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1	<p>I would like to open the meta discussion on the criteria for closing. I think we should be a little more open than the rest of the SE community when it comes to questions that are </p> <ul> <li><strong>Localized</strong>: academics travel a lot. Something that is localized today may not be localized for us tomorrow. I worked in 7 different countries since I started and I am still not done.</li> <li><strong>"List-like" or "opinionated"</strong>: there are topics that may involve a list of options, and often, academia is not a "this way" kind of answers. Occasionally, there may be things that you have to agglomerate from different sources, in order to get a "better strategy". I am thinking, for example, about best practices for visas, which may favor different inputs from different people having different backgrounds. The "correct" answer may come from someone that is unmarried, and another answer from someone that is married. The first answer may not be useful to a future reader, but the second one will. It's the usual "bad subjective/good subjective" I think.</li> </ul> <p>Opinions? </p>	[ { "answer_id": 20279, "author": "agarza", "author_id": 23193, "author_profile": "https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/23193", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The recommended hardware for OctoPi is <a href=\"https://octoprint.org/download/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"...	2012/02/14	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/5/" ]
8	<p>In reference to <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/49/what-are-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-being-a-professor">this question</a> about being a professor, this is impossible to answer within the context of how SE wants us to answer questions. There's no definite answer, and even more so, there's no "right" answer. That being said, the question is valid, and probably fairly common. Should we allow that sort of question here?</p>	[ { "answer_id": 9, "author": "dmahr", "author_id": 37, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/37", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Based on the <a href=\"http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/16617?phase=definition\">example questions asked in th...	2012/02/15	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/8", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]
12	<p>This particular SE has the significant problem that many answers will be "soft" in nature; there's no real literature on much of this, making many questions answerable only through "in my experience..." answers. <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/90/73">This answer</a> is a fine example of this... the answer may be correct, but only for a certain subset of the interested population, and there may not even <em>be</em> a "definitively correct" answer. That last point is the major problem... many of these questions will not have a definitive answer, but the "soft" answers will often do the job of addressing the question. <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/39/73">This question about seminar attendance</a> is similar... there's no real answer, but there are a few conjecture-type answers that seem to satisfactorily address the question. </p> <p>So, how should we deal with "soft" answers to questions that demand them?</p>	[ { "answer_id": 13, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I know I'm answering my own question, but I want to put forth the argument that <strong>these style answers should ...	2012/02/15	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/12", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]
17	<p>By looking at the site today, it seems that "higher education" is an euphemism for "doctorate". The definition stage however doesn't imply that (<a href="http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/16617/academia/16618#16618">1</a> <a href="http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/16617/academia/16618#16618">2</a> <a href="http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/16617/academia/22982#22982">3</a>...)</p> <p>Is Academia only about PhD, postdoc and teaching positions? Are questions about Master's, Bachelor's, High School etc. off-topic?</p>	[ { "answer_id": 18, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would not define \"higher education\" as including high school. The usual definition includes college and above ...	2012/02/15	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/17", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/24/" ]
21	<p>Based on my answer in <a href="https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/13/73">this question</a>, I propose that we modify the tag placeholder text (currently "at least one tag (graduate-school note-taking science), max 5 tags") to strongly encourage the poster to provide a tag identifying the field of research being discussed:</p> <blockquote> <p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/FP3rz.png" alt="proposed text: "must include field of research (american-history mechanical-engineering), up to four other relevant tags""></p> </blockquote> <p>The proposed text is:</p> <blockquote> <p>must include field of research (american-history mechanical-engineering), max 5 tags</p> </blockquote> <p>My rationale for this change is that if the poster does not provide the field of research, 9 times out of 10 they will be asked for it in the comments immediately after posting. If they don't, then 9 times out of 10 the answer they receive will be too broad to actually help them. (I'm noticing that most people - myself included - don't realize how many fields of research there are.)</p>	[ { "answer_id": 28, "author": "Andy W", "author_id": 3, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/3", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>While the experience of individuals will be mostly limited to one particular field and likely a specific geographic are...	2012/02/16	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/21", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]
23	<p>I would vouch for accommodation questions to be on-topic, as long as they are clearly focused for academic hosting (that is, "Channels for accommodation for 6 months at VU-Amsterdam" is on-topic, "Looking for accommodation in Centralia, Pennsylvania" is not). Also, direct "Does anybody here have a room available from/to? write me at" are completely off-topic.</p> <p>The focus is to give <em>tools</em>, not <em>solutions</em> to the problem. The tools will stay valid and useful to other readers in the future. The "I have a room, write me" will not.</p> <p>The reason is that relocation and quick finding of accommodation channels for short term rentals is a complete and necessary part of the academic lifestyle. Very, very often, the universities provide little or no facilities or preferred contacts for such task. Networking, unknown but dedicated services, local traditions, safest channels (e.g. commercial vs. private) on this regard is a necessity we have to endure as much as we have to endure applying for grants. </p>	[ { "answer_id": 27, "author": "Henry", "author_id": 8, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/8", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There's a narrow line between \"how does a person find short-term housing near such-and-such university\" and \"does an...	2012/02/16	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/23", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/5/" ]
24	<p>This site should be pretty easy to publicize; simply post flyers around the various departments. Would someone with design skills be willing to throw together a flyer to be around the various campuses by Academia SE users?</p>	[ { "answer_id": 33, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I have some design skills. I suggest that people should think of (and post as answers) some things that could be ...	2012/02/16	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/24", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]
36	<p>In order to promote the site, it would be good to post a notification on some of the existing online forums where academics congregate.</p> <ul> <li>What online forums exist?</li> </ul> <p>As side points</p> <ul> <li>What community does the forum contain? How big is the community?</li> <li>What rules exist regarding promoting other site in the community?</li> </ul> <p>By way of example: </p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/AcademicPsychology/" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/AcademicPsychology/</a> contains almost 2000 subscribers; Reddit permits posting links; links that the community likes get upvoted and then receive greater exposure.</li> </ul>	[ { "answer_id": 43, "author": "InquilineKea", "author_id": 77, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/77", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.physicsforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=139\" rel=\"nofollow\">Physics Forums</a>. Ch...	2012/02/21	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/36", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/62/" ]
39	<p>We have a new user who is being more disruptive than helpful:</p> <p><a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/323/what-makes-an-undergradute-in-computer-science-with-a-1-2-degree-more-employable">First question</a></p> <p>The initial question was not ideal for SE, so people voted it down and to close it. That sparked outrage and:</p> <p><a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/339/use-of-stackexchange-looking-for-answer">Second "question," closer to a rant</a></p> <p>What is supposed to be done about users doing this? Are they supposed to be flagged as spammers? Is something else supposed to be done about that?</p>	[ { "answer_id": 40, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It's a good question, I was also wondering what one can do. In my experience on some forums, the best to do is us...	2012/02/22	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/39", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53/" ]
45	<p>I'm wondering whether we should loosen the criterion for "too localized" in this forum. My intuition is that many questions on this forum will be very localized, but the answers will be more general in nature. For instance, <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/363/career-advice-for-a-recent-social-psychology-graduate">this question</a> about social psychology + art seems very localized, but the answers will probably be relevant to both social psychology <em>and</em> art majors, rather than only the intersection of the two. I think this will be a common phenomenon. In fact, I can't really think up with a good case of "too localized" for our forum. <strong>Should we avoid closing questions as "too localized" at all?</strong></p>	[ { "answer_id": 47, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>In my mind, it should at least be possible for someone searching the site a month from now to find it helpful. It's...	2012/02/22	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/45", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]
