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!)...
- 7,343
50
votes
Accepted
Why are all questions I visit from other sites protected by Qmechanic?
HNQs with $\geq 3$ answer are often protected by a moderator to prevent "thanks!", "me too!", or spam answers by new users. Questions can be flagged to let moderators know that they should be ...
QmechanicMod
- 197k
38
votes
Accepted
Should history of physics questions be on topic?
Summary
History questions are welcome on this site whenever they have any bearing on our modern understanding of physics. However, if a question has only minimal or null bearing on our current ...
- 131k
30
votes
Accepted
Discouraging the use of textual screenshots in questions
I agree. Screenshots of text have no place on this site.
There is simply no reason that plain text should ever be presented as a screenshot, and plenty of reasons why it shouldn't. If you want to ...
- 131k
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
- 86.3k
26
votes
Should we rename the homework policy?
Yes, we should.
"Homework" isn't the issue
I think we all agree that whether or not a post comes from a homework assignment is irrelevant, as illustrated by this example question:
Consider a ...
- 24.2k
26
votes
Very Naive Questions
Topicality
The basic problem is that thee is a conflict between what we say this site is:
Physics Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for active researchers, academics and students of ...
25
votes
Is over-vigilant monitoring of questions driving people away from the site?
I have a lot of sympathy with your position and I will generally put some effort into trying to interpret questions that are awkwardly phrased. However I think it's reasonable to expect someone asking ...
- 351k
22
votes
Accepted
Should I avoid asking too many questions in a given time period (say, a day)?
There is no rule against asking too many questions. More questions make the site better. If you have three questions today, ask them!
There are, however, rules about asking too many low-quality ...
robMod
- 86.3k
21
votes
Accepted
Users that post every question in their homework/exams
Recently I've noticed a few people posting questions in rapid succession, each with a screenshot of a problem. If you look at the questions as a whole, it's obvious they've split their entire problem ...
robMod
- 86.3k
21
votes
Accepted
Which of several disagreeing answers to accept?
It isn't compulsory to accept an answer. If you feel that neither answer is acceptable then do not accept either of them.
If you haven't received an answer that satisfies you then placing a bounty is ...
- 351k
20
votes
Users that post every question in their homework/exams
To discourage rapid postings of the type alluded to in the question, methinks screenshots of text should be outright banned. I can understand a screenshot of a figure, but if it can be easily done ...
- 45.1k
19
votes
Accepted
Is the demise of Stack Exchange (as we know it) ineluctable?
and then it is hard to tell if the curve is starting to increase again or stabilizing around a constant value of 7%.
I don't think this is hard. It's pretty obvious to me that the duplicate closure ...
- 131k
18
votes
Poor reception of 'why' questions
Not all "Why X?" questions are created equal.
The appearance of the word "why?" alone tells you nothing about a question. Let's go through your examples first to see explicitly what I mean:
The ...
ACuriousMindMod
- 123k
18
votes
Are questions about the identification of physical phenomena on-topic?
I agree and would vote to reopen if the closing vote weren't a mod. Reasons:
One does not know before asking the question what the answer is going to look like. Once you've seen the answer then one ...
- 19.7k
18
votes
Accepted
Why does this question generate so much traffic?
Oh boy. Did you take a look at the title? 8.5 billion searches take place per day on google. 10 to 20% are related to you know what… And that title has it all!
- 215
17
votes
Why can't I post something on Physics Exchange for 2 days?
There are a set of automated quality control policies active on the site that set temporary (and no-so-temporary) bans on posting.
These bans are specific to either questions or answers and are ...
17
votes
Why are all questions I visit from other sites protected by Qmechanic?
10k users can see the statistics of all protected questions here. Here are some screenshots for the rest of users:
Let's play a game: some of these users are human, and the rest are AI's. Which is ...
17
votes
Accepted
Massive downvotes of some questions
There are some effects of highly negative score not related to reputation:
A question below -4 will be pushed of the front page (i.e. what visitors see at `physics.stackexchange.com? ), cf. this meta ...
ACuriousMindMod
- 123k
17
votes
Does 'Semiconductor Physics' have a home in Physics SE?
There’s absolutely a place for semiconductor physics questions here. I’m pretty sure I’ve asked some.
Some questions on the topics you list are actually questions about electromagnetism and the ...
robMod
- 86.3k
17
votes
Too focused on theoretical physics? Or how come there is so little experimental physics being asked here?
There are two questions here:
I am wondering is there a separate SE aimed at experimental physics
No, and in my opinion there shouldn't be. The most important asset of this website is the set of ...
- 24.2k
16
votes
Why is Phys.SE so restrictive in the Q&A it is willing to accept?
For the same reason we weren't a homework help site before Physics Overflow was a thing: because we don't want to be that kind of site.
The user base of this site have debated the places that ...
16
votes
Accepted
A way to mark questions as non-duplicates?
There are a few ways:
If you have >3k rep, you can directly vote to reopen. This will put the question in the reopen review queue.
Once in the reopen review queue, users with >3k rep can vote to ...
- 131k
16
votes
Accepted
Which answer should we accept if multiple answers address the question?
Accept the answer you find most helpful. It's your question, and the only criterion you need is how helpful you found the answer.
It's not uncommon that someone will post an answer then someone else ...
- 351k
16
votes
Discouraging the use of textual screenshots in questions
I agree that text should not be a screenshot. A link could refer to the text and the content described.
That elsewhere reference refers indirectly to me, because I am not open to learning mathjax . ...
- 232k
16
votes
Is the demise of Stack Exchange (as we know it) ineluctable?
As long as there are new inventions and new discoveries, there will be new questions.
For the network as a whole: find your favorite programming language that is less than ten years old, and search ...
robMod
- 86.3k
16
votes
Care over closing "duplicate" questions
People should be encouraged to close questions as duplicates, but they should certainly take care to choose an appropriate duplicate target. Even if the target does have answers that correctly answer ...
- 11k
16
votes
The $F=ma$ competition was February 18th, 2021
The exam is over now! Thankfully, nothing went awry on this particular site.
- 101k
16
votes
Bounty on "entrance exam" question
[moderator hat off: personal opinion]
We don’t close homework-like questions based on where they are from. We close homework-like questions when they are about doing some single-purpose computation (...
robMod
- 86.3k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible