73
votes
Physics.SE remains a site by humans, for humans
I firmly applaud the stance taken by the moderators here. AI-generated text has many demonstrated problems that disqualify its use, without significant human intervention, for technical (e.g. physics!)...
- 7,341
27
votes
Physics.SE remains a site by humans, for humans
In a comment, Braiam asks
How many of those users came back after the suspension?
I looked at 16 profiles with a plagiarism mod message since January 1. (One of the suspensions on the list of 17 ...
robMod
- 86.2k
25
votes
Accepted
Is the Stack Exchange reputation point system discouraging?
Of your 65 answers to date, you've written 59 in the last ten days. If you continued at that pace for very long, you would become one of the most prolific answerers of questions in our community. ...
robMod
- 86.2k
17
votes
Is the Stack Exchange reputation point system discouraging?
Rob's answer covers most of the ground, but I'll chime in with some additional comments.
I hope that I create enough reputation and put my Stackexchange reputation in my CV. So, the reputation points ...
- 131k
17
votes
Accepted
Why is an answer sometimes given in the comments?
Personally, I think that if a statement answer the question, even if it's just a few words long, it should be posted as an answer and not as a comment
Yes, that is correct.
Should the commentator ...
- 131k
15
votes
Accepted
Encouraging users to read the full question
This is a technical writing problem, and it is your problem as the author.
Start with a good, representative title. If your title reads like a different or simpler question than you intend then you ...
15
votes
Answers quoting non-peer reviewed material
No. A non-peer reviewed reference is better than no reference. The reader can judge the legitimacy of a reference him/herself. In general, Phys.SE encourages answerers to back up claims with ...
QmechanicMod
- 196k
15
votes
Answer ban correction
Simple: don't write answers to questions that are going to get deleted.
Homework questions get deleted for a reason: we don't want them here. If you answer poor-quality homework questions, you are ...
- 131k
15
votes
"You did the measurement wrong" is not an answer
I think we ought to generally consider experimental error as a legitimate explanation only as a last resort.
Practically by definition physics is defined by experimental verification. It's not even ...
- 8,983
15
votes
Accepted
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?
You can reference material from other answers, even answers on the same page that were submitted after your answer, but you do need to give proper attribution. Eg,
As [userX mentions](...
- 11k
14
votes
Increase weight of downvotes?
This request has a long history going back to the early days of Stack Overflow. You'll notice that question is marked as declined. It was actually status-pending for months before being declined and ...
14
votes
What is our position on answers that consist almost entirely of copied content?
Unacknowledged or unmarked quotes are plagiarism, plain and simple, and they deserve the full weight of community displeasure to be heaved on them: comments, downvotes, and eventual deletion.
On the ...
- 131k
14
votes
Accepted
Re: Downvoting with no feedback
I would interpret the downvotes on the answers to both of those questions as saying
don't answer this kind of homework questions
and I agree with that perspective. Providing answers to obvious do-...
- 131k
14
votes
Answering "Homework-Like" Questions With Hints
The homework policy remains a contentious issue and feelings can run high about it so I'm reluctant to stoke the flames any higher.
However if we take the narrow interpretation of homework as the ...
- 351k
14
votes
Why is everyone so keen to answer physics questions by writing down tons of equations?
There is more than one kind of physics question, and more than one kind of physics answer.
Some questions ask for getting an "idea" or "intuition" of how something works, ...
ACuriousMindMod
- 122k
13
votes
Accepted
Using Comments as Answers
Good idea to make this a question so I can post my comment there as an answer: yes, this is fine. Actually, in order to avoid arguments over whether it does constitute an answer or not, I'll say this:
...
- 75.8k
13
votes
Accepted
Asking for an upvote to my *correct* answer to a 5-year-old question
Honestly, asking people to upvote your answer is considered to be in bad taste. So the blunt answer is no, we won't upvote your answer because you asked us to.
What you can do, however, is post a ...
- 75.8k
13
votes
Remove the reputation cutoff for the answer ban
Greetings from one of your human exception handlers!
If you think that there's a user who needs some intervention to produce better-quality content, and you suspect that intervention is not coming in ...
robMod
- 86.2k
13
votes
Accepted
Is it OK to copy and paste part of own answer over and over, to answer new questions?
While there is some overlap, I wouldn't call it a 'wall of text' (which has generally negative connotations). Nor is it particularly 'bottish'. The user appears to be legitimately answering a variety ...
- 7,341
13
votes
Accepted
How to handle references to literature in predatory journals
I don't think we need any additional policies about referring to or questioning about papers published through predatory journals.
Assuming the paper is mainstream...
Well, we don't really need to do ...
- 28k
13
votes
Should we downvote answers that begin with "I think..."?
I think this is a terrible idea.
12
votes
Accepted
Is it encouraged to write an answer to your own question if it is just a summary of the comments?
This behaviour isn't really frowned upon, so it should be fine. This answer by David Z is basically on that exact topic, and gives good advice how to do it properly.
Given the comments are over a ...
- 15.2k
12
votes
Accepted
What to do when a non-duplicate question has the answer?
If the questions are not duplicates, they should not be closed as duplicates. Of course there is interpretational leeway in how similar questions need to be to justify closing one as the duplicate of ...
ACuriousMindMod
- 122k
12
votes
Is direct criticism of another answer in your own answer ok?
There are many posts on this site where users write something along the lines of "this extends SoAndSo's answer" or "this complements SoAndSo's answer," so it seems reasonable that ...
- 28k
11
votes
The Layman Answer Alternative
I won't give my opinion on this directly, but I would like to point out the site description from the first line of the Tour page:
Physics Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for active ...
- 16.4k
11
votes
Deleting an Answer
The very last comment by @DavidZ is self-explanatory and absolutely appropriate:
I'm temporarily deleting this in accordance with our homework policy. Please don't post complete answers to the ...
- 45k
11
votes
Are partial answers to homework questions allowed?
This depends on the quality of the question, I should think. If it only consists of text that is obviously a dump from a homework assignment (or other similar set-piece, like a textbook exercise, say) ...
- 131k
11
votes
Why was my answer censored?
Answers shouldn't be used to talk to other users. They should just be used to answer the main question.
That part that was deleted isn't answering the question, it is just defending your opinions to ...
- 55.8k
11
votes
Why isn't it the norm to put a "TL;DR" one-line answer at the top of an answer?
It's really just personal preference in how one chooses to construct the answer.
Sometimes people will put a "TL;DR" at the top, or the bottom, to summarize things which is kind of what you'...
- 16.4k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible