The Ivory Tower

4:35 AM

I don't see why we shouldn't have a Winter Bash, hence I voted for a 'Yes'. Although I am indifferent about it.

Fomite

4:59 AM

If SE had an ignore list, the sexism question and its meta would have caused it to grow considerable.

2 hours later…

6:42 AM

@Fomite Dito; I hope I would not be on it.

Good grief, I got a Mortarboard and Announcer badge on Meta.

Fomite

7:18 AM

@Wrzlprmft Nowhere near it ;)

7:49 AM

@Fomite To look on the positive side: Questions like that remind me how much more productive the Stack Exchange format can be, compared to forum-type sites. Imagine how much worse that Q&A would have gone in a forum format...

Massimo Ortolano

Of course we should have the winter bash, I can't wait transforming my don-key in a don-hat :-)

@ff524 @Fomite Well, it's much worse when you have to hear certain opinions from colleagues.

... or from family members. Ugh

Fomite

8:07 AM

@ff524 True. There are definitely places where I've just ended up salting the earth. A female colleague and I once joked about writing a Chrome addon to automatically hide any Hacker News post on gender or feminism.

1 hour later…

9:12 AM

@MassimoOrtolano I knew you would be among the first to welcome the winter bash idea ;-)

Massimo Ortolano

9:45 AM

@ÉbeIsaac I'm always among the first to join parties ;-)

10:19 AM

I find quite a few questions in here that are posted by grad students in distress. For instance this question [here](http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/80751/level-of-difficulty-of-exams-in-math-phd-and-anxiety-over-being-able-to-do-well).

When I first noticed this post, I issued a close vote as it "strongly depends on individual factors". But on a second look, I felt that all that the OP needed was a little counselling. So I put my beurocratic views aside and posted answer that might help him relieve of his distress.

Does anyone think we need an extra distress tag for such cases?

I also retracted the close vote too ;-) more consoling answers would help strengthen his confidence.

1 hour later…

11:33 AM

@ÉbeIsaac I do not think that this question would need to have been closed for depending on individual factors, but not because somebody is seeking for counselling, but it is a situation of general interest to which we can answer substantially more than “it depends” (though “it depends” is a part of the answer).

@Wrzlprmft: Thanks for the clarification. BTW, What do you think about the 'distress' tag?

Doesn’t sound like a bad idea. Questions on this are bloody difficult to find (of course, so will be the distress tag, but with thorough tagging, one only has to find one question with this tag).

@Wrzlprmft I can find so many questions that would fit this context. Maybe I should go on another tagging spree like I did with the special-issue tag :-)

I'll this on meta for a confirmation.

11:49 AM

I can think of a few that I answered as well.

@Wrzlprmft I see very few multispecialist users like yourself answering such questions.

If you could cluster them, you will find that the best answers actually come from people who don't participate much in the other 'more academic' tags

I am a multi-specialist user? Well, thanks. Coming to think of it, I do have a generalist badge.

@Wrzlprmft That's nice, I have one too. :-)

Academia has a lot of generalists.

Q: Creation of a “distress” tag

You're right; the list covers the top 82 users.

Meta Academia

12:43 PM

I'm proposing to create a distress tag. This would address the questions posted by users who are mainly in some sort distress associated with academic pressure. The following are few of the questions that I think would fit this tag: Level of difficulty of exams in math phd and anxiety over bei...

discussion tags

3 hours later…

3:39 PM

@ÉbeIsaac Thanks for asking on meta about the tag. For a tag that would apply to a lot of questions, it's really important to get community input first and make sure there's agreement

I disagree with the new tag myself (see my answer)... But I'm very glad you asked on meta

1 hour later…

4:44 PM

@ff524 I feel a concealed message here. I think you're still over the special-issue tag. FYI, I've finished labelling those tags.

@ÉbeIsaac Sorry, I don't understand what you mean

5:12 PM

Sorry, I thought you might be worked up about my retagging spree. Anyways, I guess it was just a misunderstanding. :-)