Spring Cleaning

Feeds

02:44

cleanup action chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/71389/… <-- I have taken the liberty to delete this. I hope that none of the seven other downvoters mind. (ortho)

Feeds

04:10

cleanup action chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/71395/buffer-capacity <-- No need to do anything as it will be deleted by roomba.

Feeds

04:59

cleanup action chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/71399/… <-- retagged (Martin)

Martin - マーチン

05:29

@Feeds retagged. Unfortunately this is going to stay around forever and it really is just about comparing numbers...

@Feeds closed, down-voted, will be (probably) deleted eventually, no further action required

@Feeds reformatted, retagged, ok.

Martin - マーチン

08:07

I just remembered that feeds will only catch the question if it has been initially tagged with the ones we are watching. We still need to look through whatever was re-tagged...

2

Hmmm... then this comes along

-1

Q: Properties of wood in furniture

What properties of wood make it useful for it to be in furniture?

Feeds

cleanup action chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/71401/… <-- retagged

Martin - マーチン

@Feeds i just fixed that

orthocresol

09:28

@Martin-マーチン ping

Martin - マーチン

@orthocresol pong

first up...

(1) chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/69399/… <-- deleted

this will get deleted in two (?) days

why not force it now?

o/ @Loong

orthocresol

Yup

Martin - マーチン

done.

Next one:

orthocresol

Not much there, except that IPA is flammable...

Martin - マーチン

(2) chemistry.stackexchange.com/q/54740/4945 <-- edited, retagged, reopened

orthocresol

09:34

This should probably have been reopened.

Martin - マーチン

This one is a bit tougher.

Yes I agree, but currently there is not much to it.

orthocresol

I wonder if there is a dupe

Martin - マーチン

I don't really see why this is being closed as too broad

orthocresol

yeah

Martin - マーチン

It depends entirely on what the reaction is. Unless you have a specific reaction in mind then I'm afraid this is too broad to answer. — bon Jul 10 '16 at 19:56

this does not apply anymore, because there is a reaction given

orthocresol

09:38

Haha... the reaction given is not ideal...

Martin - マーチン

No it's a terrible example, but for that I have written the full reaction mechanism before

let me look it up and post a link

Okay, that is done. Next up:

(3) chemistry.stackexchange.com/q/54542/4945 <-- edited, retagged, reopened

This one is closed as homework. I am not 100% sure that this applies, but there is quite a bit of context missing.

It also won't be deleted because of the answer.

orthocresol

09:54

Hmm..

Martin - マーチン

Can you make this read- and/or understandable, so that it is helpful for the future?

orthocresol

Yes, I could try.

What on earth is "removal method for drinking water"?

Fluoride is added to water for... teeth, isn't it

Maybe he is referring to defluoridation.

Martin - マーチン

I think OP wants to remove calcium from drinking water, or so...

orthocresol

I guess it isn't really important to the question.

Martin - マーチン

well, if he want defluoridation, then he doesn't need a fluoride solution

I would just turn the question into something that matches the answer

orthocresol

09:58

Yup

Martin - マーチン

yeah that works fine :D

Want to reopen, too?

orthocresol

I reopened.

Martin - マーチン

okay, that didn't show just when i updated

orthocresol

Haha yeah, literally 2 seconds ago

Martin - マーチン

Alright, last but not least:

Corn syrup \(*v*)/

(4) chemistry.stackexchange.com/q/46656/4945 <-- Deleted

orthocresol

10:02

Oh man..

> It's about 35F outside and I don't have a very efficient way of heating the tank.

> We were able to put a torpedo heater under the tank.

delete?

Loong

@Martin-マーチン hi

Martin - マーチン

I would delete.

@Loong would you also agree?

Loong

@Martin-マーチン Why does that remind me of this:

Great Molasses Flood

The Great Molasses Flood, also known as the Boston Molasses Disaster or the Great Boston Molasses Flood, occurred on January 15, 1919 in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. A large molasses storage tank burst and a wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph (56 km/h), killing 21 and injuring 150. The event entered local folklore and for decades afterwards residents claimed that on hot summer days the area still smelled of molasses. == Flood == The disaster occurred at the Purity Distilling Company facility on January 15, 1919. The temperature had risen...

