others think.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 151, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would agree that this is on-topic. Questions related to achieving positive outcomes, such as improved learning as well as retention, would definitely be relevant. The only thing is that focus should be on teaching at the college level or above.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 155, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Yes, questions about student recruitment and retention are definitely on-topic.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/149", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/924/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 153, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>According to the SE \"targets\" A.SE is currently weak in questions per day (4.6/15) and visits per day (448/1500). I think we currently do not generate enough content to make people want to visit A.SE regularly. I would like to see a much greater number of questions per day. Three times as many, for a total of 15 questions per day, seems reasonable to me. So I think the target set by is for A.SE, independent of how other sites are judged.</p>\n\n<p>I think in order to get to out target questions per day, our visits per day needs to increase. It wouldn't surprise me if this also needed to increase by a factor of 3 to get 3x as many questions. So again the SE target seems reasonable for A.SE.</p>\n\n<p>Then there is the question of can we get to 15/1500. I think there are enough people in academia with on topic questions that we can.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 154, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I agree with Suresh, somehow, these levels are transverse. We probably won't make it very soon up to 15 questions and 1500 visitors per day, but the minimum is 5 and 500, which sounds more reasonable to expect. One of the nice things about AcSE, is that the overall quality of the questions is pretty high, and we're slowly, but surely, building a base of good questions. </p>\n\n<p>As Daniel said (and others before him), the number of questions is directly related to the number of visitors, so we only need to attract (and retain) users :)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 156, "author": "David Ketcheson", "author_id": 81, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/81", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I used to be a mod on another SE site whose stats were similar to those of Academia, if not a bit worse. It was also a rather \"specialized\" site. In private communication with Aarthi Devanathan, I was told not to worry much about the stats -- they understand that for more specialized sites, those standards are not necessarily the right ones to judge the health of a site.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/152", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/411/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 158, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think that for this particular answer, it's quite similar to many other ones, where the answerer starts with \"I've been doing this in the past\", and since many questions bring subjective answers (based on personal experience), I guess it's helpful to have a better idea of what kind of persons submitted this answer. So, as long as the qualifications are directly relevant to the answer, then I see no problem with it. </p>\n\n<p>EDIT: Concerning the fact that junior people might be intimated, it sounds like a reasonable concern, but somehow, not relevant to the particular question you pointed out. Somehow, there are not so many \"junior\" people (i.e. students, postdocs) who could understand perfectly how an undergraduate committee work, and those who can shouldn't be intimated. </p>\n\n<p>I guess that would be different in a more \"scientific\" topic. Like, I can imagine that if on cs.SE, if there was a question like \"How to do that in Java\", and someone would answer with \"I've been a Java programmer for the last 20 years, and this is the way to do it\", it could intimidate some junior people. But I can't really see the same problem for Academia (or at least, not on this particular question, but I understand that you want to generalize it). </p>\n\n<p>EDIT2: Just to make things clear, my position on this question is that I don't see any problem with people stating their qualifications, as long as it is directly relevant to the question and it's not blatant bragging, even though it can intimidate junior people (I actually think that junior people should not be intimated, in general, even if they're speaking against a Nobel Prize winner). However, I'd be happy to look into any particular case where the qualifications are borderline. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 159, "author": "gerrit", "author_id": 1033, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1033", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As a somewhat junior person (PhD student), I am not intimidated, but <em>encouraged</em> by the observation that senior scientists participate in this website. For a forum like this one, it really does make an important difference who answers the question. I've found myself several times clicking on peoples' nametags to see if they provide any relevant background information there.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 160, "author": "Suresh", "author_id": 346, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/346", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>As a person who has answered many questions in the past ... (ok I'm kidding)</p>\n\n<p>But seriously I think this example seems perfectly fine. Many of the questions on academia.se are the kind where there's no right answer per se, but there are answers that differ based on experience. So explaining the nature of that experience is helpful. It's much like how we often clarify which area we have experience in when we answer a question. This is different from questions on technical sites like cs.se where the answer usually can be evaluated and discussed independent of the credentials of the participants. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/157", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 164, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Perhaps \"milestones\" is a more appropriate tag than \"events?\" It's a better descriptor, at any rate. \"Events\" could imply conferences and other items, like seminars or training workshops.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4861, "author": "cag51", "author_id": 79875, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/79875", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>No.</strong> Looks like no action has been taken on this in 9 years, so I'll formalize it with an answer. We already have tags for <code>graduation</code>, <code>defense</code>, and <code>workshop</code>, so it's hard to see what value a catch-all tag like this would add.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/163", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 670, "author": "Hesham ELMAHDY", "author_id": 9033, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/9033", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The vote is done to the answer as a whole. You would probably get higher votes for a more complete answer, or even several answers.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 673, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I tend to prefer them being put in the same answer using headers or bullet points or something to distinguish them for a few reasons:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Two 50-point answers does not a gold badge make ;)</li>\n<li>If you provide two excellent answers, it removes any conflict about which one to accept as \"the\" answer</li>\n<li>It keeps your two-part answer together, so that variation in voting doesn't split them off. This is less of a big deal if they can truly be separated with no harm done, but I find this to be fairly rare.</li>\n<li>It makes referring to @CleverUser's answer somewhat confusing.</li>\n</ol>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/168", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/924/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 172, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Unfortunately, they don't make that data public. The number you see is pretty good for gauging trends, though. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 173, "author": "Mad Scientist", "author_id": 201, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/201", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>You can see that information on the Quantcast site:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.quantcast.com/academia.stackexchange.com\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">http://www.quantcast.com/academia.stackexchange.com</a></p>\n\n<p><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/qbKHX.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/171", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1069/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 175, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As I stated <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/2993/73\">here</a>, I think software questions are definitely <strong>on-topic</strong>. I think it would fall under the rubric of \"Life as a graduate student, postdoctoral researcher, university professor\", which is on-topic as per our FAQ.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 176, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think according to the rules software list questions are off topic since the are not \"practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face\"</p>\n\n<p>That said, I think other sites (e.g., tex.se) have a history of allowing long list type questions.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 177, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Across StackExchanges, asking for recommendations for products is strongly discouraged.</p>\n\n<p>As are long-list questions.</p>\n\n<p>As are questions where there is no one right answer.</p>\n\n<p>These software questions hit all three of those. <strong>Let's close them all.</strong></p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/174", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 182, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>No.</strong> Questions about careers outside academia should be off-topic.</p>\n\n<p>They're suitable to a career-advice site for the world <strong>outside</strong> academia. This isn't a career-advice site, and it's a site about the world <strong>of</strong> academia.</p>\n\n<p>Furthermore, the questions will attract subjective answers, and answers localised to one time / place.</p>\n\n<p>_{NB: this is just my opinion. I'm only giving something for people to vote down or up, as they (dis)agree; I have neither the will nor the ability to dictate site terms}</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 184, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I agree with EnergyNumbers, I think that by default, question only about opportunity in industry are not on topic, but it's not a very strict rule. A question asking the difference between academia and industry might be more on topic. A question stating that the OP wants nothing to do with Academia is not really on topic on a website dedicated to academics ...</p>\n\n<p>That being said, the <em>quality</em> of the question is also a very important factor, and that was a main reason for closing that question: it was not really on topic, so I didn't see the point of leaving a low quality question open. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 185, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>See my comment on <a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/183/73\">this recent question</a>. This question to me seems perfectly on-topic. The questioner is in academia, and has questions that relate to life as an academic, namely, what else can I do outside of working as a professor? Given that statistics (which I'm too lazy to look up now) suggest that most PhD students go on to careers outside of academia, this is actually a <em>very</em> relevant question.</p>\n\n<p>That being said, I agree with @Charles that this particular question was poorly phrased, and could have had a better reception if it was worded better. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 187, "author": "Dan C", "author_id": 1069, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1069", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I agree with Bravo. I think that professor should know a decent amount about how to help their students prepare for life outside academia. So I think that in fact <strong>academia.SE is a very appropriate place to ask such question</strong>. When posted here, the <strong>questions are likely to be seen by professors, as well as by other grad students who may be preparing for similar jobs</strong>.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/180", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/411/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 183, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Funny you bring this one up; they had asked us whether we wanted it, and I turned it down as being too pedagogical. This is becoming a recurring issue here; do we want to focus exclusively on research-level academia questions, or do we want to branch out to all aspects of university-level education. We're definitely solidly in the first branch now, but as more users join I'm seeing more and more questions that relate to the second. Personally, I think that, given that we're still in Beta, we should bring this question back up.</p>\n\n<p>Given the current focus of the site, though, it's pretty clear to me that this question is off-topic here.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 190, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As it currently stands I do not think that question belongs here and I would rather not see the go that way. It is an \"undergrad\" question about how to be a student. A question about how to deal with students who google homework problems might also be \"off topic\", based on our current focus, but I think it would be a reasonable way to expand the site.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/181", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/411/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 189, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Yes, these questions are fine. As of now we're not tagging these questions specifically as such; just indicate the target audience in the question.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 531, "author": "Samuel Russell", "author_id": 4429, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4429", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>US specific questions are fine. They're frustrating when a question doesn't indicate that it is US specific, when it in fact is. It is a sign of cultural and institutional arrogance not to indicate the culture of institutional-system for which your question or answer applies.</p>\n\n<p>Ideally, if the site's traffic is high, system specific questions should be tagged to allow users to ignore or favourite tags.</p>\n\n<p>Ideally, we might think about whether each particular question that appears to be system specific, is, in fact a useful opportunity to supply a full answer for all major systems.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/188", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/705/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 202, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I don't think there is a way to \"encourage\" a tag creator to edit the tag wiki. However, you can retag the question, by removing the tags that either do not make sense or are not explained. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 203, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is a pretty common problem on the main SO site as well; people tag questions with seemingly ridiculous tags in the hopes of... well, I'm really not sure, but I guess they think that adding weird tags increases the chance they'll get an answer. There isn't really much we can do for these people, since they clearly didn't search to see other related stuff and then read the instructions next to the tag box that state to enter related tags. Not much we can do for those users.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/201", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1580/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 206, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There are three main types of deletions that I personally have made:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/q/86/73\">Answers that should have been comments</a>; the answer may look like it was deleted, but it was just converted to a comment</li>\n<li>Answers that were completely off topic, and do not add anything to the conversation.</li>\n<li>Answers that are abusive/trolling/spammy/<em>ad hominem</em>/etc.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>I believe that this is the way the other mods deal with deletions as well. </p>\n\n<p>That being said, moderators are people too, and you'll probably find differences between how aeismail, Charles, and I deal with flags. It should be noted that your posting here is exactly how you should handle this sort of thing; if you flag something and you think we didn't respond appropriately, make a thread such as this one specifically related to the post at hand and we'll respond. (As mods, we get a notification every time someone post a new thread in meta... we'll see it.)</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>EDIT: Having discussed this with mods from other sites, I'm going to reshape my opinion. It seems that a \"closed\" marker on a question is actually an indicator stating, <strong>\"Please either edit this question so it's site-appropriate or delete it</strong>\". In that vein, we should look at each closed question as a request to fix the question up so it's salvageable. If we can't do that, it <em>should</em> be deleted, as suggested by <a href=\"https://security.meta.stackexchange.com/a/683\">Grace Note</a> (and brought to my attention by <a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/209/73\">F'x in his answer below</a>).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 207, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As a personal viewpoint, I'm for deleting as little as possible. We don't really have storage issues, and any information is good. In particular, if someone wants to ask a question, searches on the site first, and finds similar questions that were close, then this person knows that the question is not a good fit. </p>\n\n<p>We have a search engine, it's not like one has to go through all the questions one by one, and be bothered by the closed questions in the process. </p>\n\n<p>It goes the same with answers and comments. I only want to delete offensive, <em>very</em> low quality content and spam. For the rest, the community can close and down vote, and I believe it's enough. I don't feel like have closed questions is a problem right now, maybe it's worth to reconsider this position if it becomes one. </p>\n\n<p>EDIT: I also completely agree with eykanal's point of saying you're doing the perfect thing by putting this on meta. As for the two questions you mention, I don't feel the urge to delete them, because I don't think they are harming the site right now. But I would have nothing against their deletion either. I guess the main point is that, as a mod, I don't want to make alone the decision to delete them (the usual reason: I prefer to have low-quality questions on the site than good questions deleted, and I don't want to be alone in setting the limit). Hopefully, this question on the meta might give other people the willingness to vote to delete them!</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 208, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think having the record of the question being asked and \"shut down\" is more useful than deleting them outright. Something that is offensive or spam should, of course, be deleted. But something that is merely off-topic or inappropriate for the board should probably stay for archival purposes, particularly if an answer <em>was</em> received.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 209, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p><strong>Edit</strong>: I finally managed to find the <a href=\"https://security.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/681/why-is-this-closed-question-not-being-deleted/683#683\">exact quote</a> I was looking for. This is from Grace Note, a community manager from the SE team:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>With the exception of duplicates (which we keep around for searchability), closing is intended to be a temporary state for a question. <strong>There are only two states in the future of a closed question - getting deleted or getting reopened.</strong> The primary purpose of closing is to serve as a sentence to eventual deletion.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>and</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>unless a question has some chance to be considered for reopening, it should be deleted</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>So, the SE policy is not to ask “which closed questions should be deleted?” but “which closed questions should be kept?” (as done, e.g., on the <a href=\"https://cs.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/512/first-review-of-closed-questions-which-ones-should-not-be-deleted\">computer science meta</a>).</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><em>For the record, and for others to comment on it, I'll add here my opinion:</em></p>\n\n<p>I think <strong>closed questions should be deleted if</strong>:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>they have not been answered</li>\n<li>they are not duplicates (“closed as duplicate” can be found in searches and lead back to the main question, so they are useful)</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The reason for this is basically the same as summarized in my question: off-topic or low-quality closed questions reduce the signal-to-noise ratio (they turn up in searches, for example) and don't give a good image of the site.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>I would be happy to have them deleted via high-rep users (and not moderators), if moderators think it's not the best use of their time. But we need a policy for that, and people then have to check regularly for recent delete votes.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 254, "author": "gerrit", "author_id": 1033, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1033", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'd like to add an additional reason to be careful in deleting questions:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><strong>As long as the software does not inform users that their post has been deleted, we should be extremely careful in deleting questions.</strong></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>To elaborate a bit more: for any question where we can assume good faith, the question must not be deleted. Closing informs a user that a question is offtopic or not suitable. Deleting leaves a user confused and annoyed.</p>\n\n<p>On a personal note, I've had a question deleted on English SE and I have thoroughly confused and quite annoyed. <em>Where had my question gone?\nWhy had my question disappeared?</em> Finally I had to waste peoples time by asking on Meta if someone know what happened to my question. Meanwhile, I got very annoyed and almost decided to leave English SE because of this bad treatment.</p>\n\n<p>Only 10k-users can see deleted question. But deleted questions from 10k-users are probably very rare. Therefore, as long as the software does not inform users about deleted posts, we should only close questions that are obviously not in good faith.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 651, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/search?tab=votes&amp;q=duplicate:0%20closed:1%20migrated:0\">Candidates for deletion can be found here</a>. <strong>Each and every question on that list, should either be deleted or edited &amp; reopened</strong>. If you have 2000 rep or over, please do go to that list, and spend a little bit of time going through some of the questions, and for each one, either vote for its deletion, or edit it into shape so that it can be reopened.</p>\n\n<p>As F'x wrote, the <a href=\"https://security.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/681/why-is-this-closed-question-not-being-deleted/683#683\">Stack Exchange policy</a> is this (my emphasis) :</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>With the exception of duplicates (which we keep around for searchability), closing is intended to be a temporary state for a question. <strong>There are only two states in the future of a closed question - getting deleted or getting reopened</strong>. The primary purpose of closing is to serve as a sentence to eventual deletion.