Questions tagged [best-practices]
The best-practices tag has no usage guidance.
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What to do about old unanswered questions? [duplicate]
I am relatively new to SE and I am wondering what is the best thing to do when I ask a question that remains unanswered (not even through comments) for a long time? Is it allowed to re-ask the same ...
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Do you have to be responsive to comments on your question to get good answers?
Do you have to keep looking at the site to look at the comments and respond to them?
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Cite documents rather than linking only
We should tell people to cite from documentation when they use link. I always look at old posts to learn something new, but some answerers give some link, but they are dead now (e.g., this). His first ...
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What to do when duplicate targets disagree?
There are several questions on Physics S.E. which have been marked as duplicate targets, yet their answers disagree with another. Two such examples would be Is energy conserved in an expanding ...
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Once a question has retained one net upvote, is it undesirable for each answerer to upvote it?
I've been in the habit of upvoting each question I'm answering, but it has recently occurred to me that this may be counter-productive in a collective enterprise such as PSE, since whoever posted the ...
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Helping out in comments, when the question is too weak
I encounter quite often questions that are based on poor research, misunderstanding basic definitions, and likewise. In my opinion such questions should be closed rather than answered. Nevertheless, ...
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Do we have a policy or guidance for questions with no one right answer?
This question does not seem to have a single correct answer posted.
Which of the following are true:
Assume that there will never be one right answer posted (i.e. because there is not in principle a ...
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What should I flag as duplicate? New question or old question?
Someone asked this question: Why linear displacement is length of the arc? which is similar to this question: Confused about linear displacement in circular motion. The second question has been ...
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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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Should I refrain from marking a question as a duplicate of my question or of a question that I answered?
Clearly, marking a question as a duplicate of either my own question or of a question that I answered is not against the rules. But, there seems to be a conflict of interest in the context of the &...
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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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How much editing of a question is acceptable? (e.g. Chicken Question)
In regard to the chicken question meta post one of the answers included this paragraph:
This opinion is based purely on the actual question, and ignores the silly story. Surely the silly story can be ...
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Is it okay to edit a question (on the main site) to downvote it after you initially upvoted it?
On the PSE main site (so not on this site), I normally never downvote a question or answer, but sometimes you change your thought about this (after upvoting). Is it okay to edit (when I wanted to ...
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Languages of references
I understand that Physics Stack Exchange "is an English language site", but I'm wondering whether it's acceptable to provide a generic reference (such as a link) to a source, written in a ...
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Language that can be perceived as sexist
I consider the phrase “you guys” to be sexist and unwelcoming (even though I am well-aware that many people don’t). I don’t think I’m alone in thinking this. After a back-and-forth in comments with ...
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What are the principles for editing another person's question?
If I wish to edit a question to improve its quality, what are the general guidelines to keep in mind?
Sometimes I feel I deviate from the OP's original style when I use formatting. So, what all ...
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Do we need to delete informative, off-topic comments under old questions?
When I read old posts, I come across some informative comments below the questions which are off-topic, i.e., not aimed at asking for clarification, but they do add some value. I have noticed such ...
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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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Should comments trying to answer a question be deleted?
Note: I do in no way want to say that the current moderators somehow do a "bad job" at moderating Physics SE. I think that they do a great work at, well, moderating this network and my full ...
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Answering question with multiple parts?
Suppose a user post a question with multiple parts.I know it's not recommended but suppose he does.
Ex: A question with multiple parts
I know it's a closed question but it's enough to illustrate my ...
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Is mass editing of old posts encouraged?
There are badges awarded ("excavator" and "archaeologist") for editing old posts; it is clear that encouraging this can improve the site by ensuring that as many posts as possible ...
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Can I correct grammar in questions/answers even if the message is clear?
I am talking about stuff like principle/principal, its/it's, your/you're, effect/affect.
Can I correct these things even though the meaning of the question/answer is clear?
Would it come across as ...
SuperCiociaMod
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Acceptability of soliciting comments from participants familiar with a major but untagged theory in PSE
Shortly after a very mild online altercation with an extremely high-reputation user who had overlooked the fact that Einstein-Cartan theory (ECT) requires (as I was obligated to point out, vis-a-vis ...
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What should be done about a user asking the same question 5 times in two days?
A user has asked five almost identical questions about a misunderstanding of rope tension during the past two days. They are receiving similar answers, but don't agree with or accept any of them.
...
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Flagging vandalism
If I see a post which is vandalism (like this one, only visible to 10k users -- consisting of random characters), what am I supposed to flag it as? (Concretely, I remember both "spam" and "rude or ...
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Completely changing a question vs asking a new question [duplicate]
When a OP has one of their questions closed one of the main desirable outcomes is for the OP to edit the question to address the issues that led to the closure. However, where should we draw the line ...
