1
$\begingroup$

I have just noted that when writing a technical question on the main page, a blue popup window appears telling me that the question I am writing is too subjective and will probably be closed.

What distracting nonsense is this? Can this unneeded new feature be turned of on Physics SE? At least should the algorithm used to recognize inappropriate questions while they are written be debugged, such that it is not triggered when people are for example writing technical questions.

People on sites like MathOverflow, CS Theory, etc will not be happy about such new features too I guess

$\endgroup$
5
  • $\begingroup$ At least tell us what the contents of the question are. $\endgroup$
    – Manishearth
    Jul 14, 2013 at 12:21
  • $\begingroup$ @Manishearth done. And yes this quite annoys me because there is absolutely nothing subjective about my question and I expect technical answers ... $\endgroup$
    – Dilaton
    Jul 14, 2013 at 12:24
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ It's not calling your question subjective. It's saying that your question looks subjective. If it isn't, ignore it. No need to get so worked up. $\endgroup$
    – Manishearth
    Jul 14, 2013 at 12:35
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ As I understand it, that pop-up runs off of some fairly stupid rules. Looking subjective to a minimal rule based system isn't necessarily a big deal. $\endgroup$
    – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten
    Jul 14, 2013 at 12:56
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ Why would someone (2 people) downvote this? Having a robot that tells everyone something equivalent to "Stop writing" is completely useless! +1. $\endgroup$
    – Abhimanyu Pallavi Sudhir
    Jul 15, 2013 at 4:13

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3
$\begingroup$

I've come across it a couple of times too -- it has very few false alarms, and usually comes up when you are asking for opinions (Type "what do you think" in the topbar). I don't see why it's so annoying, it has a very useful feature and the couple of times you come across it, you can check your question for subjectiveness and then post it.

It's not a new feature. It's always been there, afaict. The fact that you, a user who has asked 80-odd questions, have just noticed it is testament to it not having too many false alarms.

And I doubt it will be turned off because it is extremely good at catching subjective questions (at least, ones I can come up with to test against it)

Remember, it's saying this (it's not calling your question as "too subjective"):

The question you're asking appears subjective and is likely to be closed

It's a "maybe" statement, and all it's saying is that there's a chance that the question is subjective. It basically tells newbies that subjective questions are disallowed -- many don't know about that. If you think your question isn't subjective, go ahead and post it.

$\endgroup$
2
  • $\begingroup$ Ok, thanks for these explanations it is the first time I saw this ... Are there some other consequences that go along with the poping up of the window, as for example an automated flag? $\endgroup$
    – Dilaton
    Jul 14, 2013 at 12:37
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @Dilaton Nope. It's a reminder, that's all. Basically, it's saying "Subjective questions aren't allowed here", so someone who doesn't know that will realize, check the question, and not post if it is subjective. There's no flag, but I don't see what the problem would be even if there is? In the case of questions like yours the automated flag (if it existed) would just be dismissed $\endgroup$
    – Manishearth
    Jul 14, 2013 at 12:42

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .