Spring Cleaning

pentavalentcarbon

00:00

If you want to keep editing, I'll approve your edits.

Though, it looks like my approvals don't go through immediately.

Melanie Shebel

How do I find "chunks" of questions

@orthocresol As of now we're not removing the tags from these questions, right? Because there are pending edits where users are removing these tags.

heather

@pentavalentcarbon, thank you

pentavalentcarbon

not a problem, just ping if you think there's a backlog

heather

okay, thanks =)

pentavalentcarbon

aaaahhhhhhhh conflicting edit time

heather

00:13

CLEANUP TASK: completed [reaction] co-tags with 1 question part 4, therefore completing all [reaction] co-tags with 1 question

orthocresol

@MelanieShebel cleaning up, just removing the tag if thats all thats needed, but if theres more stuff to be done then it should be done too

heather

@pentavalentcarbon which one?

pentavalentcarbon

the sulfur one

orthocresol

@heather please no mathjax in titles also

2

Melanie Shebel

Yeah, I'm seeing some language = spelling/grammar I can apply to recently approved edits. Since they're on the first page, it's a good time to edit them.

heather

00:14

@orthocresol oh, sorry.

orthocresol

I know physics and maths does it, but we're special snowflakes here, so.

...

@MelanieShebel yeah, feel free to

heather

the sulfur one...

Melanie Shebel

What on earth is going on in this question?

0

Q: Can carbon and titanium bond?

Can carbon and titanium form an ionic bond because they both have four valence electrons? Like so:

heather

@pentavalentcarbon this one?

pentavalentcarbon

yeah, I got it

heather

00:16

@orthocresol, okay, fixed the mathjax in the title

pentavalentcarbon

@MelanieShebel looks like one of my failed cooking experiments

Melanie Shebel

Looks like a graphic from one of my poster presentations.

jk

pentavalentcarbon

As ugly as it may be I understood it immediately

orthocresol

Ok, I don't think it's necessary to have this diagram. It can be explained in words.

And that answer is not very correct.

Melanie Shebel

I would argue that this history tag doesn't work either: chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/34392/…

orthocresol

00:20

depends on whether he was asking about historically how did people figure out that reactions happened

but the question doesn't seem to indicate anything to that effect, so...

Melanie Shebel

Not sure what the sentence even means in his section 1.)

0

Q: Reaction of iron with steam

While studying about reversible reactions, my professor stated that the following reaction is a reversible reaction: $$\ce{Fe + H2O <=> Fe3O4 + H2}$$ She also stated that the product $\ce{Fe3O4}$ is formed by a mixture of $\ce{FeO}$ and $\ce{Fe2O3}$. However, there was no mention of the typ...

inorganic-chemistry mixtures

"till"

I don't know what he means by that

until?

orthocresol

probably means "From what I know".

Melanie Shebel

Oh, I should have mathjaxed that. Good catch.

orthocresol

I closed it, don't bother.

was a good ~~horrible~~ question simply unsuitable for Stack Exchange <-- trying to be politically correct

Melanie Shebel

Yeah i think I flagged it earlier

orthocresol

00:27

I mean, that comment basically says all that can be said about this question. ._.

oh... yeah... somebody flagged a comment

which is a great thing to do as well

heather

edit backlog @pentavalentcarbon

orthocresol

I love deleting comments and if you give me any reason to do so I will do so

pentavalentcarbon

you guys are fast...

"obsolete" flag is good, ya?

orthocresol

Was that you? Yeah, that's perfectly fine.

heather

thanks

orthocresol

00:29

By the way, if there are any questions that could do with chemdraw touchup, feel free to ping me

heather

okay @orthocresol - what about that one with the crazy scribble diagram, linked somewhere above?

orthocresol

I converted it to text.

pentavalentcarbon

and just for that reason I'm doing the physical-chemistry ones

heather

@orthocresol ah, okay.

huh...i have not edited five, but i have an edit backlog again

maybe there's some delay between my suggested edits showing up in the queue or something

orthocresol

fun fact: i can ban you from suggesting edits

heather

00:35

am i doing something wrong? or are you just fun-facting?

pentavalentcarbon

Now that's interesting. One of yours had a personal Dropbox link to a video, and it isn't dead.

He's being a meanie, ignore him

orthocresol

One of what?

heather

@pentavalentcarbon my edit just made the link in-line; i checked the link before doing anything with it.

pentavalentcarbon

4

Q: Melting post-1982 minted U.S. pennies and aluminum: Why does the slag turn blue?

After melting aluminum inside of an iron crucible, I tossed in a handful of U.S. pennies that were minted post-1982. The slag began to burn a brilliant blue. What caused this? (https://www.dropbox.com/s/yxsa55fyj43mqz7/Blueburn.mov?dl=0)

physical-chemistry reaction melting-point

a suggested review

That video is neat looking.

Ultimately, probably shouldn't have that link there.

heather

no?

orthocresol

00:37

Is it possible to trace it back to who it is?

ooh

pentavalentcarbon

pretty, right?

Jeffrey T. Smith, "Last seen Feb 20 at 0:24"

orthocresol

From the dropbox vid i'm unable to find out any information except his profile name, which is.... Jeffrey Smith.

Melanie Shebel

Hmm

cleanup action chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/42030/… <-- deleted (ortho)

pentavalentcarbon

What's the problem?

Melanie Shebel

I accidently set my clothes on fire and they burned. How do I turn the pile of ash back into my clothes?

Essentially.

hBy2Py

00:39

@orthocresol Create another note in the GH Project for "Needs ChemDraw"

Melanie Shebel

Ooh

I'll do those

orthocresol

@hBy2Py i think its alright, no need to formalise it too much, i also don't want to get swamped..

pentavalentcarbon

That Q seems borderline not useful.

Melanie Shebel

Borderline.

You could also create a "needs chemdraw" chatroom and post them there. Bahaha

hBy2Py

@heather I think there is, earlier it was about ~45sec or so between when you'd post notice of a new edit and when I'd see the notification in my site header

orthocresol

00:41

This is essentially a chat event, isn't it?

heather

@MelanieShebel i think it's basically not useful - i think that question would be analogous to be a question on physics asking "my family heirloom watch got sucked into a black hole on accident; any way to get it out?" and i can guarantee you that question would get closed =)

Melanie Shebel

Yes

hBy2Py

@orthocresol Um, yes.

Impromptu

But yes

orthocresol

The best kind.

Does anybody vote for deletion of sulfuric acid question?

hBy2Py

I'm going to edit the Spring Cleaning post body to notify that a spontaneous event has started

... or, maybe we shoudl keep this one just us.

More test drive?

orthocresol

00:43

I'm actually not sure which tags they're looking at

heather

i "vote" (without any weight) for the deletion @orthocresol - also, this might like a chemdraw answer (i think) =)

orthocresol

penta said he was doing physical-chemistry, which we supposedly weren't supposed to do until later ;)

hBy2Py

CLEANUP ACTION -- Vote in FAVOR of deleting sulfuric acid question

orthocresol

you are in favour?

well, ok, since I am too, it will be nuked

hBy2Py

Yeah, 'cause I haven't had a chance to write up the philosophy of the attack yet :-P

pentavalentcarbon

00:44

this is all too formal for me...I'm not supposed to do that?

hBy2Py

This is the problem with so much enthusiasm. :-P

Haha

@pentavalentcarbon if you want to, go ahead

orthocresol

yeah, it doesn't really matter i guess

hBy2Py

Since only a few ppl are involved

I was thinking we'd start at the bunches of co-tags that had only a few instances, and work our way up

orthocresol

in fact, since nobody was around to delegate work, it was probbaly a smart choice to go from the back

otherwise much overlap

hBy2Py

yep, exactly

If we have three people actively attacking questions, one should start at the front, one middle, and one back

Melanie Shebel

00:45

I'm in favor.

heather

thoughts for tags (just delete reactions, or are there any others that fit)?

hBy2Py

Ortho hammering and edit approving as needed

orthocresol

actually if you look at the suggested edit queue

heather

i'm already going from the smallest up =)

orthocresol

airhuff is like...

Melanie Shebel

00:46

I'm just taking care of proposed edits and fixing grammar, etc. That was missed.,

I'm editing the edits. I'm going meta on meta.

orthocresol

guy seems like he has been sitting on the queue all day

Melanie Shebel

In fact, I propose a meta.meta.chemistry.stackexchange

hBy2Py

@orthocresol guy's been practically sitting on the site all day for a month-plus now

orthocresol

Yeah, that's true.

hBy2Py

insane rep accumulation

orthocresol

00:46

Not that I am complaining

hBy2Py

Heck no, I'm glad he's here!

Melanie Shebel

I don't rep from edits anymore.

hBy2Py

He's answered so many old questions it's crazy

orthocresol

wtf

6.6k rep

pentavalentcarbon

:(

hBy2Py

00:47

Nope, once you have free edit privs, no more rep

orthocresol

hBy2Py

that felt like a bait and switch to me, too

heather

that happened to me last summer

hBy2Py

on PHysics?

heather

yeah

hBy2Py

00:48

@heather Yes, since it's closed, just delete [reaction] and move on

Melanie Shebel

Who is that?

heather

@hBy2Py okay

hBy2Py

airhuff is a semi-retired guy with a lot of chemistry experience, is about all I know

but he's been answering scads of questions, new and old, for awhile now

Flying up the charts

His badge panel is kooky 'cause he's answered so many old Q's

Melanie Shebel

Yeah, I know!

heather

sorry, got another edit backlog

orthocresol

00:51

pentavalentcarbon

> few oxygen

orthocresol

pentavalentcarbon

"Please use the spacebar."

orthocresol

pentavalentcarbon

> enough formic acid in his body to kill 20 men

Them!

Them! is a 1954 American black-and-white science fiction monster film from Warner Bros. Pictures, produced by David Weisbart, directed by Gordon Douglas, that stars James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon, and James Arness. The film is based on an original story treatment by George Worthing Yates, which was then developed into a screenplay by Ted Sherdeman and Russell Hughes. Them! is one of the first of the 1950s "nuclear monster" films, and the first "big bug" feature. A nest of gigantic irradiated ants is discovered in the New Mexico desert; they quickly become a national threat when it is...

hBy2Py

00:57

BTW, @heather @Melanie @penta, @ortho -- see this SEDE query and this one; they autogenerate site search links for all the various tag combinations with [reaction]

save you the time/trouble of typing in the search every time

heather

oh, sorry - edit backlog again

@hBy2Py ah, thank you

orthocresol

Suggested Edits Review Queue

2

hBy2Py

@orthocresol Edit that to say 'Suggested Edits review queue' at some point

pentavalentcarbon

This is great...your rep is shooting up, and I'm getting closer to the Reviewer badge :)

hBy2Py

@ortho @penta @heather @Melanie Please report what you're working on so I can pick something different

heather

01:01

i'm working on the 2 question tags

pentavalentcarbon

pair of reaction with physical-chemistry

heather

almost finished with the first batch

@pentavalentcarbon =D

orthocresol

@hBy2Py i'm not doing anyhting

pentavalentcarbon

Those pictures with the fire look crazy dangerous

heather

yeah, right?

i have no idea how some parent didn't smack that chem teacher out of a job, but it looks super cool

pentavalentcarbon

01:03

People get seriously injured/die in chemical demonstrations, specifically in high school chemistry labs.

Like the flame test/color one.

hBy2Py

Is how many accidents happen

Everything's fine, until it's suddenly not

pentavalentcarbon

Yep, it's happened to me

hBy2Py

<nod> Like that poor postdoc in Hawaii

heather

what happened?

hBy2Py

I'll find the link...

Case Study #1 of 'it was fine until it wasn't' (this is actually a different thing, not the Hawaii postdoc)

heather

01:05

i heard about a california accident - a student doing research in a lab w/o a lab coat, and the lab had issues, and then she accidentally set stuff on fire, and she died

(bad summary, but you get the idea)

hBy2Py

<nod>

pentavalentcarbon

Yes, her name was Sheri Sangji, probably the most famous recent lab accident.

hBy2Py

Mixing hydrogen and oxygen in a non explosion-proof tank is a very bad idea. Don't do it.

Ok, I'm going to start on the 9- to 13-question co-tags

It's too bad we can't all be in a coffeeshop or something, shooting the breeze while we do this.