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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
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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 ...
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Should we flag all comments that are no longer needed?
Parent question:
Erasing comments for questionable reasons
I am trying to get a general policy. My initial concern was about comments to answers that asked for details and/or corrections, and were ...
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Question unilaterally closed by a moderator without any chance of editing
I had recently asked the following question: Uniform discrete physical theories (now closed and auto-deleted as RemoveAbandonedClosed; screenshot).
And the question was closed without any comments ...
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What is the policy for linking? E.g.: Why should we link to abstract pages rather than pdf files? How do we cite arXiv preprints?
As a comment to one of my contributions, I received the comment:
In the future please link to abstract pages rather than pdf files.
Fine. I am happy to follow up on this suggestion.
Can anybody ...
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Cases in which self-edits are an unethical mean to generate attention
I made 6 minor edits to my latest answers. The last edit (addition of a link to a lecture on the topic) I did 2 days after I gave the answer. I noticed that the question received a lot of new ...
user224659
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Referring people with SR-questions to test-bodies in the Schwarzschild solution? [closed]
I guess mostly because of how relativity is taught in schools, with a strong focus on exercises in special relativity where gravity is totally ignored and then maybe a little bit of info on general ...
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Ask to have questionable activity reviewed
I have seen some similar questions answered by a certain same person. And when I post my answer, it immediately get voted down by that person before even enough time for them to see it.
They may be ...
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How to respond to an answer to a clearly duplicate question?
I have often noticed that even when a question is an obvious duplicate and it has been pointed out in the comments, some of us are posting answers to such questions without clarifying as to why they ...
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Should a rude comment be deleted if the addressed user doesn't mind?
On the linked post, a comment was made addressing me with words that might be considered mildly rude by some. I had absolutely no issues with the comment (and thus, I didn't flag it). And yet, the ...
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Cascade of mostly trivial edits by a user
Example today . Many times I cannot see any real changes between the left and right side, but it might be my browser or his/her browser.
Are people increasing their reputation by corrections? It ...
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Dealing with edited questions/answers
While it's not something usual, I've noticed that sometimes people edit my question or answer with a more complex notation or incorrect information/formulas. While I don't think this is done with ...
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Should I not edit my old questions on a spree?
I recently visited a couple of old questions that I had posted and there were a lot of edits (mainly grammatical but not all) that I wanted to make. I edited a couple of them and went back to the ...
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Should I prefer the most up-voted answer or the accepted answer?
I came across this question, where the accepted answer had a score of $-7$, but there was also an answer with a score of $31$. As a student who has absolutely no idea about quantum mechanics, or the"...
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Should One Downvote a Question While Voting to Close It?
The title pretty much conveys what I want to ask but I would elaborate a bit. If a question is appropriate to be closed due to either of the listed reasons for a question to be closed, should one also ...
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A "Requires Expertise" Notice?
The Problem
I was going to write a question here asking what the appropriate response is to incorrect upvoted answers, but I realized that I'm far from the first person to ask this, e.g.
How should ...
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Straight $\mathrm{d}$ or italic $d$ for differentials?
I have had comments on my questions and answers questioning my use of
$$ \int \mathrm{d}r \qquad \text{or} \qquad \int dr.$$
I have always thought that it should not be italiced as it is an operator....
SuperCiociaMod
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Explicit references matter!
I know that this forum should not replace a good bibliographic research, but... It is quite useful to know which book or paper or tutorial or any other external source of information that people have ...
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Let's not have posts look like revision histories
Inspired by this meta post on RPG.SE: I think we should keep in mind that posts with lots of "Edit:" and "Update:" sections are a bit hard to read from beginning to end, and we should strive to avoid ...
user10851
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Can I use one of my previous answers to answer another separate, but related question?
A little while ago I answered this question: What is the sun's spectral series?. For whatever reason (I'm not exactly sure), I went well outside what was expected in answering it; I provided a ...
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What can I do if I note that answers are abused to troll, flame, and/or advertise personal nonsense theories?
Just as a most recent example (I could give many more posted by other users too), this "answer" does not answer the question, brings up confused rhetoric intended to troll about fundamental physics ...
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User "talk pages"
Sorry if everyone else knows about this stuff, but I can't find any information about it anywhere.
I see occasional comments about one user putting something on another user's "talk page". I have ...
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Answering old questions
Should I answer old questions (over a year), even if they have been already answered? I think that this practice is correct, but since in many forums it is discouraged I'm not sure.
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How to best to correct a poorly asked question?
I asked this question:
How to calculate the effect of the earth's magnetic field on a HZE particle?
Which after some more research I realized is at best unclear and at worst unanswerable.
At ...
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