@Martin-マーチン yes, agreed

orthocresol

Haha.. I could see that happening..

0

Q: Best Containers for vending De-ionized Water

What material among HDPE/PP/PVC is best suited for making canisters and can to contain De-Ionized Water for vending?

everyday-chemistry

Great

Martin - マーチン

Great! If nothing further happens, we can rid ourselves of reaction now.

wow... I have no words...

Just read the Molasses article... Imagine a wall of sugary stuff coming at you... holy cow

Martin - マーチン

12:15

room topic changed to Spring cleaning.: Dedicated to the discussion of specific questions, finding consensus to improve or delete them. Current focus is cleaning up the tags [reaction] and [homework] [homework] [reaction]

M.A.R.

Oh crap, I feel official

hBy2Py

14:55

New SEDE query for locating questions with specific tags applied, and no others

(e.g., tagged just with homework and reaction, and nothing else)

Feeds

hBy2Py has added Martin - マーチン to the list of this room's owners.

hBy2Py has added orthocresol to the list of this room's owners.

hBy2Py

@Feeds Hope you don't mind, @M.A.R.

M.A.R.

Never do :) But it's kinda redundant. Those effing mods already have more powers than us

hBy2Py

Figured. Still, can't hurt to stroke the egos, right?

orthocresol

16:02

@M.A.R. Haha

Anyway...

:: chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/50021/… <-- deleted

Nuke?

hBy2Py

@orthocresol Yes, nuke. Stanislav has been idle for 9mo now -- he's active on SO, so he may note the rep hit-- or he may not.

orthocresol

Now, to be entirely honest, I don't think he will be able to see his deleted answer.

M.A.R.

@orthocresol Yeah, from orbit

hBy2Py

Hm.

We could start a GitHub account for the site

Post worthwhile content to Gists.

GitHub organization, maybe

orthocresol

I actually toyed with the idea of a google doc form, where people could submit questions for me to chemdraw'up.

hBy2Py

16:14

That way multiple people could have access to the org's Gists, so that anybody who wanted to help with cleanup could archive the stuff.

orthocresol

I also toyed with the idea of using github somehow, although i must say I am not too familiar with it (not much of a coder).

hBy2Py

I dunno if the main GitHub functionality would be terribly useful for anything

The Gists might, though.

Ah, no - the Gists are tied only to users, not to organizations

Well, we could start a repo for each cleaning task, maybe

@ortho github.com/ChemSECleanup/homework-cleanup/tree/master

orthocresol

Now, do you have to add me somehow?

M.A.R.

Now, do you have to add me somehow too?

hBy2Py

Yes.

First, you both have to get GitHub accounts

orthocresol

16:24

I have one.

hBy2Py

username?

M.A.R.

I had one already

orthocresol

Username requires me to reveal my real-life identity. :(

hBy2Py

AHhk.

hm

Go to github.com/ChemSECleanup

See if there's a 'request access' link

orthocresol

No, it is not a real problem.

M.A.R.

16:26

@orthocresol You can delete the message afterwards

hBy2Py

Just don't take off your glasses, @ortho, you'll be fine.

@M.A.R. Check your email

M.A.R.

@hBy2Py you look like Brian

hBy2Py

Suspicious resemblance, isn't it?

orthocresol

@hBy2Py Here.

hBy2Py

Invite sent

M.A.R.

16:32

@orthocresol Your name is actually ambiguous to me, but it's nice knowing our mods

orthocresol

@M.A.R. Yes. However if you google my username you should find my first name. It is a common name..

M.A.R.

Is the g the last letter of your first name, or the first letter of your last name?

orthocresol

Chinese names work weirdly, so it is the last letter of my last name.

If that makes any sense.. haha

M.A.R.

o.o

So the first name actually comes last, and the last name comes first?

orthocresol

To a certain extent, yes. However, since I have a "Western" first name, the "Chinese" first name is usually treated as a middle name.

So it is kind of firstname-surname-middlename.

M.A.R.

16:37

Ortho R. Y.

orthocresol

Nope

M.A.R.

Whatever. I'm confused

orthocresol

Try again. ;)

Oh...

Actually, yeah

You're right, if you abbreviate the two middle names to one middle name.

M.A.R.

Oh

orthocresol

I mean, there's no reason on my part to tell anybody who I am, since I'm mostly an insignificant nobody.

hBy2Py

16:39

What do you guys think of this "datestamp - description" syntax for filenames?

github.com/ChemSECleanup/homework-cleanup

On the one hand, possibly overkill

On the other, it'll keep everything neatly chronological (with creation date/time, anyways)

orthocresol

→ 9 messages moved to The Periodic Table

hBy2Py

Thanks, ortho

orthocresol

Room owners should be able to do that, too. ;)

hBy2Py

I'm not an owner on PT, though

orthocresol

Anyway, do you know how to retag this? chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/71433/…

hBy2Py

16:44

Ah! It's in the room dropdown

KIP

M.A.R.

@hBy2Py I'm an RO in Platinum. Do I need to do something?

orthocresol

@M.A.R. Yes, you need to reproduce so that the price of Pt will be lowered. That will make some catalysts significantly cheaper.

hBy2Py

@orthocresol I don't even know what that nomenclature is

orthocresol

Neither do I. I'm clueless, but it sounds like somebody that is worth keeping.

hBy2Py

@orthocresol Yup. Motivated to work with the SE model

And a musician to boot, seems.

orthocresol

16:48

I guess that's some uranium compound?

hBy2Py

Yeah, uranyl $(\ce{UO2})$ is how non-ore uranium is usually found.

orthocresol

we have a tag for lanthanides (rare-earth-elements) but none for actinides, which are probably more interesting

hBy2Py

Ahh, it must be assuming a deuterium collision cell or something

@orthocresol Are there enough questions to warrant actinides?

orthocresol

no idea, I think most of them probably get tagged with radioactivity or something

Feeds

:: chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/71434/… <-- has been retagged (ortho)

orthocresol

16:57

@hBy2Py Anyway, I think this is fine. However, we might want to be selective in what content we want to keep.

For example, that one about studying homework was well-meaning, but would never find a place on any question here, ever again.

hBy2Py

The main thing I'm considering is not swiping meaningful content out from under posters' noses.

Having it somewhere they can find it.

orthocresol

Ah, I see.

hBy2Py

Of course, linking this sort of content to a deleted post in a straightforward, searchable (or whatever) way is probably hard.

orthocresol

In that case, then yes, and I think one additional parameter that is useful is the question ID.

Actually, if your question is deleted by the mods, you can still find it in your profile.

hBy2Py

Mm, that's a good idea -- though how would a deleted poster know that?

mmm.

So, maybe instead of date-description, just postid-description would suffice?

orthocresol

17:00

I'm not sure.

I've never had a question deleted by a mod... haha

hBy2Py

The date of deletion probably isn't all that germane?

orthocresol

@hBy2Py Yup, i like that.

I have a folder where I keep chemdraw files, they're ordered by post id too.

hBy2Py

That's a good idea.

I don't usually bother with keeping my source material, except for certain diagrams and computational results &c.

orthocresol

I keep them, because I have had multiple unpleasant incidents where I made a small mistake in a big mechanism, somebody pointed it out, and I had to redraw the whole thing.

hBy2Py

<nod>

Saving anything that took substantial time to create.

M.A.R.

17:11

I tagged it [terminology] because well, it's asking about the terminology used

I also rejected the edit because it was stupid

orthocresol

17:40

Now, time to decide on what is the next set of questions to look at.

I suspect that negatively-scored reaction questions are prime candidates for deletion...

We probably want to look at negative scores, because those are the ones that actually need some human input; the ones with positive scores just need to be stripped of the tag and we will be done with them.

hBy2Py

<nod>, reaction will involve a different process from homework since the concept is non-meta, just too nonspecific

orthocresol

Oh, goodness, I just came across this...

-3

Q: Would consuming the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction be dangerous?

