id
stringlengths 1
7
⌀ | text
stringlengths 1
10.4M
| source
stringclasses 1
value | added
stringdate 2025-03-12 15:57:16
2025-03-21 13:24:26
⌀ | created
timestamp[s]date 2008-09-06 22:17:14
2024-12-31 23:58:17
⌀ | metadata
dict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4871 | Are questions about non-academic sites using research publications off-topic?
I don't understand why my question about Google knowledge panel was closed as off-topic. The only reason I can think of is that the question is about a non-academic site. I would like to understand in order to get a chance to rewrite the question, if possible.
For what it's worth, I think that there is clear evidence that sites such as Google Scholar or ResearchGate play a role in the academic ecosystem nowadays, so I don't see why questions related to these non-academic sites would be off-topic on AcademiaSE.
ResearchGate does not play a useful role. https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16870/researchgate-an-asset-or-a-waste-of-time?noredirect=1&lq=1
@AnonymousPhysicist Some of the answers there are very old. Whether one likes it or not, in some communities ResearchGate plays an at least minimally useful role (e.g. I frequently receive requests by colleagues to send them a copy of my papers, even when they know me well and could just send me a request by email, or even when the paper is available as open access). In fact, in the Q&A you linked there are more recent answers that say that it can be useful, contradicting your general claim above.
@MassimoOrtolano https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/113725/how-have-perceptions-of-researchgate-changed-from-2014-to-2018?noredirect=1&lq=1 And are you certain those requests are really from your colleagues?
@AnonymousPhysicist Indeed I'm certain.
I don't think I would vote the question to be closed, but I suspect those that have consider this effectively a boat programming question, a phrase used to refer to questions that are off-topic on Stack Overflow because they take a more generic question and frame it as "for programmers" when that generic qualification isn't really relevant and only serves to make a non-programming question into one.
Since the Google Knowledge Panel isn't specific to academics (it applies to any people of note, organizations, etc.), you could consider a question "How to manage my own Google Knowledge Panel as an academic?" to be the boat programming version of "How to manage my own Google Knowledge Panel?"
I think the question should be on-topic, because the OP being an academic is central to the situation and to potential approaches. The knowledge panel of them exists because of their research profile. The specifics of the OPs webpresence (university website, Google scholar profile; no social media) apply only to academics, and to a large fraction of them. Ideas such as "try to get your university adminstration sort this out" could make sense for OP, but do not apply in general.
Thus, the question is NOT boat-programming (where the boatyness of the boat doesn't really matter).
Knowledge panels are not specific to academics. No academics are able to influence Google to solve the problem.
The question should be closed as off-topic for the reason Bryan Krause gave:
Since the Google Knowledge Panel isn't specific to academics (it applies to any people of note, organizations, etc.), you could consider a question "How to manage my own Google Knowledge Panel as an academic?" to be the boat programming version of "How to manage my own Google Knowledge Panel?"
We get a lot of questions about the way Google products work on this site, and they are often unhelpful questions because only Google knows the answer, and they are not telling. Further, many of the tech support questions we get do not fit with the topical themes of the site.
You said "the only reason Google created this knowledge panel for me is because I publish research papers." If you asked "How do I get Google to create a panel for me based on my research papers?" that might be a reason not to close your question as out of scope. But your question is about claiming and editing the panel, which is not related to the reason the panel was created. Also, questions about Google's trade secrets might be closed as opinion-based, since we do not know the secrets.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.638623 | 2021-02-22T17:13:28 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4871",
"authors": [
"Anonymous Physicist",
"Massimo Ortolano",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/13240",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/20058"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
4226 | Would this questions be on topic here?
I want to ask a question, but I'm wondering if it's on topic here. It's a question about if I should even bother writing up a paper, but the work is in Abstract Algebra, so maybe MathOverflow would be a better fit? Or if anyone can refer me to duplicates that I might have missed.
Let's assume I've built a probabilistic non-determinant model. I've
developed my own notation, described my own objects, and shown some
properties to be true about these objects.
My work isn't based on any previous work, so I have no citations. It
isn't ground breaking, and I'm under no illusions that I'm the next
Euler. But I do think it might eventually be a useful tool for others,
if they see it and possibly draw similarities between my work and
other fields. I would certainly like to see it extended by others, and
see where it might lead.
I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile to put work into actually
writing up my model and results into a paper to try to submit
somewhere? It would basically be a paper full of definitions, plus
proofs of a few properties resulting from those definitions.
NOTE: I don't think this is a dupe, I'm not asking if an independent
researcher can submit a paper, or where such a paper could be
submitted. Nor if such a paper or the work might help later in my
career. I just want to know if such a paper would even be read,
anywhere, by anyone. Should I bother taking the time to write it up,
or just keep working on it by myself.
2nd NOTE (before anyone asks): It's mathematical work. I've built up
notation and a probabilistic system of objects, defined their
relations, and shown certain classes of these objects are a Group, and
possibly a Ring, under certain constraints. I'd like to see if others
can extend my work further into Algebra, Topology, or Geometry.
Academia.SE is not intended to answer if questions about specific research subjects are publishable. If that is your primary concern, you need to use one of the subject-specific groups.
As a rule of thumb, if you can generalize your concern so that a future visitor can have her question answered as well, it belongs here.
I think math SO doesn't like questions about publications either. I'm not sure where to take this question.
My primary concern is if I should work on writing a paper of foundational work, with no real results. Shouldn't that apply to all academia? So then my question becomes, how can I generalize this enough to be applicable to this stack?
Then focus on the question you just asked. That is definitely an on-topic question, and we can work to get it into something answerable.
That is the point of this meta question, how to get my question on topic? What should I adjust?
The question might be titled something like: “how do I introduce the needed background info for a new field in a publication if I don’t have any results?” But otherwise the basis of your question seems OK—just try to prune details that aren’t essential.
I've seen many questions where the answer is "it depends on the subject", so I included that as a note, not part of the question
You could mention “math” as a tag.
I'll try that with the title and content. Thanks.
It's not a new field though, just possibly new tools in an established field. Any recommendations on how to title that?
“New framework?”
I'll wait until tomorrow to see if I get any more answers to this meta question, and I'll rephrase and post on the main site then
As a comment on your intended question: it will be up to you to place your work in the context of the field. You will have to understand the field, and cite relevant works.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.638902 | 2018-06-23T19:57:24 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4226",
"authors": [
"CDspace",
"Jon Custer",
"YungHummmma",
"aeismail",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/13312",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/15477",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/93648"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
4338 | what's wrong about my methodology?
I have a question about my Academia Stack Exchange post: is my spreadsheet considered a framework?
I posted a question about my methodology for generating a theoretical framework but some lads responded by asking some irrelevant questions(in my opinion) that could not help me solve my problem. I need some Academics' opinions on the matter . best regards
In my opinion, the issue is that it is not clear to me what you are asking about. There appears to be a lot of jargon (framework, domain, class diagram) whose meaning is not clear to others. I think this mm is making it difficult for people to figure out what you are asking.
The SE system is different than other online communities. Please take a look at our help center. What the comments were trying to do is guide you to provide information that people think might help clarify your question. They may not be the right questions to ask, but there is something unclear about your question.
Instead of being highly abstract in the question, you might want to try and provide more specifics. Instead of assuming the terminology is known, provide links or references to the key concepts, or better yet descriptions/definitions.
I think I have a different background than others. thank you
@WonderBoy you potentially do, but if you do not provide us with any information, we cannot tailor the answer to fit your background.
Your question is off-topic because it is about the content of your research which is explicitly off-topic for Academia.SE (see https://academia.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic). Since you are new to StackExchange, note that every stack has a definition for what is on- and off-topic, and it is decided by those communities. If you want a community to change what they define as on-topic the correct way to address that is to start a meta conversation about it.
In addition, calling out people who are trying to help (including politely letting you know your question is off-topic) and accusing them of being here for reputation alone are both ways to come off as rude, and "be nice" is a core principle behind the StackExchange framework.
I guess it's one of the policies that stackexchange needs to change. you can't throw the word "off topic" when you just didn't understand the meaning of the question or it's not your specialty. theoretical framework are made for a variety of subjects that touches all the backgrounds. I just want to know from people who had made such frameworks how they managed to do so, what's their methodology?
@WonderBoy I encourage you to spend a bit more time on stack exchange before opining on the policies here; like you, I have been skeptical of some of the policies at SE but for the most part over time have learned why they are as they are. I'm sorry, but even with clarification, your question is still about the content of your research and therefore off-topic. You are asking a question that is specific to your research and person you should be asking for advice on your theoretical framework is your academic advisor.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.639301 | 2018-10-15T11:21:41 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4338",
"authors": [
"Bryan Krause",
"StrongBad",
"WonderBoy",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/13617",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/63475",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/94409",
"rene"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
4263 | Wrote an essay with the exact opinions I have posted in a question and Turnitin found it and said it is plagiarized
I have posted a question a few months ago and I would like to get it deleted.
In the question I have posted my own opinion and views that I have used in an essay. I have been told that there have been some similarities found using the Turnitin service and I have tried to delete the question but I am unable to do so since a person already answered to it.
I have edited the post and removed my opinion and view that I have written and left the question with only a few words left. A moderator has edited my question and added all my text back and locked the question.
I was wondering how can I delete such question.
I have posted a question a few months ago Where did you post your question? I don't see it on our site (Academia Stack Exchange)..
You should post your question on Philosophy Meta, not here.
@scaaahu: well, as it turns out the answer is actually 50% on-topic, even if the question isn't really. I suspect the philosophy peeps meant "go ask over at academia how to deal with the situation given that you can't delete"
@nengel I think the OP is talking about this question on Philosophy SE. As far as I can see, no one there told the OP to come over here. I have no idea what the OP is talking about. Already vote to close as "unclear what you're asking" because we have nothing to do with that question.
@scaaahu the OP originally posted this post on MSE and was looking for a way to disprove an accusation of plagiarization, thus I suggested to look over for [tag:self-plagiarizing] tag to read further about OP's case. [...]
(cnt'd) unfortunately, the message was probably unclear (sorry, my fault) and instead of posing that question (how to disprove an accusation of plagiarization), the OP seems to ask this question instead (how to delete a post on SE)...
@AndrewT. Yes, I understand. I am hoping nengel's answer and my answer below would address the OP's concern. (It did take me a long while to figure out what the OP wanted).
You can't delete the question, but doing so also won't solve your problem anyway.
When you post a question on stackexchange, you agree in the terms and conditions that you don't have the right to delete the question. (You may only remove your name from it.) The question may be deleted by moderators, administrators, or the anti-spam bot if it is considered not to have any value, but questions with value can't just be removed by the user. People have taken the time to answer your question, so you shouldn't be able to make all their hard work worthless in a fit of pique (there have been problems with users deleting all their questions when ragequitting, and then the answers don't make sense any more). A moderator may make an exception for you based on the circumstances.
See also: How does deleting work? What can cause a post to be deleted, and what does that actually mean? What are the criteria for deletion?, under "When can't I delete my own post?"
Turnitin regularly scrapes content from various websites, including stackexchange. Now that turnitin knows about this text, it is in its database and won't be removed from there just because you delete the question on the site.
However, everyone knows that turnitin sometimes finds duplicate passages that are not instances of plagiarism. For instance, generally all references are highlighted, because other people have cited the same paper before. Another case is, as here, publication of the same text by the same author in another location.
Therefore, the solution is simply for you to add a note when you hand in your essay saying that you wrote this question.
thank you very much for that answer. I am go ahead and add the note.
Note also that the usual situation "ask the moderator to remove my name from the question" would make things worse here, as it would look as though you had plagiarized from somebody else rather than yourself.
Indeed! Make sure you keep access to your account so you can prove your authorship if necessary.
most definitely.
It took me a while to figure out what you are trying to solve.
I think the solution is to cite the question on Philosophy SE and the answer to that question to avoid the plagiarism issues.
Please refer to Attributing contributions to academic work that occur in Stack Exchange
Thank you very much for all your help. I am apologize if my question was unclear.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.639563 | 2018-08-02T08:47:01 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4263",
"authors": [
"Andrew T.",
"Anthony",
"Flyto",
"Hidaw",
"JF it",
"Nobody",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/13420",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/13422",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23844",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/546",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/71814",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/8394",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96653",
"nengel"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
4484 | Why my profile is missing?
I have joined this site two years before, but now i am no more able to continue with my old profile. Please help me to get my profile back. Thank you.
Not sure why your profile is missing but you should contact the site using this form :
https://academia.stackexchange.com/contact
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.639924 | 2019-04-25T07:08:03 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4484",
"authors": [
"Ritesh",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/14048",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/14049",
"user133846"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
4330 | Is academia.stackexchange suited to help interpret papers?
Let's say there is a specific paper that I'm having trouble understanding. Perhaps it's out of my field, or perhaps not. Is it suitable to the purpose of this StackExchange site that I could post a question asking about the paper? Or is this Academia site not intended for within-field or paper-specific questions?
If the latter, is there another field-agnostic StackExchange site which does accept such questions, or should I seek out a field-specific StackExchange site for such a question?
Tangentially, I'm trying to understand if this paper suggests that nicotene triggers a relaxation response, which might indicate health benefits that other nicotene studies neglect. Feel free to comment about it, but don't include that in an answer please.
Please read over the help section. In particular What topics can I ask about here? explicitly excludes the content of research, which would indeed mean that this site is not intended for discussing research papers in specific fields.
You may want to try Medical Sciences SE
Note that some fields have their own Q&A sites for such purposes, for instance the American Economic Association: https://www.aeaweb.org/forum/ (based on Q2A, free/libre open source software).
In general, no. The content of research is not really part of Academia.SE: we cover everything else.
There are many science-specific stacks that are better suited for research-specific questions, but they all have standards as far as what sort of prior research needs to be done and how specific questions need to be. "Explain this paper to me" is never going to be specific enough, however, if you can contextualize your question with other knowledge (textbook or otherwise) and research you will probably do well in those scientific stacks.
If you don't understand a paper enough to understand which specific scientific stack would be interested in the uncertainties you have, you probably don't have enough understanding of the field to ask the question, and you should probably back up a bit and try to understand more general concepts first. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just a reality check for how much you know versus don't know (for the alternative, see for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect).
I think the one exception to this is that research about academia itself is on topic, right?
@Laurel Yes, good point, although the subject of the question still has to be academia, not just the subject of the paper. The statistical approach to a paper on academic life would still be off-topic and belong at CrossValidated. The methodology for proposed research into teaching in an academic setting would also not be on topic here (it would be a question about pedagogical research, not a question about academia).
If your question is something like "Explain this paper to me", maybe you can separate out partial questions of it. That should be questions of some specific context. Then, ask them in the different SEs. You are welcome to ask many questions, if you spend effort on them so that they are of worth for the communities, ask as many as you like, hundreds!
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.639979 | 2018-10-04T02:28:21 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4330",
"authors": [
"Anyon",
"Bryan Krause",
"Laurel",
"Neil",
"Nemo",
"Nobody",
"Volker Siegel",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/13560",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/13593",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/13596",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/17254",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/32575",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/546",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/56207",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/63475",
"user2990078"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
4344 | A recent Academia post may be better suited on IPS
There was recently a post on Main: How to build healthy working relationships with my male colleagues as a young-ish, attractive-ish woman?
The question gives some detail about their position in work and their education, but the main bulk of it is about their interactions with others.
My question is, How would this question be received on IPS? Should it be migrated?
the main bulk of it is about their interactions with others You were missing two words at the end, the main bulk of it is about their interactions with others within Academia.
@scaaahu It seems that is in a grey area - It doesn't seem to be disallowed or explicitly allowed in the help center
No, "with Academia" is the key. In the Help Center: If you have a question about … •inner workings of research departments .. then you're in the right place!. If the OP had a question in the working environment of a sales department of a company, or with a family member, or with a friend, then it should be in IPS. If the colleague, or the family member, or a friend happens to be in the same research department with the OP, then the question belongs to Academia SE.
I do think this question would be on-topic at IPS if it had been posted there originally. In particular, it has a fairly clear goal, although IPS would probably want to focus it a bit more. However, many of the answers given here are not really IPS answers and would not be accepted as good IPS answers because they do not focus on interpersonal skills (note that IPS has very strict definitions about what is on- and off-topic for both questions and answers).
For this and other reasons, I would not suggest migration.
I'd also add that this has been addressed before on Meta with respect to Workplace.SE.
The consensus meta answer there is that questions that are highly relevant to academia, even if they could be on-topic elsewhere, should remain on topic here and therefore should not be migrated. I think it's reasonable to point question askers to other possible stacks or point them to similar questions on those stacks, but not migrate unless they decide themselves that their question would belong better there.
Although some possible answers are going to be nearly identical on the different stacks, academia can be a fairly unique workplace for several reasons, especially for students, and the types of answers people get to workplace or generic IPS questions simply wouldn't make sense in academia.
Lastly, I'd note that questions that relate to interpersonal interactions in academia: how to communicate with professors/advisors/mentors, how to communicate with students/mentees, how to communicate with peers, how to communicate with editors, how to communicate with admissions/tenure/recruiting/standing committees, how to advocate for ones self in a number of contexts, are all considered on-topic and answered here on a daily basis. This question is not that unusual for Academia.SE, it just attracted a lot of attention because the subject matter is interesting to a lot of people and was on the Hot Network Questions.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.640238 | 2018-10-23T19:36:21 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4344",
"authors": [
"FreezePhoenix",
"Nobody",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/546",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/99618"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
4346 | Can I ask questions about finding specific contents in a book?
I have this electronics book. I never read it since its like a college text book. But I am holding onto this book anyway since I know there might be knowledge that I want somewhere in there. But if it is not there I must look to other resources.
So in effect I am trying to reach out to people who have read this book, and, expecting them to guide me to the content I am interested in...so I can just dive in.
Is this a good place to do this?
No, such a question would be considered off-topic here (see What topics can I ask about here?). You can maybe ask it in the Electrical Engineering chat.
I know there might be knowledge that I want somewhere in there
Whatever the book, the Table of contents and the Index are the primary sources to see if there is knowledge that one wants or needs. Use those to find topics of interest and read at least those sections and paragraphs: books need not be read front to back to be useful!
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.640800 | 2018-10-27T06:01:42 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4346",
"authors": [],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
4440 | Is a bologna-process tag justified?
There is a bunch of questions about the Bologna process on this SE, they tend to have rather broad tags:
Israel and the Bologna Process
phdisrael
Post-Bologna process, is my sociology degree an undergraduate degree or a graduate degree? masters
Are there any standard regulations for oral exams for universities in Bologna process? exams
Which authority establishes the equivalence of degrees from different European countries? master degreeeuropebachelorrussia
They are notably not present in each other's "Related" section of the right panel. There are also a number of mentions of the Bologna process in answers to questions that do not mention it (see eg this answer).
I am planning on asking one too. Is degreeeurope enough? Or is the creation of bologna-process justified?
A side note. We probably have two groups of users: those who care about tags and those, like me, who find tags virtually useless and consider caring about them a worthless effort. Given that discussions about tags attract few users, I suspect that the second group is much larger than the first one. I'm usually fine with the creation of any tag that makes the first group happy. That said, if you have a question about the Bologna process, just go on asking, tags can be added anyway later on.
Go ahead and add the tag. You have a found a bunch of related questions and a tag is completely valid way of indicating that. The tag is about the substance of the questions and not a meta tag.
The asker doesn’t have enough reputation to create a new tag, but you do. Given that nobody objected in over a month, I see no problem with this.
I did it already.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.640928 | 2019-02-22T22:18:39 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4440",
"authors": [
"Massimo Ortolano",
"Tommi",
"Wrzlprmft",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/13017",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7734"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
4814 | Is It Appropriate To Ask About Wording In A Statement Of Purpose?
I am writing a SToP for doctoral studies and I have a bit of a contentious opening paragraph that I would like to get opinions on from the ASE community.
I’m wondering if it is okay to post the question with the small intro paragraph I have to see how the community perceives it?
I’m just trying to get some external opinions from academics that do not know me.
Why would opinions from folks who don't know you be better than opinions from folks who do know you?
Because the graduate committee I would be applying to does not know me personally. So in this instance, the opinion from folks who don't know me on ASE would actually be more telling about how my particular paragraph comes off.
We already have many questions that ask about specific wording and content in letters of recommendation, emails and, in fact, statements of purpose (e.g. this one comes easily to my mind just because I was one of the answerers).
If memory doesn't fail me, such kind of questions have been accepted when very specific, but closed if too general. I therefore suggest you to go on asking, but be really specific: in this case, given the history so far, there shouldn't be any ground for closure.
I suspect it is okay if it is a specific question. "Please review my statement of purpose" would not go over well, but "Is it okay if my statement of purpose's introduction criticizes my undergraduate institution?" might be an interesting question. For example our highest-voted question in the SOP tag asks about how age affects the SOP. If including a short snippet from the essay helps to clarify your concern, I similarly see no problem with that. But of course, this is just a prediction, not a guarantee.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.641092 | 2020-10-23T14:23:46 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4814",
"authors": [
"GrayLiterature",
"Jon Custer",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/108615",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/15477"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
4342 | Could this huge attention to a gender related question be marked as sexist in Academia.SE?
Recently, this question has received a huge attention which is related to relation of a woman with her male colleagues in some European universities. I believe this question is written in a selfish and self-promoting way (it's obvious from its title!) and I think the reason behind this huge attention is a sexist, which attracts male users just based on gender related description in the question. I think we have a lot of more related questions to academia which will be closed or don't have even one answer or comment but this huge attention to an off-topic question (This question is more suitable to Workspace.SE) seems the Academia.SE's rules are broken to keep this question open just because of its popularity. I appreciate if someone could explain that the popularity that this particular question has received shows a gender or sexist discrimination in this forum or not?
I agree in this: "This question is more suitable to Workspace.SE"
No.
Though your opinion is different, I believe it is addressing something that is highly relevant to academia: note that answers and comments from other women back this up. Just because it would also be on-topic in another venue does not mean it is off-topic here. The academic workplace is different from the general workplace for several reasons, including limited mobility, different hierarchical structures, culture differences, etc. The issue of overlap between Workplace and Academia questions has been discussed before on meta and there the consensus answer was that questions that could be asked at Workplace.SE need not be considered off-topic here.
If anything, the question-asker went out of her way to avoid criticizing the people behind the behavior or making this a problem about men in general or anything like that, to the extent that I am quite confused why you consider it sexist. I would prefer that questions like these not find their way to the Hot Network Questions and therefore attract attention from outside Academia.SE, but that's a separate Meta discussion. Like your previous question on meta, the HNQ is part of the reason this post has attracted so much attention.
I'm a bit discomforted by the accusation of sexism, because those sorts of arguments are often used to dismiss people who experience bias (similarly with racism, particularly in the context of accusing dark-skinned people of racism for expressing their experience of negative bias from light-skinned people).
At the very least, the opinion based nature of that question could make it "off-topic" like so many other questions here...
@AloneProgrammer Note the guidelines for subjective questions here: https://academia.stackexchange.com/help/dont-ask - I think this question pretty easily falls under the "good" version of subjective questions, and many many others like it are accepted here. Only a tiny minority of those involve gender issues, so I see no evidence for special treatment.
If anything, the sexism is in the answers, not the questions. The "this is the way things are" attitude, without the "... and this is wrong" rejoinder, make me bristle. It's terrible that our young people have to deal with this garbage.
@ScottSeidman Hear hear (FWIW)
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.641260 | 2018-10-22T16:45:24 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4342",
"authors": [
"Bryan Krause",
"Mithridates the Great",
"Scientist",
"Scott Seidman",
"Yemon Choi",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/20457",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/52718",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/63475",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/66782",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/98164"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5082 | How to word my question so it won't get closed?
Earlier today I posted a question asking for links to examples of 45 minute presentations for the defense of an MSc in maths. This post was later closed for being a "shopping question". So I reworded the question in a more general fashion: instead of asking for examples, I asked how to find such examples. Nevertheless, the question hasn't been opened. I'd like to post this reworded question as a new post. However, before I do so, I'd like to get tips on how to word it in such a way that it won't be closed.
I don't see how your question could be made suitable for this site. Presentations are typically not archived in repositories and the only possibility is that someone decided to put theirs on their personal website or upload it on YouTube. Thus, I cannot see any other answer than Google and a stroke of luck.
However, when you edited your question, it was pushed in a review queue where other users can vote whether to reopen it or not. At the moment the review process for your question is still ongoing and it will finish when either (from this faq):
Three "Leave Closed" reviews
Post gets reopened
All reopen votes on the question expire
The question was added to the queue through an edit after being closed, and the user who edited the question later flags it as spam or
rude/abusive, and there are no active reopen votes from others cast
more than 15 minutes ago.
In any case, don't be surprised or disappointed that your advisor didn't comply with your request, many advisors don't keep their students' presentations (e.g., I don't), but they can certainly advise you on how to prepare and structure yours, and to review it at the end.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.641522 | 2021-12-22T16:26:15 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5082",
"authors": [
"Ander Biguri",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/16023"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5001 | My question about the position of a glossary of variables inside a thesis has been closed as "off-topic", while a similar question is open and popular
Why was my question closed as "off-topic", whereas this similar question is open?
Sure, the other question was posted 9 years ago, but I don't think it should have been closed if it were asked today: it has evidently been very useful to many people, and is there any other stackexchange forum that would be more suitable for that question than the Academia?
And if the other question should be allowed, shouldn't mine be too, since they belong to the same type of questions, even if mine concerns a more niche subject matter than a glossary.
Consequently, I would like to ask for my question to be opened, for my benefit, as well as for the benefit of others who might be interested in this topic.
Your question asks "where do I place a variable legend?" There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this, and your university (or advisor) may have guidelines for how theses should be organized. And, the decision will ultimately need to take into account the nature of your thesis and its organization. So in its current form, the best answer is "ask your advisor / university," hence the decision to close.
Now if you like, you can edit to clarify that your university does not specify anything and that you are looking for pros/cons and "best practices." That should salvage your question -- though, that might turn it into a duplicate of the post you linked, so you'd also need to explain why it's different.
The old post you linked I think is correctly left open. It asks "is it better to put the glossary at the beginning...or in the appendix," all other things being equal? This may seem like a subtle difference, but asking about the "best practice" or pros/cons of a particular approach is usually answerable.
That said, I do agree that the title question on the old post should probably be improved...perhaps I'll do so after this is resolved. As it is, the old post has generated a few correct but useless answers (e.g., "put it where it makes more sense to you"), which is something we try to avoid.
And, I have now updated the title of the linked post to How to decide where (in a thesis) a glossary should be positioned?
I'm not opining on whether or not your question should be closed, but I can answer the question "why" in a couple ways.
The most proximate reason is that 5 users with sufficient reputation privileges have voted to close your question. 5 others can reopen it. Usually 5 is enough to indicate some level of community consensus; it's fairly rare that 5 people agree a question should be closed here if there isn't broader support for closure.
The reasons selected for the close votes were a mix of the "Strongly depends on individual factors" and the "Not within the scope of this community" community-specific close reasons. I suspect the voters overall were seeing this as the sort of question that really depends on the specific circumstances and for which there isn't going to be a specific answer that doesn't say "it depends" or "ask your advisor".
The other question you linked is indeed quite old relative to how standards for question closing evolve in the community. It's sufficiently old that it shouldn't really be used as a guide, but I do think it's informative that the accepted answer there was "It is utterly a matter of style. Just put it where it makes more sense to you." - sometimes closing is more arbitrary than would be ideal due to item (1), but this is indeed the sort of question/answer pair that the "Strongly depends on individual factors" and "the exact contents of some work" are listed as reasons to close a question.
Actually, the "it is utterly a matter of style" answer is not the top answer. It is the accepted answer, but the top answer, as far as votes are concerned, is the answer that lists an external source. Similarly, the one answer to my question, posted before my question was closed (obviously...), is based on the answerer's having checked a few textbooks, so this is not a matter of personal taste, but of empirical findings.
@EvanAad Fixed. Yes, I see your argument, but I also see the argument of the close voters. I don't see a reason to intervene as a moderator at this point, just wanted to help communicate the reasoning.
Certainly it is not always "utterly a matter of style". The rules imposed by academic institutions on the format of theses are many, various, often illogical, and frequently ridiculous in the 21st century, but that doesn't mean you can break them with impunity!
@alephzero but the question in this case states "My university doesn't make any specifications about the usage or position of glossaries", so if we trust the premise, there are no "rules" to break.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.641792 | 2021-08-30T16:03:03 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5001",
"authors": [
"Bryan Krause",
"Evan Aad",
"Tyberius",
"alephzero",
"cag51",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/111347",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/32961",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/63475",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/69679",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/79875"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
4510 | Request on rephrasing
Hеllo,
I am asking here regarding the answer of user B. Goddard to the following question: Should I intervene when a colleague in a different department makes students run laps as part of their grade?
B. Goddard described in the original question a situation where somebody was fired because "he forced himself on a secretary". This was edited to "other misconduct". Knowing what the original was, I find the words "other misconduct" far too weak and somewhat offensive because of events in my social circle. Based on a recommendation by Wrzlprmft, I am asking here to edit this.
I propose three solutions:
Change "for other misconduct" to "for sexual misconduct" or "for horrible deads" etc. (My English is not so good, maybe there are better words than "horrible". "Other" sounds too weak to me and sounds like "similar to the weighting issue above".
Remove that the person was fired. If one thinks that the reason of the misconduct is irrelevant, I think one should consequently also remove that the person was fired. After all, it is not relevant to the story B. Goddard is telling.
Put a comment there encouraging users to check out the edit history. Indeed, I did this but it was removed. Instead, Wrzlprmft commented that one should ask on Meta for editing.
Could the downvoter explain their downvote?
the down vote was not me, but voting on meta is a little different. Down votes can indicate a poor question, but more typically down votes mean no. In this case I would guess the down vote was intended to say there is no reason to edit the answer anymore or something like that.
There was no "sexist content." The whole point was that the (certified feminist) female professor accused the male professor of being insensitive to female needs. She said a sentence to me something like, "He has no idea what a woman's relationship is to food." I think her assertion was that women are more emotionally attached to food. She was furious at the male prof for thinking that that women were just little men, rather than that women have a different body chemistry and a different metabolism.
As I said in the original post, "Don't ask me to sort this out." Sometimes feminism means treat women as if they were men. Other times, you have to be aware of the differences. Her accusations against the male prof was that his attitude was, "If they want to act like men, then I'll treat them like men."
Both the female prof and I protested to the provost. The forced dieting quietly went away.
I was not privy to the exact nature of his later sexual misconduct. I understand it was something like this: The secretary was making copies and he cuddled up to her from behind saying something like "need me to show you how to work that thing?" He is and was a pig of a man and she immediately filed a grievance. As I said, the pig was a buddy of the provost (how else do you get to be dean only 3 years after your Ph.D?) who tried to smooth things out, but she remained adamant and left the school no choice but to "let" the pig resign.
I'm surprised that, given that the first incident was considered sexual harassment, the subsequent sexual harassment was considered irrelevant. In the first incident, the harassment is subtle, but my friend ferreted it out. To prove that she was right, I included the second incident.
In the original question, then, I'm suggesting that the OP's situation be looked at through the lens of harassment. Thin, athletic students only have to run for 50 minutes, while the fat kids have to run 3 hours. With the butchering of my post, NONE of this survived.
Only on THIS stack exchange is there this bigotted culture of bullying people who don't talk just like you do. Most negative comments are "you should have worded that like this..." Almost never is the suggested change an improvement. Rather, it is usually some dumbing down of the language. Some people are not that bright, but they think they are, and whenever they get confused, they, very wrongly, think that 90% of people would be equally confused. But they are not.
The bottom line is, people who can wrap their incivility in a right sort of cattiness are allowed to be as uncivil as they please. Whereas the neurologically different people, who can be quite bright, but don't have the social skills to word every sentence in the ultra PC way, or see the need to connect every single dot for some non-so-bright bigot who thinks he should run things.
That the moderators refuse to even discuss this with me should be proof enough that they are afraid to have their bigotry exposed.
But nothing will change the fact that they let their own kind be as abusive as they will, while then using the reactions to that abuse as an excuse to suppress and bully their target group. "You're not autistic, you're an asshole."
We will find our voice soon and the mods here will be exposed for their callous indifference to and often participation in the bullying of the spectrum. If they had the tiniest bit of tolerance or conscience, none of this nonsense would have happened.
So, could you maybe edit your answer? I am quite worried that you will be banned soon because of your opinion here and the answer stands as bad as it is now. Cheers!
I don't care that much about this stack exchange. If I get banned it's no big deal. Instead of me editing my answer, how about if all the people who cared jumped on my bandwagon and demanded accountability from the mods. I have sent them a number of messages about their bigotry and they have refused to even respond. It's not that we disagree but that they won't come to the table to see whether I have a legitimate concern. If someone came and told me that I was hurting them, I would stop and ask "how?" And so would most other people. What can possibly explain the mod's behavior?
While I agree that many things are bad here (especially for newcomers and people who are not so "great"), I don't think anyone is in the position to demand accountability. It is not a democracy after all. However, may I change your answer to that question?
@user111388 Neither is Walmart a democracy. But the customers can still demand accountability. Edit all you please.
Maybe you coukd discuss with them in the chatrooms? But again, this is not a Walmart.
@user111388 They refuse to talk about. They know they're in the wrong and they don't want any light shed on it. If the local cops write speeding tickets only to black drivers, they don't get to hide behind "Look, the guy was breaking the law and I gave him a ticket." The way the policy is enforced is bigoted. Sure, they can point to my colorful sentences and say "You're being uncivil so we can ban you." The problem is that they don't ban others who are uncivil. And in every case the others were uncivil first. And as far as I'm concerned, chatrooms are for [bigotry removed].
I honestly don't see the point in bringing up neurotypicality, or neuro-atypicality, or assuming that the mods' behaviour towards you is part of some larger bullying to do with "you're not autistic, you're an asshole". Bringing up neurological differences seems to be getting away from concrete issues such as what you wrote, edits that were made to it, and whether the nature or the manner of those edits was proper
(Also, as you may see from my comment to StrongBad's answer, I think the first two edits made to your answer on the original question completely misread your intentions, so I am not defending those edits)
I did not understand your suggestion that the OP look at the situation through the lens of harassment. If you spelled that out more directly and elaborated on it, I would probably up vote your answer.
As moderators we are happy to discuss our actions and any biases you feel we may have. We communicated with you via private message a little, but these types of discussions are best had in the open. Ask a new meta question about our behavior or bring it up in chat. We will respond. If you feel our behavior is so problematic, you can always use the contact us link at the bottom of every page to engage with an SE employee.
@YemonChoi Try to follow: People were uncivil to me. They were not banned. Why? Because they know how to be uncivil in the right way. Autistic people have different sets of detectors. I pick up on a lot of clues others miss. Others pick up on things I miss. I can't detect the difference between "their" incivility and mine, yet I'm the one that gets the note from the moderators.
@B.Goddard sometimes we (moderators) miss when one user is being rude to another. This can be because we didn't see the relevant posts, or weren't looking carefully, or our biases blinded us to the rudeness. If you see something that is rude (either to you or another user) flag it with a comment about why it is rude. If we decline the flag or don't handle it in a way that you think is appropriate, start a meta post about it.
@StrongBad It's not random. If it were random, then I'd win one once in a while. Instead, I have a perfect losing streak. This is not a problem to handle one flag at a time. A serious policy shift is needed. You tolerate every race, religion and gender on here, but you fall to pieces if someone's personality doesn't fit the majority mold.
You have raised one flag and this answer and comments are you entire contribution on meta. I don't recall you in chat, but I could be mistaken. Yes your flag was declined, so you do have a perfect losing streak. Again, when you see rude behavior, flag it or point it out in chat/meta.
@StrongBad When the other moderator banned me, he listed 5 or 7 previous incidents and called it a "pattern." In each one of those incidents, I was responding to obnoxious comments. Flagging doesn't work because YOUR POLICY is corrupt. You always decline my flags and always honor flags against me. And I'm not the only one who says so.
You have raised 1 flag and it was rejected. A number of flags against you have been rejected (in fact most of them have been declined). If you find other users behavior inappropriate flag it and/or bring it to meta. Do not react. Being rude in response to rude behavior will get you suspended. It should also get them suspended, but if we don't see it, we cannot do anything. If there is an issue let us know.
I did most of the major editing on that answer. I was by no means trying to minimize how bad the described behavior was. My edit was a pretty coarse hack to remove what I felt was sexist content. At that level, I just didn't feel the description of the further misconduct was relevant. In hindsight, I totally agree that the additional misconduct being sexual misconduct and it being more severe is relevant. That additional behavior sounds like it was in fact sexual assault, so I would be happy, in principle, to see other misconduct changed to sexual assault.
Looking back now, I also think the edit to remove the later promotion was also too coarse, and probably should be left, to a degree. Something like the behavior didn't seem to hurt his career as he eventually became dean, but in the end, ...