@ortho concentration might be another one we should note for later cleanup?

heather

gotta go take down the trash, brb

orthocresol

ah, the tBuLi incident

horrible

@hBy2Py You mean just in general?

personally.. i think after going through [homework]... most of the lousy questions will be gone

but concentration sounds like a tag that can accumulate bad questions as well

pentavalentcarbon

01:12

Physical vs. chemical changes, ughhhhhh

hBy2Py

@orthocresol Yeah, just in general

Mm, I'm going to have to step away for a while, too, something's come up here.

orthocresol

i feel like trashing this question

0

Q: Resonance contributors of sulfuric acid

Why are there only four resonance forms of sulfuric acid given in textbooks? I can draw eight of them.

resonance

anybody?

the answer is NAA anyway

qn asks about H2SO4 and answer is about SO4(2-)

Melanie Shebel

Trash it

hBy2Py

Back when I can...

orthocresol

sure, take your time

pentavalentcarbon

01:14

I was reading it and all of a sudden two offensive red bars appeared...

orthocresol

hey @airhuff

pentavalentcarbon

oooo, fancy stuff at the top you have there...

orthocresol

hehe

technically, not supposed to share it, but most of the info about mod powers is documented on meta.SE anyway

i mean, everybody knows we have mod flags

Melanie Shebel

Uh oh, what did I do?

airhuff

Hey @orthocresol , you guys are hard at work here, just thought I'd check up :)

orthocresol

01:20

you allowed me to delete a question

Melanie Shebel

hehe

Hey hey

orthocresol

@airhuff Seems that some people here have been keeping you busy in the edit queue ; )

Melanie Shebel

Good work lately, airhuff!

airhuff

Thx...

I'm about at my limit for the day on the suggested edit que though!

orthocresol

And the day's barely started...

Melanie Shebel

01:21

Now that I've attained all the rep I can get from editing, I have to figure something else out for attaining rep!

orthocresol

actually I have no idea when it resets, I would assume midnight UTC, but idk

Melanie Shebel

I'm still well under my max.

airhuff

yea, goes back to 20 at midnight UTC

heather

yeah sorry about that @airhuff =)

pentavalentcarbon

Wait...there's a limit?!

airhuff

01:22

No prob @heather, you're the main one getting me to my next badge!

orthocresol

@pentavalentcarbon There is, but I'm fairly sure the last time anybody was close to hitting it was TRE I.

I believe the rationale is something along the lines of "it's not a good idea to spend too much time on SE".

Melanie Shebel

airhuff

You are about to hit it I think pentavalentcarbon...

heather

@MelanieShebel, ah, beat me to the punch on one

Melanie Shebel

Still nowhere near that badge!

heather

01:24

CLEANUP ACTION: completed [reaction] co-tags with 2 questions part 1

cleanup action: chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/50267/… <-- deleted (ortho)

pretty blatantly homework-y

or @airhuff - i don't know who has what privileges =)

cleanup action chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/48956/… <-- deleted (ortho)

(this one untagged)

orthocresol

hmph

anybody in favour of deleting the two above questions?

heather

i would be, i suppose

::shrugs::

pentavalentcarbon

Yes and unsure.

Ah, hell with it.

orthocresol

i like that attitude

heather

the second one though isn't even a real reaction as the second answer says, so i don't think it's worth keeping

pentavalentcarbon

01:31

I've said I shouldn't edit and drink beer simultaneously too, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

heather

::groans::

'nother homework here

orthocresol

thing is, attitude towards hw here is much more lenient than on physics

The words "realistic" in orthocresol's comment and "unrealistic" in mine were there for a reason. — Ivan Neretin Jan 19 at 6:18

heather

@orthocresol ah. physics is very strict with anything resembling a problem with no effort

orthocresol

generally, if it's not closed, that means we thought that it's ok to have this on the site

cleaning up though is a different thing, as we can delete stuff if we don't like it enough

regardless of whether it's closed or not

so that's why I nuked the two questions earlier

they're too localised, don't contain any useful info, and were clearly abandoned after being asked

heather

for downvoted closed questions, is that something to delete?

orthocresol

01:36

case by case basis

heather

ex here is one

orthocresol

well, that has a decent answer, so I am leaning towards try to salvage

heather

okay, i'll see what i can do

orthocresol

i do'nt think there's much that can be done thouhg

thats obviously a case of too broad

pentavalentcarbon

agreed

Melanie Shebel

01:39

Woot! New badge!

Thanks guys!

chemistry.stackexchange.com/help/badges/69/outspoken?userid=402

orthocresol

@MelanieShebel i'd also advise against changing Jan's sulphates to sulfates, as he can get a bit touchy about it

Melanie Shebel

Okay, won't touch his anymore, haha.

orthocresol

I think the ph spelling is antiquated by now, but if he wants to, let him, I suppose.