55	<p>When I saw this new StackExchange site, it first reminded me a lot of a tool that's being used in an increasing number of college-level courses called <a href="https://piazza.com/" rel="nofollow">Piazza</a>. Each "instance" of Piazza is a single semester of a single course offered at a university where students can ask questions and other students (or the course instructor) can create a "wiki-style" answer.</p> <p>Having been a user of it for a year, it has some terrible shortcomings (questions are sorted only by the date their originally posted, making useful threads terribly difficult to find; formatting of posts are limited to a small set of HTML; etc) that StackExchange has usually found elegant solutions.</p> <p>This may be the wrong place to start this discussion, though it would be great to see StackExchange offer a service as a Piazza alternative. It would seem the current Academia software already exceeds the functionality of Piazza, it would simply need to be instanced for courses to have the ability to adopt it. Is this something we could expect in the future?</p>	[ { "answer_id": 47, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>In my mind, it should at least be possible for someone searching the site a month from now to find it helpful. It's...	2012/02/24	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/55", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/260/" ]
60	<p>I was wondering whether we should allow questions about academics searching for industry positions. <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/441/what-opportunities-exist-in-the-industry-for-a-researcher-in-computational-astro">This question on jobs outside of academia</a> was closed, based on our brand-new FAQ, but I thought the question was a good one. <strong>Do we want to allow those sorts of questions here?</strong> This would include questions about...</p> <ul> <li>Which industries may be a good match for a particular field of researchers</li> <li>Networking with industry while in academia</li> <li>Any questions from non-research master's students</li> </ul> <p>I personally (and quite biased-ly) feel that this is relevant to academicians, as the move from research to industry is quite common, and it is something many academicians will want to know about. What's your thoughts?</p>	[ { "answer_id": 62, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Certainly not. There's a risk as it is that there are several posters treating this site as a careers advice forum...	2012/02/26	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/60", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]
64	<p>I've noticed that it's only possible to mention another SE user using the "@" symbol in a comment thread where the user appears, and I was wondering if it was a feature or a bug. In particular, I couldn't find any easy to refer to another member, or just to draw the attention of another member to a particular question. Similarly, on <a href="https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/51/proposed-faq-what-kind-of-questions-should-i-not-ask-here-entry">this question</a>, eykanal mentioned my name in a comment, but I didn't receive any message, although I would have liked to. </p> <p>I know that the point of SE is not to create a mail platform, and clearly there should be some kind of regulations, but I wouldn't mind indicating a list of users who can "refer" me (or say, put a default level of reputation), so that I don't miss out a potentially interesting question. </p> <p>I don't know if such a mechanism already exists, but somehow it could be nice (with an opt-in mechanism, so that by default, nobody can refer to you). </p>	[ { "answer_id": 65, "author": "Adam Lear", "author_id": 23, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>There are no plans right now to introduce any sort of notification feature along these lines. Stack Exchange is by...	2012/02/26	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/64", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]
72	<p>Many of the current answers begin with "It depends on your field" / "There is no one answer". Indeed, each field is unique, although they share common grounds.</p> <p>For questions that depend on the specific field, I would expect to see <strong>many</strong> answers, each for its own field, rather than having an answer that says "it varies" and that only gives a brief description of the common grounds.</p> <p>For instance, for the question</p> <blockquote> <p>Should I publish my recent result in a journal or a conference?</p> </blockquote> <p>I would expect to see</p> <ul> <li><strong>Anser A</strong>: "In CS, conferences are very important and you should publish there (and then submit the ful version to a journal"</li> <li><strong>Answer B</strong>: "In our field, , there are no serious conferences, thus one should aim for journals..."</li> </ul> <p>(see also <a href="https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/58/including-country-region-and-discipline-in-qa-for-which-it-is-relevant">this related question</a>)</p> <p>Do you agree with this paradigm? How do we lead the community to avoid "it depends on your field" kind of answers and replace them with "In field XXXX, the answer is.."?</p>	[ { "answer_id": 191, "author": "userJT", "author_id": 1537, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1537", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think we should allow domain specific questions and cultivate domains within this server. </p>\n\n<p>we shoul...	2012/03/04	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/72", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/324/" ]
73	<p>I'm relatively new to Stack Exchange, so I'm not sure if there is a universal policy for closing questions across sites. But I've noticed here that there are questions with low or negative scores or questions that are similar to ones asked and answered before, and they're left hanging on the front page. Turnover seems slow compared to other SE sites. </p> <p>I just wanted to put this out for discussion, I don't have a terribly strong opinion about it either way. </p>	[ { "answer_id": 74, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It's a good remark. In general, I think it can be good to leave the time for the OP to reformulate the question b...	2012/03/06	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/73", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/167/" ]
