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This post is for collecting suggestions for the Welcome Modal, part of the new ask page design, which in its default state looks as follows:

Welcome Modal

You can make suggestions along the following lines:

  • Introduction to the site

  • A warning that we don't answer blunt homework questions and provide some appropriate resources.

  • A link to the topics which are on-topic on PSE.

  • Giving links to some exemplary posts. (So that a new user can check if their post maybe on topic or off topic.)

  • Add other things that you wish should be necessary part of the welcome model.

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This started off as cannibalising the existing suggestion for length, but sort of developed into something more.

You're almost ready to ask your question! Before you do:

  1. Check to make sure it's on-topic. Here are our guidelines. Note that homework problems[1] / “check my work”[2] questions are off-topic, but questions you think of while doing homework might be on-topic.
    If your question is off-topic, fear not; another internet community might be able to help you.
  2. Use the search bar at the top of the screen to make sure your question hasn't already been answered.

Remember: the clearer your question, the easier it is to answer.

You might find these links helpful for writing your question:

Some of these links should be removed. I don't hang around this site much, so I don't know how important these are, but the bottom four should probably be split off into a brief textual description with Wikipedia-style "source" links, as above. Not sure how to format that with the bottom bit remaining "optional-looking" (so people feel okay to skip past it) and not daunting, but there are currently too many items in the list for it to seem non-daunting anyway.

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My suggestion for the welcome model.

Asking a good question

Welcome to Physics.SE. This is a question and answer site for active researchers, academics and students of physics and astronomy.

You can visit our help-center for help regarding how the site works and how to ask questions, such as general guidelines on questions which are on-topic. Search or ask on meta for any questions (regarding the functioning of the site) you don't find answered there.

In particular, Homework-like questions and check-my-work questions are considered off-topic on this site, in particular when they ask about specific computations instead of the underlying Physics concepts. Homework questions can be on-topic when they are useful to a broader audience.

Some more links that can help you to write a great question:

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    $\begingroup$ Small edits should be fine, but majorly different proposals should be posted as a separate answer, otherwise voting on this post gets very confusing and establishing which version is the "consensus version" becomes impossible. $\endgroup$
    – ACuriousMind Mod
    Mar 6, 2020 at 18:00
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    $\begingroup$ I'm against this version - it is way too much text. $\endgroup$
    – Emilio Pisanty
    Mar 6, 2020 at 22:48
  • $\begingroup$ @EmilioPisanty can you comment as to what to do to make it concise. If you have any idea you can post it as a new answer. $\endgroup$
    – user249968
    Mar 7, 2020 at 5:00

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