While in principle I don't see a problem with the edits, the user is currently suspended (you can see this on their profile page). This means they cannot participate here or contribute to the revision. I personally would hold off on making the edits until their suspension is over.
Also, looking at the history of edits, I think the 2nd edit and then your editing misread the direction of BG's answer as condoning sexism when it seemed to be actually highlighting and criticizing the behaviour of a male professor to a female friend of BG
@YemonChoi I didn't interpret the answer as condoning sexism. I just felt the professor being a mother-hen type that taught Jane Austen and that she was on a tirade and being irrational (the OP said Don't ask me how this fits in feminist philosophy in the answer) was not being friendly to women. More importantly, I did not see how what I removed was relevant to the answer. As I said in this answer, in retrospect I can see how my edits were too coarse and could be improved and have no problem with further refining the answer if that is what the OP wants.
I think the question was fine prior to editing
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.642207 | 2019-08-01T10:30:38 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4510",
"authors": [
"B. Goddard",
"David",
"Planky",
"StrongBad",
"Yemon Choi",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/110658",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/111388",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/14123",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/14124",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/52718",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/85280",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"selkie222",
"user111388"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5292 | What is the impact of the moderation strike on Academia.SE?
Academia.SE is quite particular in the sense that
all its moderators seem to be on strike
it is not one of the highest-volume sites, so SE might not see it as a priority to intervene here
however, the traffic is high enough that moderation should be necessary regularly.
For these reasons, when the strike was announced on Academia.SE, I imagined that this site would be a good one to evaluate the impact of the moderation strike and see how much pressure it can put on SE. However, browsing the questions on the main page, nothing out of the ordinary catches my attention.
So is there a noticeable impact of the strike on Academia.SE? Or is someone else (staff or regular users) taking care of the moderation?
SE staff are handling spam flags and some others at least on the sites without moderators and SO. Enough red flags from users can also delete posts without any moderator involvement. Posts with 4 or more downvotes are also hidden on the main view.
@BryanKrauseisonstrike This may be a stupid idea, but do you think it might be useful for the cause to flag questions without a good reason just to increase the workload of the SE staff to make them more aware that the situation needs urgent resolving?
@Sursulasupportsthestrike I might support that sort of civil disobedience in another circumstance, but from my perspective the message of the strike is that we think they're taking the site in a harmful direction, and while I think it's appropriate to stop offering volunteer services to emphasize how important this is, actively disrupting things by adding spurious flags is probably not. https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/196930/moderation-strike feels to me like it hit the right tone as a specific action in response to de-featuring meta posts.
A little bit of all, I think.
Many flags have been handled by regular users and the AutoMod. I would guess this is the most significant factor -- what normally happens is that the first flag brings it to our attention and then we nuke it, but during the strike, the content has persisted until it has accumulated several flags, at which point the AutoMod has nuked it.
There is a small backlog of flags that would normally be handled by moderators
A few flags that would normally be handled by moderators have instead been handled by staff
And we've been a little lucky in that things have been fairly quiet. I personally haven't observed any behavior that would normally result in a mod message / suspension (for context, 58 such messages were sent in 2022). Not really surprising; June is not really our busy season.
Perhaps the "bigger picture" is that SE policy requires 3+ moderators per site. If the policy doesn't change and the current moderation team all resigns or gets fired, then a new election will have to be held, in which (at least) 4 candidates will be needed. We have historically had real trouble finding would-be moderators, so it's quite likely that a new election would fail for lack of candidates (especially in the current climate). This would put the long-term future of Academia.SE in jeopardy (i.e., the company may simply allow the site to fail).
Update: Two weeks later, the flag backlog is rather considerable, and the quality is noticeably down —- the home page has more off-topic questions than usual, new users aren’t being handheld, and there are lots of answers in the comments. But, we’ve been a bit fortunate that there haven’t yet been (m)any egregious interpersonal issues that would normally require moderator intervention, and regular users + the automod are handling the spam quite well.
Has there been any response to the points raised by the moderators, e.g. "we will think about it and might change our newly implemented policy again" or are they just silent and hope to "wait it out"
@Sursulasupportsthestrike See this on Meta: https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/390106/300001
Thanks. SE might change the three-moderator policy, but I guess they don't want to be doing all the flag-handling work for an extended period of time.
"the quality is noticeably down" The problem is that does the company know that ? We, mods and regular users, know the quality has been down. But, how would outsiders (non-academians) know that ? I noticed that there are quite a few new users providing bad posts more than usual. How would the company know that ? Maybe they think the the quantity and the quality have been improved because there are more new users and more questions and answers.
Literally the entire front page is spam.
At the moment I am writing this, literally the entire front page is spam advertising prostitutes in Middle-Eastern countries.
Literally the entire page. There is not a single question that even asks a question, let alone a question relevant to Academia.
Did you know that there's a limit of 15 flags per user per day? I didn't, and I ran out of flags long before I ran out of spam to flag.
It's several pages deep by now.
The limit for number of flags is user-dependent. It's raised by 1 bonus flag for every 10 net helpful flags, and by 1 bonus flag for every 2,000 reputation, up to a cap of 100. I agree it's not particularly helpful in a situation like this.
As nick012000 states in an answer, the site is currently completely overrun with spam. Here's a screenshot of the current front page:
are you not just reposting the spams by posting a screenshot of them? all the spam info is visible…
@ZeroTheHero The thought that it is akin to reposting spam has certainly crossed my mind, but I certainly disagree with the notion that it is nothing more than that. I think there is value in documenting bad things, and that "seeing is believing". There is precedent for posting such screenshots on meta sites too. That said, I can certainly make it less visible. Hidden behind a spoiler tag now.
Good idea the spoiler…
FYI: Temporarily reduce the 5-second rate limit on flagging posts as spam, to allow for quicker flagging on sites overrun with spam
In my 16months on 30+ SE sites, I have never seen a spam attack as big as todays with more than 500+ posts. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the worst spam attack in SE history today.
I doubt this was anywhere close to the worst spam attack. If you haven't seen them before, it's because they were cleaned up by volunteers before you saw it.
500+ spam posts is a lot for 6 hours or so @BryanKrauseisonstrike
I agree it is a lot. You're suggesting it was the worst. Those are different.
Of course there is this but that was over a long period:https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/192820/recent-mass-football-spam this is probably the worst single day spam attack @BryanKrauseisonstrike
once someone has found a vulnerability it’s likely to be constantly exploited…
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.643274 | 2023-06-11T08:54:11 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5292",
"authors": [
"Anyon",
"Bryan Krause",
"Franck Dernoncourt",
"Massimo Ortolano",
"Nobody",
"Starship",
"Sursula",
"ZeroTheHero",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/112007",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/133549",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/153110",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/17254",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/452",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/546",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/63475",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/90441",
"wimi"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
4663 | Is a question about a situation in which a decision should or should not be made to drop a student's grade appropriate for the exchange?
This question stems from a personal situation however I will attempt to make it generalizable if I make a post. Let me make it clear that I am not the one tasked with making this decision, I am seeking a consensus for what could be reasonably expected in a situation like this.
In short, I have a generalizable situation in which one is considering retroactively dropping a student's grade(s) because new information has been made available.
The reason I am hesitant to post this question is because it may be opinion based or broad/open-ended since every institution has a different, albeit similar in many cases, policies regarding situations like these. Usually the policies are intentionally vague and leave a lot up to interpretation in order to give the person tasked with this decision flexibility. However, in spite of this large and open ended grey area, there are some situations that would in general clearly necessitate a dropped grade (or something similar), e.g. a student becomes comatose in the middle of a semester. I believe this situation falls into that category. Furthermore, I would argue it is a question regarding "requirements and expectations of students" albeit on a more administrative level.
Should I just ask it here in the meta with the discussion tag or can I post it in the regular exchange?
Is it similar to this question?: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/65664/can-a-professor-post-a-grade-online-and-then-change-it/68559
No. This has to deal with non-academic medically verifiable circumstances directly impacting performance/completion of work in one or multiple classes within a semester and whether that type of situation rises to the level of retroactively allowing a "drop" notation (or something similar) on the transcript for that class.
Okay, but whatever you do, please include your country and also explanation of things like grades in the question. (Many people odten assume in answers and questions that every university is in the US.)
Thank you for the reminder of that, that is important to note. I would have been guilty of making that assumption if you had not said anything. To note, it is a large state university in the U.S.
Note that your question also seems to be of the "a student does not agree with a request from a professor where it is not totally clear that the professor is wrong"-type. Those questions tend to be downvoted (most users here are profs/instructors) and be prepared to be bombarded with a lot of comments that, given some circumstances, the professor is very, very obviously doing the right thing.
I see your point but I'm not dealing with the professors anymore as the semester is over. This is an administrative question now. Contrarily, I think many of the professors who taught the classes would likely side with me if they were informed of all the details. In fact, one of the professors even did and was incredibly helpful and allowed work to be completed after the semester. Another professor could not physically do that because they left the university after that semester so the dean maintained that the grade stood, however I never got to hear the professor's opinion on the matter.
This is turning into a discussion on the actual matter now and I'm unsure if a discussion about it in the meta is inappropriate. However, to be less vague and give a clear picture of what is going on. I personally believe the dean is dealing with my situation in a prejudiced and biased manner. The health issue is one of mental health. I have given incontrovertible and explicit evidence from health care providers that this seriously impacted my decision making and ability to function. The dean maintains that I "had a choice" and "must live with the consequences of my decisions".
I may be rambling, but I want to post here explicitly because there are many profs/instructors. I'm trying to get unbiased thoughts to see if I'm being treated unreasonably. I'm very open to the possibility it may be perfectly reasonable but I'm really really struggling to see how.
I'm going to suggest that this question is unfortunately not a good fit here. No matter how general, this is still going to rely pretty heavily on details specific to the situation, making it unlikely that you could even get a useful answer here, much less one that would be helpful to others as well. I recommend working with peers, advisors, and administrative guidance rather than general help from us strangers.
The reason I'm turning here is because all I got from advisors/other admins is essentially "talk to the dean". I did and I strongly disagree with the dean's decision. I recognize that this is my opinion and still respect the dean's opinion. However, I feel I have such a strong case and that is why I desired to do a temperature check here to see if either party is being unreasonable. I'm open to the fact that it may be me. From what you said, I realize that this is too personal for this forum. I still seek an unbiased third party though, is there any resource at all where I could find that?
I understand your goal. Still, it's unlikely that you'll find a good answer here. No one here is familiar with your situation. Your best bet for unbiased third party views is colleagues in your university who are untouched by your specific problem but who are aware of university policy and other relevant details.
Thank you. That actually sparked an idea, I will likely reach out to a member of the student board to see if they have any insight to offer or could point me to someone who could help.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.643951 | 2020-02-11T17:15:50 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4663",
"authors": [
"Andrew",
"Jack",
"cmorse",
"eykanal",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/111388",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/119316",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/14512",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/14515",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73",
"user111388"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5259 | Should users with actual or perceived conflicts of interest disclose these conflicts in comments?
Suppose I work for a large multinational corporation that sells reference management software. Due to my job and previous academic career, I have a lot of experience in managing references. As such, I answer a lot of questions about these topics. Since I have an actual or perceived conflict of interest, I often disclose that I work for the company in my answers.
Disclaimer: I work for Acme Reference Management Corporation.
However, comments are shorter and ephemeral.
Suppose someone asks a question about Acme Reference Manager asking how to do something and complaining about the expensive plugin the company sells to do that. I comment under the question:
I think 50 USD / month is a very reasonable price for the AI-powered Magic Reference Suggestion™ plug-in. The training of the model required accumulating hundreds of thousands of papers and it works amazingly well.
There's barely any room in comments, and discussions may go back and forth.
Should users include a disclaimer in their comments when they may have or appear to have a conflict of interest?
In your example I would suggest you to refrain from posting that comment entirely, instead. Does that comment suggest an improvement to the question? No, it just tells us your (biased) opinion on the matter.
Yes, they should. I think it's sufficient to mention when entering the conversation rather than in every particular comment, but it's just a simple ethical obligation to let other people know about your relationship to a company or institution when you're talking about them.
I'd add that someone in this situation has a conflict of interest, whether that conflict affects the content of their message or not. A conflict of interest doesn't mean someone is allowing their content to be affected by those interests, it just means that there exist interests that are in conflict. The correct behavior in that situation is to give the audience the contextual information they need to evaluate the advice.
I think this is an ethical obligation on individuals, though, rather than something that moderators can enforce generally. We don't know, can't know, and won't try to know everyone's affiliations here. We would certainly take action in cases of self-promotion under existing policies against spam, but conflicts of interest have a broader scope than those rules.
Of course the hypothetical me in the vignette has an actual conflict. Just a typo while trying to make the question more generic, but I'll leave it for context.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.644551 | 2023-02-16T15:29:42 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5259",
"authors": [
"Federico Poloni",
"Ian",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/120956",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/958"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
4773 | Why has this been voted down?
I have a question about my Academia Stack Exchange post: Concern data is too limited for thesis chapter
I asked a question yesterday requesting advice from anyone who has experience writing a PhD thesis on how to deal with scenarios where your experimental procedure isn't extensive enough, and I explained the circumstances why.
Instead of anyone tackling the question, I got a downvote and a snide comment that questioned my account of my own experience. Is there any point engaging on this platform, or am I more likely to be judged and dismissed?
One downvote means almost nothing. Your question is unlikely to get a useful answer from anyone who has not seen your data.
A few quick reactions:
Your post didn't get much attention (good or bad) - only 54 views. Most questions do eventually get an answer, so I would hang in there. Not sure why you were downvoted, but downvotes can be capricious, especially when it's just one single downvote. Example: just today, we had a highly-upvoted feature request, and my reply (let's do it) was downvoted. Baffling.
I don't think scaahu's comment was judgmental or dismissive -- on the contrary, they were asking for a useful piece of information. In fact, you should edit your post to incorporate the information, rather than simply replying.
A bit of editing can go a long way. For example: your title has no question mark, ICP-OES is undefined, there is only text (as opposed to bullets or bold text), and there is little attempt to separate the general question from your specific situation. Not a big deal -- your post quality is about average, I'd say -- but anything you can do to make your question more readable is likely to lead to more views, which leads to more votes/answers.
Thank you for the advice, I updated the question as advised; it's easy to forget that ICP doesn't anything to most people when it's been my life for three and a half years! I found the comment snide because of the quotation marks around faulty, I'm maybe defensive because of my experience at my university when dealing with the technical staff; it was not nice being made to think for years that I was at fault and not knowing where the issues lay, the sneering was nauseating!
That does sound infuriating! RE your edits -- not exactly what I meant. Would you mind if I took a stab at editing?
Wouldn't mind at all! Would be grateful in fact!
Thank you so much! Your writing style is infinitely better than mine, huge help!
For what it is worth, ICP-OES is inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy. It is a powerful method for ultra-trace metal determinations, but it is not something that just runs without needing frequent calibration. Simple things like gas flow changes, solvent issues, nebulizer issues, etc., always must be carefully considered. And internal standards are used: an ICP is not a black box like, e.g., a simple single beam spectrophotometer.
@user18483 Cag51 said most of what I want to say. I am going only to say what they didn't know. I did not downvote the question. In fact, I asked you the question because I saw the downvote, I was trying to help you to resolve the possible downvote reasons. That's all.
@scaaahu thank you, everyone has been of great help and i am very grateful.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.644799 | 2020-08-04T23:59:33 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4773",
"authors": [
"Anonymous Physicist",
"Ed V",
"Nobody",
"cag51",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/109931",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/128016",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/13240",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/546",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/79875",
"user18483"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5231 | Why is it possible to edit old (older than a couple of weeks), already closed questions?
I would not expect the editing of closed questions to be allowed. If the question need something to be redacted, would it not be easier to do this before closure?
It brings a bit of noise to the SE:academia landing page. What is the official view on the utility of this feature?
The theory is that closed questions should be edited and re-opened. Questions that are truly unsalvageable should instead be deleted. So, questions that are closed before they are answered will be automatically deleted if they are not edited and reopened within a certain time period. And thus, editing old closed questions is not really a thing, just as you suggest.
In reality, of course, there is a snag: many questions find themselves in the awkward place where they are correctly closed and should be deleted, but they have already received several upvoted answers. These closed questions tend to stay on the books "forever", since there is no way to salvage them by editing, but we do not want to sacrifice a well-received answer. But the best-case outcome for these questions is still that someone could make a valid edit and the question could be reopened.
It's true that minor edits to closed questions tend to clog up the homepage. But, our homepage is not exactly overrun with thousands of posts per day, so I'm not too concerned about it. I suspect this is a bigger issue on some of the larger sites. Certainly I would not want to discourage people from making genuine improvements to their questions, even closed ones. What we do strictly disallow is "vandalizing" old questions (which people resort to because the system won't let them delete).
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.645081 | 2022-12-22T10:38:58 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5231",
"authors": [],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5394 | Can this question be re-opened?
I edited this question to make it as less opinion-based as possible. I think this question would really be helpful for users more generally, and although the answers do have some opinion attached to them, I've found that to be the case for other open questions. I'm also considering adding my own answer to this question if it is re-opened. Could this question please be re-opened?
I rejected the edit, but voted to reopen. In my opinion, this question is one of those opinion-based that should not be closed, but possibly protected.
I doubt that it can be reopened unless people vote that way, but you raise an important general idea.
I think that some "opinion" based questions and answers are actually quite valuable on this site and this may be one of them. There are some things that are important, even vital, in academia for which there is no real consensus and a search for policy is valuable.
This site is, among other things, a gathering place for people with experience in all of the nooks and crannies of academia. We have seen success and failure. The advice of such folks as ourselves on questions like this are worth some flexibility in the rules (IMO). How to select a good advisor is a pretty vital question for many doctoral students. There are lots of posts here about the consequences of getting it wrong.
Some questions here, even those not opinion based, are looking for advice, not just answers to questions. We can ask whether this is the right site for that, but I know of no others with the same potential impact.
I agree with you and voted to re-open. Academia has several non-written rules that are learned by personal experience and transmitted person-to-person. Opinion based answers backed up by personal experience and supported by the community are still valuable, especially for those that are first generation academics.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.645234 | 2023-12-16T10:08:41 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5394",
"authors": [
"Anton Menshov",
"The Doctor",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/17246",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/56594",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/83941",
"peter"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
4830 | Downvoting without commenting
I had asked a question a few days ago on the main site. However, it was downvoted. I'd edited the answer to fit what the comments wanted me to clarify but it was downvoted yet again. I'd also requested in comments to specify why it was being downvoted, but there was no response. It currently has 2 upvotes and 5 downvotes. I've noticed that whenever someone sees a downvote, they go on to downvote it more. On other StackExchange sites, I've been helped by the comments and downvoters to help improve my question(s). I'm new to this site but while I cannot actually contribute by answers, I want to make sure that I'm asking the right questions in the right way.
https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/325416/why-isnt-providing-feedback-mandatory-on-downvotes-and-why-are-ideas-suggestin https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/135/encouraging-people-to-explain-downvotes - in summary, comments are available for people to explain downvotes, but nothing requires people to explain votes. When people do explain them, often people argue with them, sometimes rudely, which may discourage them from commenting in the future.
My impression is that votes don't mean so much - they are correlated with the question contents, but a very large role seems to play if the user has a good reputation here (not neccessarily measured in reputation points) or if they are new.
@Iceberry I wouldn’t pay too much attention too up voting and down voting.
I didn't vote on this question, but I can report that you currently have four close votes: two for "needs more details / clarity", and two for "opinion-based." I am not sure if the down-voters followed similar logic to the close-voters, but it seems likely.
I would not have predicted that this post would be so poorly received. But, I can make some comments:
You ask about India, Europe, and the US, in both research roles / other positions. That's a bit broad. I realize you may be open to considering a wide variety of options, but you would probably get better answers if you limited your scope to, say, grad schools in the US. You can then look around a bit to see how the requirements for grad schools and industry positions generally differ.
At essence, your question is "how much will grades matter for those who went to school during the pandemic?"
This is hard to say, since the pandemic isn't over yet and the last pandemic was before the digital era. So, some may feel that it's impossible to answer your question at this stage. (Others may feel that even speculation from those with experience doing graduate admissions would be valuable).
Further, I think you raise the uncomfortable truth that even though committees might be empathetic to the difficulties of the pandemic, there is still a need to choose X students from N applicants (with X << N), and grades are one of the few available metrics. (This doesn't justify downvoting you, but it may be that our downvoters don't "like" the question because there is no good answer).
Your title has no question mark, and your first paragraph makes several "empty" statements about education during the pandemic. In some sense, this shouldn't matter, since you do clearly enumerate your specific questions. But it is a fact of life (on this site and elsewhere) that questions with unnecessary verbiage tend to not be received as well.
Mostly I'm in the 'hard to say' camp. For example, I know how much the pandemic impacted my then high-school senior. Talking with a co-worker about their now-senior child I realized there are way more issues for them, and that any lessons to be learned last spring have almost no bearing on what is happening now. And that is for undergraduate admissions which is more formulaic than graduate admissions. We are truly in the WHO KNOWS??? phase still.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.645411 | 2020-11-11T04:50:39 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4830",
"authors": [
"Bryan Krause",
"Jon Custer",
"Ryan James Carson",
"bordart",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/111388",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/123306",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/15166",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/15477",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/63475",
"user111388"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
4854 | Patronizing and irrelevant comments and closing questions out of spite
Please, take look at this question:
What is a good rule of thumb for the cost of a Postdoc, in the US at an R1 university
The first comment said that it is apparently a well known fact that the ballpark estimate is to double the salary.
The answer confirms this fact.
So apparently there is a simple, agreed upon, answer to the question.
Yet, the question is closed. Why?
Because the first comments (now deleted) wanted to know "why I was asking that." And also wanted to "teach me" that it's "worthless" to know a ballpark estimate. And so on. Of course, I replied appropriately to these condescending, patronizing comments which did not improve anything, just created noise.
People, then, closed the question, most likely out of spite.
Is this childlike behaviour appropriate?
"Of course, I replied appropriately" - That's not what I seem to remember ...
You raise an extremely important point. I have found very similar strangeness on the Stack Forums. There is often a small group of heavy users who flock to new questions and scrutinize them. They often can justify their claims but don't seem to understand that when you scrutinize someone everyone loses. They come across rational but often have thousands of points on the forum which makes for lots of leeway to be police-like without concern for losing status. The cold rational personality can also be passive aggressive in such circumstances which makes the OP actively angry.
@Ootagu "when you scrutinize someone everyone loses" - everybody wins if experienced users screen new answers and help to improve them.
The intent of scrutiny matters greatly. No one benefits from scrutiny that is clumsy enough to be felt.
@TLDR Does scrutiny always have intent?
@RyanJamesCarson in what I understand of common parlance, scrutiny is performed or overseen by a conscious entity, who would endow the act (or 'scrutari') with intent. I acknowledge scrutiny should probably not be conflated with forms of curiosity whose associations with trash are less pronounced.
@TLDR “Don’t use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do”.
Mark Twain
@RyanJamesCarson acknowledged.
@henning--reinstateMonica I suspect our opinions on this have crossed. Having experienced, or even simply helpful advice whether from experienced users or not is certainly helpful in the sense of having a coach to guide us; in that sense I agree with you. I have met some such people on Stack forums. What I was attempting to convey were people who have no desire to assist but rather crudely enforce rules. I have met far more of the later type of people than the former coach-oriented people on Stack forums.
I think you have been told several times what the problem was.
In the now-deleted comments, Terri Loring wrote:
The trouble with this question is that it is location specific. In some countries the postoc will pay higher taxes and get health coverage. In a few countries, the university needs to cover the cost of health insurance and that is generally passed on to the PI. There will be variation between universities in the same country. The current question is very broad and probably will gather misleading answers.
Lighthouse keeper wrote:
It's usually a good idea to give a reason [why you are asking the question] because many questions on this site come from flawed premises, and the most helpful response is to correct the premise rather than to literally answer the question.
Finally, I wrote:
Most open/close decisions here are made by community vote, not by moderator fiat. If you edit your question, it will be placed in a queue for a reopening vote. The hard part of question-asking is the amount of detail: it should be specific enough that there is a correct answer rather than an open-ended discussion, but general enough that future readers might find the question useful. In your case, a good starting place would be to specify your country (or part of the world) and field.
Now I see that you have added a location, which is good, but still no field (even a general field, like laboratory science vs. history) and no hint of why you want to know the answer. You may feel that we can provide a good answer without knowing these variables, but the community apparently disagrees.
I replied appropriately to these condescending, patronizing comments
Let us be honest about what happened. You told one of our most respected members "haha oh lord, how can people be so anal?" You also wrote "Due to bullying and peer pressure, I have unnecessarily reduced the scope of the question. Hope you are happy now? Or should we waste our time making it more precise?..." Even in this meta post, you call us condescending, patronizing, spiteful, and childish.
This is against our code of conduct (which a moderator pointed you to). We do not allow "subtle put-downs or unfriendly language." If you feel that other members were unfriendly toward you, you should flag for moderator attention rather than responding in kind.
I will also point out that some of our members have been here for years, helping thousands of people with no reward. In contrast, you have been here for two days and have already unleashed a barrage of personal attacks. As in "real life," you will seldom be able to advance your agenda when you make others defensive and hostile.
[How to move forward?]
You did the right thing in posting to meta. Setting aside the above issues, I actually agree with you that this was a straightforward question that got "massacred." It is true that things will vary school-to-school, but I think your request for a "ballpark" for a particular country and field is very reasonable.
So, my suggestion would be that you edit your post to specify a particular field (e.g., history or experimental chemistry) and then we reopen. Explaining why you want to know would probably lead to better answers, but I wouldn't consider that mandatory. But this is just my suggestion, not an "official decision" -- we will see if any other community members respond to your post with other suggestions.
The question was correctly closed for strongly depending on individual factors. Pay, benefits, and overheads vary a lot in the US.
Some countries have pay and benefit standards set by government or union contracts. If you asked such a question about one of those countries, it might be on topic.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.645725 | 2020-12-31T18:49:45 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4854",
"authors": [
"Ootagu",
"Ryan James Carson",
"TLDR",
"davidhigh",
"henning no longer feeds AI",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/123306",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/124237",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/15231",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/31917",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/67964",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/94941",
"user151413"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
4933 | "off-topic" flag was declined, but post was migrated anyway?
I recently flagged a post as "off-topic and unrelated to academia". The flag was declined. The post in question was migrated to another SE site, though, indicating that it was in fact off-topic and unrelated to academia.
So why was my flag declined, if I seemed to have been right in my judgement?
Bear in mind also that the community generally moderates itself. Most posts that are "off-topic and unrelated to academia" are handled by users with enough rep casting close votes without diamond moderators ever needing to get involved.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.646252 | 2021-06-15T04:25:32 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4933",
"authors": [
"Lazzaro Campeotti",
"cag51",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/15454",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/79875"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5140 | Grammar error in close-dialogue
So this is surely not the most important problem ever, but ever since I noticed I cannot unsee it.
Shouldn't the close-question dialogue window (see screenshot below) not rather say:
This question doesn't meet an Academia Stack Exchange guideline.
as "Academia" starts with a vowel?
This is a general problem. See this Meta SE question.
@Wrzlprmft and there is nothing anyone can do about it?
Well, you need to convince SE to consider this worth the effort. Maybe have a look at this.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.646341 | 2022-03-14T08:58:31 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5140",
"authors": [
"Sursula",
"Wrzlprmft",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/133549",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7734"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5190 | Should we establish a canonical question for "What to do when receiving no/delayed response to my email?"
Quite often, questions like this recent one are posted, all with the same tenor:
I was in contact with a professor/supervisor/etc. about a position/PhD program/masters program/etc. , and they seemed to think I am a good fit. After initial contact I sent them a follow up email to which they did not reply (yet). It has been XX days since I wrote the email (sometimes as little as 3 days if I remember correctly), should I write a follow up email/call/etc.?"
I think there must have been 10 or so questions like this within the last few months.
So the question is: as this seems to be a common issue, should we make a canonical question about the etiquette and strategies when waiting for an answer? Or is this problem to profane for that and we simply keep on linking them to the oldest such question and close as duplicates?
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/90725/how-should-i-phrase-an-important-question-that-i-need-to-ask-a-professor
@AnonymousPhysicist This definitely is not the right fit
There is a well-written older question, How to get people to reply to emails and what to make of a no response?, that is quite general, and should be a good duplicate target for at least some of these questions. It does not currently address how to interpret a sudden switch from open communication to apparent radio silence, but could potentially be modified to cover this.
This is indeed a better dupliacte target than the one suggested by Anonymous Physicist.
Unfortunately, the answers to that question don't talk about what to actually do when someone doesn't reply.
@Buffy I think that is hard to address in general as it can be very situation- and person-dependent, but if you have a good strategy on how to handle people not responding after follow-ups I would encourage you to consider adding it to your own answer to that question.
I dug around a bit. It seems like there are a few different question types under the same umbrella:
I am an e-mailing someone about an academic matter (research or teaching). Why am I not getting responses to my e-mails? How can I improve my likelihood of getting a response? For this one, I think this question already covers the ground well, as Anyon suggested. Perhaps we could also edit it to add a link to this one that AP suggested.
I am a student e-mailing professors I'd like to work with. How to interpret lack of response? Should I e-mail again? Here is an example.
I am a student e-mailing professors I'd like to hire me. Is my way of writing e-mails good? This isn't exactly what you suggested in the proposal, but I think a good answer to #2 will need to cover this ground, or link to a post that covers it. This question seems like a good example, as it explains the most common mistake people make and how to avoid it. We can also add a note explaining that this only applies to countries where you apply to supervisors directly (i.e., not the US).
I have a PhD and am e-mailing people about post-docs or jobs, but not getting responses. This one is an example.
My empirical sense is that #2 (and by extension, #3 also) is by far the most commonly-recurring question. If we were going to make a new canonical question, I would suggest focusing it on this. But I suggest we start with the following:
Clean up these four posts by editing, perhaps merge in any other good answers from duplicate posts and add links to related post, and
Close questions that are duplicates of these four questions. That will make these four questions easier to find, and will prune some of the questions that cover the same ground less thoroughly.
After that, if we want to make further changes, or want to raise any of these four to "canonical" status, we can discuss in a separate thread.
Thank you for you research work and I think the proposed solution is good. Do you have to do all the work or can we as non-mods help in reaching the solution?
Sounds good, and thanks for the help! Editing old questions is "always okay" and can be done by anyone, so making any necessary edits to the four questions above (or to better candidates than the ones I found) is most welcome. Similarly, if there are duplicates that should be closed as duplicates, or ones that have good answers we want to merge, help finding those is super helpful, just provide the links here. I'll wait a few days to make sure both this answer and Anyon's seem to be what people want, and then I'll work through that list.
I was under the impression we already had a canonical question.
I do not see a need for a change.
I don't think "Is ignoring emails acceptable in academia?" really covers (or should be expected to cover) when/whether to send follow-up emails or switch to other means of communication.
I don't think this question is very helpfull for these kinds of situations where the OP is trying to get a Phd/postdoc/masters position, as this differs from students trying to reach someone while already at their university. They cannot simply drop by and ask. Also, i think the reasons for not answering emails in cases like this might be different (e.g. the prof in question is not so sure if they are indeed a suitable candidate anymore after meeting the OP or has met better candidates in the meantime and instead of saying no, they try to sit it out until its to late).
Anyon's answer is better.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.646430 | 2022-08-12T07:02:02 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5190",
"authors": [
"Anonymous Physicist",
"Anyon",
"Buffy",
"Sursula",
"cag51",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/13240",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/133549",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/17254",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/75368",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/79875"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5501 | Can a valid linked solution to a question still be considered spam?
This answer to an older question is at the moment in the "first answers" queue:
You're not the first, and you certainly won't be the last to explore
this area. Nowadays, there are plenty of tools available for
extracting data from graphs. Recently, my choice has fallen on
https://splinecloud.com/features/plot-digitizing/. It's a convenient
and user-friendly tool that, in some aspects, even surpasses its
competitors. I hope you'll find it helpful as well.
I am reluctant to mark it as "ok", as I find it borderline spammy. There are other answers that link to other solutions as well, but the phrasing of this answer feels off to me - it reads more like an advert than a genuine recommendation. Nevertheless, I had a look and the linked service seems to offer a solution to what OP was looking for in their question.
So my question (as per the title): can a valid link-answer still be considered spam?
FWIW, I also saw the answer and considered it spammy enough to do some basic spam checks (prominently whether the author is advertising their own product).
can a valid link-answer still be considered spam?
Yes, absolutely. Most notably if a user is associated with a company but does not disclose that association when recommending that company's products. Or if most/all of a user's posts are promoting a company's products, even with disclosure. When in doubt, it's best to flag such things; mods have a few extra tools we can use to investigate.
As for this post, I am not sure whether it is spam, but it is definitely not an answer. OP is asking for advice on how to get the paper authors to provide the exact values. Inferring the approximate values from the graph is not of interest (and even if it were, I strongly doubt that using third-party plot digitization software is necessary; reading a graph is something that any high school algebra student should be able to do).
FWIW The currently highest scored answer also recommends a tool for data extraction. It also offers some commentary on details, but doesn’t seem to address the question itself any more thoroughly.
Well, the last sentence of that answer is arguably an answer to the actual question. I agree that part of the answer should be expanded upon, but that user insists on writing in a very concise style.
@cag51 I've actually extracted a bunch of values from plots recently for a power analysis. If you're looking at scatterplots, extracting values from the graph is pretty straightforward.
Of course it is; as I said, any high school algebra student should be able to do it. But inferring from the graph is not equivalent to having the actual values from which the graph was made. It's as if I asked for the exact time something happened, down to four decimal places, and someone "answered" by assuming I didn't know how to read an analog clock and recommending software to do it for me.
Note that what is spam and what is not is a judgment call by users and mods. It isn't precisely defined. In particular, some things are marked as spam when the writer does, in fact, disclose their relationship either in the post or in their profile. So, disclosure is not the whole story.
The judgement comes in from an analysis of the post itself. What does it contribute beyond a recommendation of a product. If an answer points to a product and does, in fact, provide a useful answer to the question (or if a question provides a valid question), then it might not be considered spam.
But if the post simply says "look at this product and you will find an answer" then it might be considered spam. That is the case, I think, even when the writer has no link to the product. That is to say, it might be considered spam, not that it will be. Judgement of the community is needed.
To be honest, I find the guidance on spam to be less than completely useful. There may be too much leeway in the guidance for the judgement to be correct. I think it mostly works, and have marked many posts as spam. But other factors in a post can influence voting, including what I've seen as prejudicial comments.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.646953 | 2024-12-09T04:29:05 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5501",
"authors": [
"Azor Ahai -him-",
"MisterMiyagi",
"cag51",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/154257",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/37441",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/79875"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5492 | Canonical question for guidance on letters of recommendation?
I feel like there are quite a lot of questions concerning letters of recommendation recently, often always the lines of:
Should I rather ask person A with background X and interaction history Y or rather person B with background Z that I have not interacted with extensively?
other issues include:
number of letters
occasion specific guidance for letterr
regional specific issues for LORs
I wonder if a canonical question that provides a general guidline on recommendation letters would make sense? Many of these questions are kind of the same, but differ a bit because of personal circumstances, put are often general enough to not be closed for depending too much on personal factors. Yet there is a lot of repetition, and many suggestions overlap.
Still thinking about it, but this seems like it might be a good idea. If others agree, are you volunteering to draft such a question / answer, or would we need to find a volunteer? I think we’ve had a couple canonical questions now that were green lit but never made it to the writing stage due to a lack of volunteers. (In fact, in the last 30 months, there have only been 2 canonical questions, and I wrote both of them.)
@cag51 I can try to draft something from existinig answers, but this really is not my area of expertise - I never had to get a letter of recommendation (in Germany they are less important anyway). But as I said, I can start something from existing answers or maybe even better try to find a question that is general enough for it to be made into the canonical question.
@cag51 Took a stab at at it. Might go dig up more links later.
We receive many questions about how to select recommenders, especially
because there is usually a limit on the number of letters.
For differences between countries, see this question,
but in general, Americans tend to write very effusive letters compared to
Europeans, which can sometime cause confusion when cultures clash.
But this post is about how to select letter-writers.
There are a few dimensions to consider, and your potential letter-writers
will vary on all of them. One of our goals with this canonical question is to
avoid every possible permutation of new/old professor, knows me well/doesn't,
etc.
Primary factors
Letters should be specific to you and work you did. A letter-writer who
knows you well is better than one who you only took a class from, even if
the latter publishes more. A generic letter is bad.
Letter-writers should be able to talk about your suitability for the grad program at hand. If you're applying to a PhD program, a person with a
PhD is better than someone else (e.g., your boss, a medical doctor).
Likewise, a letter is more likely to be successful if the program has
previously had successful applicants recommended by your writer.
It's best if your letter-writer succeeded in the kind of program you're applying
to. A PhD student's letter may not be suitable for PhD admission, but may be an appropriate choice for a post-bacc program or scholarship, etc.,
if they know you well.
Seniority is a consideration. More experienced scholars will be able to
offer perspecives from their long career, especially if they have a history
of making good recommendations and satisfy the conditions above. That said, you do not need to ask the
Nobel laureate down the hall instead of a mentor who has worked with
you for a while.
Asking instructors or non-academics
The best letter-writers are those who have supervised you as an independent scholar.
Someone you have only taken a class from is a last resort; if you do
ask you should have done very well in their class, preferably upper-division.
Finally, for academic programs, you should try to get all academic
letter-writers. Sometimes, this isn't possible, and someone who knows your
recent work (i.e., a boss) is better than a professor you took a class with
4+ years ago.
Summary
If you're applying to graduate school, hopefully you have at least one
primary mentor who can help you select your other letter-writers.
But to summarize, your letter-writers should know you well and be able to predict that you will be successful.
Finally, give them a lot of heads-up! A month before the due date is a common
minimum timeframe.
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12959/who-should-write-a-recommendation-letter?rq=1 Here is a question that might yield some more relevant info
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/96786/reference-letter-personal-vs-prestigious
Your #4 isn't so one sided. In a fast changing field, we old buzzards may not be as up to date on what is needed as the young hawks. Number 3 and 4 might not align.
@Buffy Feel free to edit, although I said "a consideration."
@AzorAhai-him-: I think we're good to go; feel free to post it. People can continue to edit / add once it's live as CW.
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47373/how-do-i-effectively-solicit-a-strong-letter-of-recommendation-from-a-professor/47374#47374 covers much of this
It was actually formed as one.
Scott's answer is excellent. Perhaps we could migrate some of the content from this answer into the "ask the appropriate people" section and then make that a canonical question. Though, canonical questions are usually community wiki.
I think this is a good idea.
I recommend that the title / scope be: "Who should I ask to write a letter of recommendation?" And then the canonical answer should cover:
Who to choose among multiple options (there are many different permutations here, so for this to be a useful dupe target, we should explicitly cover many different classes of potential recommenders -- e.g., all possible academic ranks, and all possible types of relationships with the recommendee).
What to do if you can't find or think of a recommender
What a good or weak letter looks like (since this will influence the above choice), as well as any known differences between cultures or fields
Whether "extra" letters are helpful
Would also include regional differences
What is the process for actually turning the suggested answer into a canonical question? Since posting this, there have been several more questions about this exact topic and we have been linking this meta question, but it would be great to get this to the main site
I agree. I'm not sure why Azor didn't make a post on the main site with the above text. And @Scott's answer is also excellent, so maybe we should merge with that rather than making a new one -- though I'm not sure if Scott wants his post to made CW. Either way, the next step is for there to be a CW post on the main site along the lines of what was discussed here, and a mod can add the "canonical" tag to that.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.647304 | 2024-11-04T08:15:48 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5492",
"authors": [
"Azor Ahai -him-",
"Buffy",
"Preet Sangha",
"Scott Seidman",
"Sursula",
"cag51",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/133549",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/17634",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/20457",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/37441",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/75368",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/79875"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5476 | Canonical "Can I publish without supervisor" question?
On a recent question (What kind of publications can I submit on my own without the need of supervisors approval?), xLeitx commented that
It's starting to feel like we need a CW question "How can I do thing X that I know my advisor is going to be upset about without consequences?".
I then searched a bit specifically for "publishing without supervisor", and found all these questions:
Publishing without academic supervisor
Can PhD students publish papers as sole author without including their supervisor?
Can I publish a research paper without notifying my supervisor (the corresponding author)?
Can I publish a paper during my PhD study without notifying my supervisor?
Can two PhD students publish without involving their supervisors?
Can I publish an article or thesis about my research without supervisor?
Can a PhD student publish a paper outside PhD topic without supervisor approval only by its own?
Publish a paper without supervisor
These have a slightly different focus of publishing without the supervisor after a thesis is finished:
Can I publish a paper on my PhD work without informing my old supervisor?
Can I publish a part of my master thesis without having my master thesis supervisor as a co-author?
PhD four years ago; can I publish a paper from PhD work without my supervisor's name?
These are more focused on the how and why:
When should a supervisor be an author?
PhD students publish without supervisors – how does it work?
How to tell my PhD supervisors I want to publish without them?
I am pretty sure there are even more questions that are essentially the same, I did not look at all the results.
My question is, should we indeed establish a canonical question on how, when, why (and why not) to publish without a supervisor, or should we at least merge some of these questions into a single one, where the most relevant answers are put? As this kind of question gets asked somewhat frequently, it would surely be useful to have a fitting duplicate target.
What do you think?
If so, it would seem to be a question that had many answers, perhaps one per field.
I support this idea. It's partial field specific and parity advisor specific. A lot these questions seem to have underlying interpersonal relationship problems too, especially a lack of communication.
I agree, either a new canonical question or just combining some of the existing duplicates. I suspect it will be hard to know what the best way to do this is, until someone takes a stab at it.
@cag51 A question, is there a way to create a draft post that others can look at (e.g. if they have the link), but is not yet published on the site? That way, we could start working on this, but only put it out to a greater audience once satisfied with the content.
Yeah, I am with @RichardErickson. My comment was not really about "how do I publish without my supervisor", although I am sure this question has come up numerous times. It's really about questions of the form "I know my supervisor is going to be upset if I do X, how can I do X anyway without them being upset?".
(publishing without them in fields where this is not common is one example, but there are others - collaborate with people your supervisor does not approve of, follow a research strand your supervisor dislikes, etc.)
@Buffy Not sure if it needs one answer per field. I doubt that there is any field where you cannot publish alone, even if your supervisor supports the idea. That support may be easier or harder to get depending on discipline standards, but that's not really something we can help with. The problem with most of the linked questions seems to not per se be the "publishing alone" part, it's that the student failed to get buy-in from the advisor and now wants to do it behind their back.
@Sursula: what I normally do is create a post (maybe just with nonsense words) and then delete it. Then you can edit it and share the link (for >10K users) and undelete it when it's ready to go.
To move some ideas from the comments into an answer:
Yes.
I think an answer to Canonical "Can I publish without supervisor" question? would be good for this site.
I think this answer should cover the nuances that:
This is field specific:
Some fields allow/encourage/expect graduate students to have independent publications.
Other fields do not allow/encourage/expect graduate students to have independent publications.
Sometimes this is advisor specific.
The usual underlying problem is interpersonal communication and many (most?) of the linked posts include some elements of interpersonal conflict person the poster and their advisors. Specifically, only the poster's advisor can answer this question.
Funding. Both direct and the indirect effects on expectations. Does the advisor fund the student through a grant or similar process or is the student funded directly through a third party such as a Teaching Assistantship, outside scholarship, or similar process? Also, what resources does the advisor contribute such as laboratory resources or advanced computational resources?
The use of "expectation", "allow", and "encourage". Some advisors will not allow independent publications. Other expect them from their students. This is field and advisor specific.
Which fields disallow graduate students from having independent publications even in principle, and on what grounds are such policies introduced?
@Anyon in my experience, life sciences including natural resource fields. Especially "applied" fields where the advisor brings in the funding for the student. In my case, my advisor told me that anything I was an author on in grad school would likely have his name too. Especially my graduate work because he was the mentor (in hindsight, I see how much work mentoring takes).
@Anyon I don't know of any formal policies, but looking at https://credit.niso.org/, my mentor helped for every paper with conceptualization, supervisor, funding, writing and editing (and other criteria as well for most papers),
The type of research and funding certainly affects the likelihood of having or pursuing independent publications also in the natural sciences. Funding sources, lab access, advisor attitudes, and other factors can play a big role. But that is, at least in my mind, qualitatively different from a field not allowing a student having independent publications.
@Anyon You are probably right that "allow" is too strong of a word. I think that this canonical question should have at least two answers, one for math/CS(?) where an independent publication is an expectation of PhD training, and one for the fields where it isn't.
@AzorAhai-him- I think the "expectation" versus standard is a good word choice. I like it and how frames the situation without judgement. Also, closely related is funding sources. When students and their research are primarily funded by RAs through grants, the situation is usually different compared to when students are primarily funded by TAs and do not the same level of financial support for their research.
You make valid points, and I think you should add that to the answer.
@Anyon Good points. Qualitatively different, but functionally not. Also, it ties into overall atmosphere and the specific student-advisor relationship. I honestly think that's the most important part. I feel bad for most of the OPs because their main problem seems to be interpersonal relationships rather than academic norms.
@RichardErickson Agreed that many of these questions are mainly about the relationship with the advisor/supervisor. By the way, I think it'd be worth generalizing the funding discussion somewhat. Focusing on RAs and TAs paint a US-centric picture.
@Anyon I'm not familiar with other funding models (other than pay-as-you go self-funding or rare national fellowships like the US NSF). Can you elaborate on them?
@RichardErickson I think the crucial distinction is whether or not one is funded by the advisor's/supervisor's money or not (be it grants, startup money, etc.). I think that translates pretty well across borders. It also generalizes the answer questions about other career stages. One might also highlight that the funding is relevant to more than just the salary - in the US a student might be on a TA position or unpaid (e.g. undergraduate students) but conduct research requiring resources provided through some type of grant.
@Anyon In particle physics, all publications go through a Collaboration internal editorial board. You cannot publish without their approval. Every once in a while someone tries, usually in an attempt to gain personal glory, this never goes down well and quickly descends into lawyer territory.
@Marianne013 I learn something new every day! Are the blaze of glory people ever grad students?
@Marianne013 Good point. Such internal rules and review procedures (whether internal to a formal collaboration or an institution) should be followed, of course. But I don't think that rules out independent publications for the entire field (especially not if defined broadly enough to include hep-th). Even LHCb's procedure (the version I found is from 2011, so possibly out of date) seems to allow for independent publication of LHCb-related papers only using "previously published data, and involve no use of software that has involved significant investment from the rest of the collaboration".
@Anyon Things are a little complex in the UK. THe most common form of PhD student funding in the UK is a government funded Doctoral Training Program. And the most common way that these work is that the programme awards a scholarship directly to a student, but only for a project designed by the supervisor and approved by the DTP leadership prior to the student recruitment round. These scholarships usually cover tuition-fees, living expenses and some (but generally not enough) research funds.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.647791 | 2024-07-02T08:34:35 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5476",
"authors": [
"Anyon",
"Azor Ahai -him-",
"Buffy",
"Ian Sudbery",
"Marianne013",
"MrMeritology",
"Richard Erickson",
"Seitaridis",
"Sursula",
"cag51",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/133549",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/17254",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/17561",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/17564",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/33210",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/34571",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/37441",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/75368",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/79875",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/82972",
"xLeitix"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5101 | Is there a way to easily propose tag deletion except by making a meta post?
This post had the tag t on it - I have edited the post and deleted the tag. But once created, the tag continues to exist. From the looks of it, this tag was created by mistake and should thus be deleted. Yet, on the tag site, there is no possibility of flagging a delete-worthy tag (or I did not see it.)
Is there an easier way to bring such a tag to attention of users of sufficient reputation than to make a post here?
Thank you for removing the tag!
There is a daily script that automatically removes the unused tags, so no need to take any further action.
perfect, thank you for that info.
I tend to look at the "New" tags every day. Often enough there is a tag there with a single question but no tag wiki. Sometimes I'll leave it (and think about appropriate wiki). Sometimes I'll edit the question and supply other tags instead, deleting that one.
I left persistent-identifiers and reprint as they seem to me to be useful, though the latter still has no wiki.
Not every keyword in a post should be a tag (IMO).
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.648747 | 2022-01-17T08:33:01 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5101",
"authors": [
"Sursula",
"The Almighty Bob",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/133549",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/16084",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/16086",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/16104",
"valderman",
"xuhdev"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5374 | User keeps on suggesting offensive edit, can this be stopped?
For the third time in less than 2 days there is an attempt to get an highly offensive edit through for this question:
On re-instating a suspended scientist
Me and any other reviewer so far rejected the edit as spam, but what I can only assume is the same - anonymous - user is not giving up and keeps on suggesting that edit. They really stick to their agenda.
In the end this is only a minor incnvenience but it still wastes peoples' time. So my question, is there the possibility to block that user even though anonymous, or to block that question from being edited altogether? As it is not really possible to flag a suggested edit I am asking this question here.
There is supposed to be an IP blocking system, but I suppose any such block is easily evaded.
or maybe the number of rejected edits is not yet high enough for the block
Possibly. I do not know what the cutoff is. That said, I think you're rather understating the extent and persistence of this vandalism "campaign" in the post. I count 10 such attempts over the last week in the review history.
@Anyon ok, than I was lucky not to have been the reviewer of all of these, but then probably the block should have kicked in by now.
The blocking system has a couple of known flaws. Would blocking all anonymous edits work for your site? Because that can be requested.
@Mast I personally think that would be a good idea, but I would put that up for voting and also see what the mods think.
I suspect this rejected suggested edit is from the same anonymous user.
@Nobody probably yes, I thought the same thing - it came up shortly after I posted this question here, so it seemed a bit "revengy".
I saw another one of these edits today. The vandal is nothing if not tenacious.
@Buzz, yeah, 6 times yesterday and they even started to do this with another question...
@Buzz I think the mere fact that pretty much only regulars of the Suggested edits review queue see it, is the best course of action. That's what we are here for.
Criminy, this jerk is persistent.
@Buzz Remember, always be civil :))))
We moderators are aware of the situation and think that no intervention is necessary as of now. The system is working and, while it may be a bit annoying, we are not overwhelmed. If you see such an edit in the queue, just reject it as abusive.
While locking this particular question or disabling anonymous edits altogether is possible, we would consider it to do more harm than good in this case.
For whatever it’s worth, roughly two thirds of anonymous edits on this site were accepted (through review or the post’s author).
Do we know the anonymous user's IP address ? If we do, can we match it with the registered users' IP ? I have the guts feeling this anonymous user is a registered user.
and the edit suggestions keep on coming, I had two more since I posted this question.
aand another one
@Sursula: Remember: It takes more time for you to write this comment and me reading it than rejecting the edit.
I remember we force the users to register before they post to decrease spam posts. Can we do the same for Suggest Edit ?
@Nobody: That would go even further than disabling anonymous edits altogether.
New/Low rep (<2k) registered users can still do Suggested Edit. We already disable un-registered post which is almost anonymous post (they can always use fake user names). It's not that we don't want to reject bad edits. We do. But, too many bad edits are annoying and troublesome. Just like too many spams are annoying and troublesome.
@Wrzlprmft I get what you mean, but: to me this feels bad on a more profound level. Its a bit like having someone write a low-key insult or a profanity with an erasable marker on my window each morning. It takes a second to wipe it away and doesn't really hurt me, but I still have the pressing urge to make it stop alltogether because its just not nice to have to deal with such kind of stuff repeatedly.
@Sursula: I would rather compare this to you being the neighbourhood watch that scares away the perpetrator such that nothing gets written on any window in the first place. That’s the inevitable ugly side of being a (community) moderator: You deal with crap, so everybody else doesn’t have to. Also, while at first glance this seems like a case where you can push some button to make the problem go away, it probably isn’t.
@Wrzlprmft The IP should be blocked by the system in 2012. But, why isn't it working on our site this time ? Or the user knows the system enough to use different IP addresses ?
@Nobody: I can only answer this to the extent that the system is working.
Ah, thank you. I got it. Your answer explains a lot.
@Sursula It's certainly okay for anyone to take a break from reviewing suggested edits for a moment, others will pick up the slack.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.648899 | 2023-10-19T13:14:23 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5374",
"authors": [
"Anton Menshov",
"Anyon",
"Bryan Krause",
"Buzz",
"Mast",
"Nobody",
"Sursula",
"Wrzlprmft",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/133549",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/17254",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/21558",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/27515",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/546",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/56594",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/63475",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7734"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5302 | After a month of moderator strike, is there any update on the situation?
It's been more than a month now that the events that led to a moderator strike here on academia SE and other sites on the network took place. Is there any movement towards a resolvement of the situation or any other developments that point towards the strike finding a postive outcome--that is, the overall policy is changed / changed back so that the issues that led to strike in the first place are suffienciently adressed for the striking moderators to feel like they can return to there moderational business.
Or does "corporate" simply seem to try to wait it out?
I already posted somewhere, but I post it as a refresher about how the "corporate" system works when comes to acknowledgment of the unpaid work from moderators and enthusiasts that builds communities:
https://brenontheroad.com/the-end-of-couchsurfing/ (a bit extreme, since couchsurfing what about physical hosting and not exchanging knowledge). My personal opinion is that SE will soon reach the third accident, and nothing more (it will be always free ... free in the sense of free hosting of people opinions and feedbakcs to be sold further to other corporate clients)
Interesting article. The whole idea of couchsurfing is perhaps anti-corporate in a way that this (mostly) technical site is not. But I agree that many of the clashes we are observing are precisely because the site's goals (metrics, profit) are not the same as the power users' goals (quality, respect). And the company surely realizes this; indeed, I wonder if the reason they've let the strike drag on for so long is because they are collecting data on what would happen if they altogether ended meta and/or volunteer moderation.
Updated: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/391847/moderation-strike-results-of-negotiations
The most recent update (that I have seen) is here. In short: negotiations are underway and have already agreed on an improved AI policy, renewed data dumps, and (what boils down to) a pledge to do better. This last one seems to be the sticking point: our negotiators are pushing for a binding (in both directions) agreement that can't simply be violated like all the past agreements have been, but it is difficult to find something workable.
So far, though, nothing has changed; even the new AI policy (the most important element to me) has not been circulated yet (i.e., I don't know what it says). Once the new AI policy comes out and the negotiations on the remaining items start to converge, it will be time to decide whether to get back to work or to resign.
Update 7/22: the same link above describes some more recent progress, including some new policies (e.g., about when SE will speak to the press about moderators) and a new procedure that mods can invoke if SE breaks its own policies. There are still some loose ends, but it sounds like things are converging.
Update 7/27: seems like it's almost over -- the old AI policy has been retracted and published openly, the company has publicly committed to maintaining the data dumps, and a new AI policy is expected to drop shortly.
That mostly seems like good news. The remaining point seems.... odd. In what way could SE bind themselves that would actually stop them breaking their word? Short of a contract with specified penalties (which seems unlikely to be signed and even more unlikely to be enforced) this would seem a bit futile.
Thanks for the updade.
Well, now everything makes more sense.
Just to be clear, I was talking about the announced entry of the company into the generative ai arena
@ScottSeidman Their announced plans to use GenAI with the site did not require that they do anything to change community policy about posting AI content, though.
@BryanKrauseisonstrike of course not, but my personal assumption is that the two product lines will be synergistically marketed, and that can't happen unless AI generated content is allowed.
@ScottSeidman Thanks to the moderator strike, it appears the company will again allow bans of AI content to be enforced. It's unfortunate we came to it this messy way rather than simply having a conversation at the start.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.649432 | 2023-07-04T07:52:17 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5302",
"authors": [
"Bryan Krause",
"EarlGrey",
"Flyto",
"Jon Custer",
"Scott Seidman",
"cag51",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/128758",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/15477",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/20457",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/63475",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/79875",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/8394"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
4999 | 2021 Community Moderator Election Results
Moderator election #4 on Academia has come to a close, the votes have been tallied, and the new moderator is:
They will be joining the existing crew shortly — please thank them for volunteering and share your assistance and advice with them as they learn the ropes!
For details on how the voting played out, you can download the election results here or view a summary report online.
Congratulations, Bryan!
Two awesome candidates in this election, thanks to both of you for running!
@GoodDeeds Thank you! and thank you very much for standing. All your efforts here and especially your focus towards curation are very much appreciated.
Congratulations to Bryan for joining us and a big thank you to both candidates for participating in this hot summer (but also winter) election!
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.649782 | 2021-08-24T20:09:32 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4999",
"authors": [
"Bryan Krause",
"GoodDeeds",
"Watercleave",
"cag51",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/15664",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/63475",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/68109",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/79875"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5212 | Make list of saved questions accessible during "Duplicate" dialogue
The new feature of organizing saved questions into customizable folders came online a few days ago, and I think it is great. I started a folder of "duplicate targets" for questions that are well, good duplicate target as very similar questions tend to pop up regularly. That list includes canonical questions as well as others.
That being said, I wonder if it were somehow possible to access this list (not this list in particular, but my personally saved list of question) while in the "Close as duplicate" dialogue? It would make the process smoother and faster, as I would not have to open another tab with my list, chose the correct link and paste it into the close dialogue window. As I don't recall the specific phrasing for those questions, it is not that trivial to simply find them by typing a few words into the bar to get suggestions (if it were, I would not need to save questions in the first place).
If this request gets a good number of upvotes we may be able escalate it to the SE staff (see here for an explanation on how escalation of feature requests works).
How is this different from "canonical questions"? But I, too, have problems finding duplicates or even knowing they exist, though the sidebar gives some hints.
https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3824/what-potential-duplicate-targets-should-i-know-about-as-a-reviewer
@AnonymousPhysicist The OP is probably well aware of that Q&A, but their request is to have the possibility of having a list of saved (the new available feature) links readily available when closing a question as duplicate., without the need of jumping to another page and copying a link.
@MassimoOrtolano Exactly.
This was recently requested on the main meta: Access to save lists in the close as duplicate modal.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.649889 | 2022-10-10T07:01:59 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5212",
"authors": [
"Anonymous Physicist",
"Anyon",
"Buffy",
"Massimo Ortolano",
"Sursula",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/13240",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/133549",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/17254",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/75368"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5250 | Move the "Academia varies more than you think" question to the main site?
I recently linked the "Academia differs more than you think" meta question in a comment on a question on the main site. And started to wonder why this question is on meta and not as a canonical question on the main site, as it contains actually a lot of content that would be (IMHO) be better suited for the main site and not meta.
So my question is: should we migrate (or duplicate) this good and informative content from meta to the main site in the form of a canonical question?
“in the form of a canonical question” – I would certainly opt against that part. This question should almost never be a duplicate target on the main site. If anything, every individual point deserves its own question.
The question is way too old to be migrated.
@Laurel: We could ask a CM to migrate for us. IIRC, they can easily migrate without age restriction.
Strongly agree with cag51's take. The question is almost definitionally meta, by the usual definition of the term... it's not focusing any particular aspect of academia, but highlighting the difficulty of answering academia-related questions.
For me, since it's not a question about any of the things on this list, but is particularly useful to keep in mind when answering those types of questions, it belongs on Meta.
it's not a question about any of the things on this list – I would rather say that it’s a question on all of the things on that list, in all fields, compared – which does not necessarily make it better suited for the main site.
One can certainly describe it as broad and open-ended.
This is a tough one:
The intent of the linked question is to remind answerers not to overgeneralize from their experience. It's less useful for askers. In fact, you could look at it as a policy, or at least a best practice.
On the other hand, we normally draw the line between the sites by saying that while many questions on the main site are "meta about academia," questions on meta should be "meta about the site." By this definition, much of the content in the linked question does seem better suited for the main site.
Note, I converted this analysis to an answer to avoid answering in the comments; however, this answer does not take a position either way. So, we will not consider upvotes/downvotes on this answer when deciding what to do.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.650065 | 2023-02-09T11:01:58 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5250",
"authors": [
"Anyon",
"Laurel",
"Wrzlprmft",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/17254",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/56207",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7734"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5245 | Why/when are questions posted on the academia.SE twitter account?
When looking at the edit-history of a question, I saw that it had been posted on twitter by the academia.SE twitter account. I do not really use twitter and never knew that this account existed. I had a quick look and there are more than 20000 posts on twitter by that account.
Just out of curiosity: who decides which questions to post on twitter or is this an automated process for questions that gain a certain amount of votes in a certain amount of time? Is it linked to HNQ status?
And why post questions on twitter at all? Will this not lead to a voting bias for those questions (in the sense that those questions will receive more votes this way than they normally would, making them appear more important than other questions)? Or are they in fact more "valuable" questions and thus worth posting on twitter?
Thank you for asking this question. I have been wondering about this for over ten years. My biggest concern is that would the Twitter posts make the questions HNQ? If so, why do we sometimes remove questions from HNQ list? Or, the other way around, HNQ induce Twitter posts? if so, why not also FB and other social media? Is this SE wide? or only Academia SE?
https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/183407/386376
The answer now is never, no more tweets.
who decides which questions to post on twitter or is this an automated process for questions that gain a certain amount of votes in a certain amount of time? Is it linked to HNQ status?
It is an automated process. There is a "hotness" algorithm, which requires among other things a positive score. I don't think the full algorithm has been disclosed, so it's unclear whether it's tied directly to HNQ status. Empirically, it seems that all questions are tweeted before they become HNQs (but not all tweeted questions go on to become HNQs).
And why post questions on twitter at all? Will this not lead to a voting bias for those questions (in the sense that those questions will receive more votes this way than they normally would, making them appear more important than other questions)? Or are they in fact more "valuable" questions and thus worth posting on twitter?
Agree that this leads to a hugely multimodal distribution: questions that get tweeted or become HNQs can easily reach 1K views, whereas questions that do not almost never get more than 500 views. Though of course, the most interesting questions are the ones that are promoted, so this is partially correlation rather than causation. But to the extent that the number of views (and votes) correlates with question quality at all, it is certainly not linear.
Perhaps most concerningly, the first few hours are critical: if a question starts out bad but is then edited into an amazing question within a few hours, it is probably too late for the question to get promoted. In some cases, it will even be stuck with a hugely negative score that it no longer deserves.
But overall, this is a feature not a bug; by making the most interesting questions more visible, we can attract new users to the site.
Can you give a link to that twitter feed? I couldn't find it.
https://twitter.com/StackAcademia/
update: came across one question that became an HNQ before it was tweeted.
My guess is that there are a certain number of slots for HNQs, and a certain tweet frequency rate, so it's effectively two different queues.
"Perhaps most concerningly, the first few hours are critical" - is there a potential issue, then, with the time the question is published at? That is, do questions posted at 4 AM EST "perform" worse than those at 7 PM EST?
I suspect there are optimal times to post, though I'm not sure what they might be. But I was referring more to question quality -- a poorly-written question that gets cleaned up after a couple of days will have a much worse outcome than if the cleaned-up version had been posted in the first place.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.650272 | 2023-01-18T03:52:45 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5245",
"authors": [
"Buffy",
"Laurel",
"Lodinn",
"Nobody",
"cag51",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/145124",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/546",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/56207",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/75368",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/79875"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5495 | Where is appropriate to ask about O1 experience and process of people who are in academia and science?
would you help me and direct me to right forum about O1 visa.
I know that minimum requirements are 100 citations but I would like to gather experience and impressions of members who went through the process.
Please let me know where is appropriate to ask this question?
Stack Exchange is a place for specific questions and answers.
It's not a good place for open-ended gathering of experiences and impressions.
Specific questions about visas can be on topic at https://expatriates.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic - search first to see if your question has been asked before. But do not ask for impressions and experiences: bring a specific question that you need an answer to.
I’ll just add that chat would also be appropriate here — this stack’s main room is the Ivory Tower. Though traffic there has been quite low lately.
Ok maybe I worded wrongly but I was about to ask for academic part of application @Bryan Krause. Not about overall impression. Just about bureaucracy
@looktook What would the title/one sentence version of your question be?
@BryanKrause What evidence from academic achievements strengthens an O-1 visa petition?
How can early-career academics demonstrate "extraordinary ability" for an O-1 visa?
How should academics document "original contributions of major significance" for an O-1 visa?
Is serving as a reviewer for academic journals strong evidence for an O-1 visa petition?
Does leading a research project qualify as "a critical role" for an O-1 visa?
@cag51 what is ivory tower?
@looktook: https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/2496/the-ivory-tower
@cag51 ok, i posted there, but i look like some sort of metachat with links
It is our regular chatroom, can be used for most purposes. Though like I said, it has not had much traffic lately, so you may or may not get a reply.
@cag51 can you take a look at my potential question
@looktook: I don't have much to add to what Bryan wrote. Your potential question asks to "gather experience and impressions of members who went through the process," which is not what we do here. We are a Q&A site. You could try to recast it as a question, but even then, it's a very specific question, so it'll be hard to find people who are qualified to answer it. Reddit would probably accept the question in its current form, but no idea if you'll find a qualified answerer over there or which subreddit to use. Sorry I can't be more helpful.
@cag51 NO! Take a look at all questions I proposed. Read above
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.650560 | 2024-12-01T15:14:51 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5495",
"authors": [
"Bryan Krause",
"cag51",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/136508",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/63475",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/79875",
"looktook"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5084 | Which stackexchange should I use?
This stackexchange is "meant" for people working in academia or PhD students. One can feel that undergraduates are only "somewhat tolerated". I have written several questions that I ended up not posting (some of them do violate the guidelines, I understand that this site has its purposes and I respect that). I still do not know the answers to these questions.
I'm currently on my last year of undergraduate studies, in Europe, but as an international, and thus I have a lot of questions. There are many weird factors at play, so my question is: Is there a stackexchange suited for people in my position (that is, confused soon to graduate kids)?
Probably not on StackExchange. Note that SE makes no claim to "span the space"; there are many questions that do not fit on any SE in the network. These include both questions that "could" belong on a SE (for example, we currently have no SE about the Persian language, though other languages do have an SE and a Persian one might be created in the future), and questions that are not a good fit for our format at all (e.g., "What is the best kind of apple?" will never be on-topic, regardless how many SEs we open).
Off site, I sometimes see people get directed to reddit, though I personally have no idea which of the subreddits are complementary to us.
Regarding undergrads: these days, our stance is that we don't take questions about undergrad admissions, life, or culture. Everything else is OK, including questions about coursework, advising, ethics, graduate admissions, etc.
But I suspect the real problem might not be that your questions are off-topic, but that you are not phrasing them in a way that is likely to generate answers. Looking at this one as an example, let me give some hints:
This seems like a duplicate; we have many, many questions in our archives about how to handle letters of recommendation when you don't have many strong relationships with professors. This one, for example. If you've already read these questions but your issue is not resolved, you should make sure the difference between your question and the existing ones is clear.
The title doesn't have a question mark, and when the question finally appears (in the third paragraph), you ask "is the assertion above true?". Being crystal clear and very direct about what you're asking is very important (both here and in real life).
We also recommend posting one question per post. Adding another question in the last paragraph tends to make things incoherent.
Counter-intuitively, shorter tends to be better. I would challenge you to rewrite the question using half as many words. People can always ask for more details in the comments.
Most questions about academia that are not allowed on this site are best answered by an academic at your university. Ask one of them, or ask them who to ask.
If I could ask an academic at my university I would have done it instead of resorting to "anonymous strangers online". I am an international student, there are barriers. I think that some of the academics are wary about mis-steps when dealing with international students. I can definitely tell that some prefer no interaction, rather than risking bad interactions.
Since the people answering questions on this site are from a variety of questions, it's still an "international" interaction. This might be the best help you can get: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/90725/how-should-i-phrase-an-important-question-that-i-need-to-ask-a-professor
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.650760 | 2021-12-23T19:15:50 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5084",
"authors": [
"Anonymous Physicist",
"AyamGorengPedes",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/13240",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/141751"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
4935 | Can I dissociate my username from a question?
I made a "burner" account to ask a question on this exchange, since I wanted to keep it separate from my personal account. However, upon completing email verification, it seems to be linked to my account now.
Is there a way to dissociate a question from my account after it's been linked?
Yes, just flag your own post as "in need of moderator intervention," make your request in the text box, and we'll take a look.
Note, we do try to discourage this because the moderators actually have to forward the request to the SE employees, and we want to be respectful of their time (among other downsides as described in the post that Bryan linked). But we do approve these as appropriate.
You can request dissociation through the Contact link at the bottom of the page, but see How do I remove my name from a post, in accordance with CC BY-SA? for some of the limits and things to consider first.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.651049 | 2021-06-17T15:29:38 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4935",
"authors": [
"Stéphane Gimenez",
"benxyzzy",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/15465",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/15469"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5447 | Positive feedback for Ph.D. students, negative feedback for me
There are many questions on the Academia forum by Ph.D. students, who have run into mental or physical problems. Or who have a dispute with their Ph.D. professors.
Usually these questions are well received. The questions get upvoted. There are nice answers giving useful advice to the OP.
I have once asked a similar question, about my interactions with my Ph.D. professors. It happened 30 years ago, after I had obtained my Ph.D. and when I was unemployed. Instead of helping me find a job, my professors asked me to help them to write a book. Without any payment. Their idea was that by becoming a co-author my chances at the job market would improve. [Needless to say this never materialized.] I asked the question whether my professors' behaviour was ethical.
The reactions to my post were all negative. I was ridiculed for asking a question about something that happened 30 years ago. Why? I got down-voted. And the question was closed. Why?
Are you asking about this question: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/176815/is-it-unethical-to-ask-an-unemployed-academic-to-be-an-unpaid-co-author-of-a-boo ? It has been heavily edited at this point.
Yes. It seems someone wants to restore that post.
First, you seem to have vandalized your question. This is not allowed here, and I have rolled it back. It's impossible to tell how many of the downvotes on your question are responding to the vandalization.
Second, our help center states that you should ask only about "practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face." Given that this situation occurred 30 years ago, and you couldn't articulate a present-tense problem that you were trying to solve, it is not surprising that your question was closed.
Indeed, I wrote three years ago:
what do you want us to tell you? Do you just want to hear us say "yeah, those guys were unethical jerks, they took advantage of you"? Or are you asking us to assess whether they violated professional ethical standards and you could get them in trouble? As it is...[this] is more of a rant than a question.
You never responded, but this is the key question. It is not our role to adjudicate disputes, and particularly not disputes that are 30 years old. But if you could have articulated a present-tense goal (such as getting them fired or getting paid for your work), we could have advised you on that. Since you couldn't specify a present-tense goal, we can only assume that there isn't one. After 30+ years, some old injustices can no longer be corrected but only become moot.
Third, your postscript indicates that you had already contacted the relevant authorities, and the authorities indeed (1) took your complaint seriously and (2) assured you that this sort of thing would never be allowed to happen today. Which is great, it sounds like you've already achieved the best possible present-tense outcome. So there is no "actual problem that you face."
When my post got ridiculed, down voted and closed, I decided to delete it. Now when a post is closed, the OP normally gets the choice between deleting the post or editing it. In my case the delete option was blocked. You can call my behaviour "vandalizing" but that is just a fancy choice of words.
Yes, it is our policy that you cannot delete posts with answers, since that would be unfair to the people who took time to write answers.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.651153 | 2024-04-27T17:58:22 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5447",
"authors": [
"Jon Custer",
"M. Wind",
"cag51",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/148242",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/15477",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/79875"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5127 | conference / url answer deletion
I'm not sure my answer got deleted on the right grounds (rather abruptly I might add).
Why would the organizers of an online conference ask poster presenters not to include any URLs or hyperlinks in their poster?
The question is about a very specific conference (rather than conferences in general), and therefore the answer validly was about the framing rather than directly: contact said conference to ask them about their reasons, rather than have us guess here what their specific reasons are, and perhaps ask for exemption of this rule. Until deleted it got the most upvotes amongst the (presumably) academic users on here, so it was considered useful and would have helped the question asker!
I'll give others a chance to answer (since I wasn't involved in this decision), but I would point out that the question is actually not about a very specific conference. The question was "Why would the organizers of an online conference ask poster presenters not to include any URLs or hyperlinks in their poster?" The reference to AAAI 2022 was only an example. If the question had been asking us to comment on a particular conference individually, then the question would be off-topic, since we cannot read the minds of conference organizers.
To expand a bit on what @cag51 points out, if the question can be answered with "ask them", we usually would close that question as "Strongly depends on individual factors" rather than having a large number of questions on the site with answers consisting of simply "ask your advisor/the editor/the committee/etc".
The question specifically says "The following instructions sent to poster presenters" - this implies the author is not merely citing this conference as a random example, but is involved in it. It would at least be polite to ask the asker themselves if this were a satisfactory answer (or not) before pressing the delete button.
(It was I who converted that answer to a comment.)
There are several points to consider here:
The question as written asks about what are good motivations for the rule in question. I consider this a good question for this site since it translates to other conferences, is valid for more than a month, and the answers provide general insights on conference organisation. The other answers primarily address this aspect. While it may have been as efficient for the asker to ask the organisers, having general answers here may quickly inform others having the same problem later.
Most importantly: Your answer was about how to find out the organiser’s motivation and how to handle a potential problem arising from this rule. The asker did not ask for either of these and I see no reason to assume that he was unaware of the possibility to communicate with the organisers. This makes your answer an answer to a different question. It was also flagged as not an answer. We might envision a future visitor who actually has the problems you are addressing, but they can still see your comment or ask a different question (although we might need to close that one, see below).
Due to the above, your answer cannot be compared to the other answers in terms of correctness, plausibility, etc. One might say that your answer should be upvoted on account of being correct or downvoted on account of not addressing the question. This is a primary problem with some non-answers and why we delete them: They receive a lot of upvotes on account of being correct but actually de-rail the question.
Moreover, the question is a hot network question, i.e., it receives many visitors who can upvote but not downvote.
Therefore I do not think the amount of upvotes is a good indicator as to whether this answer should be deleted or not.