I'm wondering if the chemicals involved in the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction would be at all poisonous. If at all, do you know of another similar oscillating reaction that could safely be ingested? [Edit] Seriously, I was wondering if it would be possible to invent a candy that changes flavors i...

reaction redox safety food-chemistry toxicity

I'm like... WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Haha good joke ! :-) — Hexacoordinate-C Jun 10 '16 at 5:41

LOL

M.A.R.

@orthocresol Consuming Belousov or Zhabotinsky is dangerous -- Resulting in jail

orthocresol

Thanks @Martin-マーチン As I've explained above I was wondering if it would be possible to invent an oscillating flavor. I figured it was probably not safe to drink the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction but wanted to find out definitively. — Austin Wehn Jun 10 '16 at 6:06

Ok, fair enough...

hBy2Py

@orthocresol I almost think questions for which the answer is "THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT AT ALL SAFE" might be worth keeping on the site. I would think the liability problems there would be minimal, and there may be PSA value.

orthocresol

17:54

Yup. It's not actually a bad thing to keep around.

However, the answer definitely needs bigger warning signs.

hBy2Py

$\bbox[color:red]{\Huge\unicode{x2620} \unicode{x2620} \unicode{x2620} \unicode{x2620} \unicode{x2620}}$

M.A.R.

@Ortho it's time for you to edit your meta post and request burnination of [homework] and feature it

orthocresol

@M.A.R. Jan's answer made me think a bit, though.

M.A.R.

@orthocresol Oh no

orthocresol

@hBy2Py I noticed you used \bbox. That's grounds for suspension here.

hBy2Py

17:59

Only if you put a border around it and don't specify border-width -- I found a fix:

0

A: What additional formatting features are available to MathJax (possibly via \require{})?

Coloring (CSS-Style) Enable with: \require{bbox} (optional; loads automatically on first use) Command: \bbox[options]{math} \bbox is somewhat similar to \style, in that it applies CSS styling to the indicated math. The main difference is that it makes two specific assumptions about unqualified...

M.A.R.

Oh wait, Mart already wrote an answer requesting a blacklist

hBy2Py

$\bbox[green,7px,color: white; border: blue 10px solid]{\text{This will work fine!}}$

\bbox[green,7px,color: white; border: blue 10px solid]{\text{This will work fine!}}

M.A.R.

Please vote for removing of the "homework" tag.

2

hBy2Py

$\bbox[bisque,3px,color:blanchedalmond]{\text{Read this if you can!!}}$

orthocresol

→ 23 messages moved to Trash

M.A.R.

18:08

BTW

orthocresol

WTB

M.A.R.

@hBy2Py Brian should we put the Github thing to use?

hBy2Py

@orthocresol The running list in a meta post seems more practical

M.A.R.

Let's see what we can do with it

@hBy2Py Or something on Github

hBy2Py

@M.A.R. I think so, but it'll be best for stuff that we want to post and then not change

I was hoping Gists might work, but you can't assoc them with an organization, just a user

M.A.R.

18:10

Issues? I dunno how Github works

hBy2Py

Mmmm...

Issues might be good

M.A.R.

Only created an account a while back to leave some comments

hBy2Py

Yes, actually

You can label issues with different things

M.A.R.

Yay

hBy2Py

"needs upvotes"

M.A.R.

18:11

[everyday-chemistry] [reaction] [homework]

hBy2Py

"needs downvotes"

"improve question" (for ones with a good answer but a crap question)

M.A.R.

"needs edit"?

"reopen"

"delete"

hBy2Py

<nod>, things like that

The first question is the repository structure itself

Right now I just have a 'homework-cleanup' repo

M.A.R.

"kill-the-OP"

hBy2Py

Should we have it where each 'effort' has its own repo?

Should we just make it all one big repo?

You can define "projects" and "milestones" within a repo, too.

(issues are assigned to those)

M.A.R.

18:13

@hBy2Py Let me play a little with Github to understand your language

hBy2Py

So we could have a "[homework]" project and a "[reaction]" project

orthocresol

I think it's a good idea to focus on reaction first.

hBy2Py

@orthocresol Since the path forward is clearer?

orthocresol

Yes, and also because if the CMs approve our burnination request, soon the tags will be gone.