83	<p>Since we're about two weeks into the public beta now, I would think that it would be time to start considering adding more moderators (right now, I believe Anna is the only moderator, and she's with SE, as opposed to being a member-moderator.</p> <p>Is it time to begin the process of adding <a href="http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/07/moderator-pro-tempore/"><em>pro tempore</em> moderators</a>? I think it would help improve board "flow", and keep things moving in a more productive direction.</p>	[ { "answer_id": 84, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>Yes</strong>. This community, while still small, has had it's share of low-quality questions and trolls, an...	2012/03/07	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/83", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53/" ]
94	<p>How can we fix <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/842/should-a-postdoc-obey-when-is-asked-to-do-things-she-knows-little-about">this question</a> to be more focused on helping postdocs and less argumentative and provocative?</p>	[ { "answer_id": 84, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>Yes</strong>. This community, while still small, has had it's share of low-quality questions and trolls, an...	2012/03/23	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/94", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]
99	<p>I note that this question implicitly prefers questions with a general topic but in fact very localized content (one's life story + a question of type 'What should I do?').</p> <p>For example, one I asked a general question (i.e. if one can use his/her personal e-mail instead of institutional) then it was pointed out that in fact there were such question before (as a side part of a compound/story type question). </p> <p>AFAIK it is not a good practice for a SE site.</p> <p>First, it makes things less reusable. </p> <ul> <li>An answered question makes less sense to others.</li> <li>It is harder to find.</li> </ul> <p>Second, it makes harder to make meaningful answers.</p> <ul> <li>If there are more subquestions and answer covering only some may be accepted.</li> <li>As a specific context is given, the answer may not be true in a more general one.</li> </ul>	[ { "answer_id": 84, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>Yes</strong>. This community, while still small, has had it's share of low-quality questions and trolls, an...	2012/03/27	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/99", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/49/" ]
111	<p>We've had a couple questions since the dawn of Academia.SE asking for advice about undergraduate-related topics, the most recent being <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/1407/73">this well-formulated and generally pretty solid question</a>. In the past, we've <a href="https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/38/73">discouraged these kinds of questions</a>. That was a while ago, though, and we've matured as a forum since then. Given how many upvotes the current question has received in such a short time, I'm curious what the community's current view is on undergraduate-related questions; should we continue to discourage them or should we allow them?</p>	[ { "answer_id": 112, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You make a good point. For me, what I really want to avoid, are questions like: \"I like this and that, what pro...	2012/05/04	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/111", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]
115	<p>I would love to ask a question on the tenure system that is in vogue in US. I see a few publications in Google, and also a few blog posts talking about the pros and cons of the system. </p> <p>I wish to know the following:</p> <ul> <li>Is the tenure system efficient as such?</li> <li>Is it likely/probable/possible that it will get overhauled in the near/far future?</li> <li>Why do we not have an annual incentive-based system (or something similar) instead of tenure? </li> <li>Are there universities which have begun to do away with tenure already?</li> </ul> <p>I am a bit doubtful if these questions are permissible or if they belong to community-wiki or if they belong at all. Most importantly I am afraid the answers may result in camps of people. Any idea how I should approach this? Thanks :)</p> <p>PS: First post in meta, excuse me if I am not supposed to ask this here.</p>	[ { "answer_id": 116, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think that all of this discussion will fit in very well into most academic discussion forums. It's a discussion...	2012/05/08	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/115", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/411/" ]
118	<p>I was looking over our stats on area 51, and we're doing poorly on two counts: #questions/day and number of visits. I'm more concerned about the latter than the former for now (because fixing the latter will probably fix the former). </p> <p>I was hoping this could become an open thread for ideas on how to boost the visit numbers, so we don't go the way of econ.SE and theoreticalphysics.SE. </p>	[ { "answer_id": 119, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It's a good question, I've been also wondering what we could do about increasing the number of visits. We've had...	2012/05/10	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/118", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/346/" ]
123	<p>You love your site and we love your site, but there is a whole world of people out there who might not even know it exists. When they do find it, their first impression will either scare them away or keep them around. Given this, let's take a hard look at the questions and answers here and make sure newcomers see the site at its best!</p> <p>Below you'll find ten questions randomly selected from this site. What do you think about each of them and their answers? Are they the best they can be or can they be improved? Would they look interesting and inviting to an outsider or are they a little embarrassing?</p> <p>Upvote the corresponding post here on meta when we're awesome. Downvote when our content just isn't quite up to par.</p> <p>Oh, and do comment to let everyone know your thoughts and take part in this conversation. :)</p>	[ { "answer_id": 124, "author": "Adam Lear", "author_id": 23, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1051/what-do-principal-investigators-pis-look-for-in-pros...	2012/05/24	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/123", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23/" ]