The asker primarily asked about “some online conference” and only gave the specific conference in parentheses. The asker did not say anything about his role in this. He may be a poster presenter, but he also may only know somebody who is. Moreover, to answer the question there is no need to make assumptions about the asker’s relation to the conference or his motivation to ask this question. He may even have tried to ask the organisers or refrained from doing so on account of not being involved in the conference. Finally, if you are unsure about the asker’s motivation for a question (and it is relevant to answer), the first step would be to ask them to clarify in a comment (or close the question as unclear).
The only way I see to consider your post as an answer would be as a frame challenge. However, then it breaks all the general rules for these. In particular, assuming that the asker did not even consider communicating with the organisers is somewhat patronising.
Let’s assume for a second that “ask them” really is the one thing that helps the asker. Then the question would be have to be closed for depending on individual factors. This close reason exists because we got tired of writing that answer all over again and such questions lead to other problems. However, as I reasoned in the first bullet point, I do not think this close reason applies to this question.
In general, you should almost never post an answer that can be boiled down to “ask them”. Either, the question should be closed for depending on individual factors, it needs clarifications, or the answer needs more substance.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.651420 | 2022-02-09T22:05:48 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5127",
"authors": [
"Bryan Krause",
"MiG",
"NlightNFotis",
"Roy T.",
"cag51",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/152902",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/16175",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/16178",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/63475",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/79875"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5311 | Why were people upvoting spam
Earlier today there was a massive spam attack. One very disturbing thing that I noticed was people upvoting spam. This isn't actually only happening here, I've seen it a bit on other sites too. So, this is a reminder. PLEASE DO NOT UPVOTE SPAM! Thank you, and have a nice (hopefully spam free now) day.
I didn't see this wave, so can't actually say what happened, but it doesn't require upvotes in order to bypass the system rate limits. It's quite possible to bypass the rate limits without upvotes. Being upvoted does make it easier, due to relaxing the restrictions, but it's not necessary. Without upvoting, spammers have been successful in bypassing the rate limits in the past by about an order of magnitude more than was done here. Upvoting would have more effect if SmokeDetector was currently running, because SD does take the poster's reputation into account to apply/not apply some rules.
To have some stats, I have tried to get from SEDE recent upvotes on the posts flagged as spam: https://data.stackexchange.com/academia/query/1768143/recent-spam-posts-with-upvotes (I have briefly mentioned this query in chat, too.)
I suspect the majority of spam upvotes come from accounts involved in the spamming operations. You'd just need a few initial upvotes, whether accidental or from non-spam posting (possibly aided by chatGPT) to bootstrap to a point where you can upvote a couple of spam accounts to a point where they can start upvoting other spam accounts. If those accounts do not get removed quickly it can just snowball from there.
But some high rep non-spammer must have upvoted spam
This has some merit as many spam accounts cast votes (ex.https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/173525/spammer?tab=topactivity)
Well, it is possible some high rep non-spammers have upvoted spam, whether from accidental misclicks or from trying to "feed the fire", but what evidence is there for that being a major effect? Given how organized the spam operations have appeared as of late, I really would expect them to try to get a couple of accounts to 15 points (or over the limit for the association bonus across the network) in a seemingly legit way, and later use them for nefarious upvotes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE
"But some high rep non-spammer must have upvoted spam." See https://chat.meta.stackexchange.com/transcript/89?m=9521536#9521536
Another possibility is that different spammers accepted each other's posts, which requires no rep at all and then snowballed from there. But, if non-spammers upvoted these, please don't. There is no excuse.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.651926 | 2023-07-07T15:14:27 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5311",
"authors": [
"Anyon",
"Hannah Vernon",
"JRN",
"Makyen",
"Martin",
"Starship",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/153110",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/17254",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/22966",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/64",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/648",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/71906"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5239 | What is a "Hot Question"? Who and how is it defined?
How and what and who define a "Hot Question"?
In fact "This question body does not meet our quality standards. Please make sure that it completely describes your problem - including what you have already tried - and is written using proper grammar."
Where have I committed the error?
What are the criteria for questions to be selected for Hot Network Questions?
"Hot Network questions" are defined here.
But the error message you describe has nothing to do with "hot questions". Rather, it is an explanation for why your question has been closed. Questions are closed if they are not a good fit for our site. For example, this question was just closed. The problem is that it is not a question we can answer.
Actually, it's not clear what the question is. The only question mark in the post says "is there any global consensus on...this issue?", and it's not clear what "issue" you are referring to.
My best guess is that you are asking "how much information from my formal education do I need to remember in my active memory?" But this depends on your goals and your philosophy of life; no one on Earth can tell you whether you remember "enough."
I suggest looking at our site description and some of our all-time top questions to see the kinds of things we can help with.
Thank you. I believe "We" you referred to means humans with voting power/reputation and not Search Engine analytic reports.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.652141 | 2023-01-09T05:39:51 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5239",
"authors": [
"Anyon",
"Muraleedharan Koluthappallil",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/164709",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/17254"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5262 | Are questions about figures and statistics in academia (e.g. number of students, researchers, etc.) off-topic?
To give some context, I have a quite simple question (i.e. the number of international doctoral students in the US), but I have two different sources that give apparently conflicting figures. Would it be appropriate to ask a question about it on this website?
I asked a similar question on the opendata stackexchange website a few weeks ago without getting answers. But now I'm wondering if the academia website would be more appropriate for this question, as the bottom-line issue is not strictly about getting data, but rather about understanding why sources are conflicting on this subject.
Anyway, besides my particular question, I guess that it's interesting to know if we can ask this kind of academia figures/statistics question here, or if it's off-topic.
I'm not used to this website at all, so forgive me is my question is ignorant. The pages https://academia.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic and https://academia.stackexchange.com/help/dont-ask did not really clarify things for me, even if the "vibe" I get from them is that this kind of question would be off-topic.
Thanks,
This is a good question. I'm not aware of any past discussion on this topic.
My view is that "questions about academia itself" are manifestly on topic on an Academia StackExchange. This includes the history of academia (see this interesting question) as well as requests for statistics about academia (like this one), in addition to various questions about "how academia works," which are somewhat more common here. But this is just my view, we will see if others disagree.
Even given this view, though, I would add two cautions:
Most of our users are practicing academics (professors, researchers, college instructors, students, etc.). We don't really know these statistics offhand, and our "back-of-the-envelope" estimates are probably the sort of estimates you could make yourself. We could search Google and read the reports we find, but you could do that as well. So, while I think such questions should be allowed here, it is true that our expertise in this topic is limited.
Statistics change over time and methodologies vary. This is not the best fit to the StackExchange format. Ideally, answers should provide enough detail that future readers, years from now, should still be able to benefit from the answer even if the bottom-line number is no longer reliable. But this guidance applies more to answers than to askers.
Thanks! This is a quite clear answer. I note the two caveats you mention. I'll also wait a bit before accepting your answer, to see if others disagree. By the way, thanks for pointing to the question on student international movement, I'll have a look at it (and may even answer it as it's a subject I work on, even if the question is 10-years old).
There is surely some useful insider insight that we practicing academics could provide, for instance observations like "maybe source #1 reports a larger number because it does not count co-supervised PhD students", or "the data about research assistants in Sikinia is high because it includes PhD students under third-party grants". From reading the question, it looks like this is exactly what OP is looking for.
So I eventually posted my question, here is is the direct link if someone were to search for it in the future: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/194192/number-of-international-doctoral-students-in-the-us-how-to-reconcile-oecd-data . Thanks again for your useful answer!
Just a caveat. While your question seems fine and didn't ring any alarm bells for me, I appreciate it when the asker of such question says why they want to know the information. Sometimes it is just curiosity and sometimes there is an action item behind it. Normally fine. I don't (can't) require that information, but appreciate when it is given. It sometimes helps one to format an answer also.
But it isn't our job here do so research for those asking questions. So if a question seems like the asker is looking for research data here, I'd consider it off topic.
That's not intended to disqualify questions the answers to which might appear as, say, a reference or explanation in a paper, however. It can be a bit subtle.
Thanks for the advice! I added an explanation to my question (I originally omitted it to avoid making the post too long).
Related to this is the XY Problem I often point askers to. Often when askers pose a question without context of "why", they are asking about their proposed solution to a problem when it would be far more useful to them to instead get answers about the original problem. If someone asks "how much force does it take to puncture 0.5mm tin" they may get answers, but would be helped far more if answers realized that they needed only to be introduced to the concept of a can opener.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.652286 | 2023-03-10T19:15:59 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5262",
"authors": [
"Bryan Krause",
"Federico Poloni",
"J-J-J",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/165748",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/63475",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/958"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5434 | Inconsistent outcomes on two similar questions
We've recently had two extremely similar, indeed related questions concerning mathematics culture:
How do you respond to people who say pure mathematics has less value than applied mathematics because "it doesn't have any practical application"?
What can I tell a student I am mentoring who claims: "I want to do pure mathematics because it is superior to any other subject in the world"?
The first has been closed and left closed after a reopen vote. The second remains open, and as far as I can tell at my rep level the close votes haven't been resolved.
As a primary point, I simply want to urge those with queue access to make a decision one way or another. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the state of that question. But it was my experience when I had queue access that question closures seemed occasionally to be filibustered, and I'm guessing that my speculation notwithstanding that this one's sitting in limbo. Either we need to vote to keep it open (and discuss resolving the inconsistency between the two outcomes), or we should close it in a timely way to respect the time of the trickle of users who continue to answer it currently.
As a secondary point, I really do think these questions highlight the downside of our very permissive policy regarding HNQ removal. These are, to my mind, questions that may have been okay to leave open if the HNQ effect didn't so dramatically warp the otherwise usual upvote/downvote patterns.
Update: perhaps as a result of this post, the first question got five reopen votes (mine being the fifth) and has been reopened. It remains eligible to be re-closed in the usual way, however.
@cag51 Thanks for pointing it out! I'd vote to close them personally, but at least we have some consensus on the two. If I only had energy, I'd try to argue for a return to consideration of our HNQ policy. These questions seemed fine to me, then attracted a bajillion bad opinion-based answers that we can't police well.
Just as an update, we have for a few days now obtained the opposite situation. Q1 is open, and Q2 is closed. @cag51 Since you're my primary correspondent on this question. I guess I'll plan on waiting a week in case it reverses, but this is turning into one of our more curious cases for awhile in my view.
both are open again (Q2 already had 4 reopen votes, so I was able to cast the 5th, no superpowers required).
@cag51 ah, great. Spares me brain cycles. These two seemed controversial, so probably not the worst that a mod "broke the ties" in both cases, lack of superpowers required notwithstanding.
Personally, I think both should be open. The first one is a bit borderline, but I would err on the side of leaving interesting borderline questions open.
That said, I don’t think they are truly symmetrical. One is about formulating an opinion in a way that will convince the general public; the other is about advising a student who has made (academically) extreme statements. The latter is more closely tied to academia generally and is about a concrete situation the asker is actually facing.
I respect that you think these should both be open-- I disagree, but I consider the underlying moderation question they present challenging and recurrent (HNQ screws over a borderline question with a lot of opinion answers). I'd push back somewhat on the contention that they aren't symmetrical from a moderation standpoint, though. The referent on who needs "convincing" is hypothetical in both cases. The first could be converted to "an academic" as the referent, for example.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.652665 | 2024-04-09T21:17:01 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5434",
"authors": [
"anomaly",
"cag51",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/17411",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/176372",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/79875",
"user176372"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
5505 | What grounds does my question have for being closed?
I don't think my question warrants being closed for depending on individual circumstances.
It doesn't depend on supervisor's preferences, university, or rules. I am just asking for general feedback on what decisions inform deciding a PhD topic. It could be selective to anyone who is answering based on how they decided. The whole point should be to ask personal questions about academia. If you can only ask factual questions then nothing personal could be asked, and it is useless to have a community group for academia.
Meanwhile, posts that are about academic loneliness are approved. How is that any less dependent on individual circumstances? If you cannot ask a question where there is at least some personal aspect where do you draw the line?
General Advice for Deciding a PhD Experiment?
We tend to frown on questions about picking research topics, they do depend far too much on the individual involved even if you insist otherwise. We also frown on questions asking for open-ended lists.
Isn't the topic of the question one of those things that people enter graduate programs to learn?
There isn’t some personal aspect in that question. There is an unbounded number of personal aspects in that question.
It currently asks for any factors worth considering in deciding a PhD topic. By not specifying these things, it asks this for any person in any domain in any circumstances.
Answers would be about an arbitrary combination of choices for each, and the applicability would depend on whether those happen to match your case.
Note that the "strongly depending on individual factors" close reason is about unknown individual factors. You might be able to salvage the question by specifying some of these so that answers don’t strongly depend on guessing them.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.652961 | 2024-12-28T18:28:00 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5505",
"authors": [
"Bryan Krause",
"Scott Seidman",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/20457",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/63475"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3910 | a moderator deleted my answer under false pretence: offensive/spam
I have a question about my Academia Stack Exchange post: Is "Assistant Professor Position (Tenure Track) for a female Researcher" illegal in Austria?
A moderator kept deleting my answer under the pretence it's spam/offensive. I don't believe it's spam. And if s/he thinks it offends him/her, please explain why?
Here is the text of the answer:
All people are equal, but some people are more equal than others. Therefore, it is only natural that some actions that are inherently negative see themselves become positive. This is justified by "the end justifies the means" Doctrine which clearly states: that all actions are justified for the greater good.
In fact, I'm puzzled why would you want to sue such a moral endeavour. Especially, if you see its success in the United states' undergrad admission.Where the proportion of bachelor's degrees earned has went from an opressive 55% male majority in 1974 to a healthy 57% female majority in 2014, thanks to the affirmative action policy that continues to this day.
and it baffles me even more, If you see the great benefits that "trying to control demographics in order to level inequalities" has brought upon humanity as seen in advanced countries like Germany or Israel.
One might perhaps argue that this is "a form of separate but equal". But this is easily disproven by noting that women can still apply to the other non-gender-specific job postings.
to answer your question, such an effective and moral actions cannot be illegal unless you go by the rotten principle that "all men are equal. full stop". A heinous saying that does not try to hide its patriarchal motives by the use of the word "men".
You questioning "the separation of job postings based on sex" seems quite sexist to me. I advise you to check your privilege.
Although, I might concede that such a posting might be a bit unethical because it might hurt the transgender and non-binary people.
Your answer is full of arguments that take an argument that is typically made by the side which you claim to oppose and present it as an argument for the other side.
Moreover you are throwing clichéic, unjustified accusations at the asker.
This is so blatant that it is almost certainly intentional¹.
I don’t know whether you do this to provoke conflict, to mock others, or because you severely misunderstood the concept of devil’s advocate.
But whatever your motivation, it’s not nice:
It’s not respectful of others and harmful to this community.
¹ in the unlikely event that it isn’t, please stop; you are not helping your cause
Your original answer was flagged by two users as rude/offensive. This brought it to my attention. Upon looking at the answer it seemed unrelated to the question and designed to produce discussion. This is taking advantage of our community and considered rude. Therefore I cast a 3rd flag as rude which caused the community bot to delete your question.
could you please explain. how is my question rude? to whom exactly is it, rude? maybe I've gone overboard by calling op sexist, but a simple commnet would have been enough for me to tone it down.
@LeonMeier You get that their post was entirely sarcastic and that they were basically agreeing with you, right?
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.653118 | 2017-12-17T20:55:44 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3910",
"authors": [
"LGBTQIAxyz",
"Nat",
"Neptune",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/12537",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/38709",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/84670"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
4366 | Can we improve the tag/idea of "reproducible-research"?
A recent question has caused me to think about the idea of reproducible-research and what the concept means. I think that, while it may be fairly common to use this term, that a better term would be preferable, so as to make an important distinction.
The term I would prefer for this would be transparent-research or possibly verifiable-research. These aren't quite the same, actually. Transparent simply means that the researcher has revealed enough that a reader can follow the reasoning completely. Verifiable means that one can demonstrate that the author hasn't lied in presenting conclusion. Both of these are valuable, of course, so my concern is with the naming, not the validity of the underlying idea.
Background:
Currently, it seems that the term is used for a fairly simple idea that is applicable to (I'm afraid) only some fields, such as computer science. The idea is that researchers should publish their code and data so that others can run that code on that data to assure that the original authors aren't misrepresenting their results. Run the same code on the same data - get the same results.
Of course, it has an additional benefit, in that the reader can examine the code to determine whether it is, indeed, the appropriate code to answer the research question. That is definitely a plus, but I'll suggest below that we need more.
The current concept isn't quite so good about the data, I think. Having a fixed data set only partially helps us come to the proper answer for deep questions. You learn more, of course, if you know the standards and techniques by which the data was collected (search terms for some sorts of data) than the specific data itself. If a technique works for only a single set of data it applies to only that set of data, rather than the larger question for which the data was gathered. If using one set of data gives one result, but a different set, gathered to the same standards, gives an opposing result, you have learned almost nothing.
My conclusion here is that the current idea of reproducible-research is useful, it is weak and mis-named. It is weak because of the second idea above (fixed data set), but it is misnamed as it is not adequate to answer a more important question. But transparent-research seems to cover the current concept better.
The More Important Problem:
Recently it has become obvious that quite a lot of published research in the sciences can't be validated, not because the author doesn't publish enough information (which they probably don't), but because taking the same research questions and trying to answer them independently with different models, techniques, and data, leads to contrary results. While this can be due to flaws of statistical design in some sciences it seems to go deeper than that. Unfortunately this sad situation pervades a lot of educational research, which is dear to my heart.
I would prefer that reproducible-research as a term be reserved for questions that relate to this deeper concern. To do this, a researcher would need to reveal more, so that an independent party has enough information to attack the same research question, perhaps in a different way, but get better evidence as to the actual scientific truth, not just the appropriateness of the methodology originally used.
Why It Matters:
In the sciences we seek truth not just results. Often truth is evasive or impossible to achieve definitively, so we often use techniques that give us evidence of the truth, not (as in mathematics) proof of the truth. Statistical techniques in particular work to quantify the potential that our conclusions are wrong. In a study carried out (properly) with 99% confidence, replicating the study (properly) will yield an improper result 1% of the time. But you don't know which time, unless you reproduce the study independently many times. But the replications of the study need to be independent, and so can't use identical methods on identical data.
-- I may need to edit this or append to it. Thinking...thinking
I am not exactly sure what you want to achieve here. Tags mainly exist to make questions easier to find or to allow potential experts to subscribe to them. If you want to shape the usage of scientific terminology, tag names on this site are the wrong place to do this.
As it is currently used, the reproducible-research seems to cover all that you describe and is still sufficiently narrow to only contain fifty questions.
I see no problems arising from this such as users not being able to find certain questions. It may be a tad more difficult in some cases, but this does not even remotely justify the effort of separating these tags and expecting our users to adhere to the distinction. The only thing we may change is to make the tag wiki a bit broader.
I think the more important usage for SE purposes is what the general community has adopted as a meaning for "reproducible research." The general consensus is that it's closer to your first usage, but also much more widespread. It's starting to become a major concern in computational research across all of science and engineering.
The latter concern is also serious, but it's also harder to address. It's also part of reproducible research, but I believe that restricting the use of the tag to that specific issue does a disservice to the site.
I raise the issue since the general community (not here) seems to use the broader definition. At least as I read it in NYT and WaPo, for example.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.653404 | 2018-11-22T18:29:19 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4366",
"authors": [
"Buffy",
"Justas",
"Silviu Burcea",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/13693",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/14834",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/75368"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3703 | What are the standards of the rules and how are the hitting their goals?
Probably half of the question have some sort of bickering on what's appropriate. There are questions as open ended as "What should I do with my academic career" being up voted, when there's an infinite number of potential answers, and no one can guarantee that the response is going to be helpful. Then there are other similar questions being down voted as too broad.
For example Should I prefer PhD programs with "higher quality" students?
Is a shopping question on what phd program to select. +4 up votes.
Right below it https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/86669/phd-is-75-done-in-russia-any-options-in-europe-uk-citizen
Another shopping question on what phd program to select. -4 down votes.
There are social etiquette questions about how to answer emails that have almost nothing to do with academia being highly prioritized.
How to deal with an inappropriate greeting in an email?
And another question about how to respond to emails dealing with research paper submissions being down voted and ignored.
What to do when you have not received a response three weeks after submitting minor revisions?
If the purpose is to form a consistently high standard, how are you ensuring that you're meeting that goal? Because that goal appears to be different depending on who's viewing your question.
If the purpose is to exclude rude and offensive behavior and to create a welcoming environment, I don't really see that either. Obvious insults may be quickly deleted but the questions are frequently met with inconsistently enforced rules, dismissive links to solutions that only tangentially answer the questions, or just snark. And a simpler rule set "No cursing, no racism, sexism, etc." could just as easily create that sort of environment.
This question is about as basic meta as it gets. How to check internal measurements of standards. Every serious company has constant checks on their standards. Hospitals aren't willy nilly winging their prescriptions for instance. And everyone is probably willing to admit more precision is better than less, and more solutions are more valuable than few solutions. No one wants enough variability in their anesthesia to kill them. Democracies where voters get to decide value are never perfect. Elevating individuals to judge others always leads to flawed decision making. This is a simple question "How are you measuring whether your judges are doing their job?" or "How are you ensuring that your democracy is meeting the needs of the community?" that every organization has to answer. The most meta of questions to be asked. And from what I've seen I expect it to be down voted.
I'd prefered if you'd written "How are we measuring whether our judges are doing their job?" and "How are we ensuring that our democracy is meeting the needs of the community?"
There appears to be no meta data on the quality control checks.
And all responses appear to be reinforcing the idea that there is nothing checking against self centered expressions of ego in an isolated community.
Your examples
For example Should I prefer PhD programs with "higher quality" students?
Is a shopping question on what phd program to select. +4 up votes.
Right below it https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/86669/phd-is-75-done-in-russia-any-options-in-europe-uk-citizen
Another shopping question on what phd program to select. -4 down votes.
There is a crucial difference between those questions. The first one is asking whether a certain aspect is a relevant criterion to select a program; the second one is asking for a specific individual program. Or with other words: The first question is asking how to shop; the second question is asking what to shop. The latter what we call a shopping question. I tried to make a FAQ on this, explaining what makes a shopping question and why they are bad, but it did not receive much attention yet.
There are social etiquette questions about how to answer emails that have almost nothing to do with academia being highly prioritized.
How to deal with an inappropriate greeting in an email?
I disagree that this has nothing to do with academia. Sure, such a situation could occur elsewhere, but then you would evaluate it differently (academia’s e-mail etiquette differs from business e-mail etiquette) and the ways to react to it are different: If a representative of a company was rude to me, I can report this to their superior; in a student–teacher relationship, this is not possible.
Note that this question got an insane amount of attention and hence votes due to being a hot network question.
And another question about how to respond to emails dealing with research paper submissions being down voted and ignored.
What to do when you have not received a response three weeks after submitting minor revisions?
This question is hardly comparable to the previous one, because it is about an entirely different situation. The problem with this kind of question is that we have dozens of it and there is little to answer for us. In fact, this lead me to propose to make a canonical question on this.
Your general question
If the purpose is to form a consistently high standard, how are you ensuring that you're meeting that goal? Because that goal appears to be different depending on who's viewing your question.
That is indeed the goal. We are ensuring to meet that goal by requiring five close votes on a question, allowing users¹ to vote on posts, and allowing users¹ to participate in improving questions. Also there are mechanisms to reöpen questions.
Of course, this system is not perfect, but it is a viable compromise between fairness, a working community, and effort.
How are you measuring whether your judges are doing their job?
If anybody¹ has the feeling that our closing behaviour needs changing or a specific question was wrongly closed or left open, they can take it to Meta. Of course only a portion of users care enough about their issues to actually do this, but even regarding this, there are very little complaints, e.g., if you compare to other Stack Exchange sites.
In addition, review decisions are public and 10 k users have access to statistics on closure and similar that allows to find problematic patterns.
Apart from this, the community seems to work insofar that it still thrives and we are not drowning in complaints. You may see this as a self-fulfilling prophecy, but if this community weren’t working, we would become subject to natural selection. Nobody forces you to participate if you do not like this.
¹ who passed a small reputation threshold, which exists to avoid the system being gamed and to ward off spam and similar
You wrote a defense of your methods not an answer to the question. The question was how do you know you're meeting your goal. Not what do you think is fair.
@cba1067950 The answer to your question is in the last paragraph.
@cba1067950 The specific question on how to figure out whether we meet some standards seems pretty silly to me to be honest. Please do not try to make the site ISO 9000 compliant or whatever the current hotness is.
The answer in the last paragraph is "It works because I like it." The question was "How do you know it is making others feel comfortable?" or "How do you know this is an improvement over other methods?"
Or to put another way I asked is there a meta test to check to see if your methods are working. He listed the methods. He didn't list a method to check the methods.
@TobiasKildetoft Judging by the quality control here, I'm not surprised you think it is silly. It doesn't serve you it serves others. So naturally it doesn't interest you.
@TobiasKildetoft I am happy that you basically said ensuring standards is silly though because it is a direct contradiction to the claim that there are checks to ensure standards. And +2 to boot. This is a perfect example that two contradicting claims can be praised simply because it defends the culture. This will inevitably be downvoted to oblivion but it is good that you confirmed my suspicion. Thanks.
@cba1067950: See my edit.
That's closer but still doesn't answer the question. The results of the votes doesn't ensure that the votes are properly creating a superior environment. An addition test doesn't measure calculus aptitude because people get A's. Also popularity of a belief doesn't mean it is accurate. And you're assuming that no complaints means no problems. A company with 0 customers has no complaints. I'm offering a criticism of methods that were debunked hundreds of years ago, to improve the site on Meta, it has been down voted and I'm being told to leave, so this isn't effective either.
And you're assuming that no complaints means no problems. A company with 0 customers has no complaints. – No, I am assuming that few complaints in relation to the number of users/askers (which is not zero by the way) is indicative of no egregious problems. — I'm offering a criticism of methods that were debunked hundreds of years ago, to improve the site on Meta – So far, you only asked how we do self control; I answered that. You did not offer any criticism on our way to do self control beyond what is known, but unavoidable (with reasonable effort). You did not offer any improvement.
@cba1067950 And, afaik, no one told you to leave.
@Wrzlprmft no complaints was an example. The point is you're assuming because you don't have a test to generate knowledge. The question is critical of the method. Reusing the same test for general questions as a meta analysis assumes the test works. That is not a meta analysis. It is a circular argument. "This test works. How do I know it works? Because I used it to check."
@MassimoOrtolano "Nobody forces you to participate." People who don't like it here don't stay, thus create no evidence of dissatisfaction. And no evidence is an illogical proof of the methods. He could have said a generic, "Nobody forces people to participate." Maybe it's a colloquialism but it's more likely he is attaching his bias to the point to mask the fallacy of the point. The downvotes are evidence enough that this isn't sinking in though.
@cba1067950: The you in my last sentence was generic. — People who don't like it here don't stay, thus create no evidence of dissatisfaction. – The Internet doesn’t work like this. Sure, for most people it’s true what you say, but there always is a certain percentage of people who invest the time to complain, e.g. you. I tried to address your specific critique (on our closing behaviour) but received no feedback from you. Apart from that, you only complain on a double meta level about things that we cannot reasonably change – or at least don’t know how, and you are not telling us either.
@Wrzlprmft This isn't metaphysics. The internet is the most easily quantifiable technology ever created. It creates more data than anything ever has. Every day other websites collect feedback and form conclusions about it. I'm just asking an honest question not demanding anyone build a new site. Instead I got a rant about how good the site is. "The methods are x,y,z. No meta analysis above what you see." That's all it needed.
@cba1067950: There is a lot of data and statistics available. It’s mentioned in both answers you received. Most of it is accessible to everybody. — Instead I got a rant about how good the site is. – Where? (Please quote at least one sentence to support your answer.)
@Wrzlprmft Again that data is irrelevant. "Your entire response up to the last section."
@cba1067950: Again that data is irrelevant – Why? — "Your entire response up to the last section." – I was asking you to provide a specific quote, because such a useless reply was exactly what I expected to happen otherwise. Please provide specific evidence for your claim, not just blanket statements.
@Wrzlprmft Because as I've already stated asking yourself if you're doing a good job isn't a useful metric for actually determining whether you're actually doing a good job. I said you gave me a 3 page rant response. You asked for a specific quote. I gave you the 3 page rant. That fits specifically into the parameter I defined. None of what you said in the first sections has anything to do with metrics. None of it. 0%. It's entirely your personal interpretation of vague rules which I called out as not being useful in the question. You ignored it. Pick any line. All of them ignore that comment.
Because as I've already stated asking yourself if you're doing a good job isn't a useful metric for actually determining whether you're actually doing a good job – And how do statistics like number of visits, questions per day, closure rates, etc. do this?
It's entirely your personal interpretation of vague rules which I called out as not being useful in the question. – If you criticise using examples, you have to expect this being replied to. Just that you do not even want to hear this reply (which tells quite a lot about you), does not make it a rant. And by the way: I did not refer to rules at any point of this. The closest thing is my FAQ on shopping question which serves to explain why this type of question causes trouble, something that is the result of years of experience.
How to check internal measurements of standards.
During our beta period there were a few site-evaluations when users were asked to rate how we were doing. There is also the data explorer that lets users dig into the AC.SE database to see how things are doing. Finally, diamond moderators and SE staff have access to site analytics that go way beyond votes and page visits. For example, one metric allows us to see where anonymous users are coming from and how they are voting (these votes do not show up in the vote total).
In other words the health of the site is measured on a bunch of metrics at all levels of the game (users, moderators, and staff).
Analytics on page visits and votes aren't meta analysis on whether the system works. Your site evaluations appear to be more self grading, which is essentially the same thing as the voting system. And with 20 or so responses it's probably safe to assume it's a self assessment by regulars. So again, not really a meta analysis. But fuck it. You're all pretty hell bent on offering a bad product so I'll just close this out.
If you ask me, the site-evaluations were pretty pointless and got abolished for a good reason.
@cba1067950: So again, not really a meta analysis. – So, what do you propose? How can we reasonably do this? — offering a bad product – we are not offering a product (in the commercial sense) at all. Also, why don’t you start enlightening us about why it is so bad?
@Wrzlprmft I did ask you and everyone else. And everyone said they existed. And now you're saying they don't and that they were useless. Personally I think everything from the search results, organization, incomplete solutions, vague/poorly enforced/annoying rules, and the assumption that duplicates are redundant needs reworking but without metrics who knows what others think. The system blocks people from contributing feedback because of your spam protocol and defensiveness when you could just give a separate metrics. This site makes money. It is a product 100% in the commercial sense.
@cba1067950: And now you're saying they don't and that they were useless. – No, I am saying that the site self-evaluations were useless. I do not say that other mechanisms of self-evaluation that were not explicitly named thusly are useless.
Personally I think everything […] needs reworking but without metrics who knows what others think. – What does the first part of this sentence have to do with the second one? — The system blocks people from contributing feedback because of your spam protocol and defensiveness when you could just give a separate metrics. – Can you elaborate on this?
This site makes money. It is a product 100% in the commercial sense. – Academia SE does not make any money on its own – what would be your source of revenue? Stack Exchange Q&A in general makes some money through ads on some site. AFAIK, Stack Overflow Careers is what is the main source of revenue. Either way, we (that is the Academia SE community) do not sell any product. Rather, we are the customers or the product (depending on your point of view).
@Wrzlprmft The first part is what I would like done to improve the site. The second part is about what others may want. If this was automated you would have one data point in a survey but you would need more. If it is free you are the product. Academia is pulling in traffic and keeps people using the product longer for other things. Depending on how they sell their data to advertisers (hours spent on all SE) this could be generating income. This is a cheap experiment. It may eventually have ads but it increases the overall value. Any work that is being done can be sold.
The second part is about what others may want. – “no metrics who knows what others think”? What are you referring to? — If this was automated you would have one data point in a survey but you would need more. – So, what you want/suggest/miss is an automatism to ask users how they liked the site?
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.653973 | 2017-03-20T07:20:41 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3703",
"authors": [
"Dirk",
"Massimo Ortolano",
"Tobias Kildetoft",
"Wrzlprmft",
"cba1067950",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/12592",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/529",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/70350",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7734"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3694 | Lab journal best practices - on topic?
I had a question about best practices for keeping a lab journal (specifically, should one only record experiments, or should one also include research for experiments, or time spent looking around on say McMaster Carr for parts). Is this on topic or off topic?
Note: I posted this question on physics meta as well, and received a middling response that leaned toward not on topic. However, I did get a comment which said "there's certainly a chance that it will be on-topic at Academia" so I'm asking here.
You might have a too much idealized view of the lab activity. I work in an experimental field related to physics and I visited several laboratories around the world: there's really no uniform way of keeping track of lab experiments, even within the same lab. In large experiments like those run by particle physicists there are probably standard practices, but in small labs, if there are five people working at five different experiments, you will probably find five different ways of logging the lab activity.
Some use a lab journal, on paper or electronic, recording almost everything (but I've never met anyone recording the attempts at finding parts), some just record the results in a computer folder with a few notes.
In addition to this, practices might vary a lot between fields: biologists might have different needs with respect to physicists.
Thus, I think that your question could be on topic here, but it's at risk of being closed as too broad. If you ask it, try to narrow it down as much as possible.
My flat-mate is an experimental particle physicist in a big experiment. He thinks you may have an idealized view on their lab activity ;).
@nabla Hahaha, good to know! :-)
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.655395 | 2017-02-24T21:33:34 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3694",
"authors": [
"Massimo Ortolano",
"OGC",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10468",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10474",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10475",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53183",
"nabla",
"rcpinto",
"user308827"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3535 | The spam filter caught my answer and I want to know why
I attempted to post this answer to this question, and it was rejected by the spam filter. Instead of receiving any kind of detailed "remove this wording, this looks like advertising, etc." I received a blanket "this looks like spam" (pointing at the entire message).
I had no clue what I had done wrong, so I went on chat and a helpful person there gave me some tips. Ultimately it looked like the bullet point list at the end was too long for a 1-rep person such as myself (at least, that's the best I can figure). I removed the bulleted list and was able to post the answer and edit the list back in later.
Does anyone know why the heuristics went nuts and thought my answer was spam? Could this be a legitimate bug, as the person who helped me indicated?
A human reading your answer can easily judge that it is not spam. The spam filter, however, isn't human. The SE team has looked into the behavior and told the spam filter to be less aggressive in cases like these.
Getting feedback about false positives is hard, so thank you for mentioning it. I am sorry your introduction to AC.SE wasn't more pleasant.
What a helpful, courteous reply.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.655561 | 2016-11-18T18:20:54 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3535",
"authors": [
"Pete L. Clark",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/938"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3516 | How to master the art of asking/answering questions?
I have used (stalked?) the StackExchange family of websites, and until recently, couldn't find a need to register: I usually found a similar question to mine, with an answer much better than I could think of. MUCH better.
I recently asked a question How can I get the key to my professor's lab? [closed] to which I got several wonderful answers, but my question was closed as off-topic for understandable reasons.
Asking and answering questions is more art than science (is it?) but I don't know how to start becoming part of this online society.
Two questions I found particularly interesting:
I don't want to kill any more mice, but my advisor insists that I must in order to get my PhD
How to ask dumb questions?
Two answers I found particularly interesting:
Two years into my PhD program, and Mom is dying of cancer. Should I tell my advisor about it?
How can I get the key to my professor's lab? [closed]
Well, no answer after two days; I guess that means nobody else knows the secrets of the art, either :) You may find Welcome to Academia and What are we generally looking for in answers helpful.
@ff524 This is quite ironic coming from someone who is in the top 0.09%.
I won't profess to know how to "master the art" of asking questions on SE. But I will answer based on my experience thus far with these sites.
Chiefly, the best way to learn the art of asking questions is... to ask questions. Just like most other things in life, it takes time and practice to figure out how to do ask a "good" question -- though the links @ff524 pointed out will help narrow that down. But ultimately, it takes time to figure out what questions have already been asked, what questions are appropriate, what questions are worthwhile (so to speak), etc.
So tonysdg, what you're saying is that I should start blasting the site with questions and eventually I'll get better, right?
Sure, and if you keep randomly entering letters into a word processor, you'll get the complete works of William Shakespeare. My point is: obviously I don't mean ask dozens of inane, silly questions -- but if you've been stalking reading SE sites already, then you have a fairly decent picture of what a truly awful question looks like. As for the questions in your mind that you aren't sure about -- ask away. Trust me, the community will let you know one way or the other ;-)
And over time, you'll get a better and better sense of how to ask good, useful, meaningful questions on SE.
How about answering questions?
@salehgeek: Totally just whale away at the keyboard entering random letters ;-) In all honesty, I'm still learning myself how to answer questions well. Generally speaking though, I'd say it's the same thing -- practice. Provide citations, if applicable. Make sure that you're answering the question that was asked, not the question that you think was being asked (if that's the case, use a comment instead to ask for clarification). Give credit where credit is due (doubly so if Jon Skeet is involved). And speak from experience -- it's usually a heck of a lot more convincing than speculation.
