21
Absolutely
My take on the Code of Conduct (AKA the Be Nice policy) is that it is not just a matter of what the two people directly involved in the conversation think about the language used.
It also has the purpose of making our site look welcoming and consistent to readers. If someone isn't familiar with this site, and they read a question and see people ...
17
I use the AutoReviewComments userscript with the following comments:
[Q] Too broad
Please only ask one question per post - only ask several if they are so closely related that it wouldn't make sense to split them up since they cannot reasonably be answered separately. That way, answerers that might be able to answer one question but not the others ...
16
Some people dont like such comments and say it is noise because Physics SE is not a social network, etc. etc. indeed; but I personally think they make the site more friendly, human, nice and welcoming to everybody.
When looking around at Meta Stack Overflow I note that some people consider being friendly to each other by posting some additional nonessential ...
16
One problem with answer-comments you seem to not have considered is that they can be wrong. Answers can be downvoted, but comments can only be upvoted, so there is no proper mechanism to show that an answer-comment is considered wrong and the one-sided upvote mechanism may make it look more authoritative than it is.
We do leave comments like "Please ...
15
They're allowed, in the sense that you don't get in trouble for posting them. (Within reason of course. If somebody e.g. spams joke comments on many posts then that's a separate issue.)
But comments are prone to deletion, and those which don't offer a substantive contribution to the physics are especially prone to deletion. They do tend to attract flags, ...
15
The purpose of comments is to induce improvement into the answer. If a comment has no potential to do , it's deletable.
So try to avoid posting thank-yous willy nilly.
However, I personally encourage leaving nice comments on an answer you find particularly exceptional (unless there already are a bunch of such comments on said answer). I've received a ...
14
when should simple questions be given answers like this in the comments?
NEVER
For at least two reasons: comments can be (and often are) deleted, and comments can't be downvoted, so our ability to deal with wrong information in comments is limited.
Of course, this is not something we moderators enforce too aggressively, because if someone posts a good ...
13
The social aspect is always there, and a polite collaborative environment will make people stick around.
This just means that you need to package your comments with physics. If it's a fantastic answer then perhaps say "this is a great answer, I had not even considered applying method X to the problem in the Y reference frame when I asked the question."
...
13
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 verbatim posting of a question set as homework or some other form of course work then I suspect most would agree we do not want to see such questions here. So we ...
12
We are not a forum, but a question and answer site. It is not the aim of the SE model to encourage debate, but to provide (more or less) definite answers to definite questions. Though comments may contain worthwhile information, reputation is granted for contributions towards good questions and answers.
Comments are transient by design, and subject to ...
12
It's unfortunate to hear that you are so personally offended. I assure you that the people who implemented this policy were probably not aware of your existence when they made it, so I hope that knowledge helps to lessen the amount you feel personally insulted.
The sad reality is that this policy works extremely well. 50 reputation points is not difficult ...
12
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:
The fact that the content of an answer is taken from someone else's comment is not, itself, a problem.
This means that you can post the content of someone ...
11
I hope Manishearth won't mind if I steal his comment, but they're not. The reason it seems like they might be is that we usually don't get around to cleaning them up unless someone flags them.
To be more precise: Stack Exchange gives us (moderators) some slightly contradictory guidance on comments. On one hand, the intent of comments on main sites is that ...
11
I saw that comment. Even if it didn't bother you, we don't want stuff like that hanging around. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory
10
So I've read his answer many times now and I don't see how you reach the conclusion you reached here. It says:
Posting links in comments is not banned, nor should it ever be banned.
What should be banned is the repeated posting of a link to an
alternative physics Q&A site (such as PO, PF, Quora, etc)1. It is the
repetitive nature of the act that ...
10
First, thanks for coming to meta and asking!
It's not your hunch, though. We don't discourage using external sources; actually, it's encouraged to link or cite useful and relevant external resources whenever appropriate, but when doing so in a question or answer, you need to do it in such a way that your question or answer makes sense even to a reader who ...
10
No, this would go against the Stack Exchange Code of Conduct (also known as the "Be-Nice" policy).
To quote from it:
No subtle put-downs or unfriendly language.
No name-calling or personal attacks.
I would say this falls under both, so it definitely violates the policy.
9
You're seeing fewer comments because the close reasons are now more specific, and they explain what needs to be improved about the question, which is what we used to use comments for. If you would write a comment that simply restates what is in the close reason, there's no point in doing that. Of course if you have something to say above and beyond what the ...
9
The Physics SE is a community, and like all communities it needs everyone to pull together to keep it vibrant. The two most important things we expect of site members are:
ask interesting and informed questions
provide interesting and informed answers
There are of course other supporting activities like processing the review queues, up and downvoting, ...
9
If the comments from OP add clarity, and if they are new users, I would personally edit the comments into the question myself. I would then leave a comment to the effect of:
@OP I took the liberty of editing the clarifications from your comments into the question. Please let me know if I did not represent your intentions correctly. On future questions, ...
9
Discussions on meta Stack Exchange sites are discussions, but they are still expected to have some structure. If you post an answer, then just as on the main site, it is expected to address the question itself, not another post. If your answer is not an answer, it may be deleted, as per site policy. It is also possible that a moderator with convert the ...
8
The reason is that answers are ranked by score, and comments are ranked by time:
useful answers get upvotes and move to the top
bad answers get dowvotes and move to the bottom
average answers stay in the middle
So, downvotes help the best quality emerge.
Comments have upvotes to express agreement and avoid multiple "I agree with the previous" comments. ...
8
Trying it out on @Manishearth's answer, I came to the following rule.1
Post a "thank you"-like comment if it is "upvoteable", that is, if you consider it a comment that you might "upvote" yourself if it was posted by somebody else.
Example: You might "upvote" (because you felt the same way), and therefore may post:
+1 This is absolutely f***ing ...
8
It can happen many a times that there will be someone who doesn't do physics or care at all about it, but they have this website www.X.com that they want to promote, and having a bunch of links pointing from physics.se to X.com will help convince Google that their site is trustworthy (because this site is highly ranked by Google), so they will make a bunch ...
7
With elementary questions it's sometimes hard to know whether to answer the question or whether to vote to close it on the grounds that 30 seconds Googling will find the answer. In such cases I find myself between two stools. I don't want to criticise because I don't want to discourage a beginner who may be genuinely interested. However an answer would ...
7
Is it not acceptable to post links in comments? Or is it not acceptable to post links to the same site in comments?
Posting links in comments is not banned, nor should it ever be banned. What should be banned is the repeated posting of a link to an alternative physics Q&A site (such as PO, PF, Quora, etc)1. It is the repetitive nature of the act that ...
7
A while ago a meta post clarified what we expect from members in the way of prior research. Armed with this very detailed and precise discussion I now vote to close questions if I think they show insufficient prior research. This has in the past raised some controversy, though more recently the site members have either come to agree with me or have got bored ...
7
Asking for close-reasons in comments is of course totally fine. And moderators and other Phys.SE users try to leave comments whenever the standard close-reason banner is insufficient.
But do keep in mind that moderators and other Phys.SE users are not paid, and it might be difficult to serve everyone in a timely fashion.
Also note that scope and close-...
7
I've un-deleted your two chat rooms and made you an "owner" of each, so you should be able to mine whatever information you'd like from the old comments. Check the chat FAQ to understand when a room will be automatically frozen or deleted again.
Comments are intended to be temporary:
Comments are temporary "Post-It" notes left on a question or answer. ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
