Om meta, I have went to my profile, and saw the number 7 appear next to favorites. Then, I went into the page and only saw one. Here are some screenshots.
Anyone see a need for self-help? ...I removed it from a question, but noticed that it existed on two others. All questions here could get that tag, so none of them do. Am I right?
Should questions about tips be allowed? ie: Tips for falling asleep, tips for waking up, tips for eating fruit without getting sticky. I asked this question about how to fall asleep quickly, and it was put on hold as too broad. This question about how to wake up quickly is still open and only has...
Pulling from Bobo's answer, MattS.'s answer, and all of these meta posts, here's my definition:
A lifehack is a strategy or technique used to make one's physical life more efficient, but is applicable to a wide range of people. Lifehacks tend to be creative, meaning they use materials that ma...
I found this comment on a question I just edited for self-help
[self-help]??? Won't all questions here get that tag? (Ping @Infinite, who apparently created that tag, according to revision history) — Shokhet2 days ago
@ZachSaucier I've upvoted for agreement.....just curious why you thought another answer was necessary when there already were 9 (okay, 8 'cuz I have two) answers to that question.....
What are you looking to add to the discussion with that answer?
@Shokhet The question has no real problem, except I thought it did not have enough research. I think that if the user adds some more content then the problem is solved. It seemed subjective to me.
@Shokhet Oh, you didn't bother me I was just wondering what the problem was. Thank You for telling me about the questions not needing research thing, it confused me.
Research: No
Effort: Yes
If you're going to ask how to cover a nail hole effectively, you had better specify why spackle will not work for you. - Robert Cartaino (Director of Community Development for the SE) in this meta post.
As talked about in this meta answer and others, in addition to...
See ^^^ for more info
I just found out that that presentation that I was gonna give tomorrow night....time limit 45-55 minutes.....was cut two minutes ago to 35 minutes or less.....
@iliveunderawesomerock I did a quick wikihow search.....I didn't find anything obviously, immediately useful....I will go back there a different time and poke around. Right now I need to cram my research into speakable notes.....
There's no way this site can happen if we can't define rules for topicality that stop people from asking about stuff that's got such well known solutions
There's lots of things which just...aren't problems... like that, is a bandaid a life hack for having a cut?
gods no
There's just no annoyance in getting cuts; you put a bandaid on tada.
Pulling from Bobo's answer, MattS.'s answer, and all of these meta posts, here's my definition:
A lifehack is a strategy or technique used to make one's physical life more efficient, but is applicable to a wide range of people. Lifehacks tend to be creative, meaning they use materials that ma...
like that shaving one or cheese grating one. It has to be a problem that is everyday, and there isn't a product explicitly meant to solve it
@ZachSaucier then the question is closed when someone points out the product exists. It cuts the site off from a lot of potential questions where people find out about enw products, but finding uot about products isn't the point of this site
No.
We each have a different background, often times a different culture as well. What's conventional for you very well may not be conventional for me. Simply because that's the case does not give reason to downvote. As such, it's impossible to determine what culture (and therefore convention) a...
> For example: Someone asks how to peel an orange. Someone answers saying to use an orange peeler. That isn't really a lifehack, that's just the common method of peeling an orange. Since it's not a lifehack it should be downvoted, no?
> For example: Someone asks how to peel an orange. Someone answers saying to use an orange peeler. That isn't really a lifehack, that's just the common method of peeling an orange. Since it's not a lifehack it should be downvoted, no?
From my perspective an orange peeler is a foreign concept and in fact I have never seen such an item before I looked it up while I was on this site. Using it is neither common nor conventional. (I use a small kitchen knife for the task)
Corncub holders are something that I have already seen once...
@ZachSaucier question get's closed. Period. Easy rule to apply and follow that solves lots of problems - imperfect in that it doesn't help everyone, but SE isn't about helping people, it's about gathering an encyclopedia of problems and solutions
I think this is a question that needs asking. While we have all come from cultures, our goals are the same:
As an asker, we seek to obtain an effective/efficient solution to a problem we face in ways we haven't personally thought of.
As an answerer, we hope to provide a solution to the asker's ...
@ZachSaucier no it means if a product exists for a specific problem you can't ask how to solve that problem. Orange peelers exist so you can't ask how to peel an orange.
Open a suitcase with a numeric lock when you forgot the key code this question of mine has been closed now for the second time, this is not a rant, so please read the question as objectively as possible.
The reason I decided to post here was because I feel that this has been put on hold for two...
While it's a small sample size, I tried a little experiment today.
Question 1: How do I keep pots of water from boiling over?
No comments.
No votes.
Never voted to close.
3 answers.
1 with 2 votes (1 was from me), others with no votes.
Question 2: How can I efficiently plant seeds in my ga...
Open a suitcase with a numeric lock when you forgot the key code
This question has been closed, reopened, and closed again. Currently, it is in nomination for re-opening.
I think we should just stop closing/opening this question. It is on-topic.
First off, why does legality really matter? If...
Sometimes there are questions along the lines of "Is there a lifehack for [problem]". In such a case, is it okay to post an answer along the lines of "No"?
It seems in a lot of cases where this has happened, the question has been closed because it doesn't have an answer. Is this how we intend th...
How about "The Junk Drawer"
You know, that drawer that every person in the world has, where all the weird and wonderful things that aren't currently useful get stored, because you know they might be some day!
Typically this is the drawer where you will find the radiator bleeding key alongside ...