After re-reading your question, I add that it is well written in many respects and so I guess that you are on a good way. A bit more detail:
In your question you give necessary background, a bit too much probably, but in this regard the question is fine.
The part "vent off some steam on the Academia StackExchange" was probably not a good idea. I think "venting off steam" here is not appreciated in general. In case the remark was tongue-in-cheek: adding humor to questions is difficult to get right (cf. this question and this duplicate) and often you are better off in leaving the humor out.
When the question comes to the actual question, you are asking too many questions (I count three question marks), and also quite different ones. I suggest to think harder on what is the most important question for you, i.e. an answer to what question would help you most. In this particular case, I guess the question "What I am doing wrong?", while probably interesting, is not the one that is most important, since you focus on improving your situation and not focus on reflecting your behavior.
I'll be sure to apply the three points you have mentioned in the future. In particular, keeping the question mark count down.
Can you please clarify your last sentence?
since you focus on improving your situation and not focus on reflecting your behavior.
Well, the two things are for sure related, but the focus is different. Do you want to know what you should do now or what you did wrong? If you think one of these questions is more important, just ask that one.
How do you think I should start answering questions?
@salehgeek - In general, try to think in terms of what would be most useful to the person who asked the question, and check whether that material has already been provided in another answer. Provide some documentation if you can, and format your answer for easy reading. // You might want to dip your toe in the water by writing some comments; you can watch the votes on the comments, to see how they are received.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.655706 | 2016-10-24T09:45:20 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3516",
"authors": [
"Dirk",
"Roberto",
"aparente001",
"biogirl",
"ff524",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10006",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10009",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/36315",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/529",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/63352",
"salehgeek",
"tonysdg"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3644 | Why the focus on not offending anyone, as opposed to efficiently resolving questions
I would like to know why there is intense focus on not offending people? Sure, people should not go about intentionally offending people, but someone will be offended by something somewhere, someday, even if we don't intend it.
I have seen this occur in everything from questions ranging from professors asking how to discipline their students, to people asking about addressing potential cases of sexism. Everyone seems to put being non-offensive to anyone, above figuring out how the original issue can be solved.
Example answer
Isn't offending people a moral issue? The question is also tagged [tag:etiquette], suggesting that the OP is directly interested in how people will perceive the proposed actions. You may disagree with the answer, but I don't see how it doesn't address the question.
Etiquette: conventional requirements as to social behavior; proprieties of conduct as established in any class or community or for any occasion / Morality: conformity to the rules of right conduct; moral or virtuous conduct. / I would say that while Etiquette is formed by the society or profession you participate in, isn't Morality a function of the culture/sub-culture/country in which you live. I am asking about this whole focus on not offending people here in Academia, not this particular question per se.
Then... I don't know what you're asking about. You seem to be complaining that the answer is "not addressing the question", but I don't see any evidence for that. Certainly offending others can be both a moral and etiquette issue. Perhaps if this isn't about an answer not answering the question, you could [edit] your post to clarify what you are trying to ask about.
@ff524 I hope this is more on target.
Now, without any example, I have no idea what kind of an issue this refers to or what kind of answer/discussion this question seeks.
@Wrzlprmft Readded original example.
@NZKshatriya: Still, what input or answers do you seek? The only question I see is in your first sentence, and that question is something we can at best answer with wild guesses.
So then, what exactly is the discussion tag even for? What is Meta for for that matter if not to post questions about what is going on in a stack?
Changed question to more accurately reflect what I meant.
If the below answer is what you want, then this should probably be migrated to the main Academia site... this is not relevant to Meta.
@eykanal I don't think it belongs on main site - it's mainly about why people write certain kinds of answers. Similar to Does an unbalanced focus on “appropriateness” and “offensiveness” suggest educating has become a lesser priority?, which was about why people ask certain kinds of questions.
I'm not seeing this "intense focus" you're talking about. The example you gave is a single low-point-total answer with 8 downvotes to it. It certainly shouldn't be a taboo subject that is never brought up, should it?
@Jeff sigh...there are other examples, most notably on things that talk about sexism or inferred sexism, but those lead to nothing but, well, chaos so I didn't use those. I shall remove the word intense.
The top voted answer on the thread you mention is quite clearly not focused on not offending people. It seems like you're inferring a general trend from a few anecdotal examples.
I think this might be an interesting discussion, but the example you gave seems far separated from the type of "not offending anyone" that your post implies (referring to discipline and sexism).
Part of the original question for the answer you linked was:
Is there any moral (or even legal) problem in criticizing other people's figures on my website? Should I expect any sort of retaliation if I decide to do that?
In that context, avoiding offending someone is clearly a way to:
Avoid legal issues - if there is a gray area, posting praise of a figure is probably less likely to solicit negative attention from the authors that could lead to threats or actual legal action
The issue of retaliation is most easily avoided by not offending anyone; this way, you aren't depending on the people you criticize taking the moral high ground.
Therefore, it solves the original question to be non-offensive, rather than putting up a barrier to solving the problem as you suggest.
I have seen other examples, I will go around and look for them.. But really, being offended is not grounds for legal action, at least not in the USA (last time I checked) You CAN technically sue anyone for anything here, but it does not mean you will win. I wouldn't be surprised if there is someone out there who would sue for being praised. Also, as I said, no matter what you do, you will likely offend someone somehow. I offend people all the time, even though I don't mean to.
@NZKshatriya I'm not saying it's grounds, I'm saying it's motivation, and lawsuits don't need to be valid or won to have an impact. You're right, actually a copyright holder should be equally litigious whether praised or criticized, but in practice I don't think that is at all common. I really doubt someone would fail to review your next publication objectively if you praised their previous work; they might have more trouble being objective if they felt embarrassed by you.
getting off topic, but I think OP wanted to focus on what he felt was how to appropriately visualize data, not critique publications per se.
@NZKshatriya Yes - I think touchier academics could be offended by a stranger telling them their figures were poor. OP was concerned about that. The most upvoted response on that page, a comment by David Zwicker, suggested the OP design the figures to critique (presumably motivated but what is found in real literature) - this answer completely solves the problem, plus is not potentially offensive to anyone. I would say that's the best outcome possible, and certainly isn't less valid because it takes the step of avoiding offending someone.
not trying to argue validity, argh......I need to work on how to specify what I am asking....which should not be an issue as I prefer concrete to abstract.
@NZKshatriya I hope you can do so and I look forward to coming back and participating in the discussion... Personally I looked at a few recent posts that I recalled where I felt like there was a lot of emphasis on not offending people (for example this one) and I wasn't able to find an example where the "not-offending" superseded solving the actual question - in fact, often the question asked is precisely "how do I do ____ without offending someone?"
@NZKshatriya Maybe the answer to your question of "why" there is a focus on these types of answers (as well as questions) is that these are the types of questions that it can be most useful to run by other, less biased observers who might be in the shoes of the person/people the asker is trying not to offend.
I guess I just get offended a whole lot less easily than average, so I tend to focus more on just solving the issue efficiently and quickly. Likely my lack of taking offense to things in this stage of my life is due to bullying through middle/high school, from things ranging from weight to Aspergers, to not being popular (looking back at all that, it's rather silly what people pick on others about) . So I developed a thick skin, and ignore things more. But I do see how others may not do the same, either due to cultural upbringing or life experience.
@NZKshatriya Yeah, I think part of the issue is that especially in academia, people are part of a community they cannot extract themselves from, even by changing jobs, and you depend on everyone around you for one thing or another. It is impossible to identify who is thin- and thick-skinned, it can be self-defeating to offend someone, and it doesn't necessarily matter who was "right" in the first place - just the perceived slight can be harmful.
Hey @Bryan, you should have just gotten an email from me inviting you to a pre-screening session hosted by Stack Exchange. We've got a date this upcoming Monday and Tuesday, so if you are interested, could you let me know what times might work best for you?
Many a time have I wished to just call a student or colleague stupid. In my opinion, there are three factual reasons (ergo disregarding morality, politeness, religious beliefs, etc.) why one might wish to avoid it, regardless of how strongly they believe it to be the case:
The practical reason is to avoid lawsuits.
The historical reason is that it is a natural extension of the mid 80's and onward culture/mentality that everyone is "special", and that there are many kinds of intelligence, not just academic intelligence. Interestingly, people have come to interpret this as "everyone is special, hence everyone is intelligent". It is raw human bias, because people never want to admit what the perceive as their own shortcomings (like we don't like being called fat, or short, or bald), and distort other theories and facts to satisfy themselves. In defense of this position, note how different the culture was before the 90s, where negative reinforcement was the norm. While I disagree with the reason, society is experiencing a shift towards positive reinforcement, and that is a good thing.
The social reason is that language has power. Saying things out loud, makes them true, to an extent. For instance, in English, German, and many other languages assume a male gender for many professions, such as policeman, fireman, cameraman. As trivial as it may seem, things like this have been shown to cause subconscious bias in the entirety of society in the long-term. By changing how we use the language, we modify how the population who use it perceive things after 1-2 generations.
I'm in the same boat as those commenting that I don't fully understand the question, but I'll hazard an answer all the same.
Many, many people have thin skin (i.e., get insulted easily). I'll venture to say that most people have thin skin. To that extent, when resolving a disagreement, the "lets be frank" approach is very likely to cause someone to be insulted. As practiced negotiators know, insulting your negotiation partner is a pretty poor strategy.
To that extent, when working through a disagreement, unless you are confident the opposing party will NOT be insulted—a rare situation—its always a good idea to be cordial and polite, to ensure that you can focus the discussion on solving the disagreement.
I agree that a lot of people do get insulted easily, but where I am coming from is not from the stance of a disagreement. As I stated in a comment on @Fomite 's answer, I have seen answers that seem to follow this logic flow: If stated goal can be achieved without offending one or more people, then suggest that the goal be pursued and how. If stated goal cannot be achieved without offending one or more people, suggest the goal not be pursued.
I would like to know why there is intense focus on not offending
people? Sure, people should not go about intentionally offending
people, but someone will be offended by something somewhere, someday,
even if we don't intend it.
There are two major reasons, in my mind:
Inoffensive approaches are often more productive than a theoretically more direct approach. "Don't offend someone" is not a side-goal, it is an aspect of the main approach. Offending someone is often extremely counter-productive, and will crater the proposed solution no matter how good it is.
While "someone, somewhere, someday" might be offended by anything, trying to minimize this probability is still a worthwhile thing to do, especially when you have a specific concern (in contrast to your hypothetical someone). Something, somewhere, someday will kill me. I still wear my seatbelt.
Whilst inoffensive, scratch that, neutral approaches are often more productive, what I have seen a lot of are answers that seem to take the following approach: If stated goal can be achieved without offending one or more people, then suggest that the goal be pursued and how. If stated goal cannot be achieved without offending one or more people, suggest the goal not be pursued. While I agree that we should strive offend the least amount of people, does suggesting people not work on something/do something simply because an individual or group may take offense really help anyone?
(1/2) If taking an action would likely cause hurt and/or social upheaval in an everyday neurotypical workplace, as weighed against the benefit that we envision it would have, then it's not worth it. This isn't a sign of a hyper-sensitive society. It's just taking into account the fact that humans are not robots and we don't want to upset someone unless there's a hugely compelling reason and/or absolutely no way around it. Not as if we don't have a major interest in preserving underlying harmoniousness. Other things depend strongly on that. No need to sacrifice it for something minor.
(2/2) I'd like to encourage you not to see the rest of the world as fragile or 'easily offended'. I too was picked on badly as a kid and also developed a thick skin. I err on the side of kindness as an adult: I don't want to risk treating anyone the way I was treated as a kid! If you're quite blunt or gratuitous about issuing criticism, others are likely to see you as a bully. That will create more, not fewer, problems. Refrain from getting impatient, or self-congratulatory about your skin thickness. Most other people deserve respect by default - and unsolicited frankness isn't respectful.
@RobertHarvey But avoiding obvious pitfall is still worthwhile. Reducing the probability someone is offended is still a useful exercise.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.656163 | 2017-01-23T05:18:39 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3644",
"authors": [
"Bryan Krause",
"Cape Code",
"Fomite",
"Jeff",
"Mark Dominus",
"NZKshatriya",
"Slate",
"Wrzlprmft",
"casey",
"eykanal",
"ff524",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10337",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10344",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10643",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/118",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/142968",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/57314",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/61615",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/63231",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/63475",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7734",
"trikeprof"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3571 | Is there any way to enforce a "niceness" rule?
After spending a few months on this site, I keep noticing a pattern.
Someone asks a question (which, in my opinion, is well-formed and has content), which usually stems from a personal experience. Most answers are good and helpful; but some small comment will inevitably attack the OP, and those comments are irrelevant to the question. Often it takes one sentence that the OP has written, and make personal attacks to the OP. Some notable examples that I have seen in the past day are here (there's a separate meta thread, even), here (calling the OP "obnoxious", and the general patronizing vibe), and here (being patronizing towards the OP for having said "unfair", which I think makes sense given the context).
I acknowledge that the posters should have thought more carefully about saying certain things, since many things can be taken out of context, but we are not dealing with colleagues or advisors; rather, this is a place to come and get advice about the difficulties in academia that we are facing, and I often sense the holier-than-thou feeling of glee with many, many comments and answers to problems. I am actually fairly certain that most of these posters would think a lot more carefully if they were dealing with colleagues or students, and their "faults" that we are pointing out are actually irrelevant to their daily lives.
I feel that it would be a lot more productive if we suppressed our compulsion to educate the others (it is our jobs, after all!) and answer precisely what is being asked. So I think roughly the following set of guidelines could benefit the community:
Have a strict guideline for what the answers should contain (maybe answers should be hidden or put on hold if the majority of the answer does not pertain to the specific question at hand, like how we deal with questions).
Have a more strict system for flagging the comments. Most comments are not "abusive", which is the criterion that we have for removing them. Rather, they are snide little remarks designed to make the OP feel bad for having asked the questions in the first place, and they are passive-aggressive. There are many comments that do not fit in any flagging criteria, yet is not useful to the vibe of the community as a whole.
To some degree, I think we need to realize that our personalities are not perfect, and more of it will show through on an anonymous online forum than when dealing with your colleagues. So I think it is normal to see more of the "weirder characters" online; so we should try to be a little bit more accepting, and actually focus on helping each other. Even when the fault is too great to be ignored, we could try to adopt a bit more tact, and try to be nicer to each other, especially as a community that aims to acknowledge and address the emotional difficulties in academia that one goes through.
By the way, this kind of behavior should be discouraged for two reasons
This drives away the new users. In MathOverFlow (stackexchange for professional mathematicians), this phenomenon is even more apparent. In fact, half or more of the mathematicians I know stay well away from this website, because of the aggressive nature of the established users there, and many will actually declare this in public. Academia.stackexchange is nowhere near this point yet, but it is a newer site as well.
This kind of behavior often prompts the reaction of the question asker in the form of accepting the answer that is the most palatable to him/herself. However, often this is not the best answer, and this would not be helpful to other users who might stumble upon the post in the future.
"snide little remarks designed to make the OP feel bad for having asked the questions in the first place, and they are passive-aggressive" -- I was wondering, Sana, what has your experience been with flagging this sort of remark? Have you tried flagging these non-blatant negative-feel comments, and if so, what has been the result?
Stricter comments/answers only make sense (and will be enforced naturally) if we had strict questions. But that is not the case, as most questions typically contain (at least) 50%+ useless information. Also, many (most?) users don't understand that SE is not a personal Q&A site. So when you answer a question, you shouldn't think only of helping the OP, but also the tens or even hundreds of people who will have the same question in the future, and may find their way to your answer.
because of the aggressive nature of the established users there Note that on this site, the aggressiveness comes chiefly from passersby and people who felt the urge to create an account solely to write something mean and unhelpful.
@CapeCode I'm not sure about it, my experience with Stack Exchange doesn't indicate that established users are less aggressive.
I agree with the OP, I have posted a few questions on this website, and unpleasant comments are not so infrequent.
I just noticed the MathOverflow remarks and (predictably) I feel that the picture you paint is overstated, although I agree the established users - myself included - could sometimes be more careful about being welcoming.
Have a strict guideline for what the answers should contain
This is what voting is all about. Bad answers should be down voted and good answers should be up voted.
Have a more strict system for flagging the comments. Most comments are not "abusive", which is the criterion that we have for removing them.
There are also flags for not constructive and too chatty. I would definitely classify snide little remarks designed to make the OP feel bad as either not constructive and possibly abusive.
If people are not being nice, step in and be nice. If you see a comment that is making a point (i.e., constructive), but is a little harsh, leave a new comment that makes the same point in a nicer way and then flag the old comment as obsolete.
If an answer is making a point, but is not being nice, edit it.
I agree with this enough to think it's the right answer, but I also did some digging on my own flagging "success" rate for comments like this (i.e. marked as helpful). If you exclude someone who was mid-flaming out, I have about a 50% success rate. So it might be easy to feel like flagging was doing nothing, even if its the right approach.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.657295 | 2016-12-03T20:11:40 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3571",
"authors": [
"101010111100",
"Athari",
"Cape Code",
"Fomite",
"Franck Dernoncourt",
"Yemon Choi",
"aparente001",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10643",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11608",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/118",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/41814",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/452",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/52718"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3793 | Recommendations for master thesis
Let me frame my situation. At the moment, I write my master thesis (pure mathematics). According to my advisor, the content of my thesis is already "good enough".
But I still feel that the content is not adequate, especially if one wants to pursue an academic career. Until now, I carefully explained a proof of the theorem in a research paper. Moreover, my advisor seems to be rather restrictive with improvements and recommendations, even if I directly ask him.
So I would like to ask the Academia.SE community, if they have recommendations what a (very) good master thesis should contain.
Is this question on-topic for this community?
I think that such a question would be closed as too broad.
Possibly related (not meant as self-promotion): https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/59827/what-are-characteristics-of-a-good-thesis-topic
@tonysdg Thanks a lot, it was partially helpful. However, I am nearly finished with my thesis and so the problem of choosing a suitable topic is no more relevant.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.657792 | 2017-08-03T20:35:38 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3793",
"authors": [
"Massimo Ortolano",
"bjn",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/36315",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/62755",
"tonysdg"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3641 | What to do with posters editing errors back into their question
This question made me think of asking, but it's actually the third time I've come across it in the last few months. In one earlier case the user actually rolled back edits fixing their grammar.
This isn't regarding changes to the substance; the user wrote a post with grammar errors, another user fixed them, then the original user edited it again to add errors back.
In the previous cases I just left it alone, and I'm inclined to do so again. But then we have posts with bad grammar lying about that really should be fixed. It seems equally unproductive to engage in a discussion with the OP in the comments, along the lines of "please stop editing grammar errors into your post". Is this something a mod can address? Should the post be re-edited again with the hope the OP realizes their error and doesn't repeat the cycle?
Here's another instance: http://academia.stackexchange.com/posts/84162/revisions
Note that it may not be intentional - weird things can happen if the OP has a post open for editing, someone else edits the post, and then the OP submits their edit.
Anyways, what to do? As suggested here:
If your edit is rolled back (either by the original author of the post or another user), don't get in an edit war.
If the edit is minor, let it go.
If the edit is substantial and you think the user may have reverted your edit accidentally, or without understanding why you have made it, you can leave a comment explaining your position and asking for clarification.
If the edit is important, you have left a comment, and the issue still has not been resolved, you can raise a flag asking for a moderator to take a look.
Note that it may not be intentional - weird things can happen if the OP has a post open for editing, someone else edits the post, and then the OP submits their edit. – This seems particularly likely in this case as the second edit in question was submitted less than two minutes after the first one. Also, the edit didn’t touch the title.
Perhaps SE should start using a diff/merge system for edits..
Or request that the user revise his edit and if necessary perform a merge himself if a concurrent edit has happened (like some phpbb forums do).
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.657920 | 2017-01-20T10:05:47 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3641",
"authors": [
"A.G.",
"Cape Code",
"T. Verron",
"Wrzlprmft",
"fifaltra",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10318",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10321",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10643",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4474",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53536",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7734",
"pipe"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3389 | Should the Black Nodes Matter question be removed?
Should the "Black Nodes Matter" question, which mocks the Black Lives Matter protesters, be removed?
Here's the link:
Is it appropriate to make a pun that references a highly charged topic in current events, in a lecture on an unrelated subject?
And how exactly do you know the question isn't asked in good faith? The question is if saying this would be considered appropriate by users here; the overwhelming response is 'bad idea.' Nowhere does OP make a political statement, just an awkward pun.
@Use001: Sorry, all I see is you making political statements that, to the best of our knowledge, were not made by OP. The other questions were quite different, but we don't have to agree on that. I've heard unpolitical academics make worse puns (e.g., declaring feminism to be like nazi government by someone not even conservative in general - which led to the expected storm of outrage), and would not be surprised if someone actually didn't realize how this is maybe not a good idea, and meant to solicit feedback for safety.
There are three main paths by which a question can be deleted.
Flags: If a question receives enough spam or abusive flags, the community bot will automatically delete the question and feed the spam/abusive detection algorithms. While this question is not spam, the abusive flag can be used for trolling. The question has only received a single abusive flag, which is not enough to trigger the community bot.
Delete votes: Users with enough rep can vote to delete questions when the question has either been closed for long enough or is sufficiently down voted. The question in question, is has neither received enough down votes nor been closed long enough for users to delete the question
Moderators: Moderators can unilaterally delete a question. We tend to try not to do this and let the community take care of things, but sometimes we need to step in. That said, during the mod elections we were asked about our thoughts on unilaterally deleting things. All the elected mods basically said let the community decide, so we tend to be conservative when deleting things.
As for why I haven't deleted the question. I did not see the question prior to it being closed. It was closed by 5 high rep users rather quickly. The question only has a single flag and there are not a large number of comments. I think the community is handling the issue well and there is no need for a moderator to step in at this point.
Converted from a comment on the main site question (which I now have deleted):
I am European so I probably know very little about this movement and the controversies that surround it, but I am strongly against the deletion of this question. In my view, merely discussing a topic in a civil way should never be censored because someone finds it offensive.
It's also really important that this was a question, not a discussion; the OP may have been impressively unaware of the situation but they came here with an open mind ready to ask and listen and learn, not with their mind already made up and ready to discuss and debate.
I think the question shows utter incompetence as a lecturer, but it's a valid question and should not be removed because I've had lecturers who were actually this socially incompetent, and as such it's a legitimate question. Hopefully someone will learn from some of the excellent answers it's attracting.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.658137 | 2016-07-14T14:10:03 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3389",
"authors": [
"Cascabel",
"Sean",
"deinocheirus",
"gnometorule",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10942",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/24513",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4384",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/9662"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3354 | How opinion-based is too opinion-based?
I'm relatively new to this StackExchange but questions like this one would probably be closed on most of the others I'm more familar with. However, it's highly upvoted and many people have contributed answers or comments so I assume I've probably just misunderstood the local StackExchange policy. Could someone point me at some clarification of how the opinion-based flag should be used on Academia.SE?
As rarely as possible. The difference between this site, and math.se or stackoverflow, say, is that people seem less interested in joining their own little cult online, then imposing their rigorous group-think views on everyone, and more in providing advice (also, as I think, being largely disinterested in reputation gain). There are good somewhat opinion-based questions: if you think you can help someone, do it; just avoid questions like this one which I'd call obviously childish.
what is your definition of 'opinion'?
@j-roibal are you asking me or @gnometorule? Either way I'm not saying 'opinion' is the problem; 'opinion-based' is the problem. If you can back up your opinion with evidence, that's not a problem. In the case of the example I picked (and it's just a random example; I have nothing particularly against this question) it would be possible to construct an evidence-based answer (a correctly conducted poll of people in the same situation, blocked by age, background, and gender, showing a statistically valid difference), but I think it's more likely to attract answers that are purely opinions.
In my observation, this site is different from many other sites on SE because much of the topic is about typical behaviors and customs rather than about the operation of a particular technology.
As such, the community seems to have settled into several effective patterns for transforming "opinion" questions into objective answers. The most common that I have noticed essentially turn a "Should X be Y?" opinion question into:
"Here is the typical range of variation for X (which may or may not include Y)"
"An effective way of approaching this question is to consider the following factors"
"The current state of debate on this issues is as follows"
Furthermore, two of the custom close reasons on this site ("shopping questions" and "strongly depends on individual factors") capture many things that might otherwise end up falling into the category of "primarily opinion-based."
As such, "primarily opinion based" closures are very rare on this site, often being reserved for places where the OP is explicitly asking for polling or debate.
Backing up these assertions, the current close stats for the past three months include:
21% "shopping questions" (highest % close)
15% "individual factors" (third highest, just behind "other")
2.4% "primarily opinion-based" (second lowest, only higher than "migrate to meta")*
+1: thanks, that's very helpful.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.658428 | 2016-06-28T12:47:21 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3354",
"authors": [
"J. Roibal - BlockchainEng",
"JP McCarthy",
"arboviral",
"gnometorule",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4384",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/47985",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/52346",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/9574"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3360 | Question I answered was closed, should I transfer my answer to referenced question?
I provided an answer to this question 'Consequences for publishing final version PDF, in violation of publisher policies?' which was closed for being a duplicate of this question: 'How often do publishers sue researchers for copyright infringement for putting their articles on a personal website?' I believe we can reopen the first question for the following reasons:
Question 1 asks a more general question while Question 2 asks specifically about copyright infringement.
Question 2 is specifically about a specific action, authors being sued for copyright infringement, while question 1 is much more general
Question 2 is about publishing specifically on Author's personal website, while Question 1 is much more generally about publishing online (author's website, but also online repositories such as academia.edu, researchgate and ArXiv.org)
I believe for these reasons, Question 1 should be re-opened and my question is now focused when this type of situation arises.
My Question: If an answer is located within a 'closed' question for being a duplicate, should the member delete the answer in the duplicate question and relocate the answer (perhaps modified) in the first accepted question?
In my mind the process is as follows. Post a question on meta or chat to make a case for why the question is not a duplicate. This is essentially what you have done here. If the community feels the question should remain closed, a mod can merge the new answers into the old question. If you want two questions merged, flag the question for moderator attention.
We don't merge that often (I don't think I ever have) and I think it might be irreversible. This will keep the vote totals and revision history intact. If we decline to merge the answers, then you can provide an answer on the other question.
I think it might be irreversible – Yes, it is. Probably an SE employee could do something about it, but they would not be very happy.
You're not required to do anything with your answer. You got it in before the question was closed, fair and square, and if the community really didn't want anyone answering that question they should have been quicker to close it as a duplicate. But it is in the best interest of the site if answers are placed on the "original" questions as much as possible.
With that in mind, I'd suggest the following: if you believe the question isn't a duplicate, make your case for reopening it by going through the usual channels. Offer counterarguments in the comments (to a limited extent), discuss on chat, and post on meta if you think it's really egregious. If, in the end, you don't win that argument, you should accept that the question is going to stay closed as a duplicate. In that case, it would be nice (though not mandatory) if you remove your answer to the duplicate and post the equivalent answer to the original question.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.658784 | 2016-07-05T15:32:26 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3360",
"authors": [
"Wrzlprmft",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7734"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3363 | Usage of 'Queries' or 'Questions' in Academia Tag Wikis?
After reviewing and editing a few of the tags wikis in the SE.Academia, many of the excerpts seem to be split between the use of either 'Queries' or 'Questions'. As I am updated the Wikis I have been unifying the word 'Questions' as it seems more international contrasted to the localized 'queries' terminology. Should these two words be combined into one or the other? and if so, should it be 'questions' or 'queries'?
P.S. regarding the votes on this question, note that they probably express disagreement with the idea of standardizing on "queries" or "questions", not that this is a bad question (it's a perfectly good question for meta). See voting is different on meta.
Should these two words be combined into one or the other?
I don't see any reason why they should. There's no rule that tag wiki excerpts all have to "match"; if two words work equally well, either one is fine to use.
should it be 'questions' or 'queries'?
Neither.
You have 500 characters to help someone understand how to use the tag. Do you really need to waste space telling them that the tag is for questions, when all tags are for questions?
Also see What should a tag wiki excerpt contain?
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.659020 | 2016-07-06T03:28:59 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3363",
"authors": [
"Nicolau Saker Neto",
"ff524",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/9599"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
2065 | Why my question gets so many downvotes? Is it off-topic?
I asked a question
picture on the academic page of a PhD candidate seeking postdoc
and it got many downvotes soon, without any comment.
I don't know the reason.
Is my question off-topic on Academic Exchange?
I guess it is because I didn't specify I am a male.
I think the line "people won't see my nips anyway" is just the sort of throwaway line that doesn't add to the post, and is just the sort of thing we've seen from previous posters who just posted silliness in order to prompt any kind of reaction.
If you don't want to be mistaken for one of those type of posters, don't write like them
I didn't downvote it, but this plus the somewhat contrived "No good shirted pictures exist anywhere" implied in the post is...odd.
@Fomite I've known people with stranger relationships to cameras.
I have no idea why it's picking up down votes: I thought it was a pretty good question and so I voted it up and answered it.
I will note, however, that somebody flagged it for possible closure as "primarily opinion based", so it may be that some people are thinking it might be too much of a personal choice. From my answer, however, you will see that I think there is a fairly general approach that can be taken to this sort of question.
Thanks. I will leave the question there, unless many people vote for close it.
And thank you again for the minor clean ups of my question.
@user565739 And now it seems we're seeing another phenomena that I expected as well: with a solid answer, the question is getting more upvotes.
And now it has more than 1K views...Good, but I am confused why it went bad at the beginning, but fine.
@user565739 Keep in mind that with a small number of votes, something "going bad at the beginning" is actually only a few people.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.659146 | 2015-11-27T12:16:28 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2065",
"authors": [
"Amory",
"Fomite",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/118",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/43665",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7886",
"jakebeal",
"user565739"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
1962 | Why this question is on hold?
UPDATE: I have edited my question and have added more specific details.
I have posted this question today. It is on hold saying
There are either too many possible answers, or good answers would be too long for this format. Please add details to narrow the answer set or to isolate an issue that can be answered in a few paragraphs.
I think this question is logical and is similar to many other questions like this and this. I agree my question will have many answers , so do other questions I mentioned. What kind of specificity you are looking for ?
There are simply so many types of information and so many different fields. I would suggest narrowing your question to a specific field (e.g., "In theological studies, what types of information...") or a specific class of information (e.g., "When is it a good idea to share anonymized experimental subject databases?").
If you have multiple areas that you would like to ask about, you can ask multiple questions (though I would not suggest asking too many all at once---you will likely get better quality answers if you ask a few at a time).
I have edited original question, Check now!
Your question also includes the statement:
I know this will depend on kind of research you and your rivals are doing but still is there any commonality ?
which already indicates that the question is likely to be considered "too broad" (and indeed, the answer could vary greatly from field to field).
I have edited original question, Check now!
Even with your edited question Dexter, it's going to be difficult if not impossible to answer. For example, does your work come from a specialized data set that would be hard to replicate? Is it work in progress, or near its final form? Is the manuscript ready for submission? Is your group powerful another that someone running off with a conference result of yours would blow back on them?
I think a general discussion of these principles from the perspective of the computational biology community is what the question is looking for.
@jakebeal The thing is, as someone who is...well, one field adjacent to computational biology, my first answer was "Ummm....."
I don't know, but I am feeling now you are being biased. Questions which I cited above are as subjective as mine. Why are they allowed then? Please delete my question instead putting on hold :/
I can't particularly see how I'm being "biased". You might disagree with me, but that means we disagree, not that we're being biased. Additionally, my concerns have nothing to do with subjectivity, but "How closely held should I keep my bioinformatics data" doesn't have enough detail in it to provide you a good answer.
I think it might mean that there are moderators that want their peeps to answer the question rather than the general public.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.659316 | 2015-09-25T13:02:32 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1962",
"authors": [
"Dexter",
"Fomite",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/118",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/41246",
"jakebeal"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3365 | Would this question about data storage be on-topic?
Is the following question on-topic for Academia?
I am from Biology field and our lab uses microscopy as a tool extensively. Our lab data is increasing exponentially. I want to ask other academia about storage of this data. Currently we have our own server with some 5 TB space. We take weekly backup as well as one long term backup every two years or so. But looking at growth of data, I can say in next year we will be out of space.
How other people/institutes/labs store their data for long term?
Is there any strategy followed on top on increasing storage capacity?
P.S: Whatever data we store on server is backed up on the magnetic tapes. Regular hard disks are not recommended by our IT section (which makes sense).
You realize 5 TB is tiny nowadays. Just buy another couple of disks and don't worry about it for a couple of more years.
Your question may already be answered (to the extent that it can be answered here), see the backup-archiving tag and especially answers to this question.
Didn't know about this tag. Thanks !
I would not consider this question on-topic for academia as there is nothing that makes it specific to academia – it’s what SE calls a boat question. I do not see any reason why the answer would differ if this were about the storage of non-scientific data for a company. Your problem is probably a good fit for a technological site such as
Programmers,
Software or
Hardware Recommendations, or
Database Administrators
(though I know too little about the scope of these sites to tell you where it would actually be on-topic – you have to check for this your self).
Moreover, a question like “How other people/institutes/labs store their data for long term?” is likely be taken as a poll (which is neither a good fit for any Stack Exchange site nor helpful to you). Finally, wherever you post it, you are likely to get better answers when you describe your problem in more detail, i.e., address the following questions:
What risk of data loss is acceptable?
How long does the data need to be stored?
How often and how easily do you need to access your data?
Is privacy or confidentiality a concern?
I think there are some academia-specific questions that might come under the general area, but the one posted up above is not such.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.659529 | 2016-07-06T06:58:57 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3365",
"authors": [
"Atena Nguyen",
"Dexter",
"StrongBad",
"ff524",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11841",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/41246",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/9600",
"jakebeal",
"zx8754"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3656 | Why advice to change adviser is rarely or simply not advised to be used in academia?
In this forum, and in this question I noticed, in general, that changing advisors are regarded as something that is bad and very difficult to achieve? Why members with high reputation on this forum, spread such a false information? or is that usual in academia, so the cases that actually change advisors are the exception from a majority of the situations in PhD programs.
I see people dont understand this question.
User with high reputation points on this forum, claim that you should drop or change PhD program, instead of changing advisors.
they dont provide any source or proof to support their claims.
Whenver this problem is brought, they tend to vote for closing question or delate comments.
In many cases, it's very true information: as usual things change by country, institution, etc. Don't generalize.
I don't understand this question. The linked question seems to not back up the accusation at all.
I think this is really clear question @TobiasKildetoft People, users at this forum, advice others to NOT change advisor, to rather change program!!!
In the linked question, the OP has explained why changing advisor is not possible in the specific situation.
I think my question is about users with high reputation score at academia. They suggest OP that it is better and more likely to change or quite PhD than to change advisor
because I never find any information or condition in PhD programs, that if you change advisor you need to drop studies. @ZeroTheHero never, and I googled it, and read through, if someone can provide something substantial.
Right, but you have also not backed up your claim that this is being claimed by members of this community.
hmmm. member of this community means, user that log in and create account,
I am starting to get the feeling that you either don't actually read what people write or is simply incapable of understanding basic English.
again, I dont understand on what you are referring @TobiasKildetoft you are not clear.
@SSimon In the post you link, the OP has already tried to change advisors and was blocked and threatened by his current advisor for doing so. There does not appear to be any support for the OP at that institution. Therefore, in that instance many people recommended that only a change of institution is possible. You don't provide any support for your own claims here except for this one bad example, and you seem to be reading the answers there as if they apply to all situations rather than that one specific situation.
Further, your responses here make no sense at all. Someone asked why you think people are spreading "false information" and you responded with a definition of what a "member of this community is." It is like somebody asked you what your favorite color is and you responded that you like cats - it suggests that you might be making accusations based on a language barrier.
@BryanKrause isnt that illegal? to prevent him do that?
@SSimon It isn't illegal to be a bad advisor or to be a poor institutional fit for a student.
@BryanKrause really? you are not protected by law, or some sort of contract?
We say it because in the overwhelming majority of cases/countries it's true. If Glassdoor ever start including reviews of academic supervisors, you will see some really scary stuff. The longer you stay in academia, the more you see. That is why we try to warn people.
isnt that illegal?to prevent you from changing advisor?
No-one officially prevents you. But also no-one can force a new advisor take you on, it's a voluntary task. Therefore no-one chooses to jeopardise their relationship with their colleagues for a lowly student they will never see again.
oh, so there is some kind of cultural barrier. but what if these advisors are not from same department?
It's less difficult, but I have seen people rejected because of this nonetheless. They are considered "too risky".
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.659733 | 2017-01-29T05:15:30 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3656",
"authors": [
"Bryan Krause",
"Massimo Ortolano",
"Nikos Kazazakis",
"SSimon",
"Tobias Kildetoft",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/12592",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/41198",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/63475",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/68309"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3279 | I am struggling to understand the question of user Quang Thinh Ha, can you help me figure it out?
