Questions tagged [answers]
The answers tag has no usage guidance.
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Is direct criticism of another answer in your own answer ok?
This is a question about etiquette and manners.
If you are answering or have answered a question and you disagree with something written in another answer, would you think it was ok to directly ...
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What to do when a non-duplicate question has the answer?
There is a question asked a few days ago on "Reaching 50% the speed of light using a centrifuge" that is effectively answered by a very nice answer to a different question on "Does a ...
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Physics.SE remains a site by humans, for humans
We, the moderators of physics.SE, are deeply concerned about the recently announced "network policy" regarding computer-generated content on the SE network, which effectively attempts to ...
ACuriousMindMod
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Why downvotes on three separate answers in a short amount of time, two times?
It seems that someone doesn't like me, for whatever reason, because three answers of mine have been downvoted in less than one minute the Mar 19 at 8:45 (votes corrected now):
Can black holes ...
- 2,462
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Is the voting format of SE which confuses "like" with "correct" appropriate for physics
I will give an example of a negative vote I just got.
My problem with this vote is that I do not think anything is wrong in the physics of my answer. I accept that the reader does not "like"...
- 232k
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Do we have ChatGPT policy? [duplicate]
I recently noticed an answer which, according to the author, was written by ChatGPT. The question was very poor (about quantum entanglement, from a person who have learned about entanglement from a ...
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A rule of thumb of answer satisfaction?
So one rule of thumb I've noticed is that if the upvotes of a question is more than the upvotes of any of the answers. Then somehow the community feels the question was not answered satisfactorily. (...
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Is it advisable to provide a supplementary answer to a question?
Question
As the title (hopefully tries to convey) - Is it advisable to answer a question with an answer that is more "supplementary"?
Examples
Like, based on other answers?
For example;
I ...
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Is it rude to answer your own question yourself after other solutions are available?
As the title says, given a question of mine with one or more answers by other users, is it rude to provide a more focused answer by myself? I find that sometimes I solve my own doubts through the ...
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Please don't use computer-generated text for questions or answers on Physics
For the impatient reader, the guidance is in the title: please don't use computer-generated text for questions or answers on Physics.
Computer-generated text violates our expectation that users are ...
robMod
- 86.3k
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Are accepted answers generally good answers?
This question is different from Do we want accepted answers to be pinned to the top?. I read the accepted answer to Why do ice cubes come out easier from top trays?. I understand what it's saying. I ...
- 1,648
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Should users answer questions that they think should be closed?
From time to time I come across posts that are closed by a user/users who has/have also submitted an answer to the question. I feel like this goes against the goal of closure, which is to prevent ...
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How do I write better answers?
I haven't written many answers, but after I have identified what the user is asking, I usually go with a conversational tone, going over whatever has a question mark over it and any context supporting ...
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Should we downvote answers that begin with "I think..."?
People often speculate rather than answer. If you think you know the answer then you don't.
- 1,297
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Is there a grace period to post an answer to a question after it is closed?
This answer has been published 23 minutes ago, while the question was closed 25 minutes ago, at the moment. Also this answer was published a minute after closing the question (another).
So how does ...
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Self-promoting your non-standard research through answers?
What is this sites opinion on users answering questions by promoting their own 'non-standard' research? By non-standard, I mean research which makes claims that are generally accepted by the physics ...
- 3,484
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What constitutes an "answer" when the question is unmeaningfully vague?
I recommended deletion in review of a submission with the reason corresponding to "not an answer" (NAA) on this Q&A: What does $H\parallel ab$ mean?
This was in the "low quality ...
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What should I do if my answer to a question has a downvote for no reason defined?
What should I do if my answer to a question has a downvote for no reason defined?
I do agree if there is maybe some mistake in my answer but I am not able to find. Then, yes. I agree with the downvote....
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When I post a self-answer, is it expected that in the question I should pretend I don't know the answer?
Stack Exchange explicitly encourages writing a self-answer, when appropriate.
Derek Muller posted a video about a wind-powered vehicle that can go downwind faster than that downwind itself.
(The ...
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Getting a better understanding of how and why off-topic homework-like questions get answered before they can be closed
Background
This is a follow-up to What happened with the experiment to lower the vote-to-close threshold?. (See that thread, and the initial proposal here, for background.) The experiment is currently ...
- 131k
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Is it okay to edit your answer to make it better after seeing some point that is addressed in another answer or is this bad etiquette/stealing?
Let's say i have written an answer to a question. I feel like i have done a good job of answering it and covered all the points that needed to be covered.
Now, if i see some another answer that i feel ...
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Posting and self answering basic derivations
It can be difficult at times to find quality derivations for 'some' of the basic formula used in high school physics, so I thought what if I post and self answer the basic derivations. Does this sound ...
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Why is an answer sometimes given in the comments?
After answering this question I noticed this comment that says pretty much the same thing I said. Should I delete my answer because the comment was posted first? Should the commentator have written ...
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Flag questions that are actively being answered when voted for closure and postponing the closing until submission
Quite often I spend a lot of time and effort to put together an answer to possibly not-so-robust questions (lacking details or an unclear question) only to be closed before I can submit. It is ...
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I know the answer but the site prevents me from answering because I have no reputation. What am I to do?
Why does the bathroom become hot after a bath?