138	<p>I've noticed that many of the <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/review/first-posts">recent questions asked by newcomers to the site</a> are low quality and/or off-topic, dealing with "what's the best university for discipline X?" and "how can I get into field/program X"? On a similarly worrying note, there have not been any new users asking more academic-related questions, such as those asked by site regulars. To me, this suggests that we are attracting the wrong kinds of users, and we are <em>not</em> attracting the kinds of users we want. My interpretation of the data is that we are attracting typical SO users, who make up a very diverse (and typically non-academic) population, and we are not marketing this site well enough to the general academic crowd.</p> <p>My question is, what do you think of this? Do you agree? If so, what should we do to fix this? If you disagree, what do you make of the trend?</p> <hr /> <p>In response to the comment below:</p> <ol> <li><p><strong><a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1884/what-academic-discipline-does-productivity-science-come-under">What academic discipline does “Productivity Science” come under?</a></strong></p> <p>This question is completely unrelated to Academia and is unlikely to benefit any future readers of this site.</p> </li> <li><p><strong><a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1992/how-can-i-make-up-for-weak-grades-while-applying-for-a-masters">How can I make up for weak grades while applying for a masters?</a></strong></p> <p>This question is almost impossible to answer. Sure, it's common, but there are far too many factors for a definitive answer.</p> </li> <li><p><strong><a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1989/part-time-non-degree-computer-science-studies">Part-time/non-degree computer science studies</a></strong></p> <p>Off-topic, as it pertains to undergraduate work.</p> </li> <li><p><strong><a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1987/how-to-get-enrolled-in-a-german-university-for-ph-d-in-computer-science">How to get enrolled in a German university for Ph.D. in computer science</a></strong></p> <p>This type of question is the most dangerous, because the information is freely available on department pages of individual programs. Many questions like this here will significantly decrease the value of this site, as all answers will be "check <a href="http://example.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this</a> link" and "-1, check department webpage".</p> </li> </ol> <p>We have had some very good questions recently (e.g., <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2067/paper-reprints-of-articles">this</a>, <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1999/how-does-a-faculty-member-get-to-work-at-two-universities-or-more">this</a>, and <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/849/can-i-pursue-a-phd-while-working-as-an-instructor-lecturer">this</a>), but of those three, two were asked by "old" site members, while only one was a newbie. My main worry is that new folks are viewing the site differently than we are, and that the way they're viewing it isn't good for our long-term health.</p>	[ { "answer_id": 139, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I agree that there has been several low quality questions recently, but I guess it's a combination between the f...	2012/06/12	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/138", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]
144	<p>Well this question is bound to be controversial. What should we do?</p> <p><a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/2113/319">What is being done to make the academic environment more women friendly?</a></p>	[ { "answer_id": 145, "author": "Suresh", "author_id": 346, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/346", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>My feeling (mentioned in comments) is that the second part of the question (asking for references to work studyin...	2012/06/24	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/144", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/319/" ]
149	<p>As a followup to DQdlM's <a href="https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/104/are-questions-on-pedagogy-on-topic">question about pedagogy</a>, are questions about student recruitment, success, or retention on topic even if they are not related to curriculum development or instructional design?</p> <p>For example:<br> My institution does a little general recruitment. Most recruitment is handled in the academic departments. I am not a college recruiter. I assume that research has been done on targeting and recruiting students who are likely to be successful, but since my research background is in chemistry, I do not even know where to begin looking for this kind of information. Would a question on locating resources on recruiting undergraduate students be on-topic?</p>	[ { "answer_id": 150, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would definitely imagine this is on-topic. It's related to academia and specific to academics. I would suggest t...	2012/06/27	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/149", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/924/" ]
152	<p>I've just been to the stats of travel.SE and I found their stats phenomenally better than ours. While 8 questions and 1800 visits per day is excellent, I do think that some part of this has to do with the objective of the site: academia is much more exclusive than travel; in other words, all academics can have travel queries at some point of time, but some or many travellers may never get academia-related queries.</p> <p>This is the basis of my question: how sound is it to judge different SE sites based on the same set of criteria? Should A.SE shoot for the same targets as others?</p>	[ { "answer_id": 153, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>According to the SE \"targets\" A.SE is currently weak in questions per day (4.6/15) and visits per day (448/1...	2012/07/04	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/152", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/411/" ]
157	<p>In this <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/2545/929">answer</a>, the user has decided to provide a evidence for what makes him qualified for answering the question. While I can see it as potentially useful, I am not sure it is needed or desirable. Has the practice of prefacing answers with qualifications been discussed?</p> <p>My concern is that providing qualifications could intimidate junior people. It seems like such statements are saying "I am so important that my answers should be given extra weight". I think our site rep (and past question/answers) should give the indication of the type of person who submitted the answer and how much extra weight the answer should be given (if any).</p>	[ { "answer_id": 158, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think that for this particular answer, it's quite similar to many other ones, where the answerer starts with \...	2012/07/23	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/157", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929/" ]
163	<p>I was going to ask a question about graduation and I didn't find the tag I was looking for. I was thinking that an "events" tag would be useful for questions about different events that academics go to (e.g., graduation, new student invocation, thesis defenses, fund raising).</p> <p><strong>EDIT</strong> In response to aeismail's answer, I am thinking of questions more from the faculty side of these events and not the student side, although student side questions would also work. For example a question about etiquette when walking in the graduation procession as a member of faculty.</p> <p>What do people think about an EVENTS tag with a description of</p> <blockquote> <p>about what can be expected of and by attendees at different academic events including graduation, thesis defenses, and tenure review meetings.</p> </blockquote>	[ { "answer_id": 164, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Perhaps \"milestones\" is a more appropriate tag than \"events?\" It's a better descriptor, at any rate. \"Events...	2012/08/03	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/163", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929/" ]
168	<p>I am thinking specifically of <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2772/are-there-any-specific-teaching-techniques-to-handle-virtual-classroom-session#comment4504_2772">this question</a>, where my answer would be wholly different based on the type of virtual teaching environment. I would like to provide separate answers for each environment so that they can be evaluated (and voted on) separately. Some answers may be more useful than others. </p> <p>I know that I have the ability to provide more than one answer to a question. If the two answers are substantively different, is that preferable to a single long, rambling answer of the type "In situation A, do this, ............ and in situation B..... this other thing"?</p>	[ { "answer_id": 670, "author": "Hesham ELMAHDY", "author_id": 9033, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/9033", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The vote is done to the answer as a whole. You would probably get higher votes for a more complete answ...	2012/08/12	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/168", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/924/" ]
171	<p>I know that the site stats (on the left side of the front page) include visitors/day. I'm guessing that is averaged over some time frame. Is there a place that I can see the number of visitors on each particular day?</p>	[ { "answer_id": 172, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Unfortunately, they don't make that data public. The number you see is pretty good for gauging trends, though. </p...	2012/08/23	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/171", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1069/" ]
174	<p>Are questions on software on topic?</p> <p>This question on <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3054/openoffice-vs-libreoffice-vs-msoffice-for-academic-writing">writing software</a> seems almost identical to questions on <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1880/software-to-use-for-creating-posters-for-academic-conferences">poster</a>, <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1095/software-to-draw-illustrative-figures-in-papers">illustration</a>, <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1085/software-app-for-electronic-research-notebooks">notebook</a>, <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36/how-do-the-various-citations-management-software-programs-compare">citation</a>, and <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1098/what-are-the-most-common-types-of-software-used-for-data-analysis-by-scientific">data analysis</a> software. The citation and data analysis questions were closed. All but the data analysis questions are highly voted.</p>	[ { "answer_id": 175, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As I stated <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/2993/73\">here</a>, I think software questions are defi...	2012/08/31	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/174", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/929/" ]