According to this question,
UK is not providing funding for international student, which is malicious and not true, all my advisory team, mentor and two co-mentors, all 3 of them, plus head of department and her husband, and other academic stuff in 50%, they finished PhD (with scholarship) inUK, and they are all from ASIA!!! country very close to Vietnam, I cannot believe in his words. Is he playing racist card? or political situation changed?
I think your perspective is skewed, as the answers point out, most Research Council funding is limited to UK/EU students and most schools charge higher international fees.
and why most asian students get scholarship and study in UK? @StrongBad
@SSimon No, they don't. Most students from Asia study in Asia. Most who go internationally do not go to the UK. It's a big world out there.
@jakebeal maybe I have only anecdotal evidence,
@djechlin I am trying to focus myself on people from SAE that are now on tenured positions at universities. if you look that group of people, 80% finished PhD abroad, more then 50% in UK
but they are Asians, Asians get tenure in Asian countries, where they are citizens, @djechlin
" if you look that group of people, 80% finished PhD abroad, more then 50% in UK" -- citation needed
@YemonChoi that is information from website of my university!!!!
The question says:
Most of the funding I applied for were strictly 'UK/EU citizens only', and it is rare to have full funding for international students. I have applied to a lot of places, and received a lot of responses in the form of "... you are a good match, but I don't have funding for overseas students...".
then goes on to ask why it is considered acceptable to limit some sources of PhD funding to its own or EU citizens.
The OP never claims that "UK is not providing funding for international student" as you seem to believe, so the fact that some international students complete funded PhDs in the UK does not contradict any claims in the question. The OP says only that in his experience, there is less funding available to applicants who are not UK/EU citizens.
If you have some reliable (not anecdotal) data showing that the ratio of available funding to PhD applicants is identical for UK/EU students and non-UK/EU students, by all means, please provide that data. I suspect that you do not.
I just have a data of number of SEA students receiving PhD scholarships.
@SSimon Well, clearly that doesn't contradict that some sources of funding are limited to UK/EU citizens, and that general availability of funding for UK/EU citizens is greater.
that is not a problem, it is common sence, problem is that he stays there are not so many.
@SSimon You say you have data, but then above you admit that perhaps you only have anecdotes.
where is that? @YemonChoi
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.660063 | 2016-04-13T14:17:03 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3279",
"authors": [
"SSimon",
"StrongBad",
"Yemon Choi",
"ff524",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/41198",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/52718",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"jakebeal"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
2189 | I would like to reward bounty but question is closed, what should I do?
After editing of this question
by Jakebeal, to clarify content, question still remains closed. I cannot reward any bouty. What is a process for opening again question?
If you believe it's sufficiently clear now, you can cast a reopen vote (which pushes it into the review queue), and then wait for others to vote on it.
Update: it's gone through the review queue and 3 users voted to leave closed. It can still get reopen votes by users who come across it in other ways, but it's not in the queue anymore. See review details.
I think that Jakebeal clarified question 100%, I dont understand why people voted to remain closed?
@SSimon Personally, I'm one of your reopen votes, so I can't explain why others left it closed. If you want to understand and/or argue for reopening, you are welcome to do so in a new Meta question.
I know, @jakebeal I saw you vote for reopen, but now I am not sure how to address this question. as general one or concrete one? Should I mention other reviewers and ask for their reason to still block question?
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.660297 | 2016-01-25T13:59:35 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2189",
"authors": [
"Alf",
"SSimon",
"ff524",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/41198",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/8146",
"jakebeal"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
2194 | Edited question, but reviewers refuse to reopen it. Why?
I posted the question and some members complained that is not understandable, one of the high reputation member edited question to fit the rules, he did a good job, but reviewers refuse to recognise that what he did was good edit. What should I do in this kind of situation ? Can this problem be resolved somehow?
what is typical process ?
Asking on Meta is the right next step. (However, I cannot really comment on your question, because I have little interested in U.S. PhD processes.)
I understand @Wrzlprmft can you comment on clarity of question and if it is understandable to you?
You are experiencing the "typical" process. Unclear questions get put on hold and people edit them to make them better. Sometimes it happens in one go, sometimes it takes multiple edits. Sometimes you need to post in meta or chat asking how to salvage a question.
In this case, you attracted enough attention to your question and it is now reopen.
@stongBad do you remeber now?
@SSimon remember what? If this is related to some other conversation it would be better to comment there with a link to whatever content you want to remind me about. It is much easier to follow if everything is in one place.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.660406 | 2016-01-27T10:44:06 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2194",
"authors": [
"Ondřej Černotík",
"SSimon",
"StrongBad",
"Wrzlprmft",
"chipbuster",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/41198",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7734",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/8158",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/8164",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3548 | What to do with old posts with with unaccepted answers?
I've seen many posts where answers are provided yet none are accepted. These include questions where the given answers are straightforward and clearly correct.
For instance, in this post, two answers were provided in the day of asking the question. Both answers are correct with @StrongBad's one being an acceptable direct answer (IMO). Yet the post is nearly 3 months old.
It could be that the OPs could have forgotten the fact that they even posted those questions.
What to do in such cases? Could we just report to a mod to accept a correct answer for such posts?
A mod, afaik, cannot accept answers other than those to their own questions, as any normal user.
You may be right @MassimoOrtolano, I just wanted to discuss the 'what if' scenario. If this is possible, would this be welcomed?
I notice you've also got a significant amount of reputation on SO, like I do. Accepting answers is a much bigger part of that community than it is here, and I had to adjust too when I got involved in both. On the flip side, it's far, far easier to get masses of upvotes here than it is there.
@JeffL. Come to think of it, you're right. Most of my rep in SO comes from accepts (and edits) while most of it in Academia.SE comes from upvotes. But in SO, if you're lucky enough to be the first one to answer an about-to-be-famous question, you'll be flooded with up-votes in the future. I've seen some posts way over 2k to 4k upvotes in SO!
What to do in such cases? Could we just report to a mod to accept a correct answer for such posts?
No, even moderators cannot accept an answer to questions other than their own.
The possibility of having answers accepted by the community or moderators was brought up several times on the main Meta (e.g., here) and declined. Briefly: There is no need for it, since in case of no answer being accepted, the best answer (as per votes) should float to the top. An answer being accepted by the asker serves nothing more than to indicate that the answer helped the asker. Having others accept an answer for the asker would go against this.
So, all we can do with such cases is to live with them.
Thank you for the insight, @Wrzlprmft. The link was pretty useful too. It always bothered me when a perfectly right answer just stands there without being accepted. I guess I'm clear now.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.660535 | 2016-11-29T08:27:06 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3548",
"authors": [
"Bill Barth",
"Gina",
"Jeff",
"Massimo Ortolano",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10086",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10101",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40592",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/57314",
"walkar",
"Ébe Isaac"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3564 | Creation of a “distress” tag
I'm proposing to create a distress tag. This would address the questions posted by users who are mainly in some sort distress associated with academic pressure.
The following are few of the questions that I think would fit this tag:
Level of difficulty of exams in math PhD and anxiety over being able to do well
How should I deal with discouragement as a graduate student?
I don't want to kill any more mice, but my advisor insists that I must in order to get my PhD
What can I do to recover from a short term burnout?
My student told me his mother has cancer, what do I do?
There are a couple of users who seem to answer this question better than others do. Most of these questions relate to life advice in academia. Much of these do not directly relate to academia but is an integral part of it nonetheless.
So, what do you think about adding this tag?
@djechlin Yes, people who are more equipped to answer such questions can follow the tag. But I like ff524's idea of using [tag:emotional-responses] instead.
I don't think it would be useful. Tags are useful when they are specific, classify a type of question that isn't classified well by existing tags, clearly describe one distinct category well, and it's easy and unambiguous to decide when to apply them. distress does not seem to qualify.
For questions about feeling distress or other similar emotion, we already have emotional-responses. It's a small enough tag that it seems unhelpful to split up into multiple, more specific emotion tags. So: this kind of question is already classified well by existing tags.
For questions that are not about the feeling of distress, but are about practical techniques for dealing with a situation that is distressing (not dealing with the emotion):
Whether or not to apply this tag seems highly subjective. Who's to say what kind of situation is difficult enough to be worthy of getting the tag? I believe it would be applied very unevenly. (So: not easy/unambiguous to decide when to apply.)
It would be very broad - a huge number of questions are about someone in a situation that is problematic, as that's a major motivator for asking questions. I think it would be such a broad classification, as to be unuseful most of the time.(So: not specific.)
This seems like a totally different category of question than the paragraph above (questions about dealing with emotions), I don't see why "I'm in an unusual and difficult situation" and "I feel distress, not necessarily from an unusual situation" should be classified together. (So: not descriptive of one distinct category.)
I guess so. I was also pondering over how ambiguous the tag might be. Technically, most questions are asked in SE out of distress of some sort. Thanks for the [tag:emotional-responses] tag, I wasn't much aware of its scope. Yes, it does fit pretty well in this context.
Okay, I took a stab at adding this tag to some questions that seemed to fit the tag description. Would appreciate feedback as to whether I assigned this tag correctly.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.660745 | 2016-11-30T12:25:11 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3564",
"authors": [
"aparente001",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40592",
"Ébe Isaac"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3511 | About including offensive terms in posts
This sprung up in effect to this answer post. (I've just edited it)
The original post contained some inappropriate words to what seems against our 'be nice' policy. Apart from those words, the post did contain some useful content. Hence, I made the edit censoring those terms instead of raising a flag.
What should be done in this sort of situation?
Your edits replaced "piss him off" with "annoy him" and "put him off". You also changed "beer/sweets" to just "sweets".
I do not think beer is an offensive term to anyone and it provides more information than just sweets. In regards to "piss him off" this was not used as an insult. Presumably, you replaced it because you think it is a "curse". I think that is a stretch, but not completely unreasonable. I would avoid using pissed while teaching, but would use it while talking to colleagues. There is also the issue of UK/US meaning. Pissed in the UK means drunk while pissed in the US means annoyed. Curses in answers has been discussed before
What does the offensive flag mean to you
Are expletives (cursing, swear words or vulgar language) allowed on SE sites?
As for what to do, if you see something you think is not nice edit it. If you want confirmation, ask on meta or chat. You can ask either before or after acting. You could also flag the content, but I would reserve this for bigger infractions.
Thanks for the additional references. About the UK and US meanings, they are both the same under the given context. The 'drunk' aspect is just an additional meaning that I believe is rarely used.
@ÉbeIsaac Beer is definitely not offensive... and many of us would certainly prefer beer over sweets ;-) (and notice that in many countries alcohol is allowed on the university premises and can be found in the university cafeterias).
@ÉbeIsaac I know this is getting off topic, but I can assure you that the `drunk' meaning of that verb/adjective is most definitely still used and commonly understood in the UK.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.661070 | 2016-10-10T13:49:20 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3511",
"authors": [
"Massimo Ortolano",
"Yemon Choi",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10772",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40592",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/52718",
"username",
"Ébe Isaac"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3454 | Should there be tag for ResearchGate?
A quick search shows that there are a couple of questions involving ResearchGate. Would it be good to have a researchgate tag for such questions?
Of course, one could search for the questions just by the name, but as a tag, it could be prescribed for mail notifications too.
I would like to know the community's views before creating one.
It is worth pointing out that it seems to be a subset of the existing tag ([tag:social-media]). The tag-info for this tag says: *Use of social media (e.g. Facebook, ResearchGate, blogs, etc.) by academics to engage with other academics or students and to disseminate and publicize their research."
@Martin I guess that would make up a good answer. Kindly move it to the answer section. By the way, do you think it would be wise to make a [tag:researchgate] and make it a synonym of [tag:social-media]?
My comment was intended as a comment. Feel free to expand it to an answer, if you think that it somehow answers your question. (I am not sure it does.) Now I checked that there is also ([tag:facebook]) tag. So it falls under more general tag and still has a separate tag. (I should add that I do not visit academia.SE too often, so I am not very familiar with tags used on this site. Probably it would be better to know the opinion of regular users on this.
Around the internet there are several social media and online reference managers that are more of less of interest to academics: Google Scholar, Academia.edu, ResearchGate, Mendeley, LinkedIn, Facebook etc.
At the moment, among them, only Google Scholar and Facebook have specific tags; the others have been divided between the more general tags social-media and reference-managers.
Google Scholar is clearly academic-oriented and in many fields it is relatively widespread, but probably cannot be easily classified either as a social media or a reference manager.
Facebook is a popular social media, not specifically geared toward academics, and it's explicitly mentioned in the description of social-media. Moreover, facebook has, to date, only 6 questions.
ResearchGate, which is explicitly mentioned in the social-media description, has a quite controversial status among the academics, as outlined by several questions and answers in this community (I suspect that many academics use ResearchGate in a passive way: after having signed up, they let their profiles live their autonomous lives.):
ResearchGate: an asset or a waste of time?
Should I send a "cease-and-desist" letter to ResearchGate?
Is it legal to add your publications to ResearchGate?
In addition, at the moment, there are 51 questions containing ResearchGate and 47 questions containing LinkedIn.
After this long preamble, my stance is the following: either we create a tag for each website or we don't, but having specific tags for websites already covered by more general tags looks inconsistent.
Therefore, my suggestion is: keep google-scholar (because of 3rd paragraph above), burninate facebook, and don't create ResearchGate.
Disclaimer: my suggestion above is biased by the fact that, as I confessed elsewhere, I'm not that passionate about tags. Probably, users who use tags extensively, like the OP, might have a completely different opinion.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.661245 | 2016-09-13T09:17:53 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3454",
"authors": [
"Martin",
"crypton480",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11731",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40592",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/648",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/9853",
"user9853",
"Ébe Isaac"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3451 | What is the distinguishing difference between [tag:citation] and [tag:citation-style] tags?
According to the current descriptions,
citations Queries related to citing or referencing published or unpublished sources
citation-style On the syntax and formatting of citations and reference lists according to a particular style guide (e.g., Chicago, MLA, IEEE, APA).
They seem almost similar and it seems like users cannot differentiate their standard use. Many use both in the same time; in such a case the tag citation-style should very well define the question's purpose.
Should they be treated as synonyms, or should I just go through the trouble of re-tagging the questions according to their true descriptions (I don't see any badge for this; [badge:Copy Editor] excludes tag edits)?
Every time there is a question about tags, I wonder if it's worth any effort caring for them: do really people use tags when searching?
@MassimoOrtolano Well... I do.
@MassimoOrtolano I do too. Also, questions with your favorite tags are highlighted in the home page: when I browse quickly through the main page, I rely on the fact that the most interesting questions stand out visually. And I believe that they are used in the algorithm to create the list of related questions on the right part of the UI.
@FedericoPoloni I'm kind of a basic user. Whenever I try to find a specific post through tags, I cannot find it :-( At present I use tags only to hide those about graduate admissions... but it works only for the web interface, not for the app which I use a lot.
@MassimoOrtolano The tags are also used to select related questions which are shown in the sidebar on the right. I guess there are a few reasons why well-maintained tags might be useful. BTW speaking of tags, shouldn't this question be tagged ([meta-tag:tags])?
@Martin You're right, let's make the edit.
My understanding of the two tags is the following:
citations is related to questions about the appropriateness of a citation, e.g.: "Should I cite X if [...]?".
citation-style, instead, is related only to questions about formatting references and citations.
Thus, I wouldn't consider the two as synonyms. Maybe we can improve the description of citations.
Random examples:
How do I cite a SDS in AMA format? This question is tagged with both tags but I think it should be tagged citation-style only.
Is it unethical to cite a paper or book that you have never looked at? This question is correctly tagged citations.
How to cite files on a CD-ROM? This one is tagged citations but according to my interpretation should be tagged citation-style instead.
How do a cite an article which has been accepted pending revisions, but the revisions aren't accepted yet? This one again has both tags, but I think that the correct one is citation-style.
What does "ad indicem" mean in a citation? This one is tagged citations but I think it should be tagged citation-style instead.
Citing Math Lesson Plans This one has both tags and actually contain two different questions, one for each tag.
Before starting to retag any of the examples and others, I'll wait the outcome of this discussion
I believe that the tag ([tag:citations]) is also used on questions about finding citations. (Some examples can be found in this search.) The tag-info does not mention this usage of the tag. (Although to me this usage seems reasonable.)
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.661496 | 2016-09-02T16:52:26 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3451",
"authors": [
"Dan",
"Federico Poloni",
"Martin",
"Massimo Ortolano",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40592",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/648",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/958",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/9838",
"Ébe Isaac"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
1828 | Why can another user edit my answer to a completely different content without my review or permission?
A user with a much higher reputation just edited my answer. That's okay, a lot of others have changed posts from me e.g. to correct spelling/grammar (I'm no English native speaker).
But now MrMeritology has changed the content of my answer in a way that it reflects the inverse of my original answer. Why are such major edits that delete whole paragraphs from an answer possible without the review and agreement of the original author?
The help pages list the reasons for editing and explicitly say "without changing the meaning" but this is exactly what this user did.
I accept when people not agree with my answer... they can vote them down, or answer with another post reflecting another view. But this really pisses me off. Is this behavior common in this community?
Your question shows that it might be a good practice to briefly explain major edits in the comments to the edited question and to invite the OP to roll back the edit if it disfigures the original intention.
@henning I typically do exactly this myself --- it would likely be good to codify it as part of site best practices somewhere.
@jakebeal i noticed. and followed your example.
I suggest being a bit more charitable. I don't think I'd characterize MrMeritology's edit as "reflect[ing] the inverse of your answer". The edit leaves your original suggestion, and adds at the end an alternative if the journal prohibits your main suggestion. That's probably not a great edit to make (I would not make that edit myself, and I would not approve such an edit, if I were reviewing it), but I wouldn't characterize it as inverting your answer. The edit has other problems, but I think it's good to be careful about how we characterize things we disagree with.
Let's distinguish between "can" and "should."
Another user can edit your answer to a completely different answer because there is no automated system that clearly distinguish between a complex but sense-preserving edit and a sense-modifying edit.
On this site, where there is a great deal of personal "voice" expected in answers, there is generally a strong conservatism against significant modification of content generated by others (see, e.g., these meta questions).
The problem, of course, is that "significant modification" is a subjective judgement. What you feel to be significant, another may think is minor. As the original poster of content, however, you are the ultimate judge of what you feel is too far a change of your words. If you are unhappy with an edit, just roll it back. If the editor disagrees and you can't sort things out peaceably in comments, then bringing it here to meta is entirely appropriate.
Bottom line, the ethos that I have observed on this site is: sense-preserving edits are OK, but be conservative and the OP's judgement generally trumps that of the editor.
"just roll it back" deserves to be emphasized.
@henning Please feel free to make that edit. :-)
Another moderator rolled back the post for me (as I didn't understand how this works before). I'd suggest a button or link next to the several versions of a post that works like "roll back to this version". In my opinion this would be easier to understand.
@AndréKleinschmidt That's a fine example of a feature request to propose on Meta.SE, where the overall site developers can consider it.
Maybe I was a little blind before or someone changed this instantly O_o .. But looking to the revisions-history of my answer I now can see a link names "rollback" ... It's only missing at the latest version, what seems logical due rolling back to current version makes no sense. I'm confused. But actually now I know what to do if I feel my post's intentions got destroyed by other's edits.
Correct. The latest version does not have a "rollback" link. Instead, you click on the "rollback" link of the version to which you wish to return.
Well put! I'll have to remember this so that I can point to it in future meta discussions.
Yeah, people should not be editing for content except in rare cases where removing the content does not affect the message, and usually that's only with the go-ahead from a mod to do so (i.e. carve the rant out of a question)
@Compass can you post that as a new question. As a mod, I do not feel like I need to pre-approve edits. In my mind high rep users are perfectly capable of moderating themsleves, especially with the help of the review queues nd the abiIity to rollback edits. There have really only been a few cases where issues have been brought up in meta or a mod has had to step in and lock a post.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.661756 | 2015-07-08T07:53:04 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1828",
"authors": [
"André Kleinschmidt",
"Compass",
"D.W.",
"Jonta",
"Michael Scott Asato Cuthbert",
"Pops",
"StrongBad",
"aeismail",
"henning no longer feeds AI",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11524",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/22013",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/31917",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/36613",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6309",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/705",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/8375",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"jakebeal"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3522 | Are questions about formatting and presenting results off-topic?
I recently asked this question about formatting presentation of tables contents in academic publications.
I saw that those tags exist on this site and each one has a set of questions. I saw in the on-topic list that "Requirements and expectations of academicians" were explicitly on-topic and I pointed that out in a comment on the question.
Yet the question was still closed (not migrated or anything like that, just closed) on the grounds that "This question does not appear to be about academics within the scope defined in the help center."
Is there a general rule that everything in one or more of those cited tags is off-topic? There seems to be a lot of inconsistency, so I'm hoping a meta discussion can help clear things up. This old meta question failed to fully resolve it (or did so in the opposite way) perhaps because it was more general, while the present meta question focuses on research papers.
Also, is there a general rule that something on Academia.SE which might conceivably also fit on another SE site should be closed here?
Re "not migrated, just closed": moderators will not forcibly migrate questions whose on-topic-ness is debatable. Such questions should be closed by the community first, then migrated only if there is no attempt to reopen. See this and this. (I'm not commenting on the on-topic-ness of this question specifically, just pointing out general migration policy.)
@ff524 such questions get closed first, then deleted automatically.
If the OP flags the closed question and requests migration, and the question is on topic on the proposed destination site, moderators will migrate it. Otherwise, if nobody asks for it to be migrated and it has no answers, it will be deleted automatically. (The OP can still flag and request migration of a deleted question, as long as it's less than 60 days old.)
I apparently am not supposed to flag, though because I tried pointing out how this same meta result would apply on another question and that was declined.
You are free to flag your own question and ask for it to be migrated, as I said in my previous comment. If you flag other questions asking for moderators to close the question, those flags are likely to be declined because the community, not diamond mods, are responsible for closing questions.
I also found that your flag ("Questions about formatting of statistics are off-topic on Academia.SE") misrepresents the answer below and the current status quo, which essentially says "it depends", not that all questions about formatting of statistics are off-topic.
My comment was based on not just that one answer below, but also the observed practice of the community in what actually happens, including the off-topic closure of the question cited above, which is a more specific instance of the question about table cells that don't make sense.
As far as I can tell, the observed practice of the community is "it depends".
But "it depends" on WHAT? The standards are so arbitrary and inconsistent as to defy understanding. There's also inconsistency about the idea that "flags should not be used to point out that a question should be closed." For example, diamond mod @StrongBad wrote that "In general, flags about issues like off-topic questions are appreciated." I guess it depends primarily on who happens to be online at any given time and/or what their mood is.
I agree with you that the inconsistency in closing questions like this is a bad thing. But, I disagree with you leaving comments and raising flags suggesting that there is either a consensus on meta or a consistent trend in what the community actually does, when neither exists.
That's why I use links to full details, when starting efforts to make more consistency. These efforts are then rejected, with interface warnings that I should not flag and admin notes that I should not be leaving comments. ?!?
A more accurate comment might be "There is some debate on whether questions like this are on topic: see this meta post". Not "Questions like this are off topic."
But the consensus from this discussion here was to delete the question about how to present nonsensical cells in statistical tables. That consensus was formed and acted on; it's done and there's nothing more to be done about it, other than perhaps increase consistency.
I understand your frustration: the community refuses to clearly delineate what makes questions like this on- or off-topic, and has little consistency in closing such questions, and doesn't seem interested in correcting that. I share that frustration. But I don't think you're accurately representing what happened here. One answer with one vote does not make a "consensus".
It was not just one answer with one vote, it's also all the action on the now-deleted question, including at least five close votes plus comments and upvotes on that plus anything in chat etc., and the action which resulted from the existence of that consensus - or at least what counts for consensus for the purpose of removing material. Being told I should not be flagging after wrongly even just flagging the inconsistency, sends the message that the inconsistencies should be maintained, I should not flag to request any issue or migration be addressed, and makes things even more frustrating.
Is there a general rule that everything in one or more of those cited tags is off-topic?
No. Neither is everything with those tags in off-topic, nor is everything to which those tags could be applied on-topic.
As a general rule, I suggest that questions on such issues are on-topic, if:
They do not primarily pertain to a specific field.
It is a question of style (in a broad sense) and not of scientific accuraly. E.g., it is conceivable that a style guide or copy editor without special subject knowledge has an opinion on this question.
My rationale for this is that other questions are best targetted at the respective community of that field and can be best evaluated by it. While we may have some people that can answer such questions and evaluate the answers, an asker is much more likely to find an expert on this in the community belonging to that field, e.g. on the respective Stack Exchange site. Most of us couldn’t tell apart a good from a bad answer to those questions.
Some examples:
Conventions of Feynman diagrams or chemical naming conventions are off-topic. While some physics journals or chemistry organisations may have guidelines for these, they pertain only to a specific field.
Conventions on denoting measurement errors are on-topic. They pertain to a large number of fields and journals have style guides on this.
In case, of statistics (such as your question), it is somewhat difficult to draw the line, as it is a field of its own but employed by many other fields. But then again, many fields have to deal with chemical substances and their names. The distinction I would make here is that chemical names or statistics are still be considered to fall into the domain of chemists or statisticians, respectively. By contrast, I am not aware of a common agreement of which field is primarily responsible for measurement errors.
Yet the question was still closed (not migrated or anything like that, just closed) on the grounds that "This question does not appear to be about academics within the scope defined in the help center."
Whenever a question is closed with a custom off-topic close reason (such as yours), you see this comment. However, such a closure also comes with a comment that gives you more specific information.
Also, is there a general rule that something on Academia.SE which might conceivably also fit on another SE site should be closed here?
No. However, if a type of question is a much better fit for other sites, I would not consider it beneficial to keep them here.
"I am not aware of a common agreement of which field is primarily responsible for measurement errors": One day or another I have to propose Metrology.SE ;-)
The question in question satisfies both of your first pair of bullet points, but you still closed it as off-topic.
@WBT: The question in question satisfies both of your first pair of bullet points – That’s debatable. In my opinion, it’s specific to the field of statistics and statistics is the field from which conventions on such things are likely arise. The statistics community is much more likely to have an answer to your question. By contrast, a question on dealing with trivial values in tables would be something that I would consider on-topic, as it is more general and does not only pertain to one, field-specific case.
The papers I was asking about weren't statistics papers, though - it was intended for papers across any field that might simply use statistics in them.
@WBT: I assumed as much. But compare this to the example of chemical names. These appear in papers from a variety of fields; yet you would probably not ask about them here but on [chemistry.se] – because that’s where you are more likely to find an expert on this subject.
So the rule is that any question about presentation of statistics is off-topic here and should be closed? Yet, there are well-received questions even more directly about statistics (e.g. here, here, here, & I'm out of comment characters).
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.662424 | 2016-11-04T01:27:50 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3522",
"authors": [
"Heberto Mayorquin",
"Massimo Ortolano",
"Nzall",
"WBT",
"Wrzlprmft",
"ff524",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10020",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11593",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/36320",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7734"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
2131 | Are websites and organizations different from "individual journals, publishers or conferences?"
The following questions seem to be on topic and some are highly upvoted:
IEEE vs ACM membership
Is Academia.edu useful?
ResearchGate: an asset or a waste of time?
Is the Encyclopedia for Life Support Systems (EOLSS) a legitimate source?
How are scholars supposed to use LinkedIn?
Do graduate schools pay attention to joining Phi Kappa Phi or other honor societies?
and we have a whole tag for questions about google-scholar such as:
Do you let Google Scholar index popular science articles, conference abstracts, etc.?
According to this meta discussion, questions about the reputability of individual journals, publishers or conferences are not on topic.
In closing and commenting on this question,
Mod ff524 expands this policy to also apply to websites and large US national or international membership organizations, which I think are different and should be treated differently. Are they different? Should they be treated differently?
If we're limited to one general question, why even have a tag for honor-societies or online-resource etc.?
I didn't say that I was expanding it to apply to all websites and large membership organizations. I said I believe it applies to questions about individual honor societies. You are misrepresenting my statement.
One thing that grates on SE users is when users cherry pick a few example questions as justification as to why their question is a good fit. It is much better when users explain why the specific question is a good fit.
I could explain why I think the question is a good fit: that the subject is broad and covers the experience of many academics (esp. grad students) at least in the US who may be receiving invitations and wondering about certain aspects of this particular group. See my answer to this question as well. I also don't think it was cherry picking- it was a few minutes finding several examples that seemed to be enough to illustrate the point. Anyway, this discussion on meta is meant to be about the general rule, not any specific single application of it.
Further @ff524, I was attempting to interpret your actions, not represent a statement you made in words, in my verb phrase "expands this policy."
I am with ff524 on this one. To me, one useful rule of thumb for "too localized" is if we could easily end up with an array of near-identical questions that differ only in the subject. This could happen if we encouraged questions about individual journals ("Is journal A legit?", "What about journal B?" etc.), and the same is also true for individual honour societies. This is no real danger for the likes of Google Scholar or ACM. There simply are not all that many of these systems or organisations out there. This is, I think, also what Pete meant with his "Holy Grail or some other famous cup" statement.
I do agree that not all of the questions that you cite above are great questions - I would have no issue with some of them being closed. However, SE is not case law - just because you found one or more comparable examples that kind of slipped through (and not all that you mention qualify, in my opinion) does not mean that your question also becomes fine. I agree with closing your question.
I didn't say that I was expanding this policy to apply to all websites and large membership organizations. I believe it applies to questions about individual honor societies, including your question asking about the legitimacy of a specific honor society.
For questions of the form "Is honor society X legitimate?" "Do graduate schools care about membership in honor society X?" "How to specify membership in honor society X on my CV?" and "Does membership in honor society X carry any professional weight/recognition?" I believe the rationale here still applies and they should be asked and answered in a general way as stated in that answer.
The question Do graduate schools pay attention to joining Phi Kappa Phi or other honor societies? is a general question (see "or other societies") that happens to give a specific example in the title. The most upvoted answer on that question gives advice about honor societies in general.
Regarding other instances of questions about specific professional associations, websites, etc. I think it's worth evaluating them on a case-by-case basis. Services like Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and Academia.edu and associations like ACM, IEEE, AMS, etc. are very different from any individual honor society with respect to the magnitude and reach of their impact on the academic community.
As a rule of thumb, I think if you can rephrase the question to ask "about X and other things like X" without it being ridiculous, then you should. Asking a question about "ACM or other huge academic society and publisher for computer science" on the other hand sounds like asking about "Holy Grail or some other famous cup" (to borrow a great phrase from Pete L. Clark). I don't think we need to generalize to the point of ridiculousness.
I'll also address
If we're limited to one general question, why even have a tag for honor-societies or online-resource etc.?
Because people may ask different generalizable questions about these topics. If you look at the four existing (open) questions in honor-societies, you will see that there are multiple general questions asking different things.
Yes.
If it were an organization or site limited to one specific university/local chapter, then it might not be useful to enough people to warrant Q & A here.
However, I think ff524's rule that "we generalize questions to provide answers that teach people how to judge for themselves any journal, university, honor society. etc." is too broad, limiting questions and answers to only those too broad to be useful for the specific question being asked.
General assessment questions are helpful, but specific ones about sufficiently large organizations or websites should also be permitted, as evidenced by the reception to the questions linked to above (feel free to expand the list if you know of other examples beyond my quick search).
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.663082 | 2015-12-30T20:51:19 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2131",
"authors": [
"CTKlein",
"Roman Bruckner",
"StrongBad",
"WBT",
"ff524",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11623",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/36320",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/8040",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/8044",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"sxd"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
1805 | Properly Re-Asking My On-Hold Question
I'm new to AE, so I am still learning the ropes of asking questions and the proper format of it. So far, I find the guidelines helpful, not only for getting better answers but for improving my own academic writing (avoiding tangents, vague arguments, etc). Which is why I am in a quandary.
After my question was put on-hold, I edited it to redefine my questions and make them possible to answer. User aeismail suggested that I separate the two questions before asking again. I want to proceed, but I am not sure what is the proper way. If I separate them do I delete the original post so I can avoid repeats of the same material, or should I link back to the original post as a reference point for both questions?
You should create one new post, and post the second question there. Then flag the first question for moderator attention so we can reopen it.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.663608 | 2015-06-24T12:32:43 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1805",
"authors": [
"Dralax",
"goldenrettrieverlover",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11735",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6251"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
1869 | Have asked a question, two or more answers make interesting points. Which to choose?
I have recently asked this question Knowing that most students submit assignments right around the deadline, is it advisable not to set deadline that is very late at night? on Academia. It has attracted several very interesting answers, high-quality IMHO and that have been abundantly up-voted by the community.
There are two specific answers that I feel address complementary aspects of an "ideal" reply. Naturally, I have up-voted both, since both are of interest to a potential viewer of the question.
My question is: what strategy to adopt when choosing which most helpful answer to accept?
I have been considering several options:
Choose between one or the other. This would not be fair to either in my view, since their replies are truly complementary, i.e. make sense when taken together.
Choose neither, and post my own solution "cannibalizing" elements of both. Not my favorite choice from a moral standpoint.
Choose somebody else's answer. There are several other very good answers, but they just do not show the completeness of these two.
Choose not to choose, accepting no answer. But this would leave the question eternally open, when in fact I think the elements given in the answers go quite a long way to solving the original question as posed.
There is no immediate hurry, since the question has only been up for around 12 hours. However, I would appreciate any thoughts on making my final choice.
In this case (I saw 34 votes!), I think you could spare 50 reputation units (I'm not sure if points is the right word) to offer a bounty. Then you could write your own answer acknowledging the two contributions, accept your answer, and split the bounty to the two best contributors.
I think we are now up to 50. A bit of a surprise to me, actually - but the question does seem to interest the community. ;-) Since both of the posters have high reputation levels (> 1k) and have actually earned quite a few points/units through their answers, perhaps this approach is not necessary in this case. But I will bear it in mind if a similar situation should occur with posters having lower accumulated points.
To quote from the site's Tour page:
The person who asked can mark one answer as "accepted".
Accepting doesn't mean it's the best answer, it just means that it worked for the person who asked.
I don't think there's any moral compunction to choose an answer. Accepting just
lets other people know which choice you've made, amongst the answers (which is valuable since the answer that worked isn't always the one with the most vote), and
gives a nice little bonus of Fake Internet Points for the person who answered.
I would thus recommend following Strategy #4: if there's not "one best answer," why try to fix things onto such a Procrustean bed?
And, after all, you can always come back and mark something as accepted later if it makes sense then.
Sage advice, indeed. Not sure if I will actually use it, since the engineer in me likes to start, work on and eventually put an end to each process. It will be complex in this case since most of the good answers actually share aspects between them.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.663718 | 2015-08-06T21:05:55 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1869",
"authors": [
"ALAN WARD",
"Tuomo Lempiäinen",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/14818",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/34766",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6409",
"mattdm"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
1766 | Questions regarding Locked Post
My yesterday's post
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/45882/complain-or-endure
is locked
I request an edit to make it re-open. In my understanding, the question does not generalize to other people like me, and I can fix it. I will remove disturbing contents regarding my health issues. Please indicate any additional problem that I have to edit.
Otherwise, if it can be be re-opened, please help to delete the original post. In any case, thanks
I was mystified about why it was locked myself, and would like to hear an explanation.
@jakebeal we followed he advice given here: http://meta.programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/6256/do-we-have-any-responsibility-to-take-any-action-if-someone-says-theyre-thinkin/6258#6258
@ aeismail thank you for the nice clean-up/rearranging you did. Perhaps you would like to delete my obsolete question now? I don't seem to be able to.
While I do not generally like people asking an an an already closed question again, in this case I would prefer to see you simply ask the question as a new question in a better form. There are no answers to be lost and the comment does not seem that vital.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.663984 | 2015-05-23T08:20:30 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1766",
"authors": [
"Carter Pape",
"StrongBad",
"aparente001",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11727",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6162",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6163",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"jakebeal",
"pandorym",
"xioxox"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
1873 | How can we encourage posters to mention their country of study/work?
Academic systems and cultures vary widely between countries, and answers will depend heavily on this context.
I have come across many questions, where the country has not been stated – presumably because it had not occurred to the poster that this information was relevant. Now one can of course ask in the comments to add this – but this causes a delay and gets a bit repetitive.
Is there a way to encourage posters to state the country which is relevant? I was envisioning something like a drop-down menu when asking a question, or at least a line reminding posters that it might be relevant.
A reminder seems to be a lot more likely to happen than a drop down but even if neither happens you can still comment on questions asking the user to specify their country in question.
What we (or actually Stack Exchange employees) could do is to add a tag alert for tags that are prone to be country- or field-specific.
Tag alerts are special, tag-specific info messages that pop-up whenever the author adds certain tags to a question they are composing. To such an alert in action, begin asking a question on Stack Overflow and add the SQL tag to it. You can read more about tag alerts on here. I know that at least Graphic Design and Anime & Manga also have tag alerts.
As for tags to which we could consider applying this, graduate-admissions and phd come to mind. In particular graduate-admissions could do with a tag alert anyway, as I have the feeling that we are closing a lot of questions with this tag and a tag alert could help askers to ask appropriate questions or see that their question is not appropriate for our site in the first place.
