The Rec Center

14:28

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I'd like to discuss the closure of Baby monitor that can have multiple transmitting stations on the same channel The close reason provided: "This question does not appear to be about hardware recommendations, within the scope defined in the help center." Are small electronics on topic? Acc...

Andy

17:50

Relevant video of the CAT phone (it's produced by Caterpillar, so be aware that it's promotional material): youtube.com/watch?v=mVPku-xItv8 — Andy 38 secs ago

ArtOfCode

18:16

@Andy edit approved

Hardware Recommendations Meta

18:26

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Q: Which tags need to be cleaned up?

Which tags need to be cleaned up by a user with elevated editing or tag privileges? Instead of posting a new answer per tag, feel free to just edit the CW answer.

discussion tags

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Q: What should we do to keep "answered questions" ratio high?

Referring to the information on Area51: 90% answered is a healthy beta At this moment we have 70%. Should we give a bounty to others people questions? How effectively get rid of bad questions to increase this ratio?

discussion

JohnB

@HardwareRecommendationsMeta @ArtOfCode I think you may be the only user with enough rep to fix these? I'm not certain though

it just yells at me and says there's already a similar tag

ArtOfCode

@JohnB I can freely edit, I can't edit tag wikis.

JohnB

Yeah, I just wasn't sure if it would yell at you too for trying to rename the tag

ArtOfCode

Probably not. I'll just delete all the instances of the tag and create a new one, as long as there aren't too many. Let me look at that meta post.

JohnB

right on

ArtOfCode

18:31

#3 I agree with; #1 and #2 I don't. Lifespan is definitely a word. Webserver is more debatable (web server? web-server?).

JohnB

Not sure about lifespan being a word, I checked a dictionary and Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_span

ArtOfCode

On the with tag: I've already reviewed that edit, so we need another 500+ user to complete it. Or, I could go ping the team.

JohnB

meh, it'll get resolved eventually. It's not urgent

ArtOfCode

@JohnB Autocorrect both in Chrome and on an iPhone recognise it, which is enough for me.

Damn. It does yell at me for the tag as well.

JohnB

aw shucks

Wiktionary does have it, I'll make a note

Andy

18:50

I look forward to with being removed. It's been bugging me for a few days

enderland

19:08

So on software recs, is there really an "expert" or is it more, "willingness to google/search?"

I'm thinking that if this site scope is outside "computer hardware" it'll be like software recs - except where domain knowledge is much more important

JohnB

19:33

there might not be such thing as an "Expert Recommender" but you can certainly be an expert in the subject of what you're recommending. But there are certainly things that I'm not an expert in that I've researched the heck out of to make sure I was buying the best product for my needs

I think there's value from both

if I'm asking a question, I certainly don't just want someone to search for me. I want recommendations from people that have faced the same problem/need as me and have already researched/purchased something as a result

Andy

Anyone else feel that hardware-based not quiet reflecting what it should be for the single question it applies to?

ArtOfCode

@Andy Me. status-gone

Andy

Ok. What about hard-disk and the hdd and ssd tags? There is a synonym potential there, but HDDs and SSDs are different

Gilles

@enderland a bit of both

but that's the case everywhere on SE

Andy

I may throw the data-storage in there too

Gilles

19:46

A lot of my answers are the result of googling, but my experience lets me find good search keywords and understand the results far quicker than the asker could have

ArtOfCode

@Andy Valid tags, I think. hdd for when you want a HDD; ssd for if you want an SSD; hard-disk for if you don't care.

enderland

@JohnB that's why I think that focusing this much more closely on "computer hardware" rather than "any hardware"

Andy

@ArtOfCode Ok. Just needs a little tag wiki love then.

ArtOfCode

@Andy data-storage is a wider scope tag; it encompasses hard disks, but can also have USBs and SD cards, etc.

Gilles

@enderland and SR suffers from a lack of expertise. We have the worst unanswered question ratio of the whole SE network.

ArtOfCode

19:47

@Andy Aye. I can't insta-approve wiki edits though.

Gilles

@ArtOfCode hdd should be a synonym of hard-disk

enderland

@Gilles no one is an expert of all things hardware related

ArtOfCode

@Gilles No, because HDDs aren't the only type of hard disk

Gilles

if it exists at all: HDD isn't that common an abbreviation, unlike SSD which is the dominant name

@ArtOfCode I beg your pardon?

ArtOfCode

@Gilles Lots of people use "hard disk" to refer to the main drive on a computer. Including if that's an SSD.

Gilles

19:48

@enderland of course not, so what?

Andy

I'd consider "HDD" common. To me, that means a drive that has a spinning platter.

Gilles

@ArtOfCode but then an SSD is a “HDD”

ArtOfCode

I'd also say HDD is a pretty common name.

enderland

@Andy by having the site scope be "Everything electronics" you are having it be that way

ArtOfCode

@Gilles Not in life. SSDs and HDDs are two massively different types of drive.