2

A: When editing posts that are consistently or overwhelmingly written in one flavour of English, please do not change the flavour

Revisiting this there are two things that I would like to comment on and perhaps draw others' attention to. 1. It is true that Google and other search engines do automatically search for both BrE and AmE variants. Therefore, the argument that using AmE draws more traffic is wrong. However, Stack...

Melanie Shebel

In mathjax how do I do

Nevermind

Figured it out

pentavalentcarbon

Just do the thing, you know...the thing?

Melanie Shebel

01:43

Oh.

Yeah.

How would I search for questions that attempt formatting by doing something like: <sub>3</sub>

orthocresol

I'm not sure if it's possible, as SE search probably cannot search for symbols.

pentavalentcarbon

:( :( :(

Melanie Shebel

We need to recruit more new users.

orthocresol

Most new users are here to get homework help.

^ Fact

pentavalentcarbon

More like alternative fact.

orthocresol

01:47

Fake fact?

heather

i joined last year, but i've only started looking around here recently

because of a recent interest =)

Melanie Shebel

True.

Professors should force their phd seekers to join.

pentavalentcarbon

There is a new "me" and I am very pleased.

Melanie Shebel

tags every known professor on Chem.SE

orthocresol

@MelanieShebel no, it's not true, I was being facetious

Melanie Shebel

01:50

It's sort of true.

But then they never come back and then become old users with 1 rep.

heather

ack, got the cursed edit backlog again

orthocresol

Then again, we cannot do anything about such people; they come here and see that it is a place to ask chemistry questions, so they think that they can ask homework here.

I think about this quite a lot, since I despise seeing the front page flooded with low-quality Q's.

heather

i think many of the science/math sites have the same problem

math.se has embraced homework

orthocresol

Yeah, and I think it is something that will always stay, unless...

heather

unless?

orthocresol

01:52

I think the only real way to discourage such questions is for people to submit enough high-quality Q's, so that when somebody visits this site and sees the average quality of stuff, they will realise "oh, this isn't the place for me to dump my homework".

Melanie Shebel

I feel like this question is really specific.

2

Q: Why do cookies prevent toothpaste from foaming?

If I eat cookies and subsequently brush my teeth such that there is still small amounts of cookie material stuck to my teeth, the toothpaste will not foam as well as usually, making the process less enjoyable. This effect is consistently reproducible with most (sweet) cookies but any not other fo...

organic-chemistry food-chemistry cleaning applied-chemistry

pentavalentcarbon

We are fantastically bad at self-answers.

That's gross.

Melanie Shebel

Yeah, I think so.

orthocresol

Not only that; the other thing that I feel discourages people from asking questions here is that the high-level ones often go unanswered.

The really interesting ones, that is.

I'm not even talking about my own questions, because those are probably mildly interesting, but nowhere on the level of the sort of Q a PhD might ask.

I feel that it is improving, slowly. But smart people will come and go.

pentavalentcarbon

And you already know why those kinds of questions aren't asked here.

heather

01:55

i'm kind of sad this hasn't been answered yet.

orthocresol

@pentavalentcarbon Why not?

Melanie Shebel

Or questions that require really intense answers like this: chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/40612/…

+8 is hardly enough for the ChemDraw effort!

There are a lot of really cool questions that don't have answers. They'll be bountied, but still get no answers.

Does anyone know the stats on what time of year gets the most answers?

pentavalentcarbon

@orthocresol It's in the "job description" to do your best in finding out the answer on your own. You learn more that way. Especially so because those questions are likely within your personal "research wheelhouse".

orthocresol

@MelanieShebel Winterbash.

pentavalentcarbon

If I absolutely needed an answer to a question, I wouldn't ask it here.

Melanie Shebel

01:58

A professor and I were talking that they schedule ACS national meetings at literally the worst time of the year for anyone in academia... nearish to the end of the schoolyear and at the very beginning of the semester.

orthocresol

Not even kidding, I just checked the stats, and there is a huge peak in late Dec-early Jan.

@pentavalentcarbon Oh, yes. I agree.

Melanie Shebel

I wonder if ACS meetings give us a lot of questions.

orthocresol

get out of here with your US-centrism

Melanie Shebel

I would totally sit at a Chem.SE booth if they paid for me to go, haha!

Well, it's a HUGE meeting!

orthocresol

Everybody knows this place is dominated by germans and indians

Melanie Shebel

01:59

I imaging the Royal Society's is enormous too!

imagine*

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