Nice idea, I would also add alerts to the tags cheating, interpersonal-issues and sexual-misconduct.
Hey there. We recently brought those up to the Ask Ubuntu community in this meta post, so there's more context there on how you might want to proceed.
@MassimoOrtolano: For your interest. I do not think that sexual-misconduct is a sufficiently big tag to warrant the effort, though.
Reminders don't work. On CS Theory, they modified the greyed-out text that appears in the subject line when you start a question, so it emphasizes that questions should be research-level questions about theoretical computer science. It made zero difference: they still get just as many questions about undergrad exercises and fixing Windows as they always got.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.664116 | 2015-08-08T08:51:27 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1873",
"authors": [
"Massimo Ortolano",
"Memj",
"Nick Stauner",
"Ta Thanh Dinh",
"Thomas Orozco",
"Wrzlprmft",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10518",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10837",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/36363",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/36397",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6418",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7734",
"physicsenthusiasist"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
1780 | Can I ask a question about considering courses in an undergraduate program in preparation for graduate school and research in college?
I'm a bit unsure as to whether or not a question I have in mind is appropriate for Academia Stack Exchange, so I decided to ask about it on meta. It's possibly unique in that it is written by a student in high school looking at college curricula while considering how those curricula would be relevant to graduate school.
My question would be along these lines:
I once talked with a professor of astronomy - my hopeful major/specialty - at a college. He said that the key to doing well in the field is to take as few astronomy classes in college as possible (and as many physics classes as possible) and to take as many astronomy classes in graduate school as possible (and as few physics classes as possible).
This seems like wise advice - you need to focus on the basics before moving on to things that may be more advanced. The problem, though, is that I'd like to do undergraduate astronomy research as soon as possible in college - I'm already doing some independent work at the moment - and to do research in college, I need a solid block of astronomy courses.
Is this recommendation a good one, or does the possibility of research make it inadvertently backwards?
My other concern - besides it perhaps not being relevant to high enough levels, though it does rest in part on graduate school - is that it seems a little opinion-based. I've read through many questions on Academia, and it seems like there is room for opinion in many of them. However, I can't tell if this is okay in the case of my question or not.
Is this question okay for Academia Stack Exchange?
Well, as you said, this is a very unusual question.
Questions asking about specific coursework preparing for research are considered off-topic, but this doesn't do that. It's not an "undergrad-only" question, since the focus is on research, rather than the coursework per se. It also avoids the "too specific" trap, but it may (legitimately, perhaps) be dinged for being opinion-based.
Personally, I wouldn't contribute an answer, but my comment would be:
You should consider asking some people at a nearby research college what they would expect undergraduates to have studied before starting in their research group. You may need less formal coursework than you think.
Thanks. Is there any way I could eliminate the opinion-based part, or would you say that that's an innate part of the question?
You could try to write it in the form of: "are undergraduate astro majors expected to have significant coursework in astro before starting research" (or something along those lines), which might make it more "experiential" than opinion. But that's kind of window dressing.
Okay. I'll try to improve on that part.
I think you should start out asking the question that that guy was answering, and compare the answers you get with the answer you've collected so far.
How does this sound?
I'm getting ready to start college with some kind of science major,
with the plan of doing grad studies in astronomy.
Q1: What sort of proportion of my undergrad courses should be physics
and what proportion astronomy? I've heard that the best way to
prepare for grad studies in astronomy is to get as strong a foundation
as possible in physics, and that undergrad courses in astronomy might
not be very helpful, and could actually be counter-productive!
Q2: My hope is to get involved in astronomy research as an
undergraduate. Is this a realistic goal?
Q3: Would it be counter-productive, in the long term, to get involved in astronomy research as an undergrad?
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.664348 | 2015-06-05T21:57:46 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1780",
"authors": [
"HDE 226868",
"Tim Post",
"aeismail",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/35515",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6191",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6192",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6194",
"jcmeloni",
"user 3235"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
1718 | What ages am I allowed to ask about here?
The help center say that this is on topic:
If you have a question about...
Life as a graduate student, postdoctoral researcher, university professor
Transitioning from undergraduate to graduate researcher
Inner workings of research departments
Requirements and expectations of academicians
University-level pedagogy
I may be wrong, but I think that these are phrases that are used in the USA. What ages / years am I allowed to ask about if I live in the UK?
For example, I'm in Y11. I'm taking my GCSEs, and next year I start studying for my A Levels. Two years after that I go to university:
2015 - GCSEs (final year)
2016 - A Levels (First year)
2017 - A Levels (Final year)
2018 - University (or Gap year)
2019 - University
2020 - University
2021 - In severe debt and unemployed because of irresponsible money lending.
At what point am I allowed to ask questions?
Anybody is allowed to participate in our community by asking and answering questions. The issue is really when will you have questions that are on topic. The term graduate student typically refers to a student who already holds a bachelors degree and is studying for a masters of doctoral degree. In the UK, these students are generally referred to as post-graduate students.
From you time line, you would graduate in 2020 with a bachelors degree. If you then entered a masters or doctoral program in 2021, you would begin experiencing things that would be on topic here. Technically, as you are preparing for a post graduate program (e.g., applying and choosing a course and modules at university), you might have some questions that are on topic here.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.664646 | 2015-04-22T16:13:23 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1718",
"authors": [
"Andrés E. Caicedo",
"Cornstalks",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/14558",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6038"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
1920 | Are there any rules for which comments are "too chatty" and which are not on Academia SE?
I flagged some comments on this post as too chatty.
(Two years into my PhD program, and Mom is dying of cancer. Should I tell my advisor about it?)
and it got declined.
Why?
The flagged comments were:
Thank you guys.. I decided to tell my advisor. I hope it goes well.
and
I am reading this from my cancer-having (and ultimately dying--as best, much sooner than we all thought) mother's hospital room. My heart goes out to you, I mostly understand (I did a Ph.D., too, though not during this! I can't quite imagine), and I'm glad you're getting helpful advice. Best to you.
and
I am reading this and my heart goes out to you. It is, if anything, not fair that I should have survived
I mean his story is sad, thats true. But please may some on explain me in which way a comment like this:"I am reading this and my heart goes out to you. It is, if anything, not fair that I should have survived." takes any relation or content to his question as it is? Or is there a rule over here that just says "If a person had sad happenings in its life its fine to be getting chatty in comments"?
I added the content of the flagged comments, for context.
I was the one who declined those flags. The main reason I declined this one was due to the nature of the post; these heartfelt comments can really make a difference when someone's in a tough spot, and my snap judgment call was that it was worth leaving them.
That said, in any other context these are definitely worthy of deletion for the reason you cited, and I'm perfectly willing to have my own call overturned if the community thinks that's the right course of action.
I agree with your decision, after all leaving certain comments it's a way to "be nice", though not explicitly recommended, and to make Academia.SE a welcoming place.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.664789 | 2015-08-31T15:38:03 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1920",
"authors": [
"Christian Hummeluhr",
"Massimo Ortolano",
"Ryan",
"ff524",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6526",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6527"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
1899 | Why a "primaly opinion based" flag gets declined if the only question OP asks is "What is you opinion how I should react"?
The title is simply saying it:
Dullness vs. going overboard: Should I be calling people 'enfants terribles' in an academic paper?
This OP is just asking about what the community thinks about it.
So why this is on topic? While the answers clearly aim for why it is a no go, the op asks for opinions. so why asking for opinions isnt an opinion based post?
I think we need a general FAQ about good and bad subjective questions.
Your flag caused the question to be put in the review queue. Three high rep users then reviwed the question and decided it should stay open. The community user bot then declined the flag.
Had you flagged it for moderator attention, I would have declined the flag for "flags should only be used for things that need moderator attention". Moderator flags basically are a way of asking a moderator to act unilaterally. They are great for clear cut cases. In a case like this, as a mod even if I agree and think the question is a bad fit, with 15 upvotes, 1 down vote, and an answer with 55 up votes, I am not going to act unilaterally.
It is worth noting that after you left your comment, someone voted to close, and it went through the review queue again. Three users (at least one new one) reviewed it without recommending to close the question. It seems the community likes the question.
But isn't this how stack exchange pages shouldn't work? I mean why placing rules if they may be altered just in relation to itnerests?
@Zaibis: because sometimes there are questions that, though they look opinion-based at a superficial look, are actually not-so opinion based because of academic tradition, academic culture of certain country, style guides etc. In any case, a bit of open-mindedness doesn't hurt, especially in an academic context.
@MassimoOrtolano: But then you m8 should think about changing in the academic stack exchange just taking it out as off topic. because you can say what you want but asking for opinions WILL lead to opinion based answers as far you answer what was asked for. and if this is most time just not offtopic at all, it shouldn't be handled as those on this site.
This isn't accurate. For a person who doesn't have rep to vote to close, flag for closure (with one of the predefined reasons) pushes the question into close question review queue, not moderator queue. It's the correct action for a user to take in this scenario.
@Zaibis: you know, also grammar and orthography have their rules, from which you have voluntarily diverted in the comment above. Should we delete your comment just for this? Context matters ;-)
@ff524: Don't know what you mean, can you explain it to me?
@MassimoOrtolano: Yes you should, if there is a note about such comments are not welcome here.
@Zaibis I was disagreeing with the statement "Flags basically are a way of asking a moderator to act unilaterally." Some kinds of flags make posts appear in the moderator queue for review, and should only be used for things the normal high rep users of the site can't take care of themselves, as StrongBad says. Other kinds of flags push posts into community review queues, as a way of asking the other community users to "look at this post, see if it should be closed/deleted." Your flag was the latter type.
thanks for claryfication
@ff524 that makes sense. Sometimes people flag for moderator attention saying something should be closed. The community bot must have closed it after the review. I will edit to clarify.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.664973 | 2015-08-20T07:14:38 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1899",
"authors": [
"Massimo Ortolano",
"Paul Pearson",
"StrongBad",
"Zaibis",
"ff524",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/34428",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6478",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
2041 | Duplicate (synonym) tag shown in tag list
If I search "revi" in https://academia.stackexchange.com/tags , I get [reviewing] listed although clicking it brings to [peer-review].
This is the expected behavior. What's your question?
An answer could link a MSE answer which explains why that's the expected behaviour, for instance.
If you want to know why, ask on MSE. Questions about system-wide features are best asked there.
Relevant comment
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.665239 | 2015-11-19T12:40:32 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2041",
"authors": [
"Nemo",
"Ooker",
"ff524",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/14341",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/32575"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
2045 | Empty [intellectual-property]
I propose to empty [intellectual-property] because it's an overly generic tag and all the questions in it can be moved to more specific existing tags. Additionally, there is no tag wiki yet.
There are in particular the following possible targets:
https://academia.stackexchange.com/tags/copyright/info (most questions belong here)
https://academia.stackexchange.com/tags/patents/info (a few questions belong here; the tag wiki doesn't tell otherwise, so this seems to be about both ownership and inventor attribution/"authorship" of the invention)
https://academia.stackexchange.com/tags/authorship/info (apparently only as relating to copyright)
https://academia.stackexchange.com/tags/plagiarism/info (apparently only as relating to copyright)
There are general questions in intellectual-property that don't fit in any of the more specific tags. For example, What level of sponsor ownership is normal for an industry-sponsored research project? and PhD student, issued contract at year 3 which will sign over intellectual property. Is it legal?.
I am not in favor of eliminating intellectual-property.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.665304 | 2015-11-19T16:21:42 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2045",
"authors": [],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
1710 | Editing questions after many downvotes
How much of a change is allowed in questions that have been downvoted? I have seen the policy on editing questions with existing answers When is an edit not an edit any more? but this does not seem to apply to questions that have no answers yet.
I am new to the SE and do not yet have the hang of asking questions in the correct wording. Because of this I attract downvotes right away. Sometimes I am lucky to get a comment telling me only it was a bad question. I clearly understand they thought it was a bad question, hence the downvote. My motivation to ask the question has not changed, so I try to edit the question to better focus the scope and remove extraneous details in order to attract the knowledgeable answers.
My original question in my head is unchanged, I am only editing to more clearly communicate this in the appropriate format of the community. Can I make sweeping edits if no one has answered and there are only negative comments? Or should I just delete the question and try again?
I emphasize that I want to learn and obtain quality answers to my questions, this naturally follows from clear and concise questions.
Of course you, as the original poster, can make large edits to an unanswered question. I'd even consider it commendable to try to make a question more suitable after downvotes.
Even after a question has answers, you can still edit your question, so long as the spirit of the question remains the same: you're still basically asking for the same information as before.
As long as the questions has no answers, removal => rewriting => new post is also an option. This might be frowned upon though, I'm not sure about what's SE compliant in this.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.665497 | 2015-04-14T18:01:38 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1710",
"authors": [
"Malachi",
"Mast",
"aperson",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/21558",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6018",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6019"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
4561 | 2019 Moderator Election Q&A - Questionnaire
In connection with the moderator elections, we are holding a Q&A thread for the candidates. Questions collected from an earlier thread have been compiled into this one, which shall now serve as the space for the candidates to provide their answers.
Not every question was compiled - as noted, we only selected the top 8 questions as submitted by the community, plus 2 pre-set questions from us.
As a candidate, your job is simple - post an answer to this question, citing each of the questions and then post your answer to each question given in that same answer. For your convenience, I will include all of the questions in quote format with a break in between each, suitable for you to insert your answers. Just copy the whole thing after the first set of three dashes.Please consider putting your name at the top of your post so that readers will know who you are before they finish reading everything you have written, and also including a link to your answer on your nomination post.
Once all the answers have been compiled, this will serve as a transcript for voters to view the thoughts of their candidates, and will be appropriately linked in the Election page.
Good luck to all of the candidates!
Oh, and when you've completed your answer, please provide a link to it after this blurb here, before that set of three dashes. Please leave the list of links in the order of submission.
To save scrolling here are links to the submissions from each candidate (in order of submission):
Massimo Ortolano
cag51
M'vy
What is your time zone? What is the time period you are available for moderating our site everyday? Please specify the answer in UTC format.
New users and posters tend to struggle more than experienced users. What would you do as a moderator to improve the onboarding and also improve the welcome felt by new posters to Academia SE?
Do you have any previous experience as a moderator, either on Stack Exchange or on other kind of communities (e.g. newsgroups, forums etc.)?
What question or answer of yours on meta best exemplifies your philosophy on moderation? Why do you feel this is the best example?
In what way do you feel that being a moderator will make you more effective as opposed to simply reaching 10k or 20k rep?
How would you deal with a user who produced a steady stream of valuable answers, but tends to generate a large number of arguments/flags from comments?
How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?
What do you think the moderators' role should be with respect to Hot Network Questions list questions, given their potential for controversy and "passerby" users from the network? How do you think presence on the HNQ list should affect moderation decisions, given its frequency?
Comments can be tricky to deal with, and are often flagged as obsolete/no longer needed. Under what circumstances will you delete comments?
What is your stance about the current scope of Academia Stack Exchange and how this is enforced? Should we close any question that does not strictly comply with the current scope? Should we be lenient and keep open questions that can potentially generate good answers even if borderline off-topic? Should we narrow or broaden the scope?
Massimo Ortolano’s answers
Here are my answers to the questionnaire. Some of the questions were already asked during the 2018 election: my opinion on these has not significantly changed during the last year and half and I've thus reported a few of the old answers.
What is your time zone? What is the time period you are available for moderating our site everyday? Please specify the answer in UTC format.
My time zone is that of Central European Time, UTC+1 (UTC+2 during summer time). I'm usually intermittently available throughout all day, but I cannot specify a fixed time period because my availability depends on my work schedule, in particular lectures, meetings and experiments. Overall, I may be available for from 30 min a day, to about 1 hour, depending on the days.
New users and posters tend to struggle more than experienced users. What would you do as a moderator to improve the onboarding and also improve the welcome felt by new posters to Academia SE?
This is an age-old problem that affects most if not all of the online communities, not only those from Stack Exchange. The components of this problem are the expectations of the newcomers, those of the community, the size of the community (one can guide just that much what thousands of people tell to each other), the composition of the community (yielding, for instance, an acceptance bias toward certain questions with respect to others), the limitations of the platform (discoverability of the help center, visibility and form of guiding messages etc.) and — indeed — personality of the moderators.
Honestly, I don't have a definitive solution, and probably no one has (see also the attempts from the Stack Exchange staff). What I did so far is to use comments, our Meta and chat to explain the source of the issues, to help to better understand the culture of the site, or to convice the community that certain questions can be on topic (I'm not claiming that I've been successful in any way). This is also commonly done by our moderators. I think that a few meta questions and answers exemplifying my approach to this problem can be the following:
https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/4044/20058
https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/4371/20058
https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/4111/20058
https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/4258/20058
Could we please reopen these questions about salary and treat all salary questions in a uniform way?
Double degree: why was this question closed as duplicate?
To sum up, I'd continue along these lines, maybe in a more systematic way.
Do you have any previous experience as a moderator, either on Stack Exchange or on other kind of communities (e.g. newsgroups, forums etc.)?
Yes, I've been an administrator and moderator of an Italian forum about circuit theory, electronics, physics and mathematics.
What question or answer of yours on meta best exemplifies your philosophy on moderation? Why do you feel this is the best example?
This one:
https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/2027/20058
Even though at first glance it might not seem directly related to moderation, I choose this answer because I think it exemplifies well my understanding of people's way of voting, and the way in which complains about up or downvotes should be handled.
In what way do you feel that being a moderator will make you more effective as opposed to simply reaching 10k or 20k rep?
Well, really, the tools that are at disposal of 10k or 20k users are really not so effective. In practice, as a standard user, one can only bring to the attention of the community and the moderators a possible issue. Then, a few actions are triggered by the collective action of the community (e.g. enough spam flags can trigger the automatic deletion of a post), but most of the other actions should be taken by the moderators.
How would you deal with a user who produced a steady stream of valuable answers, but tends to generate a large number of arguments/flags from comments?
I wouldn't deal alone: I'm convinced that problematic cases like this one should be discussed among all the moderators. I'd first propose to have a private chat with the user to convince them to avoid this kind of disruptive behaviour. I'd consider suspension as a last resort.
How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?
I think that for borderline cases we should leave the decision to the community. Therefore, I wouldn't reopen or undelete the question unilaterally, but I'd propose to the other moderator to agree on publishing a meta question to see what the community thinks about the closure/deletion/etc.
What do you think the moderators' role should be with respect to Hot Network Questions list questions, given their potential for controversy and "passerby" users from the network? How do you think presence on the HNQ list should affect moderation decisions, given its frequency?
This is a tricky point. In this meta question I proposed that we introduce a post notice for controversial questions but, at the same time, I suggested in this answer that we shouldn't remove questions from the HNQ list. The most upvoted answers in that Q&A suggest that we should remove from the HNQ list questions related to "suicide or severe psychic health problems" and when "the asker is a victim of sexual discrimination or misconduct": this is certainly a sensible thing to do, but I think that more should be done to prevent people in particularly difficult situations to give easily recognizable details when asking questions, because removing a question from the HNQ list is just too slow of an action to be really effective if someone has malicious intentions. Here, the Stack Exchange staff should provide more mechanisms to help this prevention (for example, with dedicated tag warnings, with improved visibility).
Comments can be tricky to deal with, and are often flagged as obsolete/no longer needed. Under what circumstances will you delete comments?
Comments are really another tricky point for at least two reasons. First, there is a clear discrepancy between the intended usage of comments from the Stack Exchange staff and the intended usage from many users. Second, it appears that moderators have limited tools to deal with comments. For instance, at present, comments can be moved to chat only once (there are suggestions to improve these tools, but we don't know if and when they will be implemented).
In principle, I think that comments should be deleted only when they are rude or offensive, or when they become obsolete. A long list of comments can be moved to chat, but I'd avoid deletion. However, for answers, I think that comments that point out significant technical, regulatory or legal flaws should stay attached to the answers and not moved to chat or deleted. Of course, this principles might not be fully applicable because of the limitations of the moderation tools.
What is your stance about the current scope of Academia Stack Exchange and how this is enforced? Should we close any question that does not strictly comply with the current scope? Should we be lenient and keep open questions that can potentially generate good answers even if borderline off-topic? Should we narrow or broaden the scope?
It's clear that we receive many questions that are off-topic according to the current policy, but it's also clear that there are several users who are willing to answers these questions because, well, it's useful. And we have many examples of borderline off-topic questions which generated wonderful answers (this one from JeffE is probably the archetype of such an excellent answer to a very personal question). So, in general, I'm inclined to be lenient, but I'd also suggest to those who think that answering certain types of now off-topic questions could be useful to a general audience to bring it up on our Meta to propose to broaden the scope. The important thing is to reach sufficient consesus to have a uniform treatment of certain questions. I'll be therefore happy to broaden the scope in case of well-conceived proposals.
When you say "but I think it should be done more to prevent people in particularly difficult situations from asking questions", are you meaning "more should be done to prevent ...", or actually suggesting different reasoning?
@MichaelHomer Ah, yes, the way in which I formulated that sentence was ambiguous. I've edited it: my point indeed is not that of preventing people from asking questions, but to give easily recognizable details when asking questions about delicate situations. Let me know if it's clearer now.
Cag51’s answers
What is your time zone? What is the time period you are available for moderating our site everyday? Please specify the answer in UTC format.
Eastern Time (UTC-5). I tend to check the site several times throughout the day, but would make my most sustained investments late in the night (e.g., 0400 or 0600 UTC).
New users and posters tend to struggle more than experienced users. What would you do as a moderator to improve the onboarding and also improve the welcome felt by new posters to Academia SE?
Encourage personalized responses. I feel vicariously sad when I see someone provide a detailed, specific, well-written question and they get downvoted and their question is closed as a duplicate of a super-vague question like “how do graduate admissions work?”. True, our scope excludes overly individualized questions – but a kind note explaining this, perhaps with an encouraging word, could bridge the gap.
Do you have any previous experience as a moderator, either on Stack Exchange or on other kind of communities (e.g. newsgroups, forums etc.)?
Not on SE or similar. Certainly I hold professional leadership positions, but nothing like this.
What question or answer of yours on meta best exemplifies your philosophy on moderation? Why do you feel this is the best example?
This one. For one thing, I have rather few to pick from (see below). But more generally, I think it’s important to remember that questions that seem obvious or uninteresting to experienced researchers can be exceptionally important, and not at all obvious, for new users. Given this, I dislike it when people make condescending remarks in the comments (whether toward new or established users).
In what way do you feel that being a moderator will make you more effective as opposed to simply reaching 10k or 20k rep?
I view them as fundamentally different roles. As a high-rep user, I focus on answering questions, voting, and editing questions. As a diamond moderator, my answers and comments will be much more forceful, and thus I will have to use them much more sparingly. On the other hand, being a diamond moderator allows me to help the community in a different way – namely, providing timely review of flags, and being much more active on meta.
How would you deal with a user who produced a steady stream of valuable answers, but tends to generate a large number of arguments/flags from comments?
I would apply my judgment based on the nature of arguments or flags. If it is just a matter of poor word choice or over-enthusiasm, I would post a comment to try to defuse the situation. If I think the user is really stepping over the line, I might try a friendly modmail, in coordination with the other mods. If there is really egregious conduct, then I would coordinate with the other mods about more decisive action.
How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?
Very carefully. The most common case is probably that the other moderator thought the question was unsalvageable, whereas I can take the time to (try to) salvage it. In this case, I would try to salvage the question (perhaps with a note to the other moderator to avoid misunderstanding). The community can always vote to close if they disagree with me. For more systematic cases, I would discuss with the other mod and/or open a discussion on meta.
What do you think the moderators' role should be with respect to Hot Network Questions list questions, given their potential for controversy and "passerby" users from the network? How do you think presence on the HNQ list should affect moderation decisions, given its frequency?
For the most part, I would treat these questions as any other question. Many users find us from HNQs, so I’m reluctant to cull questions from the HNQ list. Certain cases, though, are either so personal (e.g., mental health issues) or so subtle (e.g., nuances of particular academic sub-cultures) that we should discourage answers from non-academicians. This is generally in line with what the community has already decided.
Comments can be tricky to deal with, and are often flagged as obsolete/no longer needed. Under what circumstances will you delete comments?
Sparingly. Deleting comments is a drastic action. Still, I will consider (case-by-case) deleting:
obsolete comments (e.g., suggesting an improvement that has been adopted)
insults (e.g., beyond reasonable discussion or disagreement)
clear-cut answers in the comments – after asking the author to post it as an actual answer. Of course, there are a lot of caveats here – I wouldn’t usually delete partial answers, or answers on closed questions that might be useful to the OP.
Comments that disregard direct instructions, such as on controversial posts where users have been told that “comments may request clarification ONLY”.
What is your stance about the current scope of Academia Stack Exchange and how this is enforced? Should we close any question that does not strictly comply with the current scope? Should we be lenient and keep open questions that can potentially generate good answers even if borderline off-topic? Should we narrow or broaden the scope?
I would not take drastic, unilateral action, but I do discourage closing interesting questions. It seems like most popular questions get closed and then reopened, in some cases more than once. While moderators shouldn’t, for the most part, open or close questions single-handedly, my personal “stance” is to accept interesting questions even if there is grounds for closing them.
M'vy’s answers
What is your time zone? What is the time period you are available for moderating our site everyday? Please specify the answer in UTC format.
I am currently living in the UK. I am usually off-work from 18:00 UTC and up until 0:00 UTC. Week-ends are usually a time where I do have more availability. Also, I am somehow available during work hours (i.e. 8:00 UTC - 18:00 UTC)., though in a more restricted fashion of course, but this should be enough to handle urgent matters.
New users and posters tend to struggle more than experienced users. What would you do as a moderator to improve the onboarding and also improve the welcome felt by new posters to Academia SE?
Being that it is impossible to pre-educate newcomers, it is necessary to work with the already established experienced users. It is easy to get caught in the pitfall of group identity and exclude anyone who does not conform (I have been guilty of this before), and everyone at some point needs to be reminded of it. We need to raise attention when people behave incorrectly, and are discouraging newcomers to participate instead of giving them proper pointers to get better.
As to how to make newcomers get better, I think the best approach is to have them in the chat room, it's really easier to explain things there than in comments. Obviously all newcomers aren't necessarily keen on been thrown into a room full of people, so this is not a silver bullet. And sometimes a simple address in the comments will be enough. Moderators have a unique position that can allow mediation between the two parties.
Do you have any previous experience as a moderator, either on Stack Exchange or on other kind of communities (e.g. newsgroups, forums etc.)?
I have moderated a lot of different places, from private forums to 5000+ members Facebook Groups. I also used to have mods privileges (reputation based) on some Stacks in beta.
What question or answer of yours on meta best exemplifies your philosophy on moderation? Why do you feel this is the best example?
Unfortunately, I do not have much example to give from the AC meta. However, I have been quite active on other stacks in the past, most notably Security, Arqade and French Language& Usage, and used to be active on Meta as well
I would summarise my moderation philosophy here on slack as this: moderators should be as invisible as possible. The majority of moderation should come from the community itself. There are only a few things that requires a fully-fledged moderator, and even if some cases requires a swift and decisive action, it is in the end the community that defines how the community itself grows and where it's headed.
If I had to chose some meta topic to illustrate this it would be this one or this one
In what way do you feel that being a moderator will make you more effective as opposed to simply reaching 10k or 20k rep?
These tools are really designed for different things. The 10k/20k moderators tools brings the most experienced user in the community some way to shape it in a collaborative fashion. Also, unless there are many active high-reputation users, it is unlikely that action will be swift, and when it has to be that's when moderators have to come into play.
How would you deal with a user who produced a steady stream of valuable answers, but tends to generate a large number of arguments/flags from comments?
I think that the best thing is to inform the user about it, communicate before taking any harsh action. Chat, message are here for this. In the last resort (if no improvements come out of this), I suggest to discuss it with the other mods and/or with the community to find the best answer to it.
I'm gonna use a quote from Rory Alsop here, because I think it clearly states the goal here: "We need to encourage the good behaviours and be robust with the bad".
How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?
Get in touch, communicate, get to know why and see if it was a 'close call', or if there is real hard reasons why this shouldn't be here. If it's arguable, try to find a suitable course of action by including the necessary people. We are all humans with different perspectives and not everything is a black and white situation.
What do you think the moderators' role should be with respect to Hot Network Questions list questions, given their potential for controversy and "passerby" users from the network? How do you think presence on the HNQ list should affect moderation decisions, given its frequency?
There is a clear need to monitor these questions more closely. It's more than probable that this kind of question will require protection. In the general case, I think HNQ are a good thing, as it increases the visibility of the community. There could be some cases where this kind of visibility would be detrimental or hurtful to people. In which case removing them from HNQ would be advised.
Comments can be tricky to deal with, and are often flagged as obsolete/no longer needed. Under what circumstances will you delete comments?
Comments that do not comply with the accepted etiquette of public forum should be deleted without question.
As for other types of comments, the question is often to see if the comment is detrimental to the question/answer. Sometimes an obsolete comment can help someone get an up-to-date source. Sometimes it would give a bad advice. It's mostly a case by case situation.
What is your stance about the current scope of Academia Stack Exchange and how this is enforced? Should we close any question that does not strictly comply with the current scope? Should we be lenient and keep open questions that can potentially generate good answers even if borderline off-topic? Should we narrow or broaden the scope?
Scope is a complicated matter on StackExchange for various reasons. Overlapping scopes with other stacks, controversial topics and opinion based questions, to name a few. There are questions that clearly would not be good on any stacks, these clearly should be dealt with in a strict manner. For the rest, it is not just a matter for moderators, but also the community. If the people do not feel like the question should be closed, it can be an opportunity to see if it brings value to the site. If it does not, it will always be time to close it, and learn for next time. If it does, raising awareness of it on meta would be a good thing to do, so that the community can become aware of it, and have a say on whether they think it wants to see more of these questions or not in the future.
You seem like a great candidate!
Well thank you @Matthias, that's very kind of you.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.665657 | 2019-09-16T19:58:59 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4561",
"authors": [
"CGCampbell",
"M'vy",
"Massimo Ortolano",
"Michael Homer",
"User",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/114349",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/14290",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/17740",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/925"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
2102 | Academia — Top User Swag!
I come bringing good news! If your name is on the first two pages of:
https://academia.stackexchange.com/users?tab=reputation&filter=all
...you'll be getting an e-mail from me soon to send you a little care package, as a token of our appreciation for being awesome and making this site a success! Inside the little blue box of wonders we're gonna send you, you'll find:
A T-SHIRT!
STICKERS!
I should be in touch early next week with. Be sure to fill out the form as soon as you're able to do so — you'll have two weeks to do it, after which this stuff will be shipped your way! I could try to offer a precise prediction for when these will arrive at your doorstep, but we all know what 6 to 8 weeks means around these parts.
If you're not on the list, don't worry too much about it — we've got some extra swag in our swag vaults we can send to you for events and such.
Thanks to all of you for making this site great!
Does this mean I have to find out my t-shirt size, moreover in some American system? I really need to make Clothes.SE a thing to help me handle such challenges.
I hope you are also shipping to Switzerland, because I am unreasonably looking forward to this :)
I am getting a t-shirt. Cool!!!
I second @Wrzlprmft; any chance of getting the t-shirt sizing as given by the manufacturer?
I've included a size chart for guidance in the form.
just received the email. very excited. Thanks -:)
@xLeitix We're shipping everywhere ;)
Hurray! Way to go for the Christmas season! Thanks a bundle!
I love the current top "related" entry: What to do about belligerent users?
All that procrastination has finally paid off! Thanks a bunch :D
Cool stuff! But no girls t-shirts? Also, what will you do with our personal data afterwards?
“for having helped this site grow healthily 'till it reached graduation.” – Actually, when the site graduated, I had 172 reputation.
@JonEricson Did you get your Academia swag??
@AustinHenley: That’s not how you get that hat.
A minor complaint about the t-shirt design: the text reads only "academia", not "academia.stackexchange.com"; so it could be mistaken for a shirt recommending academia.edu, a quite controversial "academic social network". This association is a bit unfortunate. Please take this only as a suggestion for the future; I am not complaining about this welcome present; I thank you warmly for it.
@FedericoPoloni: I'm not sure most people will connect the shirt with any website at all unless they recognize the logo. The first time I wore my Stack Exchange shirt in public, someone asked if it had something to do with Wall Street. :-) Hopefully people seeing you in your shirt will either already be familiar with this site or just assume you are really excited about higher education.
@JonEricson I work in a university in Italy; the English word "academia" is not commonplace there, and I am afraid that most of my colleagues will associate it to the spam mail they got from academia.edu as their first thought. Anyway, I realize that it is probably too late to suggest a change of design. I will test if my prediction is accurate by wearing the t-shirt and seeing the reaction of my colleagues. :)
The swag has been shipped!
The swag has been received!
The swag just arrived here in Italy, too, thanks! Unfortunately, my fears have been confirmed in the very minute when I unpacked the t-shirt. A colleague entered my room exactly at that time, and she asked me what the t-shirt was. "It's from a website, do you know it?" "Uh, isn't it something like Researchgate?" :/
Thank you very much!
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.667074 | 2015-12-10T21:00:38 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2102",
"authors": [
"Alexandros",
"Austin Henley",
"Cape Code",
"Federico Poloni",
"JNat",
"JRN",
"Jon Ericson",
"Moriarty",
"Stephan Kolassa",
"Steve Bennett",
"Wrzlprmft",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10042",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10643",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11599",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/32458",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4140",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/532",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/64",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/746",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7682",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7734",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/8562",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/958",
"seteropere",
"xLeitix"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3499 | Should an individual user's request for gender-neutral language be honored?
A recent Meta question noted:
One of the community members has approached the moderators with a concern about gendered pronoun usage amongst our Academia members. Specifically, this individual felt that calling out gender in discussion—e.g., "he said…" or "as she commented…"—risks introducing bias and may affect the quality of the discussion.
I am not going to ask whether we should use gender-neutral language when speaking about a user who has not indicated gender through posts, avatar, username, discussions, etc. (That can be discussed at the above-referenced Meta question.)
My question is about what happens if a user, say, User A, doesn't follow that practice, when referring to User B.
In such a case, can a flag be raised, either by User B (wishing to remain gender anonymous on the site), or by a bystander who is concerned that the gender assumption could affect the quality of the discussion?
In other words, should moderators use their gentle influence, behind the scenes, in such a situation?
While I appreciate that you don't want to discuss the assumption here, based on the votes on the linked question, I think its safe to say that your assumption—that the consensus exists in favor of gender-neutral language—is likely incorrect. As such, I'm not sure you want to base the question on that assumption. I would simply ask the question stand-alone: "Should a user be able to raise a flag related to gender assumption, irrespective of other policy here at Academia.SE?"
I think in order to answer this question, you need to make clear 1) How did User B make User A aware of their individual pronoun preferences? 2) When you say User A doesn't follow that practice, can you be more specific about what you mean? (Responding to a polite request with "I refuse to call you he!" and then persistently misgendering is very different from accidentally forgetting once or twice after being asked or reminded.) 3) What action, specifically, is the hypothetical User B asking the moderators to take in this situation? Certainly any discussion has to include that detail!
@ff524 - (1) Suppose User B wishes to remain gender anonymous. How should s/he indicate that? Right now, the only way I know of is by omission. (2) The question asks what can be done if User B suddenly acquires a previously unstated gender, through User B's gender usage. (3) The answer and comment features provide a mechanism for various specific ideas to be proposed and discussed. Specific possible mechanisms can also be articulated and rejected, if appropriate.
Woah, we have a meta question about a meta question about pratice on the site. Do we need a meta.meta.academia site? ;-)
@Simon perhaps you can ask a meta question to see if we need such a site. Then it would be a meta question about a meta question about a meta question ;)
@SimonW On the math sites it is always said that meta is idempotent.
"How should s/he indicate that?" Why do you use "s/he"? Using it is said to reinforce binarism.
@quid - What's wrong with "he or she" or the more compact version, "s/he"? Are you saying you don't like having to choose between exactly two choices, either "he" or "she"? What pronouns do you recommend using?
Yes this is the issue. Not everybody subscribes to the idea that there are merely two options see gender binary. I am not best place to give language advice in English, but in the specific case one could just say: "How should one indicate that?" Or "How should a user indicate that?" Generally I came to use mainly singular they in an abstract setting. There are a variety of other options, I do not know about the relative acceptance and preferences.
@SimonW this site has been swirling towards the absurd for a few days.
@quid hah. I had to look up the term, but yes :)
Wait, let me get this straight. X is saying that if Y acknowledges Z's gender in response to Z's post, then the "quality" of the discussion will degrade? I would LOVE to see something to back that idea up. @quid I'm a firm believer in gender being at least trinary.
@NZKshatriya - I got a bit lost with your letters, and also I don't know what the third gender is, but maybe it would help if I clarified: sometimes a situation arises in which User B has not indicated a gender, but somebody else, User A, assumes that B is a particular gender. It might be awkward for B to object publicly, and the question is whether a flag can be raised to request help from the moderators. Is that clearer?