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>and</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>unless a question has some chance to be considered for reopening, it should be deleted</p>\n</blockquote>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/205", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 212, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>That's a good idea, I was actually looking for a way to search only for closed questions. </p>\n\n<p>EDIT: The keyword \"closed:1\" seems indeed enough, as pointed out by ThiefMaster and Steven Jeuris, so it's probably not necessary to have a tag. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 213, "author": "ThiefMaster", "author_id": 418, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/418", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You can simply use <code>closed:1</code> in the search query - no need to abuse tags for this.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 214, "author": "Caleb", "author_id": 3844, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/3844", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You don't want to \"corral\" your closed questions.</p>\n\n<p>Closed questions should be destined for one of two fates.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Deletion.</p></li>\n<li><p>Reopening.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Time will tell which route a question goes, but having a \"pool\" of them around is defiantly not the idea you want to promote. As <a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/213/3844\">noted by TheifMaster</a> you can already find them for the purposes of doing site cleanup using <code>closed:1</code> as part of a search query.</p>\n\n<p>If nobody has expressed any interest in getting the question whipped into shape to re-open (or if it's obvious that isn't going to happen from the get go), they should be deleted. Otherwise they need to be poked until they are ready to open.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/211", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 217, "author": "Noble P. Abraham", "author_id": 1580, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1580", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>A rhetorical question <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3690/what-is-irdam-journal\">What is IRDAM Journal?</a>, where I am the only answerer. </p>\n\n<p>Should the community keep it? IMO, the question could have been edited, but eventually closed.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 393, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/7722/2700\">https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/7722/2700</a></p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>This question has been closed because it's not really answerable. Clearly, the level of difficulty for studies is something very subjective, and it wouldn't make sense to quantify it. Also, the point here is not to post (non constructive) opinions, and an answer such as \"I found my master quite hard\" is not suited for here</p>\n</blockquote>\n" }, { "answer_id": 407, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 2, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I wonder if this question has now served its purpose. I believe when the question was asked we really hadn't come up with a consensus of when to delete. I didn't even realize closed questions could/needed to be deleted. The number of <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/search?q=-%22possible+duplicate%3A%22+migrated%3Ano+closed%3A1+\">undeleted closed questions</a> is relatively small, and none are more than 3 weeks old. I personally have decided to let questions set in the closed state for at least a couple of weeks to see if they get edited.</p>\n\n<p>By not using this question we would lose some of the discussion, but I would hope the discussion would happen at the close stage and not the delete stage.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/215", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 239, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It's a good idea to plan. But the problem is technically we haven't graduated yet. We're still in beta mode. We need to get the number of questions up a little higher. (About 15%, if my math is right.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 241, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>Edit:</strong> second version incorporating Daniel’s suggestion</p>\n\n<p><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/QlIlq.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></p>\n\n<p>Comments very welcome!</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 248, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There are a lot of academics over at tex.sx, I wonder if we could get someone to help design us a coat of arms. It might be useful also when we graduate. I would be happy to use some of my tex.sx rep to offer a 500 rep bounty.</p>\n\n<p>I have asked: <a href=\"https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/79147/draw-a-coat-of-arms-in-latex\">https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/79147/draw-a-coat-of-arms-in-latex</a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 256, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Okay, I'll add an answer to keep track of the other sites’ meta where ads were posted for voting. <strong>Please go there and upvote!</strong></p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://physics.meta.stackexchange.com/a/1571/91\">Physics</a> (now running; check stats <a href=\"https://physics.meta.stackexchange.com/ads/display/980\">here</a>)</li>\n<li><a href=\"https://math.meta.stackexchange.com/a/6441/3406\">Mathematics</a> (now running; check stats <a href=\"https://math.meta.stackexchange.com/ads/display/3278\">here</a>)</li>\n<li><a href=\"https://english.meta.stackexchange.com/a/3235/3479\">English L&amp;U</a> (now running; check stats <a href=\"https://english.meta.stackexchange.com/ads/display/2223\">here</a>)</li>\n<li><a href=\"https://tex.meta.stackexchange.com/a/2840/3734\">TeX</a> (now running; check stats <a href=\"https://tex.meta.stackexchange.com/ads/display/2046\">here</a>)</li>\n<li><a href=\"https://mathematica.meta.stackexchange.com/a/812/700\">Mathematica</a> (now running; check stats <a href=\"https://mathematica.meta.stackexchange.com/ads/display/577\">here</a>)</li>\n</ul>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/238", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 246, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/job\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;job&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">job</a> and <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/jobs\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;jobs&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">jobs</a> are definitely synonyms, and they have been merged.</p>\n\n<p>I'm not as sure about <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/career\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;career&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">career</a> and <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/career-path\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;career-path&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">career-path</a>, but I'd love to hear what everyone else about those.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 247, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Intuitively, I'd say that <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/career\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;career&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">career</a> and <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/career-path\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;career-path&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">career-path</a> are equivalent. More precisely, I don't see many questions that would qualify for one tag but not the other. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3809, "author": "Philip", "author_id": 32906, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/32906", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>job now seems to be frequently misapplied, as per its own description and that of job-search. Sometimes people use both (which is reasonable but perhaps not optimal for job); other times they don't use job-search. Can someone help me figure out if there's a process to do something about that?</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/245", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/344/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 259, "author": "JRN", "author_id": 64, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/64", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>For the question involved, the question was changed, the comments were deleted because they \"were no longer relevant,\" and the people who gave answers to the original question were asked if they wanted to revise their answers. In short, the old question and comments were, in effect, deleted, and the old answers needed to be updated. You might as well make a new question.</p>\n\n<p>For the question involved, I recommend option number 4: No edit, (no delete), ask the improved version as a new question.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 260, "author": "dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten", "author_id": 440, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/440", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I am not moved by the fact that the original question should have been deleted (eventually). That is the proper fate for it. If we are concerned for Ran G's rep just wait sixty days before killing it; but that period has already elapsed, so we've even good that way.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, I think the rule that edits should not make large changes to the meaning of other peoples posts or to any question that already has developed and upvoted answers should be a bright line.</p>\n\n<p>Please, delete the offending questions and ask the new question separately.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/258", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 263, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Thanks for posting, good job to everyone who's participated and made this site as good as it is.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 264, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Congrats to all on reaching this nice milestone! (and there's no need to be modest: a lot of SE sites in beta have a hard time maintaining a steady stream of questions after the initial excitement)</p>\n\n<p>Being a newcomer, if I may take this opportunity to give my main impression for my first month here: by increasing our userbase more we will be able to cover more fields of research… and this diversity will bring even more value to the site. Academia is a broad church!</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>A related reminder (yes, I saw someone say “more like nagging”): we have proposed an ad to run on our sibling Stack Exchange sites, but <strong>they need our votes to run</strong>. If you have an account on the following SE sites, please go up vote the ad:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://tex.meta.stackexchange.com/a/2840/3734\">TeX</a>: only 1 last vote needed</li>\n<li><a href=\"https://english.meta.stackexchange.com/a/3235/3479\">English L&amp;U</a>: 2 more votes needed</li>\n<li><a href=\"https://math.meta.stackexchange.com/a/6441/3406\">Mathematics</a>: 3 more votes needed</li>\n<li><a href=\"https://physics.meta.stackexchange.com/a/1571/91\">Physics</a>: 4 votes needed</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>PS: the <a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/238/community-promotion-ad-to-run-on-other-ses\">ad itself</a> is a graphics I created with Daniel’s advice… but I am in no way emotionally attached to it, so please consider improving on it or proposing a better design <a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/238/community-promotion-ad-to-run-on-other-ses\">in the relevant meta discussion</a>.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/262", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/346/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 271, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If there is no clear right answer possible, then the question doesn't belong on the site. It should be closed as \"not a real question\" or \"off-topic\", and then possibly deleted.</p>\n\n<p>If a clear right answer is possible, but it is split across several existing answers, then the thing to do is to write a synthesis of all the right things into a single answer.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 272, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>What were you looking for?</strong> When you ask a soft question, you're definitely not looking for a unique actionable “that solved it thanks” solution, as you say. You are usually looking for ideas, advice, viewpoints different from your own, etc. So, I would suggest to:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Mark as accepted the answer that provided you with the most useful advice. It may not be easy to decide, but probably one of them has a point of view that you wouldn't have considered by yourself, or an answer backed by quotes or statistics.</li>\n<li>If you can't make up your mind, choose a good answer amongst the later ones: late answers tend to receive less exposure, and thus less votes.</li>\n<li>Possibly write a comment below it, explaining how you found it useful, and that you really appreciated insight given by the others.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>An alternative would be not to accept any answer. I think it's not very satisfactory, because it sends the message that “none of this helped me” (of course, if that's true, then don't accept any answer) and, less importantly, it lets a good +15 rep go to waste.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 298, "author": "MasterPJ", "author_id": 4079, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4079", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Additionally to F'x answer, I would like to mention <strong>another point of view</strong>. The point of view of a <strong>person who will look at the Academia site for some answers and will read your question in the future.</strong></p>\n\n<p>If the person is very interested, he or she will read all the posts and think about their value by himself (herself), not just the accepted one. <em>In this case it does not matter which answer you will mark.</em></p>\n\n<p>Most of the people will probably read just few top rated answers. In this case, you can proceed according to the point 2. of F'x answer. <strong>Give the privilege to an answer which is bellow but you find it valuable and help others to learn more in this way.</strong></p>\n\n<p>(if the person will read just the accepted answer or the first one, he or she is probably not that interested in that matter and again <em>it does not matter what you will mark out</em>.) </p>\n\n<p><strong>So, If you have doubts which answer to mark, you can think about which answer will be the most beneficial for other possible readers in the future.</strong></p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/270", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/49/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 274, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Before we jump to conclusions, do we have statistics about the rate of question generation on \"graduated\" sites?</p>\n\n<p>It may be that we're getting a lot more \"casual users,\" who just want answers to a particular question. When they find it, they don't need to ask it, because it's already there.</p>\n\n<p>That said, if there are a few \"low-lying fruit\" questions, then we could certainly encourage them to be asked! Not quite sure of the best way to go about doing this, but I'm open to suggestions.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 275, "author": "Piotr Migdal", "author_id": 49, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/49", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Stats aren't bad and, AFAIK, they are going up (from time to time I check them).\nThe later is a think that SE admins care them most so I bet that we are not in danger. I really doubt if they care at all about views/question; but if there is a single parameter they want to be high, it's views :).</p>\n\n<p>And personally, I think that the number of questions is not bad. Compare to other sites. Especially when subtracting piss-poor quality questions.</p>\n\n<p>When it comes to seeding - why not? But it would rather generate more views, that (much) more questions :).</p>\n\n<p>I would rather think about extending scope (e.g. also to a bit more localized questions).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 276, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you look at some other <a href=\"http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/11464/code-review\">far more</a> <a href=\"http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/4/audio-video-production\">popular</a> <a href=\"http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/7080/physical-fitness\">beta sites</a>, you'll see our question rate is pretty typical. Without having access to the stats, do note that as we get more popular (and as more questions are asked), more people will arrive here from google search results, see their answer, and then leave. That's not necessarily a bad thing at all. Hopefully they'll stay in the longer term, but I wouldn't be too worried.</p>\n\n<p>This is a good time to put in another plug for advertising, though. If you're in a university, post flyers, tell students to use the site, ask the administration to send students here, install rootkits on students research computers to send them here instead of google, whatever works to generate more traffic.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 279, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>“Seeding” can happen very naturally, by the regulars simply asking more questions. It is good to ask questions, even hypothetical, that come to your mind or come up during lunch discussions with colleagues or friends. Even if you think you have an answer, even if it doesn't apply to you, as long as it fits the site (not overly broad, not too localized, etc.). I regularly do it (in fact, more than 25% of my posts are questions), here and on other SE sites, just like I would ask a colleague at coffee (“hey, I was wondering about …, maybe you know the answer or have an idea on that”).</p>\n\n<p>Organic growth is healthy. All the statistics I've seen indicate that's what Academia.SE is experiencing, so we shouldn't worry overmuch.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 297, "author": "MasterPJ", "author_id": 4079, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4079", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>To answer your question <em>Why aren't more questions being asked?</em> </p>\n\n<p>Obviously, <strong>people in the community around the Academia beta site rather think twice then ask a question</strong> that maybe down-voted or closed for some reason (too localize, too broad, off-topic, duplicate...). As eykanal and Piotr Migdal mentioned, it is typical for beta sites. The community around beta sites are more interested in the forum and StockExchange in general comparing to majority of non-beta sites visitors. <strong>\"Beta\" users</strong> will probably become users with +200 (500,1000,...) reputation in the future. These people <strong>generate content of higher quality but as we all know, it is very difficult to have both quality and quantity.</strong></p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>On the other hand, if you take a look at normal sites (non-beta), you can see very often people with 1 point of reputation, several times per day. These people are new (as I was once) and most likely did not know about StockExchange before. They do not care much about the community, they want they questions answered. Of course, <strong>their questions do not have high number of votes and are often closed</strong>, but, <strong>there is nothing wrong with that(!!)</strong>. (<a href=\"https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/97407/now-i-see-there-are-a-lot-of-duplicate-questions-on-stack-overflow\">this is</a> a very nice discussion tree regarding duplicate question in stackoverflow; Academia will not suffer that much because there will be no question about programming and stuff.)\n(<a href=\"https://english.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3014/why-are-there-so-many-meta-questions-about-how-so-many-main-questions-are-being\">one interesting</a> from AL&amp;U meta about a lot of closed and down-vote questions)</p>\n\n<p>What I am trying to say is that if the Academia site is going to become a non-beta, sooner or later it is going to happened and we should not be surprised. Users are here to ask (and answer) and core users to moderate, to make the content as much valuable for others as possible.</p>\n\n<p><em>With a little bit of humour we can say: When there will be more questions? When you will see a lot of them closed :D</em></p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/273", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 430, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I didn't want to make the post overlong, so I paste here the Mathematica code used to make the graphs from the raw data (multiline string stored pasted in variable <code>s</code>):</p>\n\n<pre><code>t = StringSplit /@ StringSplit[s, \"\\n\"];\ntime = ToExpression@StringSplit[#, \"-\"] &amp; /@ t[[All, 1]];\nvalues = ToExpression@t[[All, 2 ;;]];\nGraphicsColumn[{\n DateListPlot[Riffle[time, values[[All, 2]]]~Partition~2, \n PlotStyle -&gt; Directive[Red, PointSize[Large]], \n PlotRange -&gt; {All, {0, Automatic}}, \n DateTicksFormat -&gt; {\"MonthNameShort\", \" \", \"YearShort\"}, \n FrameLabel -&gt; {None, \"Visits / day\"}],\n DateListPlot[Riffle[time[[3 ;;]], values[[3 ;;, 4]]]~Partition~2, \n PlotStyle -&gt; Directive[Red, PointSize[Large]], \n PlotRange -&gt; {All, {0, Automatic}}, \n DateTicksFormat -&gt; {\"MonthNameShort\", \" \", \"YearShort\"}, \n FrameLabel -&gt; {None, \"Users\"}],\n DateListPlot[Riffle[time, values[[All, 1]]]~Partition~2, \n PlotStyle -&gt; Directive[Red, PointSize[Large]], \n PlotRange -&gt; {All, {0, Automatic}}, \n DateTicksFormat -&gt; {\"MonthNameShort\", \" \", \"YearShort\"}, \n FrameLabel -&gt; {None, \"Questions / day\"}]\n }]\n</code></pre>\n" }, { "answer_id": 739, "author": "posdef", "author_id": 5674, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/5674", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Any news on the stats? It feels like we are getting more traffic these days</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/283", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 289, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>That's not really the point of Academia.SE. The goal of this board is to collect questions and advice on problems related to all of academia, not just tools that can benefit one discipline, or especially one subdiscipline. </p>\n\n<p>The general rule about what should go on the board is to ask: \"can the answer to this question help someone who is in a different department at a different school?\" If yes, then it's appropriate for the board. If not, it probably won't work.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 293, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I agree with @aeismail regarding the subdiscipline, as those are very localized, but I'm wondering whether we should relax this for broad disciplines (i.e. mathematics, history, political science, etc). Note that we already <a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/188/are-us-specific-questions-ok\">allow questions specific to a single location</a>; many approve of that, with no negative feedback on that at all. On the other hand, we have also agreed that university-specific questions are too specific (I couldn't find a link for that one, but that's how we tend to vote). I don't see how disciplines are different from locations in that respect.</p>\n\n<p>As an example, <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/2377/73\">this question was flagged as off-topic</a>. While I agree it's argumentative, using the above argument it's sufficiently broad to be relevant to many users, and with a simple edit it could be quite useful.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/288", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/3871/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 300, "author": "gerrit", "author_id": 1033, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1033", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Maybe ore or more of the more creative ones among us could contact Jorge Cham (<a href=\"http://www.phdcomics.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">PhD Comics</a>) to see if he is interested/willing to promote Academia Stack Exchange with a nifty, amusing comic. For this we would need to find a shared interest. Our interest is to get attention (particularly in under-represented fields), his aim is to entertain people with funny, thoughtful comics. If he likes the idea of our site it might not be impossible — it never hurts to try.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 309, "author": "William Gunn", "author_id": 582, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/582", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Is there some way I can help via exposure through Mendeley?</p>\n\n<p>If it makes you feel any better, I don't understand much about how to get people to contribute to Mendeley either ;-)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 310, "author": "Nicholas", "author_id": 1424, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1424", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Is there any mileage in the idea of one of us writing an article about SE.Academia for publication in a high profile academic magazine? An example of such a publication in the UK would be The Times Higher Education Supplement. This journal doesn't have a particular subject bias - it is read by folk from all disciplines. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 319, "author": "Nobody", "author_id": 546, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/546", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>First of all, Academia SE grew from Stack Exchange (Overflow), Programmers SE, etc. It's no surprise that many of our audience come from computer science.</p>\n\n<p>Compared to other SE sites, I think Academia SE is not that bad. By its nature, academians are minorities in most societies. So, it's no surprise that we have a little less readership than other SEs.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, that's not to say that we don't want to grow. We do.</p>\n\n<p>I live in Taiwan. The population here is 23 million. There are approximately 1 million people here who's got masters/PhDs. But, it seems to me that there are only a few people in Taiwan hanging around on this site. I can tell that by observing the activity of this site during the local time interval 1pm - 3pm.</p>\n\n<p>I do have friends in Taiwan who are academians and have encountered issues. Some of them came to me to ask for help. In some cases, I pass the links on our site to answer their questions. Sometimes, I cannot find the right Q&amp;A for them.</p>\n\n<p>In those cases, I tried to encourage them to ask their questions on Academia SE themselves. So far, my attempts have <em>not</em> been successful. The major reasons I failed are:</p>\n\n<p><strong>1. English.</strong>\nThey know how to write their field-specific papers in English. But, they have problems with stating their academia-specific issues in English. Sometime, it's really hard to do so. If you're a native-English speaker, you can tell that I am not a native-English speaker. The reason I can write in the way most people can understand is because I lived in US over 30 years and I have many years of hard time writing in English after a lot practices. And I still do have hard time with writing in English. For example, it took me an hour to write this answer. I suggested them to use our English Language &amp; Usage SE. Some of them did. I myself looker at that site sometimes. I saw quite a bit down-votes and closed questions, much worse than our site. I am just stating my observation here. No complaint.</p>\n\n<p><strong>2. Anonymity.</strong>\nEveryone I talked to expressed anonymity concern. One of the reasons is again, English writing. They are so afrid that they are going to be laughed at when their questions get down-voted or closed due to poor writing. I told them don't worry. People will help to edit. Still, no avail. Again, I am simply stating my observation. No complaint.</p>\n\n<p>Most of our participants on this site are fluent English speakers. I can tell that because they write better English than mine. So, I think we can attract more people from everywhere by helping others to encourage them to ask questions when the questions are not so well-written in English. The help can be in many ways. We can help them by editing the questions. We can help them by making comments to ask questions to clarify what they are asking, etc. Just my two-cents here.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 329, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>I have noticed a lot of computer scientists, physics, and a few more subjects but I think there is a lack of people from a lot of other major fields, for example Biology.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I see it that way too. Take computer science or theoretical physics. Both are mostly concerned with theories and if experimental (e.g., particle physics) than still in a relatively \"dry\" manner (i.e., experimenting by means of sitting in front of a computer screen mostly). In contrast, biologists and chemists spend a lot of their time in labs getting their hands literally dirty. My point is, that accessibility, as well as opportunity costs might be a part of explanation for the lack of people from \"wet\" disciplines. Another issue could also be deeper computer literacy (knowledge of what wikis are good for etc.).</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>How do we attract people to contribute to the website from less computer-centric areas?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>My point above was meant to sketch a hypothesis about inherent limits and hurdles for recruiting people from some disciplines, especially those heavily experimental, or field-work requiring ones.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 440, "author": "userJT", "author_id": 1537, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1537", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>To attract people in specific field, it would be nice if they could track their field questions via a tag and follow such tag. E.g., medicine tag, computer science tag, economics tag.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 446, "author": "earthling", "author_id": 2692, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2692", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I do see a lot of people from math and computer science but perhaps that is just the people who are posting. Are there others who come but do not post?</p>\n\n<p>It would help if we could track users by their discipline. I think adding something about their discipline to users' profiles would help us to know who is really here and who is posting. Once we know we don't have any biology people, we can focus on getting some biology people. Then, continue on to the other disciplines.</p>\n\n<p>I, for one, don't see many posts about economics/business (except mine). I would love to see more.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/299", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4050/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 302, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is a valuable comment. I think in general that field-specific questions could have some merit as questions.</p>\n\n<p>However, anything that's tied to a specific program or school (or a field so narrow it's only offered at a handful of schools) is probably still too narrow for the board.</p>\n\n<p>I think I'll let the board collective operate on this one before taking a final position on the issue. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 305, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Personally, I agree we could have more localized questions, that could even be field specific (after all, one can ask questions on StackOverflow that are specific to a given programming paradigm). I guess what I would prefer to avoid are questions asked by students such as \"I like this and this, please tell me what to do and where to apply!\". </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/301", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/49/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 312, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Closed questions are broken windows: they give a bad first impression of the site to new users, and can (if in sufficiently large numbers) clutter the main page.</p>\n\n<p>The alternative is to downvote these questions as well as close them, because a question of score –3 or lower will disappear from the questions list. I think that alternative is harsher for the user (people tend to react badly to downvotes).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 313, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This topic has received a <a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/205/what-should-happen-to-closed-questions\">good deal of attention here</a>. I suggest reading the linked post for context. In short, it seems that the (active contingent of) the community has taken the stance that deletion should happen sooner rather than later, to prevent off-topic closed questions from piling up over the long term. (As a point of reference, the main SO site has over 50,000 questions with close votes just sitting around.)</p>\n\n<p>Personally, I hear both sides. It definitely doesn't hurt to leave it around. That being said, it doesn't help anything, either.</p>\n\n<p>If you (the OP) (or anyone else, really) have a particular opinion on how these should be handled, feel free to post as an answer here and let the community vote on it.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 314, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In those two particular cases, they were so bad as to beyond rescue-by-edit. So I'm glad to see the back of them, sooner rather than later.</p>\n\n<p>For those of us who aren't diamond-mods, but have access to Delete Votes, we can't cast a delete vote for a proposal until the two days have passed. So the two-day minimum is enforced for us, by the software.</p>\n\n<p>And you can only cast five delete votes per day.</p>\n\n<p>In general, closed questions should either be edited and reopened; or, if an edit can't save them, they should (ISTM) be deleted. The exception is duplicate questions, where the closed duplicate is allowed to hang around as bait for search engines.</p>\n\n<p>Anyway, <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/search?page=1&amp;tab=newest&amp;pagesize=50&amp;q=closed:1\">here's a bunch of closed questions awaiting your attention for delete votes</a>, now you've got them. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 315, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I agree that deleting a question too fast might be a bit harsh, in particular if the OP does not know about (I wasn't aware of the fact that you can't your own content, even if it has been deleted). One of the reason why I tried to launch <a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/q/215/102\">this thread</a> was to keep track of the deletion we can do, especially when they are not obvious (we've had some cases of spam/offensive content). </p>\n\n<p>That being said, if the question is not salvageable, then there is little interest in leaving it around, since it's more likely to be forgotten, and to lie around until someone flags it for deletion. The first question you linked was, I believe, in this category, and the fact that the OP visited the site after the closing of his question, but without commenting on it, added to the fact that his profile contains potentially offensive content (even though it's probably a joke), doesn't really provide any incentive in leaving it around any longer. </p>\n\n<p>The second case is a bit different, since you can observe that in the comments of the question, the OP himself said that he tried to delete the question, without being able to do so. In that case, the OP was perfectly aware of the deletion. </p>\n\n<p>I don't really think that the speed of deletion is a problem, but rather the fact that the OP doesn't know about it, and cannot access his original content at all, which is weird, since the content still exists anyway. Maybe it's a feature we would need. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/311", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1033/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 321, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>A site graduates out of beta whenever The Powers That Be™ decide that the site is ready to graduate out of beta. <a href=\"https://christianity.meta.stackexchange.com/a/847\">Here's a good post from one of the other beta sites in which a Stack Exchange moderator described how the whole thing works</a>. I will state, though, that increasing visibility, asking solid, relevant questions, providing thorough answers, and generally being highly involved in the site is exactly what we need to do, and (in my opinion) we're doing very well on those fronts. Keep up the good work!</p>\n\n<p>On a related note, though, for what it's worth, there's really not that much of a practical difference between where we are and being out of beta. Graduated sites get a new paint job and elect their own mods (aeismail, Charles, and I are currently serving as <a href=\"http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/07/moderator-pro-tempore/\">Moderators Pro Tempore</a>... you'll get to elect your own mods via public election when we graduate). Other than that, there's nothing magical about being out of beta that makes the site better or anything. Its still up to us—the community—to keep the material relevant and thorough and the participation high.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 322, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I don't really understand the difference between beta/not beta, but it seems to me that our questions per day is still on the low side. I think if we want to encourage repeat visits by people willing to answer questions, we need more questions. I also think we need to discuss delete/close/off topic issues a little more than we do (possibly in chat). Finally, the our tags still need a little work. I don't know if any of these things will directly lead to graduation, but I think they would help the site.</p>\n\n<p>As for when, I am guessing on our beta birthday.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 325, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'll answer to highlight some of the differences that there are between non-beta and beta sites. For starters, graduated sites can launch promotional operations and get some financial support from Stack Exchange for doing so, while it is much more restricted for sites still in beta. Second, graduated sites get more exposure (e.g., they are linked to in all SE page footers, which increase their search-engine ranking) than beta sites. Thirdly, the customized interface helps somewhat build a specific site identity… very popular sites can even hope for more of that (see how Gaming.SE became Arqade).</p>\n\n<p>Finally, there is at least one drawback to graduating too early: rep levels for privileges are higher, which means upon graduation a lot of regulars will loose their mod-like powers (which can lead to more work for the mod team). </p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Regarding the timing, traffic still needs to improve (both in term of page views and question rate). It is growing quite slowly (check our <a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/q/283/2700\">stats</a>), so we'll get there eventually. But organic growth is good, it gives the community time to create the best site possible.</p>\n\n<p>So, while I hope Academia will soon graduate, I wouldn't hold my breath… but that's not a bad thing.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/320", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/346/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 324, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Close votes are anonymous by design. You can't specifically message the person who submitted the close vote and they aren't required to specify why. It's intended to be a \"anonymous majority\" deal.</p>\n\n<p>Consequently, you'll occasionally have questions with lone close votes, such as yours. Someone, for whatever reason, voted to close. The community clearly has—through their <em>not</em> voting to close—voted otherwise. This is fairly common, and you shouldn't let it bother you.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 326, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>eykanal has answered regarding the mechanisms of SE. I'll add a point about the vote to close: it is not mine, but I hesitated to cast one, so I'll explain my reasons.</p>\n<p>So-called “big list” questions are discouraged, as being not constructive:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>“this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, <strong>polling, or extended discussion</strong>”</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>The idea is that asking “what activities can we do to improve research group atmosphere?” is not so different from “what is the best programming editor?”, “what are good resources on research ethics?”, and so on. Basically, if one can come up with 20 totally different but all equally valid answers, it means there is something wrong with the question. As the <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/faq#dontask\">FAQ</a> says:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>What kind of questions should I not ask here?</strong></p>\n<p>You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page.</p>\n<p>Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5879/any-suggestions-to-create-and-maintain-a-good-research-atmosphere\">The question you linked</a> is somewhat borderline. To me, you gave it enough specifics (“what can a PhD student do”, e.g.) to make it viable, but by some aspects it is very broad (look at the variety of answers you got).</p>\n<hr />\n<p>Finally: it appears to me, as a moderator on two other SE sites and someöne who joined the Academia.SE fun recently, that <strong>the Academia community allows itself more leeway on this rule than other SE sites do</strong>. Good for us, as long as it doesn't lower the quality and usability of the site. We should keep that goal in mind when we cross this type of question and wonder whether to close them or not.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/323", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/532/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 337, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Chat is as close as we've got to a place for open-ended discussion. But it sounds like wht you're after is a forum. We don't do that round here (and I've hugely scaled down my contribution to forums since getting active here: they just seem so archaic and pointless now, and suffer from Eternal September syndrome much more than we do here)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3224, "author": "Franck Dernoncourt", "author_id": 452, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/452", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Quora accept open-ended questions about academia. You could redirect there.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4825, "author": "Alexander Woo", "author_id": 34050, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/34050", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would recommend thefora.org, which is an offshoot of the forums formerly hosted by the Chronicle of Higher Education.</p>\n<p>(But - warning - it is fairly snarky, and it is (just because of the participants and maybe the origin) US and humanities oriented.)</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/336", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/49/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 348, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>We should definitely <em>not</em> delete these questions. If this is truly the case, indicate as such in an answer. Remember, sometimes the only answer to a question is \"there's no easy answer to this\". Considering that most questions of the nature you're discussing are deep, complicated, and likely very good questions, closing them would discourage good questions, which we definitely don't want.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 349, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>While Robert Cartaino understand the SX network, I don't know if he understands this particular <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2113/how-can-we-make-the-academic-enviroment-more-women-friendly\">question</a>. In fact, I am surprised the question was even closed, and am surprised that we are discussing deleting it. In the interest of disclosure, I did provide an \"answer\", despite not having that expertise to really answer the question (I attempted to skirt the issues and point the OP in a direction.)</p>\n\n<p>The question in fact contains two questions:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>What can a department do to make studying computer science more\nappealing to women?</li>\n<li>Are there any studies on the ways of improving the working\nconditions for women in academia?</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>The second is concrete, focused, and definitely answerable in a few words. I don't see how it is anything but a good fit for our AC.SX. The first is broader, possibly subjective, and maybe requires a long answer, and therefore may not be a great fit. That said, my guess is that someone who understands gender issues in the workplace could provide an excellent, evidenced base, concise objective answer. We just don't happen to have that someone here yet.</p>\n\n<p>I would hate to see questions like this deleted and I am even surprised that this question has been closed. In fact, I am voting to reopen now ...</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 351, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Closed questions should either be improved (if possible) or deleted. The exception is duplicates, because they can help future users better find existing questions.</p>\n\n<p>When I say <em>should</em>, I refer to the general Stack Exchange policy. Here is a [quote from Grace Note][1], a community manager in the SE team:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>With the exception of duplicates (which we keep around for searchability), closing is intended to be a temporary state for a question. <strong>There are only two states in the future of a closed question - getting deleted or getting reopened.</strong> The primary purpose of closing is to serve as a sentence to eventual deletion.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>and</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>unless a question has some chance to be considered for reopening, it should be deleted</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>So, the SE policy is not to ask “which closed questions should be deleted?” but “which closed questions should be kept?” (as done, e.g., on the <a href=\"https://cs.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/512/first-review-of-closed-questions-which-ones-should-not-be-deleted\">computer science meta</a>).</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>I don't see how this overly broad question is different. It's not a good fit for the site, it should go away (or edited into a much more specific answerable question).</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/347", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1265/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 360, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think is an <em>excellent</em> idea. I find myself writing something like that very often (one example <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7196/long-distance-bachelor\">here</a>, others exist on mostly deleted posts). Having that text show up automatically—particularly with instructions to message me (the closer) after editing—would save me a lot of typing. I'd <em>rather</em> people edit questions and become a regular then close the question forever and drive the questioner away.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 364, "author": "David Z", "author_id": 236, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/236", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Changing the automated text would be a tall order, as that would be done network-wide and the SE team is understandably resistant to such changes. Besides, there's something odd about trying to make an automated message have a personal touch. It means more coming from one of the actual close voters.</p>\n\n<p>I'm a moderator on Physics and when I close questions there, I almost always leave a comment roughly of the form</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Hi <em>[username]</em>, and welcome to Physics Stack Exchange! This question is inappropriate for this site because <em>[reason]</em>. If you'd like to <em>[make specific changes]</em>, I'll be happy to reopen it. See our [FAQ] for more information.