The h Bar

2:06 AM

@Sofia: The irreversibility in atomic decay is almost exactly the same thing as described in the Caldeira Leggett model.

In both cases irreversibility only shows up if you assume you have an infinite number of degrees of freedom in some "environment".

Physics Meta

2:47 AM

0

Q: How to respond to a pool of existing poorly worded questions without creating a duplicate?

What's the right way to post a self-answered question on a topic which underlies many existing questions? Consider in particular a case wherein many questions have been posed about Topic X. These questions are not particularly well written because the askers are not themselves experts in Topic X...

discussion

user54412

5:17 AM

You know, when a person's only 4 questions on the site are at -6, -1, -1, and -6 but the net rep change is only -3, it does make you wonder if perhaps we're a bit soft in how little downvotes affect rep.

Simha

6:41 AM

@ChrisWhite Don't you think that if a question is really bad, it will make more sense to close the question than to continuously pound it with downvotes ?

Danu

7:14 AM

So... what do you guys think? I tried to debunk the Creationist radiocarbon dating question physics.stackexchange.com/questions/154588/…

David Z

@ChrisWhite maybe, but it also means we're soft in how much we downvote

Danu

@ChrisWhite Heh, yeah...

It's funny to look at that person's though process, as reflected by questions asked.

ta3920

8:08 AM

Hi, is anyone up?

Annnddd is anyone willing to help a high school student review his test? I fell asleep and it's 3 AM and literally everyone else is asleep.

NEVERMIND, I FOUND SOMEONE ELSE WHO IS UP. But I'd still appreciate help on a couple of problems.

Physics Meta

8:26 AM

0

Q: Which flag do I use for an inappropriate post?

Other than off topic flags, there are several different types of flags that one can cast on a question, answer, or comment. What are each of these flags for? Question and answer flags: spam offensive/abusive/hate speech not an answer very low quality other Comment flags: rude or offensive ...

support flagging faq-proposed

David Z

10:42 AM

^^ I would like to collect some better examples for that question

skullpatrol

10:58 AM

I can't recall which Supreme Court judge said you can't define pornography, but you know it when you see it. I think that is also the case for "inappropriate" content.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_know_it_when_I_see_it

@DavidZ

The work as a whole must lack "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific values".

Notice that the work as a "whole" is being considered because we can always edit out the "inappropriate" parts for examples to be used in questions like yours, while saving the good content to make this a better site.

JamalS

11:50 AM

@skullpatrol: There's a good talk about censorship by Yale Prof. Hungerford: oyc.yale.edu/english/engl-291/lecture-20

The focus is somewhat more on works of literature though.

skullpatrol

12:30 PM

@JamalS Thanks for sharing :-)

Have you seen this Professor?

Danu

12:58 PM

@skullpatrol I actually disagree with that statement (the pornography part!)

Counterexample: youtube.com/watch?v=FbuluDBHpfQ

Nice meta post, @DavidZ.

skullpatrol

1:24 PM

@JamalS WOW! that was good, thanks again :-)

@Danu yes, in that way you are correct...

user929304

1:41 PM

@KyleKanos Unfortunately some users with editing privilege are using their rights very poorly! E.g. bobie keeps editing some of my posts and messed up the structure for absolutely no reason. I hope you will moderate this in future! Thanks

Kyle Kanos

@user929304 Sadly, we cannot. Once a user has passed 2,000 rep, they're allowed to apply edits immediately

If bobie is making unnecessary edits that you feel are ruining your posts, you can choose to roll-back to the prior version (click on the timestamp above bobie's name & select "rollback")

user929304

@KyleKanos thank you for getting back to me, alright I understand, no problem. Thanks

skullpatrol

sounds like a job for a mod

Sofia

@KyleKanos: I need the attention of the moderators. I asked a question, it was put on hold because it wasn't complete. I completed, but the hold wasn't removed. Instead, I got a minus. What for? Is it a low level? Is it too difficult? In such cases I should get a notification. I know that the moderators don't intervene in votes, but it seems simply that someone dislikes me. Please, I insist, look at the question,physics.stackexchange.com/questions/154638/….

Kyle Kanos

I saw the question (even edited it)

My guess is the -1 came from the fact that you had half a question

Note also that there are currently 4 reopen votes (requires 5 to reopen)

Sofia

1:55 PM

@KyleKanos : please be kind, can you repair the situation? A -1 on a question produce in people the idea that the question is silly.

Kyle Kanos

If by "repair the situation" you mean get rid of the downvote, I cannot do that.

No one can, except the person who downvoted

I did, however, upvote it, so it shows the "goose-egg" (zero)

(I don't think you can upvote questions in the reopen review queue)

Sofia

@KyleKanos: I tank you a lot.

JamalS

@Sofia: Question reopened now.

Kyle Kanos

@Danu That post might be better suited for Skeptics that Physics. Don't get me wrong here, but your point is debunking the fraudulent claims of a few misguided individuals. It doesn't really do anything about the issue of C-14 being a bad method of radiometric dating past 40 kyrs--that requires discussing U-Pb or K-Ar or whatever tests.

JamalS

@Danu How did you find that video?!

@skullpatrol: I wouldn't watch that... more like an amateur teacher; definitely not a professor.

DanielSank

2:37 PM

@Sofia: When you say "it seems simply that someone dislikes me" that is exactly the kind of thing that makes people say you're a little bit rude. You seem to keep assuming that you need special attention, in this case just because you got a -1 on a question. You are not different from the rest of us. If you get a -1 it's because someone thinks there was something wrong with the question. It's not personal.

Danu

@KyleKanos Okay... I could get behind that.

@JamalS I'm a bit older than you, and spend a lot more time on the internet than you ;D

@DanielSank I second this remark. @Sofia, please, don't assume there's some kind of conspiracy against you - not even a 1-person one ;)

ACuriousMind

3:30 PM

@Danu That's what the conspirators would say, wouldn't they ;)

Kyle Kanos

3:49 PM

Conspiracies can be funny

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