And then, it will not be possible to search for the questions any more.

hBy2Py

What's the timeframe on that?

How soon might it be obliterated?

orthocresol

18:18

I have no clue, to be honest.

hBy2Py

But, better to get it done sooner than later.

M.A.R.

I created two projects

orthocresol

CM replies can be real fast, or can be real slow.

I'm optimistic that something will happen this week.

hBy2Py

in The Periodic Table, 1 min ago, by M.A.R.

Please join us on Github for easier coordination of cleaning up stuff.

Grr - doesn't show the text

M.A.R.

Man, we're going ahead really fast. O.o

hBy2Py

18:25

Please join us on GitHub for easier coordination of cleanup efforts. Ping hBy2Py or M.A.R. with your GitHub username to be granted access to the GitHub organization.

5

@M.A.R. It's either that, or it drags out and never gets done.

M.A.R.

@hBy2Py LET'S DO THIS

hBy2Py

We should keep all the Projects on the same level

Right now some are in the repo, and some are at the org level

Let's pull everything to the org level

orthocresol

Yup I like that

hBy2Py

almost done....

ok

everything's at org level now

M.A.R.

So, Ortho we deal with [rxn] first?

orthocresol

18:35

Yes.

hBy2Py

It's probably going to take some getting used to the permissions levels.

orthocresol

There are 50 negative-score questions with [rxn]. That would probably be a good place to start.

hBy2Py

I think I have it set so that anyone joining as a regular user should have all the permissions they need

btw, @ortho, you're an owner on that repo, too, so you can issue invites, too.

orthocresol

Ah, okay.

50734, 71093, 70390, 31596, 70973, 69146, 47348, 31455, 70819, 70910
53492, 64380, 9973, 61273, 59212, 63107, 60559, 70089, 27869, 53493
65982, 65803, 64154, 33860, 60608, 23797, 70784, 51488, 70217, 39184
24478, 26720, 67533, 43728, 53987, 31103, 55346, 19140, 60224, 37921
70167, 67088, 39854, 37784, 51951, 24483, 65162, 70103, 69112, 53263

There we are.

Where should I dump that?

hBy2Py

@orthocresol Add a note to the relevant column here.

orthocresol

18:42

By the way, SEDE only updates every Sunday, so the query for one-taggers is outdated.

hBy2Py

Vote counts must update on-the-spot, though

orthocresol

You mean those with SE inbuilt search?

hBy2Py

Because I've had vote-count-based searches change in real time after I vote on something to move it out of the search range

No, in SEDE

orthocresol

Hmmmm.... no clue

M.A.R.

@hBy2Py These's some caching, but yeah, they update regularly

Oh, wait, SEDE?

hBy2Py

18:44

You're right, though, there are some outdated tag entries in the SEDE results

M.A.R.

No, I don't think anything is updated there

hBy2Py

Vote counts absolutely are.

I've run a query filtered on vote counts, gone to a post, voted something up/down to bring it out of spec for the query, and re-run the query, and it no longer shows in the results.

Oooh, that's annoying - you can't highlight/copy/paste numbers off the Project notecards

orthocresol

Hmmmm.....

hBy2Py

They're short numbers, though

not too bad

How about these high-level categories as a starting point for the 'removing hints' project?

orthocresol

How would we mark something as being completed?

hBy2Py

18:53

Strike it out

In GitHub MarkDown, you can just surround it with double tildes

~~~dont think it works here though~~~ ~~ah, there we go~~

orthocresol

~~~three tildes~~~

~~three dashes~~

hBy2Py

This GitHub process will probably have its warts, but it seems promising thus far...?

orthocresol

I'm just not familiar with the system and what it's capable of, that's all.

M.A.R.

@orthocresol Neither am I. o.o which is why I'm playing with it right now

hBy2Py

The Projects bit is new to me

I've used the source control and issues side of it a lot

M.A.R.