No.
If there is no possible "hack" answer, a close vote should be cast. Such answers should be downvoted as they fall outside the already broad topic of this site.
The question is on-topic. Leave it open.
If necessary, comment under the post with a simple explanation and link(s) to the appropriate meta post regarding its scope (this one included).
And your point that it is not our job to be police is valid, we shouldn't vote to close a question because it...
My question:
How can I test for electrical current in bare wires without a meter?
received a close vote for the reason:
This question appears to be off-topic because it is about too specialized a topic.
Is that a valid close reason? If so, what do we compare against when judging how spec...
Sometimes there are questions along the lines of "Is there a lifehack for [problem]". In such a case, is it okay to post an answer along the lines of "No"?
It seems in a lot of cases where this has happened, the question has been closed because it doesn't have an answer. Is this how we intend th...
I think we can all agree, this sucks:
If you've been around a little while, you've probably encountered hundreds of answers like this in various forums, some of them even marked as "The Answer" by well-meaning1 forum admins looking to close a thread. We could try to enumerate the commonly-obse...
There are a couple of existing Meta questions on scope, and lots of ideas about what should or should not be in scope. But as a group we seem to be far from defining scope limits.
Is the over broadness of the current scope problematic for the Private Beta phase? Can we wait until public beta t...
When I want to make Hot chocolate, one of the steps to boiling water. It seems to take forever. Is there a faster way? The method I am currently using is putting water in a metal can and useing the stove.
I like to snack on oranges at work, but usually juice gets on my fingers and makes them sticky, so I have to get up and go and wash my hands.
Is there a way to peel and eat an orange, without utensils, without my hands getting sticky?
I really enjoy eating apples, however it is annoying when my hands are sticky afterwards.
How can I eat an apple so that the juices do not make my hands sticky?
I don't think we're going to be able to successfully handle a site this broad where we try help people in a "how-to" format.
It's become pretty clear that we're floundering with our scope, trying to define what's on-topic or not, and devolving into a war of closing and reopening questions.
It m...
This question is in line to be closed: How do I decelerate the ripening of bananas?
The reason for closure is that it's a duplicate of this question:
How can I accelerate the ripening of bananas?, because you can simply do the inverse of the answers there, so it's a duplicate.
The problem I ha...
Possible problem: we had 218 committers (I think).....why does the newest user have the UID 1241? .....see also lifehacks.stackexchange.com/… for the current newest
Having 6x the number of users we're supposed to have might make things difficult.......
I don't know how private betas work (this is my first) ......but shouldn't there be something, I dunno, more private about the membership in this beta? .....we're about public, now.
I mean, I joined WB a while after they went public (less than a month, more than a week), and got the UID 2072......at the rate we're going, we might have UIDs in that range before the minimum end of private beta (3 days from now).
Do UIDs correspond that way? Mine is 89, despite not being committed (or even knowing about the site) during definition. I just heard it about it in another chat room and popped on over.
I'm not doubting at all that there are far more users than committed, btw, since SE has effectively killed the 'private' part of private betas.
I've been an outspoken proponent for trying new sites like this since you launched, but so far the actual execution hasn't being coming together too well. This site is built on a buzzword, but there's been little consensus about what "Lifehacks" actually means — and even a bigger disconnect betwe...
@MattS. do you think we should try to put together one of those "welcome to new user" posts or should we try to answer the big remaining meta questions first?
biggest problem I am seeing ATM is handling questions that have an "obvious" answer
simply because people might not know about it
I realize we need a close reason so that the scope of this site doesn't accept every question, I just don't see how we can justify one without making the culture focused on one in particular
I have a large container (a hot water urn) that I need to fill with water.
The problem is that I don't have access to a hose, and the container is too big to fit into any sink.
How can I fill my hot water urn from a sink that's too small for it?
I didn't expect to get so involved given I know little about lifehacks, but most people were so unorganized in meta that I felt helping out would be good for the community
My second point above could be made more general by saying the conventional fix is not able to be applied, but that again goes to "what is convention?"
How I've been talking about that is the following:
> The way the OP is currently handling (or the lack there of) the situation is not preferable or unacceptable and the reasons behind that decision are listed in the question itself.
They need to list what they previously tried or at least what the problem is that they don't have an idea what to try
lifehacks seem to be more of a quick and dirty fix, not always meant to be lasting
that's actually not a bad way to look at it
for example, in the orange peeler question the question would be like, "I have this one orange, I don't want to get my hands sticking from peeling it manually or buy a peeler for this one orange - what can I do?"
> The way the OP is currently handling (or the lack there of) the situation is not preferable or unacceptable and the reasons behind that decision are listed in the question itself.
I posted that in chat like 15 messages above here xD
but seriously, I think making it deal with something "quick and dirty, not always lasting or even the most effective, but rather able to be done quickly" is a good requirement
So there needs to be a problem with an existing solution. But that solution can't be acceptable because: a) There's not enough time to implement that solution. b) It's not fiscally responsible to use that solution (as in a one-time solution).
When planting seeds, you're supposed to put each seed with a certain amount of space in-between each seed. I have trouble with this a lot, because my handles are so big, and the seeds are so small, there usually ends up being clumps of seeds if I do it by hand.
If I planted the seeds one by one,...
So to test. That question would be okay, because I listed that I was having problems with the method of planting seeds by hand, and wanted a way to plant seeds evenly.