Third gender is something that happens in nature often, but in humans less so, im not sure of the specific stats of birthrates of true hermaphrodites but it happens. Is the issue of awkwardness in responses due to someone using gender specific references a large issue? Is this a cultural issue? I am actually starting to want to know more about this. Personally, I generally ignore gender specific references. My screennames are ambiguous, I have been referred to as he/she/they. For the record I am male. But if someone calls me she, I don't take offense, nor think it detracts from anythng.
@NZKshatriya - I don't know any statistics. I found Amy Bloom's book Normal helpful reading about the gender spectrum.
I think Ill pick that up. Not to make this a chatroom, but I have had an internal dialogue about who I am. Jury is still out. I also have Asperger's Syndrome(autism spectrum) and view things from an analytical perspective as opposed to an emotional perspective, so these topics can be a bit overwhelming.
@NZKshatriya - Hope I didn't make it worse. Anyway, let's end this here, like you said, no point in filling up the page.
No no, didnt make it worse lol. Bottling things up is what makes things worse. No harm no foul.
Suppose I am the hypothetical User B in this scenario. I have not previously indicated any gender preference, I wish to remain gender neutral, and User A has used male pronouns in reference to me in a comment, answer, or chat message. For example, User A might have written something like this on a comment on someone else's post:
But in User B's answer, he said the opposite!
I have two options:
I can let it go, if it doesn't bother me. (Note that use of "he" for a general, gender-neutral third person is still quite common in many contexts, and doesn't imply that the author assumes that the person they are writing about is male. Similarly, use of "she" for a person of unknown gender also does not imply an assumption that the person is female.)
I can politely reply to User A in a comment, indicating my preference for the they/them/their pronouns. Then, after User A has replaced the comment or edited the post, I can delete my own. Note that this does not disclose my own gender identity, only my preference for gender-neutral pronouns:
I prefer to be referred to with the "they/them/their" pronoun, rather than gender-specific pronouns. Would you mind deleting your comment and replacing it with one that says "But in User B's answer, they said the opposite!"?
I should also make sure to assume good intentions, as per the Be Nice policy. I should not assume that someone who refers to me using a non-preferred pronoun is doing this with any malicious intent.
A flag would not be appropriate in this instance. Just as in "real life", if I am an adult who has a strong preference with respect to the pronouns that people use in reference to me, it is up to me to communicate that to others.
As for a "bystander who is concerned that the gender assumption could affect the quality of the discussion", I'm not sure what specifically you are referring to. (An example of an instance of gender assumption affecting the quality of the discussion might help.) Also, use of he or she in reference to someone whose gender is unknown is more generally indicative of someone's language preferences than of a gender assumption, as per the referenced answers on English.SE. This applies especially in an international community like this one, where members' first languages vary with respect to how gender is used.
In other words: let's all use a bit of that old endowment called common sense.
If I were the hypothetical User B, I could imagine saying "By the way, it seems like you may be assuming I'm male; I've actually intentionally avoided giving any information on this site about my gender."
Why not just use the @username, instead of he/she/it/they/them? Or, we could just all be adults and not focus on small things that really do not impact anything except perhaps a percentage of a persons comfort level. Life has discomfort, some people just have a difficult time dealing with it.......
There is absolutely zero practical way to force a user/commenter/answerer to go to the profile and check for a pronoun preference. It's just not how this system was meant to work.
Given that, I think there are just plain logistical issues preventing this proposal. People I interact with can tell me their preference, and I can do my best to remember it, but despite best efforts, I might not be able to. People come and go with high frequency, and given zero history of a new user, can't be expected to know a preference, and certainly should not be expected to go look it up.
I suppose if people feel really strongly about it, I think they need to approach meta.SE, and ask for a pronoun preference field to appear prominently.
"Force a user to go to the profile to check" -- there is no need. When in doubt, all one need do is write 's/he' or 'he or she' or something similarly gender neutral.
@aparente001 then I'd go to the common usage of "he" as gender-neutral third person, as pointed out by ff524. The use of "he" should not be seen as an endorsement of one's gender role.
@aparente001 as I told you some hours ago, writing "he or she" is not a good solution. I am quite surprised at your unwillingness to follow requests regarding not using language that reinforces gender-binarism.
@quid - No need to get tetchy! I'd be happy to consider your request if knew what it is. Consider http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/53880/what-should-i-do-after-advisor-got-upset-when-i-expressed-belief-in-evolution/53883#53883. I wrote, "You do need to talk to the dean of graduate studies in your department and let him or her know what happened." Do you have a problem with the "him or her" there? If so, please propose a better phrasing.
@aparente001 "I'd be happy to consider your request if knew what it is." I gave you information related to this some hours ago. It is not clear what further information is needed and why you ignored the initial recommendation. Further, I expressed surprise and it is unclear why you use "get tetchy" to refer to this. It is genuinely surprising to me that somebody goes over-and-above about (preferred) pronouns and at the same time pays little attention to it. To repeat, you could for example use "singular they"; so, write "and let them know," or avoid use of gendered pronouns by rephrasing.
Yes, it should be possible for User B or for a concerned bystander to raise a flag, requesting gentle but helpful moderator action in the situation described.
As in all flags, the moderators would need to evaluate the specifics of the case, including, User A's level of comfort with English, any underlying tension that may exist between the two users, any observed effects on the quality of the particular discussion, and any other specifics the flagger might care to note.
A user wishing to raise such a flag might not feel comfortable confronting User A publicly.
This flagging ability is one way (among others) the site can ensure that everyone is comfortable participating freely in a public place where issues are discussed about the academic world, which has historically been a very gender-circumscribed environment.
What is the action you are asking for moderators to take in response to this flag? It's hard to evaluate this answer without knowing what you're asking for. Perhaps you could give some examples.
@ff524 - Difficult for me to say, given that flags are not public, and neither is the processing of flags.
But you refer to "gentle but helpful moderator action". Surely you have some idea of what such action might entail? (As a moderator, I cannot think of anything useful to do that would be within the scope of moderator duties, so I would have to decline such a flag if it doesn't indicate what action is requested.)
@ff524 - Re your first ELU link, the question was 'Is using “he” for a gender-neutral third-person correct?' and the answer you linked to was 'It's still considered acceptable. If you really want to cover your bases, include a definition at the front that reference to one gender imports all other genders, unless the context requires otherwise, and explain that you'll be using "he" for the sake of simplicity.' The problem with the discussions on SE is that it would really bog one down to state the definition at the front of a comment. So, 's/he' would be much, much easier.
Re your second ELU link, the question was "Reason for the current trend to use «she» as the gender-neutral pronoun?" That's an interesting question, but I didn't quite see how it ties in here.
As I said here, my point is not to discuss what pronouns should be used (that's been covered quite thoroughly in other meta discussions); rather that when someone else uses "he" or "she" in reference to someone of unknown gender, we should not infer that the author is making a gender assumption. Those links show that people sometimes use "he" or "she" with gender-neutral intent, and so when you read other users' content you should keep that in mind.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.667541 | 2016-10-05T14:58:43 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3499",
"authors": [
"Cape Code",
"Flyto",
"Massimo Ortolano",
"NZKshatriya",
"Scott Seidman",
"Tom Church",
"aparente001",
"eykanal",
"ff524",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10643",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/20457",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/42813",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/563",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/63231",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/8394",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/9983",
"quid",
"user9983"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3544 | Is it okay to add tags when I am contributing an answer?
Here's a specific example: I wrote an answer to this question: How to professionally handle sexist remarks by a student?
The OP only included one tag. I can think of at least one more tag but I'm hesitating to add it. Since I contributed an answer, maybe it might look as though I have a conflict of interest?
Askers are notoriously bad at tagging their questions, choosing a useful title, and so on. If you answer a question, you are probably best qualified to edit it – not only because you apparently feel qualified to answer on the topic but also because you looked more at the question than any other user.
While you technically have a conflict of interest regarding tag-related badges, you have to perform a lot of biased tag edits to actually see an effect and all you get at the end is a stinking badge. Moreover as tag edits bump the question, they draw attention and can be supervised by other users. In general, once you gain a privilege on a Stack Exchange site, you are trusted to handle it responsibly. Almost every privilege can theoretically be abused.
You also technically have a conflict of interest by bumping the question or increasing its visibility (through added tags). However, as long as you perform the edit temporally close to answering it, the bump does not really change something as the question is on the front page anyway. Even tag-only edits to old questions are fine unless you do some systematic or binge tag editing (in which case, you should announce and ratify your plans on Meta first). As for increasing the question’s general visibility, this is a generally encouraged thing, as long as it does not lead to questions bugging people where they shouldn’t. Again, you are trusted to handle your privileges responsibly.
Finally note that the Explainer, Refiner, and Illuminator badges explicitly encourage editing questions that you answer.
Can you speak more about binge tag editing? Suppose I sit down and spend an hour adding tags to questions that have only one or two tags, in an attempt to perform a civic service? Maybe it would be better to spread it out instead of doing a whole lot of tag maintenance in one sitting?
Edit was fine; thanks for spotting. — Suppose I sit down and spend an hour adding tags to questions that have only one or two tags, in an attempt to perform a civic service? Maybe it would be better to spread it out instead of doing a whole lot of tag maintenance in one sitting? – Opinions vary. In general, retagging sprees are fine, but you should assure that you are doing a reasonable thing on Meta first.
Could you provide an example of how one should check whether one's approach to retagging is reasonable? Would one retag half a dozen and then ask on Meta whether one did it right, supplying links to the half-dozen?
@aparente001: Nah, don’t do anything, but rather describe the rationale of your retagging and illustrate it with a few examples.
Here is this comment chain or in a separate question?
Separate question – otherwise nobody will notice (except me).
I think you figured out I meant "Here IN the comment chain etc." Okey-doke, thanks for the guidance. Suggest you incorporate the how-to tip into the answer.
Adding an answer makes the question jump to the top of the front page. That means this is a great time to edit the question to add tags or fix any formatting issues.
Tags are really important for future users to find questions, so if in doubt add an existing tag. If the tag you want to add does not exist, it is worth asking on meta or chat about it.
Also worth noting: tags are about the contents of the question, not the contents of the answer.
@ff524, I think aparente001 was worried whether it might seem like a means to earn non-community wiki tag badges.
Could you provide guidance about "asking on chat"? Would one create a room for the purpose? Dive into an existing room? If so, which one?
@aparente001 the main [chat] room is fine.
That didn't link like I thought it would. This room http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/2496/the-ivory-tower
IMHO, this is totally fine. I've noticed many posts where answering users edit the tags of the question in various Stack Exchange sites. I find many of them useful too.
As long as the additional tag is relevant to the question, there is nothing else to worry about.
For instance, I skim through the live stream of incoming questions in Stack Overflow looking for Python topics. Many times, I see posts related to Python but don't have the tag. I add the tag and also answer the question. There are many expert users subscribed to this tag too. I've seen occasions where a better answer is posted in the same question afterward. This helps both the OP and the community. I would not rule this out as a probable conflict of interest.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.668605 | 2016-11-28T01:20:57 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3544",
"authors": [
"Henrik",
"StrongBad",
"Wrzlprmft",
"anthus",
"aparente001",
"ff524",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10076",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10080",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10952",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/40592",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7734",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"tom",
"Ébe Isaac"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3686 | What is a non-patronizing way of suggesting that an OP accept one of the answers?
I have from time to time been politely reminded on various SE sites to accept one of the answers I've received to a question I've written.
I ventured to do the same yesterday, on Academia SE, asking an OP if she was ready to accept an answer on a question that was almost three weeks old, had been viewed 27K times, and had collected seven nonzero answers, one with a vote of 263.
I need a better way to politely prompt. I wrote:
It's been a couple of weeks. Have you tried any of the suggestions? Did any of them prove helpful? Are you ready to accept an answer?
This went over badly, with the OP not only not accepting an answer or providing feedback, but also telling me to go easy on the "patronizing." So, my prompt was singularly ineffective.
What's a better way to prompt someone to accept an answer? I need some innocuous phrasing that will not get an OP's back up.
Just don't.
Users are under no obligation to accept answers at all. Users also vary in their preferences regarding when to accept an answer; some people may accept an answer months later, for example. Per the help center:
Accepting an answer is not meant to be a definitive and final statement indicating that the question has now been answered perfectly. It simply means that the author received an answer that worked for him or her personally. Not every user comes back to accept an answer, and of those who do, they might not change the accepted answer even if a newer, better answer comes along later.
I think it's fine to alert a new user who has never accepted an answer before to the "accept answer" feature, but otherwise I recommend refraining from such reminders. As you have noticed, such reminders are not always received well.
So what's going on when I am prompted to accept an answer (this question doesn't just refer to Academia SE)?
@aparente001 I'm not sure what you mean. You're asking me to explain other user's actions? Users do all kinds of things that I would not recommend doing.
I'll rephrase. Suppose you ask a question, either here or on another SE site, and someone prompts you to accept an answer, either gently or aggressively -- do you recommend ignoring it, regardless of the context or the tone? (Because I have been prompted, I got the idea SE frowns on leaving questions lying around with no accepted answer; I'm gleaning you don't see things this way.)
@aparente001 "I got the idea SE frowns on leaving questions lying around with no accepted answer" - not at all. SE deliberately makes accepting answers an optional feature, and removed an "accept rate" metric from user profiles years ago because people were badgering users about accepting answers.
So, if someone pesters you to accept an answer, what reply, if any, would write?
@aparente001 I would not write a response, and I would flag the comment as "too chatty" so a mod could delete it.
Okay, I will give it a try. I think this would be a good addition to your answer. If you think so too, do you care who makes the edit?
@aparente001 I prefer to keep the answer focused on the question about writing reminders. Especially for meta, it's useful to keep separate ideas in separate posts, so that voting becomes a useful measure of community sentiment on that one idea.
Well, it's your answer, but for me, the problem was what seemed like a contradiction. For me, "I would not write a response, and I would flag the comment as "too chatty" so a mod could delete it" was the actual answer to what I was confused about.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.669344 | 2017-02-20T16:32:00 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3686",
"authors": [
"aparente001",
"ff524",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/32436"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
2032 | two similar questions about mentioning GRE score in CV for grad applications
Can it hurt to put my GRE score on my resume?
Put good GRE scores on resume submitted with grad app?
I'm not sure what to suggest.
I assume you ask if and how the questions should be marked as duplicates.
The questions are similar, but it's not clear that they are the same question. One asks if it can hurt to add a GRE score to the resume of an application for a field and school that does not require the GRE; the other question leaves it unclear if the GRE is required in the field - I read it as if it was -, and the question is if mentioning the score in the resume is advisable. I could be reading the intent of the second question incorrectly.
Academia SE is fairly low volume. Given that it is unclear to me that we here have two duplicate questions, I would rather not take any closing-as-duplicate action. If you feel strongly something should happen, and agree with my interpretation, I would instead consider a clarifying edit. The site doesn't have the immediacy to cut down on volume that stackoverflow or math SE might have. I personally advocate a less aggressive approach to close votes than is common there - only for obvious cases, or when it greatly helps later information retrieval.
I was assuming that in both cases the GRE wasn't explicitly requested. I mean, if it were requested, then the score would be submitted in the standard way. Part of what bothered me was that the answers weren't consistent between the two threads. / Is there some way of making a canonical / Community wki thing and refer visitors to it from both threads?
If you would like to just link the questions informally, I'd add a comment under the question(s), like " Related: (link)" or "see also; (link)".
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.669624 | 2015-11-15T03:30:06 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2032",
"authors": [
"aparente001",
"gnometorule",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4384"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
1894 | Confused about bounty points
Related to Should an advisor care if their student becomes overweight?
How do I figure out whether it was the OP who awarded the bounty, the software, or someone/something else?
What happened to the other 25 points? (Or am I mistaken in thinking that the minimum bounty is 50?) I do realize that a bounty can be split between two answers, but I don't see the other 25 anywhere in this question.
From the help center instructions to those who offer a bounty:
If you do not award the bounty within 24 hours of the bounty period ending, half the bounty value will be automatically awarded to the top voted answer posted after the bounty start, provided it has a score of at least 2. If no new answer matches this requirement, no reputation will be awarded at all, and the reputation used on the bounty will be lost forever.
If the full bounty amount is awarded -> the person who set the bounty awarded it.
If half the bounty amount is awarded -> the software awarded it. The person who offered it did not award it to an answer within the deadline, despite several reminders.
Also see How does the bounty system work.
Thanks. I'm still confused, though. It doesn't look, in this case, as though the bounty was awarded to the top-voted question.
@aparent001 "top voted answer posted after the bounty start"
Sorry, I'm still not getting your meaning. Is there some technical thing going on here involving some exact timing?
@aparent001 the highest-voted answer was already there when the bounty was offered. A bounty is only auto-awarded to a new answer.
Weird! --- Thanks for explaining. I never would have figured that out.
This is because the spirit/purpose of the bounty program is primarily to attract more attention and new answers to questions that have so far been lacking one or the other (or both), in the bounty offerer's opinion. Automatically giving a bounty to an answer that was already there doesn't reward new interest. People who start bounties with the intent of rewarding exceptional existing answers can still choose to assign them manually.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.669794 | 2015-08-18T13:26:01 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1894",
"authors": [
"Pops",
"aparente001",
"ff524",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/8375"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
1925 | Badge wrongly awarded to me? Bug in software?
I was awarded the Self-Learner badge for How to say good-bye to an unhelpful and undisciplined professor?
The badge is defined "Answer your own question with score of 3 or more."
I didn't ask the how-to-say-good-bye question, so I suspect a bug. But I wanted to check if I misunderstood something before I file a bug report.
Was this badge wrongly awarded?
To file a bug report, do I just email the team, or is there a better way?
As for point 2: Posting on this Meta (what you did) or [meta.se] is the default way to file a bug report.
You posted that answer as a self-answer to a (now-deleted) "question" that you posted yourself "on behalf of" this OP. (The answer was later merged in to the original question by a moderator.) So it is a self-answer.
Another reminder how unreliable my memory is. It wasn't even that long ago....
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.669983 | 2015-09-09T12:18:03 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1925",
"authors": [
"David Portabella",
"Wrzlprmft",
"aparente001",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7547",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7734"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
1926 | Write a new question or start a bounty?
I was drafting a question entitled, "How to make a group or department women-friendly?" when I noticed that the wonderful "Questions that may already have your answer" feature was pointing me helpfully to a related existing question: What is being done to make the academic environment more women friendly?.
Unfortunately, the existing how-can-we-make question received very little attention. I would like to start a bounty on that question. My only hesitation is that a user found fault with the question as written.
What would be more effective -- set a bounty on the original question, or write a new question?
I think the real question is this: why aren't you satisfied with the answers to the original question?
If you think that the original question would receive good answers if people paid more attention to it, then set a bounty.
If you think that the original question didn't receive the answers you're looking for because it wasn't focused on the particular aspect of the problem you want, then ask a new question. In the new question, link to the existing question and say why it doesn't answer your question already.
I would only ask a new question, if it is new. If you ask a duplicate question, it will get closed. The original question is not great, but it is not awful either. I would try a bounty, if the question addresses the issue you are after.
I do not think my answer is great, but what type of answer are you looking for?
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.670183 | 2015-09-09T13:23:57 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1926",
"authors": [
"BSteinhurst",
"agt",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7551",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7561"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
2029 | Question regarding paid agencies that help students apply to grad school abroad
In a recent question about applying to grad school, I discovered that the OP was paying an agency to assist with the application process. I suppose, in a way, this is a bit like paying someone to do prepare your tax return for you.
If someone mentions hiring such an agency here at Academia, is it okay to say to the OP, "If you want to skip the middleman and prepare your own application, you are welcome to ask specific questions about the process here as you go along?"
Not even sure why you would ask that; you can definitely do that. The main point of this forum is to provide answers to questions, but frequently people don't realize what their question should be, and comments are often used to help guide the OP towards asking a better question. I say go for it!
I asked to make sure. It would not be nice to offer the help and then find out that's not kosher.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.670317 | 2015-11-13T03:09:19 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2029",
"authors": [
"aparente001",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/32436"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
2093 | How do I flag an improper edit of a title?
In a question (Can I write a paper on a method that is novel but yields similar results compared to existing methods?), someone edited the title and introduced the word "wrong" which I believe was entirely unwarranted by the question. How do I flag this? From the discussion I have had with the person who made the edit, I anticipate that if I roll the title back, that person will just un-roll it -- and then where will we be?
The OP wrote, "In some cases our previously proposed method which uses 2 images gives inaccurate results compared to 3 image solution." Clearly, the OP sees the new method as mildly superior to the previous approach which used two images. However, the person who edited the title created the following title, which I believe is an inaccurate expression of the OP's question: "Can I write a paper on a method that is worse than existing ones?"
The original title was "Can I write a paper to solve a problem which uses 3 images instead of 2 images approach discussed in literature?"
The person who made the edit meant well, I believe, attempting to help the OP keep the question open by making the question more general. But I see nothing anywhere in the thread to suggest that the OP wanted to write a paper on a method that is worse than existing ones.
I don't think one should introduce one's judgment about the merit of a question, or judgment about matters mentioned in the question and its associated clarifying comments.
But I don't know how to flag the comment.
As the person who made the edit, I wish to note that I did not only edited to make the question more general for generality’s sake but also because I consider it a valid generalisation of the question in my understanding of the question (which you disagree with).
FWIW, I declined your flag on the question, as in my original review of the flag I thought "just edit the question yourself, you don't need a mod for that". Seeing the post here, though, I appreciate your flagging it and I shouldn't have declined it.
Note that the situation that sparked this question has now been resolved (at least in my opinion) thanks to clarifications by the OP. (This does of course not invalidate this question.)
To answer the question, this is the right place to bring it up. If two users, or groups of users, get into an editing war, a mod will lock the post until things can get sorted out. Hopefully, by raising the issue in meta the issue will get sorted. I am not sure what the right answer is in regards to the title in question. It might be best to ask a specific question on meta about that question and link to the meta question in a comment on the main question. This current question is probably fine, but not ideal, since it has the needed details.
While I generally agree, in the specific case, I suggest to wait a while before starting a meta discussion to give the OP (who has not opposed the edit so far and accepted an answer based on the same assumptions as the edit) an opportunity to comment on the disagreement and possibly resolve it.
In addition to StrongBad's answer, you can also attempt to "flag" the question for moderator attention, and then provide information about what's wrong under the "in need of moderator intervention" box at the bottom of the pop-up menu.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.670425 | 2015-12-07T02:31:06 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2093",
"authors": [
"Wrzlprmft",
"eykanal",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7734"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3577 | What can be done to address provocative behavior by OP?
Regarding: Am I being a "mean" instructor, denying an extension on a take home exam
Discussion has been extensive and the tone has been ramping up. But that's not what motivates my Meta question. Rather, I am writing because I see several red flags suggesting the OP is behaving like a provocateur. I don't know the gender of OP but for simplicity I will use he.
Here are the red flags I see:
OP has been increasingly argumentative. OP has posted a question on Academia SE. If he is not happy with the analysis and opinions other users have shared, he is free to take them on board or ignore them. Nothing is accomplished by arguing, around and around. When he has disagreed with someone, he has added no documented or documentable information, or new logical points, he has only just cranked up the volume.
As an example, OP wrote a comment in response to the answer by Mayou36 which clearly stated he wasn't interested in other users' opinions. I'm afraid I can't quote the comment, because I neglected to copy it before I flagged it, and it has now been removed.
Currently visible example: "this answer is just trying to demonize me."
OP has been hypercritical of one of his students, which is tangential to his question. This has gotten now to the point of a personal attack on an individual student, who is under age. (To be clear: I am NOT saying that personally identifiable information about the student has been revealed.)
OP's "case" against the student keeps growing, ad infinitum. The OP has been gradually adding scattered additional information about the original question through multiple comment threads. Although the best case scenario is to include all relevant information in the original question, I appreciate that more is sometimes elicited through comments. Then OP should add it to the question, either by incorporating it into the text of the question, or by creating an addendum at the bottom of the question.
More and more disorganized diatribe about the student keeps getting added here and there and everywhere. Examples: "The student did refer to his other classes as 'a joke;'" "I know the school and I can confirm that it is an inner city school with extremely low standards and they teach 99% to just pass the standard exams... I've even heard they give mult choice tests where the answer is always the longest response."
My question: what can be done in such a case, where an OP is baiting SE participants and attacking an individual, who is under age? How can we make clear that provocateur-like behavior is unacceptable on Academia SE?
I just noted that your title and last sentence ask something different …
@Wrzlprmft - Oops, you're right. Okay, I took out the last part because I don't think that without moderator help we would have enough unity of purpose. But I also took out "moderators" from the title, to allow for community support, and to make it more vague.
Re: original title, I think you misunderstand the role of diamond moderators on SE. Moderators have a very specific set of "extra" abilities, mainly: deleting comments, migrating questions, suspending users who repeatedly/knowingly violate SE policies, and seeing parts of users' profiles that are not visible to "regular" users (mostly to aid in finding sock puppet accounts, etc). (Other less commonly used moderator abilities: renaming/merging tags, redacting edit histories to remove personal information at the OP's request, locking posts in an edit war, editing "on topic" page in the [help].)
Most of the "moderation" that goes on here is actually community moderation. If you're asking diamond moderators to do something that doesn't involve one of those special abilities, it might not be something that's within the moderators' role.
I have not followed the question in question very much, but I think a more general answer is more useful and desired anyway. I answer under the assumption that your assertions on the situation are true, but this is not to be taken as an assessment of that specific situation.
There are several mostly separate issues here:
OP has been increasingly argumentative.
When he has disagreed with someone, he has added no documented or documentable information, or new logical points, he has only just cranked up the volume.
This is a typical issue. Do not let this provoke you. If you feel that no new arguments have been added, state this in a friendly manner once. Should the opponent to continue to comment, ignore them. If you feel that the comments degrade into noise or offensive territory, flag them.
OP has been hypercritical of one of his students, which is tangential to his question.
This has gotten now to the point of a personal attack on an individual student, who is under age.
If the attacks happen in the question or answer, edit them to a more neutral description, stating this as an edit reason. Should these edits be rolled back by the author, flag the respective post for moderator attention, and leave it at that.
Should the attacks happen in a comment, this comment is probably leading nowhere anyway. Flag for deletion. Should the comment be relevant, include the information in the respective question or answer and make it neutral on the way. Then flag the comment for deletion.
Sidenote: I do not think that the underage aspect should affect any of this. Whether somebody deserves to be talked about in a condescending manner is irrespective of age.
OP's "case" against the student keeps growing, ad infinitum.
Then OP should add it to the question, either by incorporating it into the text of the question, or by creating an addendum at the bottom of the question.
Addenda should be avoided. There is no reason to document the history of a question as the edit history already does this.
Apart from this, it does not sound as if the information in question is any relevant, so just ignore the respective comments or flag them. Should they be relevant, edit them to the question yourself (see above), then flag.
Should the question change to an extent that the current answers are invalidated, ask the asker to stop editing / adding information. Should this not work, flag for moderator attention.
General reaction to provocative behaviour
Slightly increasing provocations are the hallmark behaviour of trolls¹ who feed on aggressive reactions from regular users. The best behaviour is not to feed the troll: Stay calm and friendly, assuming good intention, in face of first provocations. Most trolls show their real face if they run against this. If this happens, stop reacting, and flag possibly inappropriate content. Should the provocations stop, there was no troll to begin with or they have retreated. Either way, the good guys win.
¹ Just to be on the safe side, I repeat that this is not to be taken as an assessment of the example situation.
"Should the attacks happen in a comment, this comment is probably leading nowhere anyway. Flag for deletion." Does it matter what reason one gives in the flag -- if so, which do you suggest?
@aparente001 either "not constructive" or "too chatty". Probably in these cases "not constructive" as comments are designed to improve the question/answer.
For what it's worth, I don't find the OP's site behavior to be problematic.
Fundamentally the OP did invite critique by posting the question in the first place. (This also serves as a passing comment on another meta question, which I believe is calling me to task for being overly critical of the OP's behavior, including use of the word "obnoxious." But that's almost literally what he asked for: critical discussion of his behavior.) This means that he was fundamentally more open to hearing other perspectives than someone who would not seek to post such a question.
In my dealings with the OP in the course of my answer and other comments, I felt like he was for the most part taking in what I was saying. He was also defending himself, which seems perfectly natural. I know very few people who respond to criticism (even criticism they invited) without some defensiveness.
Is (again, as the question directly asks!) the OP being a bit "mean" with regards to the student? Well, the gist of my answer (already one of my most popular answers on this site, which is a bit weird but so it goes) is yes. But again, the possibility of that is what brought him here in the first place. I don't agree that the OP is engaging on a "personal attack" on his underage student. I would presume that the student is not active on this site or reading this question, and if he is then I don't see how this would cause him any particular distress. In fact the OP doesn't say anything truly personal about the student; he just describes him as a student. Again, I emphasize that much of my answer urges the treatment of students with more compassion, fairness and professionalism than the OP seems to have evinced in the situation...but I still don't see anything out of line or inappropriate here.
In this case, my preference would be to close the question. I am not sure what the actual question is and whatever it is, it doesn't seem like a good fit for our site. Given the up votes, as a moderator, I am not going to act unilaterally. In this case, closing the question as "unclear what you are asking" would probably resolve the situation.
Sometimes when discussion type questions are not getting closed, you can bring attention to them in chat, like I have.
I'm going to ask a question for my own understanding: how would closing the question help? How would that stem the flow of negative remarks from the OP about the student and his school and his cousins and his aunts?
It would either result in an edit making the question clearer which would in turn lead to better more concise answers and less discussion or make the question go away and get eventually deleted.
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but how does it make the question go away?
@aparente001 closed questions cannot be answered, eventually drift off the front page, and high rep users can vote to delete questions that cannot be salvaged.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.670709 | 2016-12-05T19:10:18 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3577",
"authors": [
"StrongBad",
"Wrzlprmft",
"aparente001",
"ff524",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/7734",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3684 | How to avoid edit war?
Participant A suggested I remove a particular paragraph from an answer I wrote; I explained why I was choosing to leave that paragraph in my answer; then Participant B removed the paragraph on his own initiative.
I don't want to provoke an edit war, but I want to reinstate the paragraph. What's the best way to get the paragraph back in without escalating the conflict? In other words, is it okay to just do a rollback, or does that risk escalation?
In general, an edit removing a piece of advice is an edit that is conflicting with the intents of the author and thus not permissible. Therefore you have every right to insist on this paragraph. Of course you have to live with being downvoted or even flagged as a result.
With your specific edit, one could argue that it does not address the question and thus can and should be removed. I do not think that this is the right approach since we allow for such extra advice in general. If somebody think that such extra advice is harmful or too much, they can express this via comments and votes.
In summary, I think that you are fully allowed to restore that paragraph.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.671450 | 2017-02-19T03:05:10 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3684",
"authors": [],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3590 | Please restore "ethnicity" tag in this question
For this question, When referring to races, should 'black' and 'white' be capitalized? (MLA), please restore the "ethnicity" tag which a moderator removed. As my answer shows, this question will be viewed and answered in different ways depending on the reader's racial identity and affinity.
(Should I have flagged the question instead of writing a Meta question?)
I removed the ethnicity tag because, as I noted in the edit summary, the question is
not about "interacting with people of different ethnicities"
which is what the tag excerpt says the tag is for.
I also left a comment just now explaining why I don't think that the question is "answered in different ways depending on the reader's racial identity and affinity".
Please note, I also said "viewed" differently.
I looked at the definitions of the ethnicity and diversity tags. Apparently the diversity tag is not as narrowly defined as the ethnicity tag is. I have accordingly added the diversity tag to the referenced question.
@aparente001 I really don't think the diversity tag is appropriate either. I suggest asking on meta to see what the rest of the community thinks.
ff524 ........ Will do.
In this case, meta is better than a flag since disagreements about edits are best resolved by the community and not by moderators acting unilaterally.
While it was a moderator who removed the tag, it wasn't "moderation", but rather just a user tidying up how they thought best. Had you put the tag back and the user, who happens to be a moderator, removed it again, another moderator would have stepped in and temporarily locked the post and asked on meta for help resolving the edit "war". By coming here first you prevent people feeling attacked and make life easier for the moderators.
As for the tag itself, I agree with this answer that it is not needed.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.671571 | 2016-12-08T21:14:41 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3590",
"authors": [
"Math.StackExchange",
"aparente001",
"ff524",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10189",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/32436"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
3594 | Is dogpiling flaggable?
This question is motivated by an interesting answer to another Academia Meta question.
My question is, if I see "dogpiling" going on, i.e. more and more people are jumping on a bandwagon, ganging up on a user, may I flag the answer? If so, for what reason? Perhaps I could flag it as "not an answer," because it reiterates a previous answer, without adding anything new?
The now famous question about "Should I call out a student who may have behaved in a sexist way?" is not the only situation where I have seen dogpiling. Another recent example would be Am I being a "mean" instructor, denying an extension on a take home exam
Edit:
I found an example of helpful moderator action which was apparently triggered by some "not an answer" flags. Of course I don't know whether the flags were appropriate, whether they were accepted, etc. I'm just posting this example to further the discussion. (Note, I was mistaken in something I wrote in a comment. In this example, the moderator did not delete the answer. The answer was in fact auto-deleted.)
Here is a link the the answer: https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/81033/32436
The body of the helpful moderator comment below the answer:
This has been flagged by several users as "not an answer". I'm inclined to agree; most of this post is about criticizing the OP's activities on this site, rather than offering an answer to the question. The part of this post that is an answer doesn't add anything over other, better answers that offer the same point of view but more details and explanation. I suggest editing to remove that last part, and elaborating on the first part if you have something to add over the other answers. Otherwise, I recommend deleting this.
The post you reference was deleted by the author, not a moderator. It was flagged because some users thought it did not answer the question (because most of its content did not attempt to address the question), not because it didn't add anything new. Finally, and most importantly: writing a comment is something anyone with 50 rep can do. Don't flag for a moderator to write a comment, just write one yourself.
@ff524 - "The post you reference was deleted by the author, not a moderator" -- yes, that's what I said, or tried to say. // The comment I quoted was clearly written by a moderator, which can, and in my opinion, should, carry more weight with a user. Please note that I provided constructive negative feedback prior to yours. Perhaps yours was just the drop that made the glass run over -- hard to know, in hindsight! But I did want to make it clear that in the example cited, there was clear moderator feedback provided, and there was mention of "not an answer" flags.// My hope...
... is that this example can help structure the discussion of the present Meta question.
Flags are intended to alert moderators that they need to take action. In that case, there isn't really anything that we, as mods, should do. You are free to leave a comment along the lines of "OK, folks, enough already", which may or may not have an effect. However, raising a flag is definitely not going to solve anything.
Please do not simply flag using an unrelated flag as we'll simply end up declining it, wasting your time and ours.
Thank you for your response. The second paragraph seems unnecessary, as I have asked for guidance instead of just flagging willy nilly. // I will say I am disappointed in your answer. I think that flagging a redundant answer that adds nothing to the discussion would be a great way of preventing a 100-car pile-up. Also, I did see a mod delete an answer for this reason, I will see if I can find it again. The comment made with the mod closing was written by ff etc.
@aparente001 It's entirely possible that I would leave a comment on an answer suggesting that it doesn't add anything new (as per this, I often leave such comments - which I do in my capacity as a user of this site, since leaving comments is not a special "diamond mod" ability), and then delete it for some other reason.
@ff524 - But I remember recently seeing an answer that was deleted, with a comment from you. I thought it was a helpful action and you were polite and gentle about it.
@aparente001 As I said, an answer can get a comment from me about not adding anything new, and then be deleted by me for an entirely different reason. "Not adding anything new" is not, on its own, a reason for a moderator to delete a post. If you find the example, I'd be happy to look at it and tell you what the other reason was.
@ff524 - It's possible I'm remembering it wrong, but I don't think so. Hopefully I will find it and post a link.
@aparente001 if you see dog piling you could also try protecting the question. This is a privilege you recently earned.
Expanding on eykanal's suggestion of leaving a comment, I sometimes leave the following comment:
It's not clear what this answer adds over previous answers that already address these points.
and, if the author of the answer is new or not a regular contributor, I might also include in the comment:
Answers on Academia.SE are expected to offer a fresh take, rather than just reiterate existing answers; see What are we generally looking for in answers.
I invite anyone who witnesses dogpiling to "steal" this formulation (or some variation of it) and leave this comment yourself :)
Also note that comments that just repeat things that have already been said should be flagged. The appropriate flag depends on the situation, but I find that "too chatty" is often suitable.
| Stack Exchange | 2025-03-21T12:54:48.671758 | 2016-12-09T03:31:52 | {
"license": "Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
"site": "academia.meta.stackexchange.com",
"url": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3594",
"authors": [
"Mark",
"StrongBad",
"aparente001",
"ff524",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10201",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/10204",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"marcella"
],
"all_licenses": [
"Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"
],
"sort": "votes",
"include_comments": true
} |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.