19:04

I uploaded an icon

hBy2Py

We're going to have to split those lists of numbers you posted, @ortho, in order to strike them out as we go

orthocresol

I wonder if it is easier to do a Google Doc, like what they do for Winterbash.

hBy2Py

Perhaps -- this way it's right there with the archive of content-worth-saving

orthocresol

True that

hBy2Py

Though, we could always just do a series of Google Docs in a publicly shared folder .. would have roughly the same result

orthocresol

19:06

Or a meta post.

I'm not sure what will work best.

hBy2Py

<nod>, but where would the content itself live

A light-year-long list of pasted-in content would be unwieldy, and not that fun to search

Even spread one answer per snippet

<shrug>

orthocresol

Yes.

hBy2Py

If GitHub ends up not working well, we can always just transfer everything wherever else and delete the lot of it

orthocresol

Yup. Anyway, right now, it is only the three of us. We'll see how it goes when more people join in and switch things up if needed.

Actually, you don't need to split the lists.

Just do this: ~~<id 1>, <id 2>, <id 3>~~, <id 4>, <id 5>

hBy2Py

Ahh! Good idea.

orthocresol

19:10

Ok, tonight I will write up a meta post summing up everything, either that or I will put an answer on Martin's blacklist request detailing all this.

hBy2Py

<nod>, sounds good -- thanks

hBy2Py

19:38

@ortho, @M.A.R. I just noticed you can apparently schedule "events" on chat?

Is this something we should consider at some point? (Did we set such a thing up for, e.g., TREs?)

M.A.R.

@hBy2Py Yep, mods and RO's can

@hBy2Py Yes, TRE's were events

After there are some votes on removing homework, I'll write a meta post to invite people to an event

M.A.R.

20:16

Hey @Petter! Welcome!

hBy2Py

20:28

@ortho @M.A.R. Should we check with SE Overwatch to see if they have a problem with us bringing either the coordination activities or the scrubbed content archiving out from under the SE umbrella?

Petter Friberg

\o @M.A.R. I wish I could help you all out, but no rep on chem so I better not edit since it will just push to queue :D GOOD LUCK with burnation, let Trogdor rule

orthocresol

21:02

@PetterFriberg That's actually not a problem, as queues are very low volume on Chem.

Feeds

21:15

cleanup action chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/71444/… <-- retagged, closed, will be deleted rofl

M.A.R.

@hBy2Py No, because they're good people and I don't see why it's such a bad thing

@Feeds Weird question

@PetterFriberg You can freely edit, the queues are almost always empty

A lot of holding back on SO is no holding back on Chem.

Good night everyone. I sleeps

Melanie Shebel

21:56

@hBy2Py mshebel on Git (the link doesn't work for me, though.)

Second place at research day at school! So stoked! I developed this project and poured my heart into it for the last year and a half!

It's so disheartening when you boil a poster down to five bullet points for methods which makes it sound like, "press button, get results." It's like, "You have no idea how long it took for me to design these graphs!!" Haha!

orthocresol

@MelanieShebel I'm not seeing any user with that username.

However, I do see this: github.com/MelanieS

I guess that is you? ;)

Melanie Shebel

22:40

Yep, sorry. Haha

orthocresol

Invited.

Feeds

22:53

:: chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/71447/… this question is OK, HW tag will just drop off when we burninate

hBy2Py

23:10

@MelanieShebel Yeah, you can't see inside the organization unless you're a member of it. The repo with the archived bits should be publicly viewable, though.

Melanie Shebel

I see it now

Thanks

Omg, I thought this was the periodic table chat room. I'm such an idiot, haha!

hBy2Py

We should establish a rep minimum for access to the GitHub.

Just so there's a policy that ensures only sufficiently established community members have the privilege

@M.A.R., @ortho, thoughts?

Also, as initiators of the madness ... I mean, project ... @M.A.R., @ortho, I think just the three of us should be 'owners' on the organization - please add new people as regular members.

Regular members should have full read/write access to everything needed to participate, but this way the org is gatekept a little bit.

Feeds

:: chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/71448/… <-- retagged

hBy2Py

23:44

I figure something low would make sense, like 500 rep -- where first access to the review queues is granted.

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