Gilles

19:49

@ArtOfCode do you make a difference between “HDD” and “hard disk”?

Andy

@ArtOfCode I consider this wrong. We should encourage proper terminology. HDDs and SSDs are different

Gilles

I don't, and I've never seen that

ArtOfCode

@Gilles Yep - HDD is a specific type of "hard disk"

Gilles

@ArtOfCode first time I see this distinction

Andy

@enderland Sorry, I'm not sure I understand what you are getting at.

ArtOfCode

19:50

@Andy If you want people to tag their questions correctly, I find you should use the tags that they're going to look for. If someone wants a hard disk, that's the tag they'll look for.

Gilles

I've seen “HDD” and “hard disk” used in a sense that includes SSD, and I've seen them used in a sense that excludes SSD, but I haven't seen the same person making a difference between “HDD” and “hard disk”

I don't think that distinction is sufficiently universal to have distinct tags

Andy

@Gilles Agreed.

ArtOfCode

@Gilles I count both HDDs and SSDs as hard disks; even though SSDs are technically drives not disks. Thus, "hard disk" includes HDDs, but is not the same term because it also includes SSDs.

Gilles

Now hard drive to mean SSD or HDD, yes, I've seen that

ArtOfCode

A HDD is a hard disk. A hard disk is not necessarily a HDD.

Gilles

19:52

Wikipedia defines “hard disk” as “hard disk drive” but has a disambiguation entry for “hard drive”

Hard drive (disambiguation)

Hard disk drive is a computer storage device containing rigid rotating platters. Hard drive may also refer to: Solid-state drive, a computer storage device that has no moving parts Hard Drive (The Sorry Kisses album), a 2008 album by The Sorry Kisses Hard Drive (Art Blakey album), a 1957 album by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers Hard Drive (G.I. Joe), a fictional character in the G.I. Joe universe HardDrive (radio show), a rock radio show Hard Drive, a 1993 techno-thriller novel by David Pogue Hard Drive (film), a film starring John Cusack...

Hard disk drive

A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive or fixed disk is a data storage device used for storing and retrieving digital information using one or more rigid ("hard") rapidly rotating disks (platters) coated with magnetic material. The platters are paired with magnetic heads arranged on a moving actuator arm, which read and write data to the platter surfaces. Data is accessed in a random-access manner, meaning that individual blocks of data can be stored or retrieved in any order rather than sequentially. HDDs retain stored data even when powered off. Introduced by IBM in 1956, HDDs became...

JohnB

I always thought "disk" meant magnetic media. Hence it's compact-disc and floppy disk

Gilles

so if you want a tag that means “HDD or SSD”, call it hard-drive, but definitely not hard-disk

ArtOfCode

@JohnB Ah, but CDs aren't magnetic ;)

Gilles

@JohnB no, that's just a historical glitch

enderland

@Andy if the site scope is "everything hardware" then there is no specific thing which will be a contained scope that means, "oh I'm good at X, I could answer questions on hardwarerecs"

JohnB

19:53

@ArtOfCode disc not disk

Gilles

but better, call it something that is unambiguous to 90% of the audience

enderland

it'd be more, "I can answer a subset of questions tehre" and it'd lose identity somewhat, I 'd think

Gilles

like mass-storage

ArtOfCode

Don't know about floppies, but CDs are microscopic physical aberrations on the CD surface.

Gilles

@ArtOfCode Floppies are magnetic, CDs aren't. John's distinction was magnetic → disK, non-magnetic → disC.

JohnB

19:54

that ^

ArtOfCode

Well - I can't do anything with tag synonyms, so we'll need to wait a while anyway.

@Gilles Ah, I see it now

JohnB

oh wonderful, a whole Wiki article on it. Of course :) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelling_of_disc

Andy

@enderland What is wrong with watching just tags you know though? I know specific hardware and will watch for those types of questions. I may look through some of the other stuff, but since I don't know those technologies as well (or at all) I won't pay as much attention to those ones.

Gilles

Which is not why they're spelled that way, it's just that the brand “compact disc” was spelled with a C

JohnB

yeah, the article mentions the trademarking

Undo

20:32

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A: What should we do to keep "answered questions" ratio high?

Adding on to Andy's answer, Software Recommendations recently graduated with an unheard of answer rate - 58%. We were able to do it because we focused on quality, not quantity. See my answer here for my thoughts on the subject when the site was young: I detest this statistic for this site. ...

Undo

Anyone here in favor of nuking [gadgets]?

JohnB

I would be. That's not very useful

Undo

I'm gonna propose edits removing it, then

Gilles

@Undo thirded

ArtOfCode

@Undo status-gone

Undo

20:41

Heh, @ArtOfCode beat me to it :)

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