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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 transmon qubit with capacitance C and Josephson junction critical current I_c. What is the matrix element <1|Q|0> for this system?
I might be motivated to ask ...
17
I agree with a strong caveat. The tag wiki excerpt must function as an exceptionally well-tuned tool to catch the great homework/problem-solving questions, turn the borderline cases into good questions, and prevent bad questions as far as possible.
The way tag synonyms work at Ask a Question time is the following. You type in the tag you think you should ...
14
There's been an awful lot said here already, so I'm gonna cut to the chase: popular-science is clearly a meta tag, in the same way that homework is a meta tag - it can't stand alone when describing a question.
That doesn't necessarily mean it's bad or should be removed though. [popular-science], like [homework] has value in describing the sorts of answers ...
14
The physics-careers tag seems redundant and confusing, since questions asking for career advice are off-topic and I see little other uses for it. It also (weakly) suggests career advice questions are on-topic here, which may have led to this question being asked recently.
Should we get rid of it?
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I think there is one real (or at least, really potential) issue with problem-solving: it could be applied to almost every question on the site. Presumably people wouldn't go around editing it in willy-nilly, but it is likely that new users will apply it without discrimination to their questions.
I'm thinking "Oh, I have a problem, and I'd like it solved". ...
answered Sep 19 '13 at 2:39
dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten
83.1k1 gold badge33 silver badges86 bronze badges
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How about homework-and-exercises? It is self-explanatory, and that way we still call a spade a spade while simultaneously leave open the possibility that it might not be actual homework.
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Your first obstacle is that you need 1000 reputation points to create a new tag. If you think a tag is missing and don't have 1000 reputation points, you can suggest it in this meta post.
If you have 1000 reputation points, there might be another obstacle: Certain words are blacklisted, e.g. physics.
Returning to OP's specific question, a 'physics' tag would ...
11
Yep, I've thought that this might be useful. I just didn't have any particularly good ideas for what the new tag should be. I was thinking homework-like, so let this answer be the proposal for that. (Although to be honest, I think problem-solving sounds better.)
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My take on this is two-fold:
First, don't start edit wars. If you put something on a question, and somebody later removes it, don't just go back in and put it back again and leave comments about it. Take it to meta, take it to chat, and actually discuss it rather than take it out to 7 revisions. When people disagree, use the channels we have to resolve it ...
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nmr
Pro: the abbreviation is widely understood and recognized.
Con: it's better to have longer tags that are self-explanatory instead of just initials.
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One does not need to be an expert in quantum-mechanics to see that some of the questions are clearly subpar and need to be closed. When in doubt, don’t be afraid to use the skip button! Alternatively, use the review queue tag filter to focus on questions you do feel comfortable in, e.g. newtonian-mechanics and thermodynamics.
Your suggestion leads to ...
10
Let's look at some data:
In the past 365 days, 15 tags have been created by users with less than 1000 reputation at the time of creation and then used more than once:
Name Used User Link Created RepOnCreation
------------------------- ---- ------------------------------ ---------- -------------
klein-gordon-...
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I can't think of anything else that the teleportation tag would be used for, at least not within the scope of actual physics (and hence of this site). Unless there is some such thing, yes, I'd say go for it.
Of course there do seem to be some existing questions with the teleportation tag which quantum-teleportation would not apply to. Most of them are ...
10
No, what you suggest is not what this site was designed for. If you want to have a discussion, take it to chat or to some other webpage. Cheers!
answered Mar 11 '18 at 22:14
AccidentalFourierTransform
44.2k1 gold badge14 silver badges34 bronze badges
10
This is already possible via a different system: the close-vote review queue already comes with the possibility to filter the questions it can show you.
This can be on the close reason and on the tags. This allows users the possibility to focus on the parts of the queue where they are most effective and most comfortable that they are making informed ...
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There are many instances of homework questions getting answers before they are closed. But in those cases where they do not get answers...
Many posts that fall under the "homework-and-exercise" tag do not follow the site policy on homework-like questions. Instead of asking about physics concepts in the context of an exercise problem, they are just ...
9
Multiple tag searches are possible. E.g. the search for both astrophysics & visible-light is done here.
Unfortunately tags are not always applied consistently, so for a more complete search type keywords rather than tags, or use Google.
By the way, when you search, there often appears an 'Advanced Search Tips' button. Be sure to check that out.
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Fixed.
In general, to report minor things like misspellings, etc, which do not require that the community should make a decision of principles, but it is clear what needs to be done, then one could just mention the problem in the chat room.
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I have the same objection to this that dmckee had last time we talked about this.
Essentially, everybody who posts a question on this site wants a problem solved. The problem may be lack of understanding, or it may be homework, or it may be just about anything else. But the very existence of a question implies there is a problem to be solved, and such a ...
8
No.
That would be a meta tag - it has nothing to do with the actual topic of the question, it doesn't help to define its scope, all it tells you is either "this question is based on a misconception" or "this user thinks they are confused". The former is entirely useless information, the latter is pretty much par for the course if you're asking a question.
...
8
If you ask me, it's always been a bad idea. I'm pretty sure the only reason we have it is historical; it's one of those tags that gets created on every new site right in the beginning, before we figure out what kinds of questions we want. But these days, as you've noticed, pretty much anything that deserves the tag soft-question turns out to be off topic.
I'...
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nuclear-magnetic-resonance
Pros: Allowed as of today.
Cons: There aren't any cons. This is the solution we wanted.
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For the time being for pragmatic reasons. Phys.SE used to have a quantum-computing and a quantum-computation tag, which were often misused by some users whenever they had to compute something in quantum mechanics. This practice stopped once they were redirected to the quantum-computer tag.
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solar-wind has 80 questions, and tag badges are only awarded for tags which are used on 100 or more questions. Consequently, you also can't track a tag badge for solar-wind in your profile.
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In the concrete case, it indeed seems to be a conceptional question rather than a typical HW-like question where the HW tag applies.
That said, in general, whether a question is HW-like or on-topic is determinded by the Phys.SE community (partly via close & reopen votes), and its conclusion should in principle be independent of whether the HW&E tag ...
8
I was the one who edited in the homework and exercises tag. I did so on the grounds this seemed like an exercise i.e. it was just calculating the orbital velocity at the surface of the planet.
I guess it is debatable whether the tag is appropriate, but my view is that if I am in doubt I will edit in the tag then leave it to the other members of the site to ...
7
In my opinion, the best argument for even having this tag is that it's a fairly common and well-understood term:
Popular science, sometimes called literature of science, is interpretation of science intended for a general audience.
Deviating from that introduces ambiguity and creates the potential for confusion if the tag is applied to questions where ...
7
I think we need to eventually have a critical look at what we really mean by the homework tag; as I mentioned in an answer to John's post, the tag means different things to different people and it's being used to mean all kinds of things. So much that I've stopped applying the tag (I still close posts as homework, though) in entirety because I'd rather not ...
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