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>which I think helps at least some new users not to be too put off by the closure.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 365, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'd like to bring to everyone's attention the <a href=\"https://stackapps.com/questions/2116/autoreviewcomments-pro-forma-comments-for-se\">AutoReviewComments</a> userscript, which I understand is exactly done for this purpose. It gives you (editable) templates for the most typical comments one can leave under new users' questions.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 372, "author": "James", "author_id": 1484, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1484", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As a very junior user of SE sites, I have found myself in the position of having questions closed on numerous occasions, without explanation or the chance to improve my question. All I'm left with is an impersonal and officious comment which does nothing to help me to understand why my question was closed or to help me improve future questions. I'm left with the feeling of having been cut out of a very cliquey community, unwelcoming towards new members.</p>\n\n<p>A more friendly and helpful, personalised comment would be <em>very welcome</em> indeed. I just wish that more SE site communities recognised this!</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/352", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 354, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Okay, I first thought you were thinking about “heavily downvoted newcomer questions”. I asked for specific examples because I think, overall, Academia is doing quite well in leaving nice and helpful comments below newcomers' posts to help them improve.</p>\n\n<p>Regarding your examples, it does happen to all of us: while we can remind people to leave comments explaining downvotes, <strong>in the end it's up to them</strong> to use downvotes to mark questions they deem invalid, and more importantly <strong>answers they deem wrong</strong>. <strong>It's a subjective call</strong>, and that's part of what makes SE a democracy and not a technocracy; i.e. you're not guaranteed that upvoted answers are correct, but only that people think they are correct (and similarly for downvoted). Which means: <strong>there will always be some noise</strong>, and we shouldn't care too much (I'm sure that –1 vote on a +12 answer does not make you sad at night!).</p>\n\n<p>And, coming to your point, I think new people will also see it as it is. If they have a good upvoted answer with an unexplained downvote, they won't care too much. If the answer was borderline between “meh” and “bad”, they will maybe get a –1. We should continue to ask people to comment when they downvote, but there's nothing more we can (or should) do.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 355, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Academia.SE has one of the most active voting userbase among all the SE sites, based on discussions with site-wide mods. Many questions which I find pretty trivial receive 5+ votes easily, sometimes many more. As far as I'm concerned, that's great.</p>\n\n<p>One side effect of this may be a more active <em>downvoting</em> population as well, which I'm also not too concerned about. Without looking at specifics, the site generally manages its voting well. The only \"bad form\" downvoting I've seen is that some questions which have already been closed continue to garner downvotes, which I view as hitting someone once they're down; no need to downvote, the question is closed. However, the questions you point to all have one downvote, which you should safely ignore; many agree, one disagrees, consider it an overall win.</p>\n\n<p>For what it's worth, I just checked the mod tools and it doesn't look like there's one person \"out to get you\". Just shrug it off.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/353", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 358, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As somebody with a strong liberal arts background, I can sympathize that most of the questions here <em>do</em> come from people with a science background—but that makes sense, given the host of the board!</p>\n\n<p>However, the question you cite at the top of the page is <strong>way</strong> too broad for the Q&amp;A format Stack Exchange promotes. \"Why is <em>X</em> the way it is now?\" questions are usually poor fits for formats like SE sites.</p>\n\n<p>As a moderator, however, I will keep an eye out for questions that are being given too short a leash. I prefer to keep things community-moderated (since I am a volunteer, not an elected mod), but will step in if things are getting out of hand.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 359, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I am a little confused about why the linked question leads to this question, but in general I think we are closing some of these broad questions too quickly. It seems the decision is that the answer will be subjective and long. I think for many of these types of questions someone with the expertise could write a really good reasonable length answer. We don't have very many unanswered question, so leaving some of these open wouldn't be a big problem and we could see if eventually we get people with the required expertise.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 361, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'm not sure to see the connection with humanities. The form of questions and answers does not depend on the underlying academic field, but on common language. Whether you're a philosopher or a physicist, the objectivity of a question is identical. You can bring facts from social sciences, humanities, history, or anything else, as long as they are facts. Whenever it starts with \"I believe that ..., but I don't have anything to support it\", that's not objective. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>That however rules out any scientific discourse based on softer criteria. I argue that such questions should not be closed so quickly, there indeed might be good answers to them rooted in research in humanities, history, sociology, etc.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>They can have root in research in such fields, and if there are corresponding publications, they become facts. If there is question where the answer can be: \"yes, look at the paper published by X in Y\", then regardless of the underlying field, that's an objective answer. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/357", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1265/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 363, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I imagine that publications is broader than paper: a book chapter is a publication, it's not a paper. Probably, so is a popular science contribution (I've never heard those referred as “papers”, more like “pop sci articles”). Now, whether that difference is used in practice, I cannot say.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 420, "author": "D.W.", "author_id": 705, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/705", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I agree. I recommend that they be merged. They are 99% overlapping, and in practice seem to be used more or less interchangeable.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/362", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 374, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Comments are ephemeral and disposable across most Stack Exchange sites (math.se and MathOverflow.se are notable exceptions). If there's anything useful that comes out of a comment that applies to the post it's commenting on, then the post should be edited to reflect the comment accordingly.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 378, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'll take a little less of a hard-line stance than EnergyNumbers; comments often add a lot to the discussion, but oftentimes users request that off-topic flags be deleted to make the answers cleaner. I suggest the following:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>If you have something to say which directly related to the question and is <em>not</em> a request for clarification or more information, <strong>post it as an answer</strong>.</p></li>\n<li><p>If you want to add something to an answer, you can either add that point as a comment, or if it's appropriate, edit it in!</p></li>\n<li><p>If you want to clarify a point related to to an answer, add as a comment.</p></li>\n<li><p>If you want to discuss an answer, <a href=\"http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/2496/academia\">bring it up in chat</a>, and feel free to add a <a href=\"http://chat.stackoverflow.com/faq#permalink\">link to the chat discussion in the comments</a> so others can join the discussion.</p></li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 379, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>As the one responsible for deleting those comments, the comments were flagged as no longer relevant to the discussion. Having reviewed the changes made to the text of the question, and the texts of the comments, I believed the flags had merit, and deleted them. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/373", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4227/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 381, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is messy and I think there is a bigger question. At the most basic level, should the tag be <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/scientific-writing\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;scientific-writing&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">scientific-writing</a> or <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/writing-scientific\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;writing-scientific&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">writing-scientific</a>? I think they mean fundamentally different things and I am not sure we need to break down writing or science into sub categories. We also have <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/scientific-productivity\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;scientific-productivity&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">scientific-productivity</a>, but no <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/productivity\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;productivity&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">productivity</a> tag. I think I would vote for getting rid of the sub-categories and let people decide if it is <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/science\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;science&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">science</a> or <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/writing\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;writing&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">writing</a> or both.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 382, "author": "Suresh", "author_id": 346, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/346", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Why should <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/writing\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;writing&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">writing</a> and <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/scientific-writing\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;scientific-writing&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">scientific-writing</a> be synonyms ? After all, there's a lot of academic writing that's not scientific. Admittedly, this site is very tech-heavy, but that's not by design, and we'd welcome academics from non-science disciplines as well. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 403, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I agree with the other answers. And I propose that:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>as scientific-writing is a subset of writing;</li>\n<li>and given that because the context is academia, all the writing we'd talk about is scholarly writing, even when for a lay audience;</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>then the main tag be <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/writing\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;writing&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">writing</a>, and that <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/scientific-writing\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged &#39;scientific-writing&#39;\" rel=\"tag\">scientific-writing</a> be a synonym of it.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/380", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 398, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Questions that are closed usually have run afoul of the FAQ's for the board. It's not a sign that there isn't a good question to be asked—it's an acknowledgment that there are problems with the question <em>as it is currently being asked</em>. Not having anything to contribute is <em>not</em> a reason to close a question.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 399, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think that you might be misinterpreting: the criterion for closure is not <em>“they do not have an answer”</em>, but rather <em>“cannot receive good, objective, fact-based answers”</em>:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>not constructive</strong><br />\nAs it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&amp;A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or specific expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, see the FAQ for guidance</p>\n<hr />\n<p><strong>not a real question</strong><br />\nIt's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>There are many questions that get no immediate answer, and it's fine. Some of mine have been in that category, taking a month or more to get an answer. That's fine, unless several users (5) think that it simply <em>will not</em> get such an answer: not because they don't know, or because they don't think someone knows, but because the question is inherently impossible to answer in the “Stack Exchange” Q&amp;A style.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/396", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/5674/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 401, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As the one who prompted the migration, I believe that the question was purely statistics. The only element that made it \"academia\"-specific was the issue that it was a disagreement between a student and a professor. If you change the people making the argument from student and professor to co-workers in a lab, or an employee in a factory and his boss, the \"academic\" aspect of the question goes away. </p>\n\n<p>A good question for Academia.SE (or any other board) should be one where changing some of the details <em>does not</em> change the relevancy to the board.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 402, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'm not sure I agree with your argument that this is an Academic topic. The question being asked here could have been asked in an aeronautical engineering forum, or a financial engineering forum, or a jelly bean sales forum. Simply replace the work \"professor\" with \"boss\" and it's completely generic. The fact that it occurred in an Academic setting does not automatically make it an Academic question. Personally, I support the migration.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 404, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'm not sure about the exact policy for migration, since at the same time, I think <a href=\"https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/64073/179702\">cross posting is frowned up</a>. So if the question could be a better fit, it might be better to migrate the question rather than posting it twice. </p>\n\n<p>I also agree with you, from a personal point of view, that the question is not strictly off-topic, in the sense that presenting data can be an academic problem. However, in that case, where do we draw the line? For instance, you voted to close <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7706/should-i-italicize-sans-in-a-paper-especially-math-cs-econ\">https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7706/should-i-italicize-sans-in-a-paper-especially-math-cs-econ</a> (although it's more used in academic papers, than, say, in recipes), or <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7607/who-is-the-author\">https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7607/who-is-the-author</a> (authorship is a big problem in academia). </p>\n\n<p>I would say that in the end, the community should decide. The examples you gave of other questions do not have any close vote, why the original question you mention had already three close votes, before the migration. </p>\n\n<p>In conclusion, I don't have any strong feeling either way, but based on the community reaction, I don't think it was wrong to migrate it. The detailed answer obtained after migration seems also to be consistent with the migration. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/400", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 409, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1417/distance-learning-vs-free-online-education\">Distance Learning vs Free Online Education</a></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This seems to be a very good question which happens to be worded very poorly. If anyone cares to edit this, I think it's well worth salvaging. To me, the close votes only reflect that the question body does not reflect the title. The question in the title seems to be a good question.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7338/funding-for-belgian-student-to-do-a-phd-in-uk\">Funding for Belgian student to do a PhD in UK?</a></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Again, to me this question just looks like it needs a little editing. The current question is actually fine—\"what alternative funding sources exist?\"—but it could use some editing to make it read smoother.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Broadly speaking, just because someone voted to close doesn't mean any closing is necessary. As a beta site, anyone can vote to close, and lots of questions with close votes are perfectly fine. This is particularly true of the older ones you're looking at, as we were still defining the site scope when those were asked.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 411, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>We have good strong guidelines, the FAQ, and the wider Stack Exchange culture.</p>\n\n<p>The only criteria that matter for old questions, are the same criteria we apply to new questions: if they are off-topic, not constructive, or not real questions, they should be closed.</p>\n\n<p>If we leave open questions that are not in line with those criteria, then we're leaving broken windows around, and the site will decay and fall apart. Bad questions should be closed, then either deleted, or ideally edited to a fit state and reopened.</p>\n\n<p>Both the questions you've cited are not appropriate as they stand. So let's close them, and then see whether they get deleted, or edited &amp; reopened.</p>\n\n<p>We should also be a lot less precious about crowd-pleaser questions that are not constructive. Yes, lots of people are tickled by them. But if they're not constructive, or not real questions, or off-topic, they should be closed.</p>\n\n<p>For example, <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/5414/96\">What are the advantages or disadvantages of using LaTeX for writing scientific publications</a> </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/408", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1265/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 416, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As I said in a comment to <a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/188/are-us-specific-questions-ok\">Are US-specific questions OK?</a> I am not sure questions are really ever country specific. I believe your example question <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7231/what-is-tvl-13-position\">What is a &quot;TV-L 13&quot; position?</a> is pretty localized, but not so much because of the German nature of it. I think the question is potentially useful for anyone in Germany, anyone applying for a German job, or anyone considering hiring someone currently working in Germany. It also has limited use for people trying to understand the employment status of graduate students across different countries. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 432, "author": "spbail", "author_id": 6388, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6388", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I believe some questions are very much country-specific. For example, there are quite some differences between the usual PhD programmes in the US and the UK and I have spent some time trying to think of an answer before somehow inferring that the question refers to something I wouldn't know about.</p>\n\n<p>I don't see this as a problem as such (after all, academia is very international and people move between continents all the time), but I would like to have a way of pointing out to the reader whether the question is (potentially) country-specific or not. Otherwise there will/might be answers that don't apply to the question at all, and readers can happily skip the ones that they won't be able to answer.</p>\n\n<p>I think there should be a tag/tags or at least a convention for questions to point out the country in the same way as people generally point out their particular discipline.</p>\n\n<p>Any opinions on that?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 436, "author": "Peter Jansson", "author_id": 4394, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4394", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I want to support the comment by spbail about adding country and discipline. At the same time I think such restrictions should not prevent answers from being more generally applicable if they provide new insights or provide a different perspective. I have experienced answering a question that seemed general but later turned out to be changed to country specific. The answer then seemed a bit out of place but I still would maintain that a wider spectrum of answrers is a positive. </p>\n\n<p>I think many who pose questions do not realize they are in an international arena, hence the many \"too localized\" and other forms of narrow questions. So finding a way to be constructive both in the specific and in the general would be a beneficial as I see it.</p>\n\n<p>So should then answers also be \"labelled\"? and will the site members support wider ranges of answers to narrow questions for the benefit of everyone? those are some of the question which I keep thinking about.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 437, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Few hours ago <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1987/how-to-get-enrolled-in-a-german-university-for-ph-d-in-computer-science\">this</a> question was deleted. Even though not the best question ever, I think it offers some good perspective. It's localized to country? Yes. Are the answers specific to a particular discipline? No. Now how about <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1644/what-percentage-of-admitted-phd-students-comes-from-waiting-lists\">this</a> question? Or <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/6032/switching-from-one-area-of-graduate-study-to-another\">this</a>, <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8772/issue-on-conditional-phd-admission\">this</a>, <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8633/pumping-up-my-gre-score-or-getting-some-publishing-under-my-belt\">this</a> and <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7490/how-common-are-phd-interviews-in-the-u-s\">this</a>? </p>\n\n<p><strong>I think, we should be very careful not to make out of this site a US-centric place with otherwise some valuable discussion about general academic topic. In my opinion questions about admissions to universities around the world are appropriate here.</strong></p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/415", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/5674/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 416, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As I said in a comment to <a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/188/are-us-specific-questions-ok\">Are US-specific questions OK?</a> I am not sure questions are really ever country specific. I believe your example question <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7231/what-is-tvl-13-position\">What is a &quot;TV-L 13&quot; position?