Meta Matters

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5:33 PM

@TristanMaxson Hi Tristan, I remember you once suggested that we post questions and self-answer, to build content that's searchable, which would in turn attract more visitors to the site. It seems that a user's now started to do it quite frequently, and I wonder how you feel about it?

Q: How can I increase the default maximum limit on step size for convergence in quantum ESPRESSO?

When trying to manually optimise the geometry of the crystal, I've faced an issue wherein the code stopped the convergence process after just 100 steps (which was the default maximum). Is there a way to increase this?

Tristan Maxson

6:13 PM

@NikeDattani I think in that case its okay, maybe. I think the reddit style rule of 10% self post, 90% other post is applicable here.

When doing a quick google search for that topic, I don't get an immediate answer so maybe it will be useful.

I do think we have to be cautious about this though.

I would say though, not all self answered questions are made equal.

Nike Dattani

@TristanMaxson Okay. The user did it at least 3 times within a short period of time. Thomas wrote to me about it this morning. Perhaps these could be made community wiki so that the user doesn't gain reputation from doing it, but I'm not 100% sure what would be best

on one hand we want people participating.

and we want more content

Tristan Maxson

I think in the long term, it won't harm anything to allow it

Nike Dattani

do we want people posting quality material for a quick gain in reputation? maybe not, but new users do have a disadvantage because upvoting decreased over time (not by me, I still upvote almost everything).

Tristan Maxson

Without it being asked and answered at a different time, its unlikely to get a lot of exposure so asking good thoughtful questions will always be better for reputation.

Nike Dattani

@TristanMaxson I think we do want limits though... we don't want someone filling up the whole site with low-quality material.

Tristan Maxson

6:19 PM

I do agree! Maybe when people do it more excessively (more than occasionally) we should make a comment to them that they should give others time to respond first.

Nike Dattani

@TristanMaxson How much is excessive?

Tristan Maxson

@NikeDattani I would personally say it depends on the user. If they are frequently posting high quality answers to other's questions, then the occasional immediate answer for an important topic is okay.

But if half their activity is self QA, then there is a problem

Nike Dattani

"half" means 50% can be self QA?

Tristan Maxson

I am unsure where to draw the line on it.

Maybe asking in another community would be helpful to see their opinion

I have also noticed there are a lot of users that like to ask but not to answer. I feel that on a user by user basis people will just prefer different approaches to this site. Maybe for self QA posts where the answer comes essentially immediately, we can convert the answer to community wiki as a policy so that users do not double dip for reputation. This is likely a meta question of its own, I wouldn't want to be speaking for everyone.

Nike Dattani

@TristanMaxson I like the idea of making the answer a community wiki.

I was thinking of making both the question and answer a community wiki, but I think your idea is better.

Tristan Maxson

6:33 PM

I considered the other way around as well, but the answer is the less important part to a good self QA I think.

Since if things get really good answers from others, the question will also get more visibility.

Feeds

7:24 PM

Q: We've recently had questions answered immediately by the same user, shall the answer be made a community wiki as a policy in such cases?

The topic of self-answering questions immediately is a complex one. On one hand we do not want to fill up the site with low-quality material by people hungry for raising their reputation. On the other hand, new users have a disadvantage because people have reduced their upvoting frequency (not me...