I know the answer but the site prevents me from answering because I have no reputation. What am I to do?
17
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How to promote “hidden gems”
Upvote mechanism does not always work on this site.
I often see great answers with zero votes that are unaccepted.
This is what tends happens:
Spend significant amount of time adding an answer
In ...
- 3,289
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What constitutes a 'near complete' solution?
My answer (posted below) was deleted from the following question: Calculating mass of unknown object using center of mass. The deleter's comment read,
"I'm deleting this in accordance with our ...
- 6,498
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votes
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answers
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Is the Stack Exchange reputation point system discouraging?
How should I feel about the Stack Exchange reputation point system?
I am new to the Physics Stack Exchange site as a contributor. I try to answer questions that I am sure that I know the answer of. I ...
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votes
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"You did the measurement wrong" is not an answer
I've seen two hot network questions in the past two days where one of the highly upvoted answers was a variation on "you did your measurement wrong". In both cases, this answer was ...
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Is it encouraged to write an answer to your own question if it is just a summary of the comments?
I recently asked a question on how the uncertainity principle applies to a situation described there. There have been some comments, which, I think are at least partial answers. I commented that and ...
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Understanding the voting process
I'm quite puzzled as to why this answer I wrote got three downvotes (here).
The OP's question indicates they had a fundamental misunderstanding and probably got lost while self-studying the subject. ...
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votes
1
answer
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Why isn't it the norm to put a "TL;DR" one-line answer at the top of an answer?
It's worth to mention that I'm still a newbie on Physics SE and SE in general, but during this year or so I found that different sites have different "standard" ways of answering (and there'...
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Why was this answer deleted as a "complete answer to a homework question"?
I have posted this answer to this question, and it was deleted as a "complete answer".
I don't think can be counted as a complete answer, as I left out all the mathematical details to the OP....
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Why is everyone so keen to answer physics questions by writing down tons of equations? [closed]
As a physicist, when you are tackling some new problem, shouldn't the first thing that comes to your mind be a rough idea? Why can't you answer questions with those rough ideas first?
Math is just a ...
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Answer posted with extremely little potential for acceptance
Does an accepted edit to a question allow the subsequent withdrawal of an earlier answer (which had been posted to it) to be accomplished without any resulting potential for limiting or reducing the ...
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Ability to bookmark an answer
Sometimes I see some answers which are really good and I'd like to save. Similar to how we follow questions I'd like to have the ability to 'save' answers implemented in this site
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Where does scoring of questions and answers come from?
I see that some of my questions and answers have a positive and negative integer score. Where does this score come from?
I am new on this site.
user232333
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2
answers
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Good answers to duplicate questions
I had a decent answer that received upvotes to a question that was later closed as a duplicate.
Since the answer was well received, I thought it would be good to post it to the original question.
I ...
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Answer deleted for being full answer
Trying to figure out the potential energy of a hanging rope
It is said that my answer was temporarily deleted. Now, I put a lot of effort into writing the answer and I'd like it restored, how should ...
- 7,852
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Should I use VLQ flags for inadequate/one-line answers?
I am a bit confused about how to use the VLQ flag. I saw this one-line answer and thus left a comment asking the OP to elaborate and at the same time flagged it as a VLQ answer, because the info of ...
user258881
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Why was my answer censored? [closed]
This relates to https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/540575/ . I said what I had to say on my answer itself. It was edited out by a moderator and suggested to me that I post my query here.
I have no ...
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Confused over site policy regarding similar questions
I asked the question Confusion over QM Free Particle Propagator - Shankar 5.1 last night and it was closed as a duplicate earlier today, because it is similar to the question Free particle ...
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Downvoting costs one reputation point
Today I downvoted an answer and flagged it, too. Now I get negative scores. Presumably, because I wrote a comment on a bad answer, which is downvoted by others too.
Although, I do not care too much ...
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Is there some rule regarding a user posting the same answer at different (but similar) questions?
Recently I found that one user was posting the same answer (copy of a single answer) at different question though they were similar enough for same answer to be posted. So what is the consensus of the ...
user248197
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Can we do better at reducing bike-shedding?
"Bike-shedding" is a phenomenon where there is excessive discussion of a topic because it seems easy, so everyone feels that they are competent to discuss it. We seem to have a couple of recent ...
user4552
3
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2
answers
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Is it right to post the same answer twice?
The question Why pouring milk from a height makes a chain shape? is marked as a duplicate of the question Wavy stream of liquid.
The first one is about the chain-shape of a stream of flowing milk ...
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Can I present an answer in the form of a leading question? [duplicate]
Like "Jeopardy" presents answers in the form of questions can I post a physics question and post my own answer to it? The presentation I want to make is a new type of math method to calculate and ...
- 462
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Regarding asking a question [duplicate]
Actually when I was a new user to the site, I posted the homework-type questions. But as the time passes I learn, and understand how to ask a good question, as I learn a lot from the site.
But now ...
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Why was my recent answer deleted, and was it really an appropriate action?
I recently asked and answered a question on the main site: What are the Energy eigenstates for a modified quantum harmonic oscillator?
First of all, this question ended up being re-tagged as homework,...
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How to get a direct link to a particular answer?
I'm kinda sure that I have seen direct links to answers posted before. How can I get a link to a particular answer? Or am I wrong?