</a> is pretty localized, but not so much because of the German nature of it. I think the question is potentially useful for anyone in Germany, anyone applying for a German job, or anyone considering hiring someone currently working in Germany. It also has limited use for people trying to understand the employment status of graduate students across different countries. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 432, "author": "spbail", "author_id": 6388, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6388", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I believe some questions are very much country-specific. For example, there are quite some differences between the usual PhD programmes in the US and the UK and I have spent some time trying to think of an answer before somehow inferring that the question refers to something I wouldn't know about.</p>\n\n<p>I don't see this as a problem as such (after all, academia is very international and people move between continents all the time), but I would like to have a way of pointing out to the reader whether the question is (potentially) country-specific or not. Otherwise there will/might be answers that don't apply to the question at all, and readers can happily skip the ones that they won't be able to answer.</p>\n\n<p>I think there should be a tag/tags or at least a convention for questions to point out the country in the same way as people generally point out their particular discipline.</p>\n\n<p>Any opinions on that?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 436, "author": "Peter Jansson", "author_id": 4394, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4394", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I want to support the comment by spbail about adding country and discipline. At the same time I think such restrictions should not prevent answers from being more generally applicable if they provide new insights or provide a different perspective. I have experienced answering a question that seemed general but later turned out to be changed to country specific. The answer then seemed a bit out of place but I still would maintain that a wider spectrum of answrers is a positive. </p>\n\n<p>I think many who pose questions do not realize they are in an international arena, hence the many \"too localized\" and other forms of narrow questions. So finding a way to be constructive both in the specific and in the general would be a beneficial as I see it.</p>\n\n<p>So should then answers also be \"labelled\"? and will the site members support wider ranges of answers to narrow questions for the benefit of everyone? those are some of the question which I keep thinking about.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 437, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Few hours ago <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1987/how-to-get-enrolled-in-a-german-university-for-ph-d-in-computer-science\">this</a> question was deleted. Even though not the best question ever, I think it offers some good perspective. It's localized to country? Yes. Are the answers specific to a particular discipline? No. Now how about <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1644/what-percentage-of-admitted-phd-students-comes-from-waiting-lists\">this</a> question? Or <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/6032/switching-from-one-area-of-graduate-study-to-another\">this</a>, <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8772/issue-on-conditional-phd-admission\">this</a>, <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8633/pumping-up-my-gre-score-or-getting-some-publishing-under-my-belt\">this</a> and <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7490/how-common-are-phd-interviews-in-the-u-s\">this</a>? </p>\n\n<p><strong>I think, we should be very careful not to make out of this site a US-centric place with otherwise some valuable discussion about general academic topic. In my opinion questions about admissions to universities around the world are appropriate here.</strong></p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/417", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/746/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 424, "author": "gerrit", "author_id": 1033, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1033", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think an important aspect for such questions is: is the answer likely to ever help a 3rd party?\nFor example, <em><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/8194/1033\">Sex worker/student offering her (legal) services</a></em> is a good what-should-I-do question; it's quite possible that other people — now or in the future — face the same problem.\nOn the other hand, many what-should-I-do questions should simply be closed as <em>too localised</em>.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 426, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Questions on this board will necessarily be more subjective than on other SE boards, but I think that the topic that we're covering is by definition more subjective, since most of what we're dealing with is interpersonal relationships.</p>\n\n<p>So, I think the standard is to ask, as gerrit suggests, if the question can help someone else. I don't really get the sense that <em>that</em> many questions are very localized. However, whenever I see one that is, I try to \"abstract\" the question and make the answer of greater general validity.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 428, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'm strongly in favor of using comments to suggest improvements (option 2 above). Premature closing will necessarily lead to alienating new users, as that conveys a very mod-heavy community culture, which we don't want. Leaving the question open leads to a cluttered forum. Following the \"teach a man to fish\" idea, if we subtly convey via comments that a given question could be improved by splitting it up/clarifying the question/removing <em>ad hominem</em> or other inappropriate content, we can not only enlarge the community, but we can gain <em>positively contributing</em> community members, which are the best kind. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 431, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would not try to judge such questions on their \"objective\" merit. I rather see this site as a place for providing <em>useful</em> answers to relevant questions people have. We can't say what people find useful over time (perhaps it can be measured by view count over time, links how did they arrive here, etc.). My concern rather is to ensure that even when we have a speculative question, we should make sure that </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>the question is broad enough to possibly help 3rd parties;</li>\n<li>the question is worded, tagged and answered in such a way that it will be likely found by people having a similar problem in the future.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>My stance derives from observing myself often typing into a search engine a vague question in the hope to get something what either a) speaks about my problem and provides a useful perspective; or b) advances my search for my own answer further. Clearly, if a question is speculative, answers to it often can advance somebody's search for help and I would say that is good enough achievement for a Q&amp;A site like ours is.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 433, "author": "spbail", "author_id": 6388, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6388", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I've just browsed the recent questions and they are very heavy on the \"what should I do\"/life advice side of things. While I don't see localization as a big issue, many of the questions only apply to the very specific situation of the person who asks the question and aren't of particular interest to anyone else - and they're not even necessarily \"academic\" questions. E.g. <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8737/what-to-think-about-when-choosing-phd-program\">\"shall I move away to a good university or shall I stay here and go to a not so good university\"</a> (edit: especially given the answers this type of question seems to attact) is life advice and has not much to do with academia.</p>\n\n<p>I was hoping that academia SE would be of general interest to researchers/academics, but it seems to become more of a place for confused grad students to ask for life advice. (Disclaimer: I'm a grad student.)</p>\n\n<p>So I would prefer a stricter policy of closing questions that are very specific and personal, in favour of quality.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/423", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/49/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 427, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I agree that this as it stands this is not really a question. There might be one in there, but it is pretty buried. I am also think the question has a strong personal bias.</p>\n\n<p>As for not using your mod powers, I think you are correct. We now have a fair number of users who can and do vote to close. I like thye idea of letting the community decide and bringing attention to possible questions with meta/chat like you did here.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 429, "author": "Nobody", "author_id": 546, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/546", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I did not vote to close this question simply because I was in the OP's shoes many years ago.</p>\n\n<p>Personally I am on the OP's side. However, I believe this question is solicting opinions and could stir up endless debates, not suitable for our site.</p>\n\n<p>It is more about public government policies than just academic one. If it is a decision made by state government, how do you overrule it?</p>\n\n<p>For example, every state university in the US I know of impose tuition charges on in-state residents and out-of-state residents differently. From in-state resident's position, this is fair. Out-of-state residents feel this policy is unfair. Endless debate.</p>\n\n<p>Thanks to those who voted to close. Save me a lot struggle.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/425", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 439, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Academia in mathematics is not <em>always</em> different from academia in medicine. There are plenty of aspects (publications, career, PhD supervision, etc) that are shared across disciplines. That's the whole point of this site. And this is very real. </p>\n\n<p>EDIT: For instance, consider your question <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7211/are-there-conference-proceedings-that-have-impact-factor\">Are there Conference Proceedings that have impact factor?</a>. You just tagged it with \"medicine\", although the notion of Impact Factor is common to every publication-based field. walkmanyi's answer (that you accepted) is not specific at all to medicine. My answer is actually only for computer science. </p>\n\n<p>In other words, your question is very generic, and could interest any one who cares about publishing into a conference. However, now, it has the tag \"medicine\", which might make some people think that it's a medicine-specific question, and ignore it. I can't see anything gained by adding this tag, but I can clearly see what you've lost. </p>\n\n<p>In the end, it's your question, so you can do pretty much what you want with it, but please be aware that tags that are considered as unnecessary might be removed. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 523, "author": "Peter Jansson", "author_id": 4394, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4394", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The question of field explicit vs. generalized questions on this site seems to be a great divide. </p>\n\n<p>I can see that some aspects of certain fields are just that, field specific. At the same time, I have seen many good questions, which when given a general answer, turns out to have been written in an implicit understanding they are very specific. The general answer then gets lots of comments about \"not applying\" to this and that and in addition, the question gets changed to become narrow and more specific.</p>\n\n<p>Ok, so a specific question is probably better than a general one since it can be answer very specifically. But then we end up with many similar questions each specifically targetting a narrow field (duplicates?). In addition we close questions that are too narrow. So it seems to me that being general is what we are looking for and acccepting answers that apply to the question in the general sense.</p>\n\n<p>The problem as I see it is to make new users aware of the fact that answers may be more general than what they expect.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/438", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1537/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 444, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>That question is well-phrased as an academic concern, and I agree with you that it's on topic here. </p>\n\n<p>To the broader point, I agree with you; if something is well phrased an academic concern, I would definitely rather keep it here than delete it.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 445, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I agree with you that this question is basically on-topic. To be honest, I'm also a bit annoyed by the fact that the question was closed and deleted without a single comments or explanation as to why the closers/deleters believed it was off-topic, meaning that the OP had no chance to improve his/her question. </p>\n\n<p>I'm going to undelete and reopen the question (there is only one vote missing for the undeletion and two for the reopening, so I don't feel like abusing moderator privileges). </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 483, "author": "rfle500", "author_id": 4503, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4503", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I also agree with this sentiment. Technology plays an essential role in all areas of life, but the needs of academics can in some cases be quite specific. I don't particularly like the attitude of several 'experienced' acad members who tend to punitively close academic specific questions but relating to software, websites, etc on the general presumtion of 'not relevant to academia', despite receiving several constructive responses and healthy discussion. Just because one doesn't personally find it interesting doesn't mean that other people with academia don't find it useful. I do like this site, but in generally I feel that these types of questions are not welcome, despite having no other natural home (for example the first question I asked here got several answers and a good discussion, but was then migrated where it still has virtually zero response). </p>\n\n<p>I would like to get more involved, as this area is personally particularly interesting to me, but I don't see the point in contributing if my efforts are permanently deleted from the ether due to other people's biases.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 548, "author": "Irwin", "author_id": 5944, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/5944", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'm confused about the inconsistent application of questions about tools and whether they're on topic or not.</p>\n\n<p>For example:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/10597/how-can-i-use-the-ms-onenote-application-for-my-lierature-search\">https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/10597/how-can-i-use-the-ms-onenote-application-for-my-lierature-search</a> was closed and received downvotes.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/10578/how-to-read-and-take-notes-on-research-papers\">How to read and take notes on research papers</a> is open and has a number of upvotes.</p>\n\n<p>The close votes for one is that it is off-topic (rather than, for example, being \"not constructive\"; arguably the second question shows that the some solutions have been attempted, whereas the first one does not illustrate this preparation) but at the core these questions have similar styles.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/443", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1265/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 448, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The question as it stands is \"What should I do to make my life better?\". I can see how it is generalizable since the situation that is causing the unhappiness is fairly common, then the question is: What should one do to make one's life better?</p>\n\n<p>This type of question seems to be chatty and open ended so is not a good fit for the site. See the <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/faq#dontask\">FAQ</a> for guidance.</p>\n\n<p>I guess I should add that I didn't vote to close yet. I think there is a question buried in there and before voting to close I would want to write a comment that may lead to a helpful edit, and I haven't had time.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 449, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I am a little surprised that someone cast the final closing vote without making a comment on this meta question. Similiarly, there are 3 reopen votes. We need to build a consensus about what is on/off topic and discussing questions like this is key. As I said in my other answer, it is not that I disagree with the vote to close, but rather the lack of discussion. The 19 up votes and 3 favourites says something about the question/topic that we need to be aware of. Is there an edit that can save the question. Can we ask a new good question that will appeal to those who liked this question?</p>\n\n<p>We want to avoid a close/reopen war.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 451, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I see the point of the other answers. However, in the past few months and weeks I found myself to advocate a more inclusive stance on this site. I know that my position probably clashes with FAQ, but my view of this site is that it should provide useful advice, rather than well-phrased questions. Under <em>useful advice</em> I mean content which can be found by mere use of a search engine and providing valuable insights. Often questions are ill-phrased, but answers are valuable. IMHO, we are too quick to close/delete such questions.</p>\n\n<p>Regarding the <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9039/phd-at-a-low-ranked-university-leading-to-frustration\">question in consideration</a>, I voted for re-open because I find the <strong>answers</strong> to the question useful. Is the question subjective? Yes. Is it generalisable? Probably yes, but at the moment it is too localised. Will people who put a question similar to the one asked into a search engine find answers useful? <strong>Absolutely!</strong> Hence my re-open vote. Not because of the question, but because of JeffE's answer which is an <strong>extremely valuable piece of advice</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>Let me illustrate what I mean. During my first postdoc I felt overwhelmed by whatever came on me. I complained to my former thesis adviser and asked him for advice. His response was laconic: <em>Something is wrong with your time management.</em> Then I started to look for advice around the Network, eventually finding <a href=\"http://www.scriptmag.com/features/primetime-juggling-writing-and-a-job-figure-it-out\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">this piece of text</a>. In the core the question is the following:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>if we want to be writers, how are we supposed to write if we’re working 17 hours a day?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Would such a question fly here on this site? Probably not. Does it contain a sound advice? Absolutely!</p>\n\n<p>To conclude the story, I printed out on a A3 paper the acronym <code>F.F.O.</code> and glued that above my desk. Worked very well for me and I am deeply convinced answers to the <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9039/phd-at-a-low-ranked-university-leading-to-frustration\">question</a> in question would work for somebody else too.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 453, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Apparently, there have been many people to comment, enough people to vote to close, not enough to vote to reopen, and <strong>none have edited it</strong> into better shape. That's sad.</p>\n\n<p><strong>If you want to see that question stay, improve it!</strong></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 454, "author": "Peter Jansson", "author_id": 4394, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4394", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think this disucssion is as good as it is difficult. In my view, a personalized question is fine if there is something general in it. The problem is that the OPs usually want a personal answer and generalized answers tend to be voted down or at least not voted up at all. So, I think the big question is, how do we get across to OPs that a personal question is fne but that the site expects some generality in both questions and answers, in short: that this is not a personal problem solving site?</p>\n\n<p>I think we could do wth some standard greetings to new OPs so that in this case the message about generality comes across. Other sites such as <a href=\"https://tex.meta.stackexchange.com/q/430/19384\">TeX.sx uses such a system</a></p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/447", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2692/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 462, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I agree with the the closing. The question is not really related to Academia; it's asking about how academics can be patriotic. That's a nice goal, but being patriotic doesn't have anything to do with being in academia.</p>\n\n<p>Additionally, the question is very broad; what's \"the best\" someone can do is hardly an answerable question. The best they can do towards what end? Improving academics? Improving science awareness? Helping out research causes?</p>\n\n<p>The question may be salvageable, but I agree with the closing as-is.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 466, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I voted to close this question because it does not seem a real question. It is more like advocating an idea. And as I emphasized in my answer, it approaches the idea from a wrong direction. </p>\n\n<p>I think I should defend my answer too. The main point of my answer is: in order to attract any collaboration in any academic activity, the responsible organizations \"must\" 1. provide strong incentives, 2. maintain a productive and (less bureaucratic) academic atmosphere. Then, academic collaboration will happens naturally. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/461", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/411/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 464, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>To answer your question, no, I do not think so. The goal of any SE site is to increase the audience and hopefully maintain an active community. The fact that we're having disagreements as to how to deal with questions is probably a sign of a healthy, growing community, which is good. The fact you're asking about it here is a sign that you guys know how to handle it, which is even better :) We <em>want</em> more non-diamond mods, and we want everyone to know how to manage the site.</p>\n\n<p>The only constructive criticism I have is that non-diamond mods (and diamond mods as well, myself included) should search the meta to be familiar with decisions already made by the community so that issues don't arise repeatedly.</p>\n\n<p>On a related note, a reminder to everyone: Please don't ask about graduation from beta. It will happen when it happens. We have no control over it; it's purely a decision by the Stack Exchange team. So far as I can tell using my Super Sekrit Mod Powers™, we're doing great.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 465, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If anything I think it suggests that we are NOT ready to graduate. We need to learn how to discuss closing/reopening/tagging/editing etc within the confines and tools we have.</p>\n\n<p>I personally think we vote to close way too quickly. I would like to see more discussion about closing gray area questions. I think this could happen in either the comments, chat or meta, but right now we are not doing it and not encouraging new users.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/463", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/411/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 469, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Comments on this <a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/437/929\">answer</a> made me curious on our demographics. Which countries have academic systems you are familiar with?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 470, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Comments on this <a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/437/929\">answer</a> made me curious on our demographics. What fields would you consider yourself part of?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 471, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Are you currently working in Academia (i.e., employed by a university with a primary duty of performing research)?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 472, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Is English your mother tongue?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 473, "author": "mkennedy", "author_id": 5711, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/5711", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you are not currently working in Academia, do you have one or more advanced degrees? </p>\n\n<p>(My reasoning behind this poll is whether there are people like me who have been in grad school or worked in academia and are interested in it)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 474, "author": "Ran G.", "author_id": 324, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/324", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>which of the following \"roles\" describes you best?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 476, "author": "Nobody", "author_id": 546, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/546", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Which time zone (UTC +/-?) are you in primarily?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 490, "author": "zzzzz", "author_id": 6273, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6273", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>How many publications in peer-reviewed journals have you made in your career?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 496, "author": "posdef", "author_id": 5674, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/5674", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Did you do a part of PhD studies at another institute (for instance to learn a new method), if so for how long? </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 497, "author": "posdef", "author_id": 5674, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/5674", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Seeing as we have more \"senior\"s than students here on AC.SE (<a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/474/5674\">at least according to the poll</a>), and also considering that many nationalities are represented here, I would like to know how important academics think of their titles. In other words, how important do you think it is that people address you with your title at work/uni?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 881, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you received an email from an author of a new paper, whom you'd had no contact with previously, bringing their new paper to your attention, letting you know that they'd cited one or more of your papers in it, and thanking you for your work, what would be your reaction?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 1533, "author": "Ben Bitdiddle", "author_id": 24384, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/24384", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Are/were you happy in your PhD program?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 1596, "author": "Aubrey", "author_id": 26682, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/26682", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>What is your gender? </p>\n\n<p><em>Please feel free to add the term you feel most comfortable with.</em></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 2080, "author": "Ooker", "author_id": 14341, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/14341", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>What software do you use to manage papers?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 2090, "author": "aparente001", "author_id": 32436, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/32436", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>What continent do you currently reside in?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4741, "author": "Federico Poloni", "author_id": 958, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/958", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>How many professional societies are you a member of? (Motivation: <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/151218/what-fraction-of-scientists-are-members-of-professional-societies-and-or-associa\">this question</a>.)</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/467", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 475, "author": "Ran G.", "author_id": 324, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/324", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Regarding the question \"Are you currently working in Academia (i.e., employed by a university with a primary duty of performing research)?\"</p>\n\n<p>I'm not sure how a student should answer this one.\nIf s/he gets the salary form the university? If s/he is on fellowship?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 477, "author": "Andy W", "author_id": 3, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/3", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Well, since we are a site of academians here is my curmudgeonly take on polls like these. Feel free to upvote/downvote or discuss.</p>\n<h2>Problems with interpreting polls like these</h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It isn't a random sample of the population of academics, so inferences about the distribution of responses for <em>Academics</em> in general can not be made, under any reasonable circumstances.</li>\n<li>Even questions that focus specifically on the population that participate here on the Academia site, it isn't a representative sample, so inferences <em>to even the characteristics of individuals who use the site</em> are very questionable.</li>\n</ul>\n<p>It is fairly simple to illustrate the problematic aspects. Those more active on the sight are more likely to participate in meta. Thus non-response in polls is not a random sample of the individuals on the site. Some might argue this is a good thing (if you are more active you should be given more weight), but to suggest this results in any reasonable inference is tantamount to saying two wrongs make a right.</p>\n<p>This doesn't even cover other problematic aspects of voting on the comments that may prejudice the results, such as comments that are placed first have higher exposure, and after accumulation of so many comments some are collapsed from the view. Both these circumstances will be likely to bias polls to already up-voted answers, making long term collection of the polls potentially <em>even more</em> sytematically biased.</p>\n<p>I don't deny such poll questions can be fun and intriging, but lets be serious about what useful information that can be gleaned from such things. Potentially more useful ways to carry out some of the analysis that motivated the poll question are to utilize the <a href=\"http://data.stackexchange.com/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Stack Exchange data explorer</a> (when we get out of beta), or to just scrape info. from user pages. I realize some of the questions are not possible from here, but that isn't a reason to pretend like comment polls are a reasonable solution.</p>\n<p>For instance, in regards to whether we are CS centric, it wouldn't be trivial to scrape the data, but if you just go to user pages you could look at the reputation on other sites. You could then look at the distribution of users here to determine if people from either of the computer science sites <em>post</em> a disproportionate number of the questions/answers here. In terms of location data that would be pretty simple when we are out of beta (see <a href=\"https://stats.meta.stackexchange.com/q/1408/1036\">a similar question and answers on the stats site</a>).</p>\n<p>(For fairness these are both problematic as well, for people don't need to connect there accounts and people don't need to supply location information, but again, problems with these approaches don't <em>justify</em> innapropriate polling!)</p>\n<hr />\n<p>To place the distinction between these polls and generally interpreting upvotes/downvotes anywhere on the StackExchange sites, the (typical) goal is to ask a question and receive an answer. Votes (and checking as answered) are generally taken as tokens of the correctness/usefulness of the answer to the original question to outsiders.</p>\n<p>While upvotes/downvotes on any question are similarly suspect to critiques of making inferences, any answer can be evaluated <em>in absentia</em> other context by a reader and determine its usefulness. That is, the poll of up and down voting is not the goal of asking a question, and if the site blinded them tomorrow the questions and answers currently on the site would not suffer from it.</p>\n<p>The <em>question</em> that these polls attempt to measure is merely what proportions of the community conform to certain categories. Usefulness, should (I hope) be measured in how <em>accurate</em> an estimate they provide. Here, the upvotes and downvotes are the answer, and I've already provided reasoning as to why <em>they aren't likely to be a very good answer to the question</em>.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 481, "author": "Anonymous Mathematician", "author_id": 612, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/612", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The phrasing in \"Are you currently working in Academia (i.e., employed by a university with a primary duty of performing research)?\" is overly narrow in excluding anyone whose primary duty isn't research. This amounts to saying many faculty members aren't academics at all, for example those in liberal arts colleges, teaching-focused comprehensive universities, community colleges, etc., as well as many adjuncts or teaching faculty in research universities.</p>\n\n<p>I'm not sure how to fix this, given that we don't know whether the answers so far are based on the narrow interpretation or not, but it's worth keeping in mind in the future to avoid causing offense to academics who aren't primarily researchers.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 508, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Two recent poll questions have been added by @user8005.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/506/929\">Do you agree that evolution is the best explanation for the origin of human life on earth?</a> and <a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/507/929\">Do you think there's a purpose of life?</a>.</p>\n\n<p>I am not sure what the purpose of the poll questions are, but these seem so far off topic that I think they should be deleted.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 1534, "author": "Nate Eldredge", "author_id": 1010, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1010", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The <a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/476/1010\">time zone poll</a> got a bit confused, because it appears that some people answered based on daylight saving time (summer time) for their time zone, whereas others answered based on standard time.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 2091, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Doing little clean up of the poll page. There was a question regarding this comment/answer</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/467/academia-community-polls/1596#comment7229_1596\">Academia Community Polls</a></p>\n\n<p>Which adds a non-binary gender type. I think it is covered at <a href=\"http://gender.wikia.com/wiki/Non-binary\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">http://gender.wikia.com/wiki/Non-binary</a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 2097, "author": "Cape Code", "author_id": 10643, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10643", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The polling format does not let people change their answers when their status changes. </p>\n\n<p>The following questions for example have answers that vary in time:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/474/10643\">Which of the following \"roles\" describes you best?</a></p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/490/10643\">How many publications in peer-reviewed journals have you made in your career?</a></p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/471/10643\">Are you currently working in Academia</a></p>\n\n<p>This one, without going into the details of how \"happy\" is an ill-defined descriptor, probably has an answer that varies frequently:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/1533/10643\">Are/were you happy in your PhD program?</a></p>\n\n<p>People can up-vote another answer, duplicating entry, but not cancel their previous votes.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/468", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 492, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": -1, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I disagree that the question and corresponding answer is argumentative, but I do agree that it is not a good question.</p>\n\n<p><em>Argumentative</em> questions typically* take one of two forms:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>A rant (thinly) disguised as a question, and</li>\n<li>A question on a topic that is by nature opinion-based and argumentative.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>We have a few of the first type here; see <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/revisions/8565/1\">here</a> and <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/revisions/1580/1\">here</a>, first versions of questions that were subsequently edited to be appropriate for the forum. We have much fewer of the second type here, but it happens all the time on the other Stack Exchange sites; do a search for \"what language is best?\" in Programmers.SE and you'll see dozens.</p>\n\n<p>The question at hand is neither of those. The poster is legitimately confused as to how to interpret a CV from an Indian university, and is seeking assistance.</p>\n\n<p>The problem is that this is highly subjective. Everyone interprets scores differently according to the culture of their institution. This is reflected in the comments on the answer; something was posted, but someone disagrees with his assessment.</p>\n\n<p>That being said, the answer <em>does</em> address the question in a sufficiently general way that it's useful to the general public (i.e., someone coming here with a similar question would benefit from the answer and ensuing comments). For that reason, I would not close this.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Regarding your general question of opinion-based answers, we have had a lot of discussion on this meta on that topic. I would point you to <a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/12/dealing-with-in-my-experience-answers/\">this question</a> for starters, and check out some of the related questions for more on that topic. Briefly, we allow more leeway on opinion-based answers than other SE sites.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 493, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think there is a huge difference between a question that can only be answered with speculative/purely subjective answers, and a question that <em>you</em> can only answer with speculative/purely subjective answer (and by \"you\", I don't mean only the OP!). </p>\n\n<p>I believe that one of the interesting points of Academia.SE is to try to bring more facts to questions for which you sometimes only have an intuitive idea, which means that when you ask a question, you might not know whether there is an objective answer or not. Of course, as eykanal pointed out, some questions are obviously rants or only explicitly asking for opinions, and such questions should be closed. </p>\n\n<p>I would say that the question you mention does not belong to such categories: perhaps there exists some official numbers that can help. For instance, if the following question would have been asked: \"I received an application from a French student with a score of 14.5/20 at the Baccalauréat, série scientifique, how do I evaluate that?\", I could objectively answer that the Série Scientifique is usually considered in France as the most selective category, that around 80% of the students have the baccalauréat, and among this 80%, only <a href=\"http://www.education.gouv.fr/cid60617/baccalaureat-2012.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">28% have a 14 or more, which is given by a Mention Bien or Très Bien</a>. So 14.5 is a good score. </p>\n\n<p>When it's not obvious, I would say that the best is to let the question lives, and monitor the answers and comments: if there are too many subjective/speculative answers, then it might be worth closing the question. Note that it's quite frequent that some answers are just transformed into comments. </p>\n\n<p>Globally, my point is: don't ask to close a question just because you can't answer it. The objective is to let the community work (I think we had a really nice example of a question closed, edited, reopened, without mod intervention, that's what we should be aiming for), so be involved in the community by asking questions and providing answers, if you can't vote, then leave comments, bring it to Meta, it might attract the attention of high-rep users. </p>\n\n<p>There is a reason for the need of 5 close votes from users who have enough reputations, it's to reach some notion of consensus from users who been involved enough in the community. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/491", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/5851/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 495, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think that if one-liners are not explicitly forbidden in the FAQ, then we should forbid them explicitly. The only case where a one-liner could be allowed is when there is a single, objective answer to the question, that fits exactly in one line. </p>\n\n<p>For instance, if one asks \"what does MIT stand for\", then a one line answer \"MIT stands for Massachusetts Institute of Technology\" would be acceptable. That being said, such a question (and probably all questions that could accept one-line answer) could be easily answered by a Google search ...</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 498, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>It's a bad answer because it doesn't explain <em>why</em> it's a good answer. The whole point of SE sites is to offer advice on a large number of topics, and to educate their visitors. Pedagogically speaking, one almost always learns more if the answer explains the thought process. Hence, the need for answers that are more than on-liners. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 499, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The how to answer <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/how-to-answer\">FAQ</a> says nothing about one line answers in general. It only indirectly mentions one line answers in regards to links. Pure link based answers are to be discouraged for the reasons given (also they add little value for the SE search index hit rate).</p>\n\n<p>The system also may prevents answers which are too short (although I cannot remember for sure). I think in general one line answers are likely to be of limited value, I don't think we need to prevent them.</p>\n\n<p>For the answer in question, I think the answer speaks for itself. Explaining why unknown program members is a bad sign just seems silly. I think it is fine as a one line answer. It might have been better as a comment...</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/494", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/958/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 501, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>My first thought is \"that sounds like a lot of work\".</p>\n\n<p>My second thought is, \"what's the point?\" The whole point of marking something as duplicate is so that all the answers are in one spot. If you see a duplicate that has a particularly good answer, flag it and we can merge it back to the original question.</p>\n\n<p>I guess I'm missing why we would want to do this.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>EDIT: I misread the question; it specified an automatic process.</p>\n\n<p>I'm still on the fence about this request, as I'm not convinced of the added benefit. Questions closed as duplicates should not have answers. If there's a particularly useful answer, it should be merged in, but that should be the rare occasion. For all other duplicates, it's simply a rewording of the original question, left there to increase search term visibility, that's it. I don't see what value this would add to the user looking for answers to his question.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 502, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>So it seems there is a bit of this feature already. For instance, if you look at <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/6100/why-should-the-scientific-community-avoid-double-submissions\">Why should the scientific community avoid double submissions?</a>, you can see that <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9628/can-we-send-our-research-paper-to-multiple-journals-at-once?lq=1\">Can we send our research paper to multiple journals at once?</a>, which was closed as a duplicate of the first question, appears in the \"Linked\" box, even though I can't see any explicit link to it. </p>\n\n<p>Same thing for <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7273/publishing-same-research-paper-on-a-national-conference-as-well-as-international\">Publishing Same Research Paper on a National Conference as well as International IEEE conference</a> and <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9722/my-paper-was-accepted-in-springer-international-conference-and-national-conferen\">My paper was accepted in Springer International Conference and National conference. What to do?</a>. </p>\n\n<p>However, it does not seem to be fully automatic, since it does not happen for <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9362/how-can-i-determine-the-quality-of-a-conference?lq=1\">How can I determine whether a conference is reputable?</a> and <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9657/what-are-the-good-indicators-of-fake-conferences\">What are the good indicators of fake conferences?</a>. </p>\n\n<p>I am not sure to understand the process behind it, but in any case, you can always manually insert a link to a duplicate question from the \"original one\" as you see fit. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 567, "author": "m0sa", "author_id": 7676, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7676", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Fixed in build rev 2013.7.9.824</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/500", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 504, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you're looking for an alternative location for discussion, there are a number of places you can try:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.quora.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Quora</a> allows questions of any type and has a large user base.</li>\n<li>The <a href=\"http://chronicle.com/forums/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Chronicle forums</a> may be a good place, but it may be off-topic there.</li>\n<li>You can try to bring it up on the relevant communities on Reddit. I'm not going to link to specific subreddits as I'm not familiar with them, but there are many that deal with universities, colleges, and higher education.</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 505, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I personally don't think this question can be transformed into one that fits the Q&amp;A format of Ac.SE. It's an interesting discussion topic, but it does not seem that any objective answer can be provided. As eykanal pointed out, there are many other places for discussions, and Ac.SE is just not one of them. </p>\n\n<p>Hence, I think this question should be removed if not edited, since as a general rule, closed questions are destined to be either edited and reopened or deleted. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/503", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6989/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 510, "author": "Ben Norris", "author_id": 924, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/924", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2467/what-does-first-authorship-really-mean\">question</a> turned into a big list of \"In my field we do X, what is done in your field?\" </p>\n\n<p>The question I linked has become a Community Wiki. There are <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/search?q=wiki%3Ayes+is%3Aquestion\">four such community wiki questions</a> at Academia.SE now. For at least three of them, the answers for each instance in the big list are important to the individuals in that category, and having the list in one place seems to benefit the community. The question I linked shows up as the first Google hit for a related search <a href=\"https://www.google.com/search?q=first%20authorship%20by%20discipline&amp;ie=utf-8&amp;oe=utf-8&amp;aq=t&amp;rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&amp;client=firefox-a\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">\"First authorship by discipline\"</a>. In these community wikis, where there is no single correct answer, the big list in aggregate is the definitive answer. </p>\n\n<p>The post linked in the question could become a similar community wiki. The addressing of individuals with doctoral degrees (especially research vs. professional) is confusing, especially in <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_%28title%29#France\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">France</a>. However, in researching this answer, I stumbled on a <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_%28title%29\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Wikipedia page</a> which essentially answers the question in the original post, meaning that question may not be suitable.</p>\n\n<p>I think criteria for keeping big list questions should be:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Will the big list in aggregate form the definitive answer to the question?</li>\n<li>Is this a big list that does not exist elsewhere (or is not easy to find if it does exist)?</li>\n<li>Will a reasonable Google search for <a href=\"https://www.google.com/search?q=first%20authorship%20in%20chemistry&amp;ie=utf-8&amp;oe=utf-8&amp;aq=t&amp;rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&amp;client=firefox-a\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">one part of the list</a> find the question? </li>\n</ol>\n" }, { "answer_id": 512, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>No, they are not a good fit. There is no single objective answer to such questions, and so they're a really bad fit. They're big-list questions.</p>\n\n<p>Closure as NARQ or Not Constructive, followed by deletion, is the appropriate solution.</p>\n\n<p>Thanks to the link in Ben Norris's answer, it's easy to find <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/search?q=wiki:yes%20is:question\">a list of similar questions for voting to close &amp; delete</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Someone may want to salvage some of the content of those answers for tag-wikis, which is the one place where this sort of content could find an appropriate home on StackExchange.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/509", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 514, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It looks like the full list of categories are:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Technology</li>\n<li>Culture/Recreation</li>\n<li>Life/Arts</li>\n<li>Science</li>\n<li>Business</li>\n<li>Professional </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I think Technology, Culture, and Business would be really bad categories for us. While Science might be a reasonable category for us now, I would hope in the future academia.se will cover more than just the sciences. This leaves, as aeismail points out life/arts and professional. I think life/arts is much better than professional. I do not think of being an academic as my profession as much as my life style. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 515, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If we can only get one category, then considering the current content of Academia.SE, it seems we would be a better fit in Science than in Life/Arts. </p>\n\n<p>I agree with Daniel that we should aim at being in both, but if we can select only one, we can point out with this <a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/470/102\">poll question</a> that people currently involved in the community are mostly scientific. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 522, "author": "posdef", "author_id": 5674, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/5674", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I have to say that I feel that Professional is a better fit. The reason I say so is that research is our job, and academia is the enveloping name for the network we operate in. </p>\n\n<p>Whether or not being an academic is a lifestyle is an abstract discussion in my opinion. Anyone might feel that their job describes their lifestyle; a banker might feel that banking is not a job but a lifestyle, likewise a construction worker might feel that pouring concrete is way beyond a 9-to-5 job. What is an indisputable fact is that a majority of us are in research as a permanent, or temporary, career path. That alone makes my perspective to Academia.SE a site where professional questions/opinions/experiences are voiced. </p>\n\n<p>That's only my opinion of course.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/513", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 514, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It looks like the full list of categories are:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Technology</li>\n<li>Culture/Recreation</li>\n<li>Life/Arts</li>\n<li>Science</li>\n<li>Business</li>\n<li>Professional </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I think Technology, Culture, and Business would be really bad categories for us. While Science might be a reasonable category for us now, I would hope in the future academia.se will cover more than just the sciences. This leaves, as aeismail points out life/arts and professional. I think life/arts is much better than professional. I do not think of being an academic as my profession as much as my life style. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 515, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If we can only get one category, then considering the current content of Academia.SE, it seems we would be a better fit in Science than in Life/Arts. </p>\n\n<p>I agree with Daniel that we should aim at being in both, but if we can select only one, we can point out with this <a href=\"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/470/102\">poll question</a> that people currently involved in the community are mostly scientific. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 522, "author": "posdef", "author_id": 5674, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/5674", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I have to say that I feel that Professional is a better fit. The reason I say so is that research is our job, and academia is the enveloping name for the network we operate in. </p>\n\n<p>Whether or not being an academic is a lifestyle is an abstract discussion in my opinion. Anyone might feel that their job describes their lifestyle; a banker might feel that banking is not a job but a lifestyle, likewise a construction worker might feel that pouring concrete is way beyond a 9-to-5 job. What is an indisputable fact is that a majority of us are in research as a permanent, or temporary, career path. That alone makes my perspective to Academia.SE a site where professional questions/opinions/experiences are voiced. </p>\n\n<p>That's only my opinion of course.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/517", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/49/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 525, "author": "posdef", "author_id": 5674, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/5674", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think the usefulness of tags varies across different SE sites. Besides StackOverflow and Academia, I am active in Sports.SE, and occasionally drop by English.SE, Fitness.SE and Arqade. </p>\n\n<p>Based on my experience, tags are very handy in Sports.SE where you can easily filter the questions based on your interest and knowledge of the discipline in question. I have tags that I have identified as favorites, and tags I ignore. Makes things much easier... </p>\n\n<p>Arqade is just as self-explanatory as SO, since pretty much every game has its own tag. One simply needs to search for questions tagged with a game of interest, and BAM! you got everything you asked for... </p>\n\n<p>With Academia.SE I think most of the tags are pretty useless, IMHO, since an overwhelming number of questions can be assigned to one of the following:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>research</li>\n<li>admissions</li>\n<li>phd/masters</li>\n<li>publishing/publications</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>There is a whole lot of (at least partially-) redundant tags (e.g. publishing/publications/writing) </p>\n\n<p>Pretty much everytime I ask a question I am bothered to find the \"right\" tag(s), so I feel a clean-up of the existing tags would be beneficial for the site (at least from my perspective)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 526, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I see the main purpose of tags as two-fold:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Allow users who are interested in specific topics to quickly identify/have emailed to them questions on those topics</li>\n<li>Allow for topic-specific searching</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>It's not as useful for the first purpose, as all of Academia is basically one large topic, but I've found them very useful for the second purpose.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 529, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I often find tag searches much more helpful than regular searches. To follow on to a comment made by Charles to Eykanal, I rarely find anything with a tag search that I do not find with a regular search. The key difference is I find a lot less (not so much on our site yet, but definitely the bigger sites). A tag tells me the question is really about the topic. Just because a word is used tells me very little.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/524", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 533, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think this is an interesting idea. However, I'm pretty sure that this is something that would need to be community-organized, rather than something that the mods do, since we just don't have the time to organize what amounts to an online seminar series.</p>\n\n<p>However, if a group of users wants to take the initiative to do this, I (and the other mods?) would be happy to offer logistical support as needed.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 543, "author": "superuser0", "author_id": 6690, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6690", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is a great idea, because it would make some users recognize the chat so they might hopefully use it more often in the future. There should be plenty of people around here who can profit from a discussion while we also already have some very talkative and well-informed members as well, so there should be enough potential to make this an event that everyone enjoys.</p>\n\n<p>I also don't believe it has to focus on a single subject, just announcing that there will be an open chat at date x, time y would be enough?</p>\n\n<p>I also don't see any real downsides to this (besides possibly wasted efforts), so why not just give it a try?</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/532", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/5674/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 535, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The ordering of questions when unlogged seems to be quite different from that observed when logged in. I can observe the behaviour you're mentioning with other questions, so it doesn't seem to be specific to that question. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 536, "author": "Shog9", "author_id": 78, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/78", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>As Charles notes, the list of questions on <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/\">the homepage</a> is altered for anonymous users: instead of listing recently-modified posts, it attempts to pick questions that may provide a good example of what the site's about. </p>\n\n<p>Currently, that means it's very similar to the <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/?tab=month\">monthly hot questions list</a>.</p>\n\n<p>If you want to view a list of recently-modified questions without logging in, you can find it <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions?sort=active\">in the active questions list</a>.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/534", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/411/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 542, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I am a relative newcomer (and seemingly a chatty one at that), I have found that this site is very welcoming and willing to discuss all aspects of academic life - from undergraduate, through postgraduate to academic careers. The answers are very thorough and well thought out.</p>\n\n<p>Even though I am a newcomer, I thought I would give a perspective from this viewpoint. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 547, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<h1>Final Results</h1>\n<ul>\n<li><p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9228/very-few-research-groups-continue-doing-phd-in-this-area\">Very few research groups: continue doing PhD in this area?</a></p>\n<p><strong>Net Score: 5</strong> (Excellent: 8, Satisfactory: 13, Needs Improvement: 3)</p>\n</li>\n<li><p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9341/how-do-i-make-sure-i-get-strong-recommendation-letters-for-faculty-positions\">How do I make sure I get strong recommendation letters for faculty positions?</a></p>\n<p><strong>Net Score: 18</strong> (Excellent: 18, Satisfactory: 5, Needs Improvement: 0)</p>\n</li>\n<li><p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9659/scholarships-in-general-and-ontario-trillium-scholarship-in-particular\">Scholarships in general and Ontario Trillium Scholarship in particular</a></p>\n<p><strong>Net Score: 11</strong> (Excellent: 11, Satisfactory: 11, Needs Improvement: 0)</p>\n</li>\n<li><p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9372/why-do-universities-support-faculty-writing-textbooks\">Why do universities support faculty writing textbooks?</a></p>\n<p><strong>Net Score: 16</strong> (Excellent: 16, Satisfactory: 6, Needs Improvement: 0)</p>\n</li>\n<li><p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9510/do-i-have-a-msc-degree-if-i-did-the-work-but-did-not-pay-tuition\">Do I have a MSc degree if I did the work but did not pay tuition?</a></p>\n<p><strong>Net Score: 14</strong> (Excellent: 14, Satisfactory: 7, Needs Improvement: 0)</p>\n</li>\n<li><p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9221/how-much-effort-it-takes-to-record-video-courses\">How much effort does it take to record video courses?</a></p>\n<p><strong>Net Score: 6</strong> (Excellent: 9, Satisfactory: 8, Needs Improvement: 3)</p>\n</li>\n<li><p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9259/difficulty-in-admission-to-online-software-engineering-graduate-programs\">Difficulty in admission to online software engineering graduate programs</a></p>\n<p><strong>Net Score: 1</strong> (Excellent: 5, Satisfactory: 10, Needs Improvement: 4)</p>\n</li>\n<li><p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9314/putting-phd-dissertation-on-facebook\">What are the advantages of putting your dissertation on Facebook?</a></p>\n<p><strong>Net Score: 11</strong> (Excellent: 11, Satisfactory: 8, Needs Improvement: 0)</p>\n</li>\n<li><p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9442/how-to-tell-my-advisor-i-dont-want-to-stay-in-academia\">How to tell my advisor I don&#39;t want to stay in academia</a></p>\n<p><strong>Net Score: 17</strong> (Excellent: 17, Satisfactory: 2, Needs Improvement: 0)</p>\n</li>\n<li><p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9557/what-should-be-included-in-a-departmental-email-policy\">What should be included in a departmental email policy?</a></p>\n<p><strong>Net Score: 8</strong> (Excellent: 9, Satisfactory: 9, Needs Improvement: 1)</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/541", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 545, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The observation that \"Undergraduate questions are off-topic here\" does not lead to the conclusion that \"We need to support the undergraduate SE proposal\". This site can stand by itself. If there are enough individuals who are in favor of an Undergraduate SE site, the site will be created. The fact that we get a number of off-topic questions that happen to relate to a current site proposal is really not so relevant to any of us; if we want to support a new site, then we should sign up, if not, then not. </p>\n\n<p>On that note, if you do not intend to support the site, please do <em>not</em> sign up. The last thing a new site needs is a community of uninvested invdividuals.</p>\n\n<p>~~~</p>\n\n<p>For what it's worth, I'm in favor of the idea of an Undergraduate site, but I do not think we should support it simply because lots of questions that are off-topic here would fit there. The point of the site is not to be a repository for our unwanted questions.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 546, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think we need to be careful about what is meant by \"we\". I think the academia.se community would be well served that when closing off-topic undergrad questions that we mention the undergraduates.se proposal. I think we should do this whether or not we intend to follow/support the undergraduates.se proposal/community.</p>\n\n<p>I for one will not be following or contributing to the undergraduates.se community, but I see no problem steering questions people that way.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/544", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/924/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 552, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>This question has been <a href=\"http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/07/non-english-question-policy/\">answered by Jeff Atwood on the Stack Exchange blog</a> a few years ago, and the short answer is that English is the language of the Stack Exchange community.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 571, "author": "Noah Snyder", "author_id": 25, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/25", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is a site for academics, and academics should be able to read a little bit of French.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/551", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4249/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 552, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>This question has been <a href=\"http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/07/non-english-question-policy/\">answered by Jeff Atwood on the Stack Exchange blog</a> a few years ago, and the short answer is that English is the language of the Stack Exchange community.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 571, "author": "Noah Snyder", "author_id": 25, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/25", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is a site for academics, and academics should be able to read a little bit of French.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/553", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/775/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 562, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Expecting users to offer justification for why they're closing questions is part of the spirit, if not the letter, of the new \"on hold\" policy. I think questions need to have some constructive comments for improvement. Otherwise things can get out of hand. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 564, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The close reasons provide explanation of why a voter is voting to close.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Nowhere</strong> on Stack Exchange do up-votes, down-votes, close-votes, re-open votes or delete votes require comments from non-mod voters.</p>\n\n<p>And there's no reason why Academia.SE should be an exception.</p>\n\n<p>The re-opening was an unfortunate mis-judgement: one that's reversible. The question still asks \"How do you plan your career?\" which is ludicrously broad for a Q&amp;A site, as evidenced by the answers so far: do any of those look like an <strong>identifiably correct</strong> answer? No, they don't. A whole book might (but probably wouldn't) provide an identifiably correct answer.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 568, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Personally, I think it is not only polite, but also <em>potentially</em> helpful for the member. </p>\n\n<p>Sure, it does not have to be done, but look at it this way - put a question on hold, the member may not know the reason exactly why, even with the close reason dialogue, it does not hurt to comment some suggestions so that the member may edit and improve their question and things can get back on track.</p>\n\n<p>The same especially applies to downvotes - a downvote without a comment explains nothing.</p>\n\n<p>Just because the established members know the nuts-and-bolts of writing a question, does not mean a new member will automatically know these.</p>\n\n<p>In any case, this is what I am going to be doing from now on.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/561", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 565, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is a tough situation. It's an on-topic question, so it shouldn't be closed as a violation of the FAQs, regardless of how sophomoric it is. That sets a bad precedent. </p>\n\n<p>The only above-board way to make such questions \"go away\" is for the community to downvote it into obscurity. Expressing disapproval of a question is allowed, and I think would be appropriate for questions that are deemed unserious by the community. Even then, though, the onus is on the down voters to explain why they're downvoting the question. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 566, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think you're missing the point of closing a question. Questions are closed, broadly speaking, for being either inappropriate for our forum for whatever reason. Stupid but appropriate questions should not be closed; they should be voted down into oblivion, as that's the tool that we use to convey that message. Just because we have a hammer doesn't mean everything is a nail :)</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/563", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 573, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I transformed your answer to a comment, because it didn't any new comment w.r.t. the other answers. Your answer was basically \"It happened to me. The other answers are good. I dislike plagiarism.\", which is fine, but is more a comment than an actual answer. </p>\n\n<p>I do not know why your comment was deleted, the way it appears to me is that you deleted the comment yourself: </p>\n\n<p><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/kGV0U.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></p>\n\n<p>EDIT: original answer: </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I have experienced this first hand as well - not a very nice feeling at all. I can only share what I did in response and it largely echoes the great advice given in the replies here. Contact the institution's dean and present the evidence, which isn't hard to do as your work is published. Plagiarism is probably the biggest peeve of mine, I find that it is a deliberate and wilful act of intellectual theft - laziness and even ignorance are not valid excuses. Any incidence needs to be tackled head on and through the right channels. </p>\n</blockquote>\n" }, { "answer_id": 574, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>To answer the other part of your question, your other answer was deleted because the question as a whole has been deleted. This question was downvoted twice, closed by 5 users, and deleted by 3 different users (I personally cast the final deletion vote). The side-effect of deleting a question is to also delete all answers. So no need for paranoia here. </p>\n\n<p>As for your contribution, if you care about reputation, then you could see that you were the 3rd in the league rank for june, and you're still third for July: <a href=\"http://stackexchange.com/leagues/191/month/academia\">http://stackexchange.com/leagues/191/month/academia</a></p>\n\n<p>That means that the community values your contribution. You can of course decide to \"stick to reviewing\", it's entirely up to you. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 575, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would say that the answer is not a particularly good answer. Had it been the first answer it would have added something new, but as the 3rd answer it doesn't add much. That said, I think that it being deleted without a comment or chance to edit is a bit \"harsh\" and not a good behaviour shaping experience. I personally would like to see you expand the answer with your personal insights into the process as you experienced it. My guess is that a modest improvement would lead to it being un-deleted.</p>\n\n<p>@Charles I appreciate the work you and the other diamond mods do. I am struggling with not making this comment sound super negative, so please read it with a grain of salt and realize I am not complaining much. In general, I think the diamond mods are pretty careful. For example, you only tend to cast close and delete votes when only one more \"regular\" vote is needed or the question/answer is clearly spam. In this case I would have liked for the community to have been given some more time to comment/flag the answer. Maybe even highlighting the answer in meta/chat to help get non-diamond mods into the act of managing the site. Again, I appreciate your work.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 576, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I appreciate people's concern and the discussion this has generated. </p>\n\n<p>As I said in my final comment to the first answer:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>okay, no problems. Got the message</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I assure you, I got it, I understand, hence why I said 'I got it'.</p>\n\n<p>I offered my final comment to the 2nd answer as explanation (emphasis added):</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><strong>when the only information I had on hand was in the rep table stating \"removed\", hence why I used the word.</strong> Please, I take offense at being labelled 'paranoid'</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Reputation table is reference to <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7130/damien?tab=reputation\">this</a> (do not know what else to call it), where the word \"removed\" is used (without explanation), hence why I used it in my question (as I explained).</p>\n\n<p>I would have liked an opportunity to fix the answer (especially in light of a new incidence that occurred a couple of hours after posting the answer), but that point is moot now.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/572", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 578, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This might very well be just a glitch in the system—if there are no messages to be moderated, then nothing should be displayed!</p>\n\n<p>However, as someone with over 20k reputation, you have access to all the same tools as moderators do, but perhaps without \"diamond\" privileges.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 579, "author": "Jarrod Dixon", "author_id": 1002, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1002", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Sorry, <a href=\"https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/189872/3\">this was my bug</a> - fixed now.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 580, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I am seeing a +1 symbol exactly the same way -when I click on it, there is a link to a \"1 x not an answer\", when I click on that - nothing.</p>\n\n<p>Edit: wait a second, I think that was the one I mistakenly did this morning.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/577", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 582, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'm not sure it is our responsibility to \"report them to their company bosses\". </p>\n\n<p>What you did was I guess the right move: flag them, and bring them to meta. One of the answer you mention has been deleted by the community, and the other one is down-voted. The answers were technically on topic, and although it would be better for the users to state their affiliation, it's not necessarily spam. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 583, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/help/behavior\">FAQ</a> addresses this</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Avoid overt self-promotion.</p>\n \n <p>The community tends to vote down overt self-promotion and flag it as\n spam. Post good, relevant answers, and if some (but not all) happen to\n be about your product or website, that’s okay. However, you must\n disclose your affiliation in your answers.</p>\n \n <p>If a large percentage of your posts include a mention of your product\n or website, you're probably here for the wrong reasons. Our\n advertising rates are quite reasonable; contact our ad sales team for\n details. We also offer free community promotion ads for open source\n projects and non-profit organizations.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I think the SAMS answer actually answers the question and is not spam despite the obvious advertising aspect of the answer. I think a down vote and a comment are the right way to go. I am not sure flagging is particularly helpful because I don't think the diamond mods should be deleting answers which answer the question. The AccusAQL answer does not answer the question, so down voting and flagging is the way to go.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 587, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The question at hand happens to be a good target for spammers, due to the nature of the question. I've protected the question, which should make it marginally more difficult; if the problem continues, we can lock the question as well.</p>\n\n<p>If other questions like similar to this one (i.e., where answers will contain product recommendations) experience similar issues, flag it and we'll protect/lock as necessary.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 712, "author": "yo'", "author_id": 1471, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1471", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I can't see the deleted answers. However, I'll add my 2 cents from elsewhere:</p>\n\n<p>If a new user with no previous activity blatantly advertises a product/website/..., treat it as spam. Don't forget, besides <strong>flagging</strong>, to <strong>downvote</strong> the answer: sufficient number of downvotes with no upvotes <strong>deletes</strong> the post at one moment. </p>\n\n<p>If it's clearly spam, edit the answer, remove the contents and add <code>spam content deleted</code>. <em>(However, that applies only when it's very clearly a spam with no discussion about it.)</em></p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/581", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 585, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It is quite counter-intuitive, but here is how it should be done:</p>\n\n<p>     <img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/gJcSc.png\" alt=\"image with hand-drawn circle\"></p>\n\n<p>As you noted, the “belongs on another SE site” only lists a few pre-determined sites (which we can ask the moderators to complement if we wish). Everything else is “other”.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 588, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Mods have the option to send it to any other site. Flag it and we'll send it there.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/584", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 591, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>To riff off of Einstein, \"SE questions should be as specific as possible, but no more specific!\" </p>\n\n<p>We don't want to make hard and fast rules that \"no country-specific questions,\" or \"all questions should be localized.\" Questions where the geographic specification becomes critical should be permitted; where it doesn't influence the answer, then it can be neglected.</p>\n\n<p>In the linked question, for instance, the lack of uniform labor laws in the US makes the localization of the question appropriate.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 593, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Despite the large number of upvotes, I do not think <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11336/how-much-vacation-time-is-typical-during-a-phd-in-the-united-states\">How much vacation time is typical during a PhD in the United States?</a> is a particularly good question. The better question in my mind is why should/should not academics take vacation. I think in general questions that are appear country/field specific are probably missing the truly interesting question.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 665, "author": "posdef", "author_id": 5674, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/5674", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I prefer a general question over a very specific but overly-localized question, any day. Mostly because I live and work within one particular system/country. Chances of a particularly localized question being of use to me (or anyone really) is slim, thus the question is not really relevant for many people, beyond to satisfy any possible curiosity. General questions allow for wider audience and thereby broader relevance. </p>\n\n<p>That being said, one could argue that scientists based in the US are overly represented <em>(don't know if this is actually true, but wouldn't be surprised if it is)</em> and thus, in cold hard numbers, US-specific questions might be more relevant than one might think. To that argument, my answer would be that allowing US-specific questions to take dominance here would risk the interest of users from elsewhere. I would personally not be very interested in checking the site as often, if US-specific questions start to proliferate any faster than they already do. </p>\n\n<p>Along with the lines in Daniel E. Shub's answer, I think polling questions such as \"<em>how does X work in Y?</em>\", are not a good fit to start with. Such questions are typically proxies for something more interesting and relevant which the OP consciously or unconsciously omits. </p>\n\n<p>For instance, the example with vacation time, I suspect that the OP was concerned with the number of vacation days available to him/her and whether or not taking a certain number of vacation days to satisfy his/her needs (for family or whatever else they may be) would likely cause a problem with his/her supervisor. </p>\n\n<p><em>That</em> would have been a much better question, which would have allowed for generalized answer to a better extend and would be relevant for a wider range of people.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/586", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4394/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 590, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Note that the section you linked to on the Mathematics section is from their \"on-topic\" page, <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic\">which we also use to explicitly list what is on-topic for this site</a>. You will note that this list does not include anything related to undergraduate studies.</p>\n\n<p>Historically, the SE folks have been willing to let us define what is on-topic, and discourage changes to the \"what's off-topic\" list, as anything that's no on-topic is, by definition, off-topic. I can bring it up with the admins again, but I doubt their stance has changed.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>In response to the clarification below, I still maintain my above position. We list what should be asked, with the implicit (if not explicit) statement that anything not on-topic is off-topic. My view is that adding more text to the FAQ will not solve problems; people who post off-topic questions will not be deterred because \"it's not in the FAQ\".</p>\n\n<p>Basically, I feel that listing off-topic stuff may make us feel good, but it decreases FAQ readability (more text) and won't affect the number of off-topic questions.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 592, "author": "Chris Gregg", "author_id": 4461, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4461", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think this ties directly into the question of how we go about getting more <a href=\"http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/16617/academia\">questions per day on the site</a>. We're never going to get out of Beta status unless we get 2-3 times more questions per day (correct me if I'm wrong), and while I am all for having strict guidelines on topic-appropriate questions, we should possibly thinking of some sort of outreach to find more people who want to ask questions that are on topic.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 999, "author": "ff524", "author_id": 11365, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11365", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I believe we should revisit this issue, in light of the fact that we have come out of beta and are getting more traffic.</p>\n\n<p>Specifically, I sympathize with new users who post questions about things like undergraduate admissions without realizing it's considered off-topic. I wouldn't understand that from reading the help center text, either.</p>\n\n<p>I also think it would be worthwhile to specify that </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>questions for a specific research project (e.g. <a href=\"https://cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/6345/examples-of-psychology-in-finance\">Examples of Psychology in Finance</a>) are off-topic, and</li>\n<li>questions about <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/20266/graduate-admission-decision-mscs-should-i-choose-sjsu-or-sfsu\">Should I attend University X or University Y</a> are off-topic</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Although these are clearly off-topic if one reads the help center text carefully, I think we get enough of these that I'd like to exclude them explicitly.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/589", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/924/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 597, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The changes you made are <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11411/is-there-any-scientific-rigor-in-scientometry\">currently visible</a> on the page; <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/posts/11411/revisions\">no subsequent edits have reverted them</a>. It's possible your browser is showing you an outdated version of the page due to caching or something similar. Try refreshing and see if the problem still exists. If so, let me know and I'll mention it to the site admins.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 598, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Last night (my time), I saw the edits - it had come up as an edit to approve - I looked over it, saw the edits, agreed and went to click 'Approve', a big ol' red box came up saying something along the lines of the edit had already been rejected.</p>\n\n<p>I am sorry for not mentioning this here earlier as I noticed it quite late, after a long day and in a break whilst writing the final chapter of my PhD thesis.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 599, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It appears in the system as \"Community rejected the edit\". Since I'm not really sure who controls \"Community\", it's hard to say what happened exactly. It might be bug though. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/596", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7746/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 601, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>EDIT:</strong> Since the original question has been deleted, the quoted text in my answer refers to the original question. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I realize we do not have a definitive answer/guideline on the purpose of pre-print archives. I guess it will be useful for our users who are new to academia.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Ac.SE is a Q&amp;A site, and does not aim at being a \"guideline on the purpose\" of anything, even if it's related to academia. You might want to look at Wikipedia for that. </p>\n\n<p>Your question is vague, and talk about different, unrelated aspects. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>What is the purpose of archives for electronic pre-prints of scientific papers, such arXiv, vixra, SSRN etc.?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You can find this information on the related sites: <a href=\"http://arxiv.org/help/general\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">http://arxiv.org/help/general</a></p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Why are they needed when conferences/journals already exist to publish papers?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This sounds more like a discussion rather than an actual question. If you don't need it, then why do you care? If you need them, then you probably don't need to ask. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Can a published work (i.e., post-print) also go to arXiv?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7/does-publishing-a-paper-on-arxiv-prevent-me-from-submitting-it-to-a-non-open-acc\">Does publishing a paper on arXiv prevent me from submitting it to a non-open access journal?</a></p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Will my paper accepted by arXiv count as a 'publication' for me?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11195/can-something-published-on-arxiv-or-optimization-online-org-be-mentioned-in-my-c\">Can something published on arXiv or optimization-online.org be mentioned in my CV?</a></p>\n\n<p>I down-voted this question because you don't make the effort to come up with a clear and concise question you're facing. I didn't want to cast a vote to close it as unclear/non constructive, in order not to abuse mod privileges. Ac.SE is <strong>not</strong> a forum or a discussion board. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 602, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>It such a bad idea, say, if we make it a community wiki with one\n pre-print/e-print service per answer?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Yes, it is a bad idea. I think the <a href=\"http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/08/the-future-of-community-wiki/\">SO blog post</a> on the subject sums it up nicely:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Most of the time, you should be asking yourself “How can I improve\n this post so that community wiki isn’t needed?”</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Changing the question to community wiki does not improve it. As for how to improve it, the \"question\" had 4 bullet point questions. Each one of those seems to me to be independent of the others so that the question could be broken into 4 more manageable chunks. In breaking it up, I think you would then see the discussion oriented nature of some of the parts and the duplication of other parts.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/600", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/5851/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 604, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is a very difficult area for our forum, as most of the answers and advice dispensed here is not borne of thoroughly research, but rather real-life (and therefore pretty localized) battle scars.</p>\n\n<p>Personally, I favor the \"hands-off\" approach; policing this sort of thing is very tedious, with minimal benefit, as the community tends to do a good job upvoting stronger answers over the soft ones. As the distinction between strong and soft answers is typically pretty nebulous, I don't think a policy-based approach for treating this is correct. If this is something which needs to be addressed (which I'm not sure of myself), I would much prefer an education-based approach. One method could involve a community-defined comment template to leave on those sorts of answers, suggesting the commenter leave stronger answers and directing the answerer to the appropriate meta discussions. Another parallel method could be to make use of the community blog feature to publicize posting guidelines and suggestions. I would much prefer these to policy.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 605, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I agree with eykanal, and also prefer an \"hands-off\" approach. We already have mechanisms for dealing with \"undocumented\" soft answers: down-votes, comments and even deletion. In extreme cases, there is even a mod mechanism allowing us to put a post notice indicating that a post requires some citations or some further explanations. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 607, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think that, without forbidding experience-based answers and anecdotal evidence, <strong>we should push ourselves a little harder towards fact-based and statistics-based answers</strong>. There are quite a few questions on the site who are answered mostly with “I advise you to do this” or “I observed around me that X is more common than Y”, and which could be much improved if they were backed up with links to actual official <strong>policies</strong> and/or <strong>statistics</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>Now, how to do that? I myself try, on questions where it is appropriate, to <strong>add a <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11336/how-much-vacation-time-is-typical-during-a-phd-in-the-united-states/11358#comment20869_11336\">comment</a></strong> to try and remind us that fact-based answers are at the core of the Stack Exchange Q&amp;A concept, and while we have a “softer” policy than most other sites of the network, fact-based answers are <em>good</em>. While I don't always add such comments (also because I don't want to cast myself into “that guy”), I think it's overall a great strategy to steer us in that direction, without policing. So, <strong>please consider adding them too!</strong></p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/603", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 611, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Welcome to Academia.SE, this site is about those involved in higher education (postgrad, research etc). There is a Proposal in Area51 for <a href=\"http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/50826/education\">Education</a>.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 612, "author": "JRN", "author_id": 64, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/64", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If your field is in mathematics education, you might want to look at <a href=\"https://mathematicsteachingcommunity.math.uga.edu/\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Mathematics Teaching Community</a>. (But as of now, there is not much activity there.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 625, "author": "Anonymous Mathematician", "author_id": 612, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/612", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Although high school teaching is not on topic at this site, I completely agree that it could be considered \"academic\" under some interpretations of the word. \"Academia\" is used here as a single-word summary for the site's topic, and unfortunately it's impossible to find a single word that perfectly fits. No disrespect is meant towards high school teaching, and no implication that it's not really academic. It's just not a particularly natural match for the sort of grad student/professor questions this site is intended for.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/610", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6089/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 623, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There is no official policy on shorteners, except that \"Let me google that for you\" links are banned. However, link shorteners are <strong>not</strong> recommended for use on SE sites, because of their somewhat ephemeral character. </p>\n\n<p>Your edits should not have been rejected.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 624, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I was not aware of a specific policy. Links shortener are not a good idea in general, because they might be shorter-lived than their targets… however, <strong>there are cases where they are useful, including in comments</strong> (limited number of characters, and URLs length is included in the limit).</p>\n\n<p>Regarding edit suggestions, remember that every edit bumps the post to the top of the front page, moving out some more recent content. Thus, minor edits to old questions are not always welcome (not saying that was the reason in your case, but it might have been).</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/622", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/898/" ]