@shulem If someone provides constructive criticism on a particular post of yours, or a challenging objection to it, or says that it's not clear, you should strongly consider editing the post to address the comment. Not by adding an argument with the comment but by improving the post itself to make the comment unnecessary.
@Daniel I personally try not to downvote a legitimate attempt at answering. I reserve my downvotes for when the answerer refuses to improve the question.
Is there a policy to encourage people to make comments when they give downvotes? Commentless downvotes do very little to improve the site. If something is wrong, you should explain what about it is wrong.
@shulem Many of us have tried to explain to you why we have downvoted, but you have insisted that your answer is better than anyone else's, rather than addressing the points raised in the comments.
@MonicaCellio I seem to recall my first time logging into Meta that I had to create an associated account and allow my ID to work, but that was a long time ago.
@shulem I would again encourage you, like @Daniel suggested, to try to keep the thread linked by clicking on the little arrow to the right of the comment you're replying to (this shows up when you hover your mouse over the comment).
@shulem There is no reason to post an answer that is only clear to someone learning daf yomi. You can include the relevant material so that anybody can understand it
@shulem, would you be open to one of us editing your most recent answer along the lines of what we're suggesting? Based on what you've said here in chat, I think I understand the point you're making and would be happy to make an edit to illustrate. If you don't like it you can roll it back. Ok?
@shulem Even my previous comment is not a judgment of your character. It is an observation of your behavior on this site. Even now you are being defensive.
@shulem You don't have to reply to this, but I'll reiterate: please consider using the BLUF principle in all answers, and you'll pre-empt many problems
@shulem, take it for what it's worth, and you will be a welcome member here. If you need help with an edit, you can always come here or leave a comment asking for it.
@shulem, My suggestion: See the WP article I linked write when you came in. If you start each answer with a paragraph that very directly addresses the question, then spend the rest of your answer backing up the assertion in your first paragraph, it will go a very long way toward getting your point across to the reader.
@shulem That's because you are unclear in your answers. We are all pretty smart here. We are pretty good at figuring out what people are trying to say. If we can't understand it at all, then it's a sign that you might want to do some editing
@shulem you can claim that your posts are perfectly clear, but the fact that they are getting so many downvotes and comments asking for clarification means that they are not
The torah was given "in Israel", just not within its boundaries. According to an Ari, the air of Eretz Yisrael was present with the people and moved with them -- wherever they went in the wilderness they had the air of Israel and of the beit hamikdash with them. So even though they were in the ...
... But that's a minor quibble. The point of this exercise: @Monica took the same content you had and re-wrote it so that it would be much more readable. Do you see how this is an improvement? How this will make it much more likely that more people will learn from this post?
@shulem ok, sorry -- I'm not quite sure what change you're asking for, but perhaps you could further edit the post to fix it up? Did I get anything else wrong?
@shulem and please take a look at my edit, and fix up anything else you'd like. It was meant to be an example and if I got anything wrong, I apologize.
@HodofHod I just made it up. But I think it would be something like bringing people into a dedicated chatroom and conducting a "trial" for some ridiculous "crime" that they committed
@IsaacMoses Yeah. You know what subject really doesn't lend itself to that? math. And people still write fully comprehensible research papers.
(At least comprehensible to the people reading them)
... writing clear, organized prose in should be taught as a compulsory subject in every yeshiva, and I mean including the ones that have no designs on producing rabbis or teachers.
@IsaacMoses me too. Anything can be explained well, badly, cryptically, or not at all. The Rambam intentionally didn't explain some things (like in the Moreh); that's not a good indicator of anything. All of us on a lower level than Chazal should be trying our best for clarity.
@Daniel for chat, if you go to the room info you can see a little histogram for time of day. For questions/answers/comments, that'll require more digging.
@Daniel there might even be one already on some other site that you can adapt. (I don't know much about the data explorer; I've used some canned queries but never tried to write my own.)
The mods have access to some metrics, but (a) we're not allowed to republish (can summarize) and (b) the granularity is in days, not hours. So I can look at a month's worth of site traffic and see the Shabbat dips, but I can't from that get specific hours.
@Daniel Ah, ok. We used to something like that in summer camp. Usually used as an opportunity for campers to voice their grievances against their staff.
I do not think it is a problem for a few reasons. Kin'as sofrim tarbeh chochmah (jealousy among scholars will increase wisdom - Baba Basra 21a). A certain extent of competition in Torah is a good thing. Having people compete for even something as minor as points helps increase Torah and wisdom. T...
Is there a policy to encourage people to make comments when they give downvotes? Commentless downvotes do very little to improve the site. If something is wrong, you should explain what about it is wrong.
