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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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