Spring Cleaning

07:00

@orthocresol Well, I failed to make it clear after all. It wasn't just the votes of the other answers. After I posted my message: Please don't use effort as a reason, the transcript of reasons shows that this was entirely ignored. Only one of the reasons posted actually looked like I would like them to be.

@hBy2Py I never tried to be any particular way about the HW reason. I just never liked how it was used as a proxy for 'meh. I don't want that here'. I don't find our current policy post especially helpful for someone who wishes to improve h{er..is} post. The wording is just very formal and it doesn't actually suggest a good strategy to get an answer. It obviously also does not deal with check-my-work kind of questions.

I think that many questions here that are not very well received are simply lacking context and sometimes strategy - in a few cases up to a point where it is borderline clear what the Op actually wants to know. I'd like to change that, but I don't really know how. A generic meta post on how to improve a question, would maybe help. That's a lot of work though...

And some of the very basic questions get closed as HW simply because of the sentiment I don't want that here, and I regret reading it. But that is not a good enough reason to close it. And it draws more attention to the question than actually necessary.

Also the conceptual question criterion is nothing I simply invented, it already is in the current HW policy. We just don't use it as a reason to close the question...

orthocresol

@Martin-マーチン on top of that, it still encourages hint-answers:

> Watch out for answers that provide a full solution. Downvote, comment, flag.

Martin - マーチン

Yes, I dislike this very, very much, too.

Hint answers are maybe helpful in the short time, but not at all in building a concise q&a

orthocresol

07:17

Therefore, I always feel uncomfortable linking to this particular meta post.

@Martin-マーチン Yeah, I think so too, but I guess there is a reason why nobody has ever started such a post.

Martin - マーチン

I guess we'll give it the summer and then discuss it when the new semester starts and views and question go through the roof

I'm busy travelling anyways, so this is going to be my personal down-time

orthocresol

Mm, ok. I guess we are not going to die if the homework policy remains in place.

But I am going to stop using the closehammer on HW, make the community work for it...

Martin - マーチン

yeah, it worked for 5 years ;)

good choice. One thing I learned from the experiement

orthocresol

And maybe they will have a chance to think about it and take responsibility for their actions.

Is this worth nuking, actually?

-2

Q: Equilibrium of liquid-vapour at boiling point; which is equal, kinetic or potential energy?

A liquid is in equilibrium with its vapor at boiling point. On average do the molecules in the two phases have equal potential energy or equal kinetic energy? Why? I can't really decide between KE and PE. Please help!

Let's just say, OP isn't going to be back for a while...

And @hBy2Py posted a non-answer.

$\Large\textbf{ಠ_ಠ}$

Martin - マーチン

07:47

I'm looking forward to the day he returns O.o

@orthocresol I've never gotten a notification of a comment on a deleted post of mine before. chemistry.stackexchange.com/a/77214/4945

orthocresol

I wonder if he will return, actually. That guy always claimed he wanted to do maths, and from what I remember, he should be done with chemistry by now. So if he has no reason to do chemistry, hopefully he won't be back.

I got one comment on a deleted post once, from jonsca. That was really odd on mobile.

Basically you click on the notification but it doesn't bring you anywhere.

Martin - マーチン

haha... yes I got your comment while I was outside having coffee and cigarettes... and there was nothing in the app :D

hBy2Py

10:55

@orthocresol Haha - in my defense, that was long ago, when hint-answers were still in vogue...

@Martin-マーチン <nod>, my suspicions shrank as my understanding of your position slowly improved.

hBy2Py

11:19

More than anything, I think I was feeling what some site members probably do still: "No! I can't stand these questions! Don't take away my tool for doing away with them!"

I had to overcome my emotional distaste for the perceived disrespect of the OPs, and consider the questions from a more content-centric angle.

4

This, I think, is one of the reasons this has been so difficult.

(Probably this is not a new insight, but whatever.)

orthocresol

12:16

I don't know why that was starred, but I'm going to star that.

And yeah, I agree. I think there has to be some sort of detachment. Neither you, nor I, can control beforehand whether people post homework questions or not. So why get agitated over it?

hBy2Py

15:09

@orthocresol Yep.

I think most of the agitation stems from a feeling either of (A) "this person is trying to cheat on their homework" or (B) "this person is too lazy to do their own research"

A good first response is, "Ok, I'm not going to participate in that."

The problem is, the next reaction is, "... and I don't want anybody else to enable this sort of behavior either!!!"

Thus, perhaps, the urge to close such questions, rather than just downvoting and moving on.

(@Mart, you may be interested in ^ too.)

orthocresol

I guess it was well-intentioned. You hold some ideals about how people should study, etc. so you want to help others to learn better.

Which is all fine, but I just don't feel like it's our role to be doing that.

Some people think it is, though:

> Science is basically based on making a lot of efforts in solving problems when facing them and we have to encourage that.

hBy2Py

15:29

@ortho Unrelated: does Roomba operate on Chem.Meta.SE, too?

orthocresol

No clue.

hBy2Py

I guess this was closed as dupe, and those stay around:

0

Q: Meta: Blocked from answering

If my edits are accepted (cf Does 11.2 dm3 of nitrogen consist of 0.5 moles at STP? ), thanks Santiago; why do I get the error message that "We are no longer accepting answers from this account. See the Help Center to learn more." None of my edits have been reverted, as far as I can tell.

discussion answers

orthocresol

Yes, it does.

10k only: chemistry.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3754/…

Roomba doesn't get rid of dupes, I presume because someone using different search terms might find them.

hBy2Py

Unh. Actually, given how the meaning of downvotes differs from main sites -- maybe Roomba shouldn't operate on metas...?

Or... at least, it shouldn't Roomba up downvoted questions with no upvoted answers...

orthocresol

I assume that if there was a really bad suggestion, someone would have an upvoted answer saying "this sucks". That prevents autodeletion

Just like nearly every post on meta.se that the regulars don't agree with.

hBy2Py

15:34

Yeah. Probably there are few enough cases that it's not worth the coding effort for SE team to implement it differently.

@orthocresol <nod>

orthocresol

Now, on topic, do you want to nuke this, or do you think somebody should answer?

0

Q: Is there a convention as to what order to write reactants and products in a redox reaction?

When doing homework, it can be time-consuming to check the answers in a redox reaction due to different order of the reactants and products. For example, while $$\ce{2MnO4- + 5Fe^2+ + 16H+ -> 2Mn^2+ + 5Fe^3+ + 8H2O}$$ and $$\ce{5Fe^2+ + 16H+ + 2MnO4- -> 5Fe^3+ + 8H2O + 2Mn^2+ }$$ are equivalent,...

homework redox

There's a slight problem with answering it:

hBy2Py

boggle

orthocresol

I think, actually, it is ok to keep around.

hBy2Py

There is a nugget of a useful question in there.

Even if it stemmed from someone trying to skirt the painful work of doing grading properly.

Tagging that thing... redox is fine, but it needs something else... but what?

conventions would actually be the most relevant thing, probably

But that doesn't exist. terminology?

orthocresol

I'd just broaden it to all reactions, actually.

hBy2Py

15:42

Not really a good fit

orthocresol

I think notation.

hBy2Py

Ah, <nod>, that's good

orthocresol

How about reaction?

Oh... wait...

hBy2Py

Hehe, I was going to make that joke, but I got distracted watching you apply your edits. :-P

orthocresol

It was low-hanging fruit.

hBy2Py

15:47

You know about the [tag:tagname] syntax, right?

And [meta-tag:metatag]?

featured

orthocresol

Yeah, I'm just too lazy to type n more characters.

:)

hBy2Py

but [meta-tag:it's] so cooooooool how it auto-links

orthocresol

Well I should have anticipated that...

oops...

hBy2Py

it-is

Wild - when I tried to edit, I could only edit my original version, not what you'd added

Sneaky mod powers, indeed.

Martin - マーチン

16:18

@hBy2Py egg-zag-lee

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