180	<p>In <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3086/opportunities-in-industry-after-a-phd-in-organic-chemistry">this question</a>, the OP wants to know the opportunities in industrial R&D after a PhD in organic chemistry. In general, industry vacancies and requirements do not have anything to do with academia, so Charles has rightly cast his vote to close the question.</p> <p>But on a previous date, we have enthusiastically answered <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/96/what-kind-of-opportunities-exist-in-the-industry-for-someone-with-a-ph-d-in-theo?rq=1">this question</a>, which asks almost the same question for CS. </p> <p>How do we decide if a particular question asking about industrial R&D opportunities for PhD and post-doc scholars is on-topic or not? Asking about software jobs after MS is obviously out of scope, but aren't professors in academia better informed than most about research opportunities? Shouldn't we give a concession to questions about industrial R&D after PhD/post-doc alone? </p>	[ { "answer_id": 182, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>No.</strong> Questions about careers outside academia should be off-topic.</p>\n\n<p>They're suitable to...	2012/09/05	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/180", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/411/" ]
181	<p>I saw <a href="https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/190453/is-it-morally-right-and-pedagogically-right-to-google-answers-to-homework">a question</a> on the ethic of googling one's homework. The questioner, though having posted it on Math.SE, asks about the "pedagogical" merit of doing the same. This question has been closed as <strong>not constructive</strong> on Math.SE, but many would opine it is off-topic as well.</p> <p>Does the question belong here? The way it is phrased may refer to math problems, but it is an issue that is certainly faced by most professors and students. A (kind of) compelementary question on how a professor should keep himself ahead of the homework-googling menace has been asked by Dave <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1705/setting-exercises-and-assignments-when-everything-is-on-the-web">here</a>.</p>	[ { "answer_id": 183, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Funny you bring this one up; they had asked us whether we wanted it, and I turned it down as being too pedagogical....	2012/09/05	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/181", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/411/" ]
188	<p>Are questions that are US-specific on-topic on this site? (i.e., only relevant to academia in the United States)</p> <p>(Do people want to see those kinds of questions tagged or marked in any particular way?)</p>	[ { "answer_id": 189, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Yes, these questions are fine. As of now we're not tagging these questions specifically as such; just indicate the ...	2012/09/14	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/188", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/705/" ]
201	<p>Some users create tags while adding question; some are highly useful and some are simply meaningless. Do SE have any mechanism to encourage users to add tag wiki as well, on creating tags?</p> <p>Esp. see this question <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3022/in-conference-review-process-what-do-author-response-and-author-notification">In conference review process, what do “author response” and “author notification” mean?</a> What actually the tags (<a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/tags/wording/info">wording</a>) (<a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/tags/dates/info">dates</a>) (<a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/tags/call/info">call</a>) mean?</p> <p>So, if the tag creator him(her)self propose a tag wiki, it is good for the community.</p>	[ { "answer_id": 202, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I don't think there is a way to \"encourage\" a tag creator to edit the tag wiki. However, you can retag the ques...	2012/10/02	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/201", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1580/" ]
205	<p><strong>What is this community’s take on deleting closed questions? What are the criteria for deletion?</strong></p> <p>In the past few days, I have voted on deleting some of the closed questions that seemed to have absolutely no value to the site (<a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3203/extraction-of-jpegs-of-slides-from-a-video-recording-of-a-lecture">way off-topic</a>, <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3534/need-help-working-through-the-pros-cons-of-two-schools">way too localized</a>, that kind of stuff). I do it on other sites, as part of the “janitorial” activities of high-rep users.</p> <p>The questions gathered no other delete vote, so I flagged a few others (e.g., <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1845/njit-vs-university-of-oklahoma-health-sciences-center">here</a> and <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1153/java-developer-or-sap-softwares">there</a>). The mods declined to delete, saying “there's no need to flag a question as low-quality if it's already been closed”.</p> <p>So, I wonder: does this site have a deliberate policy of not deleting these very low quality closed questions? Argument has been made in other parts of the SE network, including by the SE team itself, that deletion is the final destination of many closed questions. For example, see <a href="http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/04/the-stack-overflow-question-lifecycle/">here</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Why would you <em>delete</em> a question? Isn’t closing it enough?</p> <ul> <li>Some questions are of such poor quality that they cannot be salvaged. They’re literally nonsense. Not every byte of data that is created in the world is infinite and sacred.</li> <li>Some questions are so incredibly off topic that they add no value to a programming community.</li> <li>The mental cost of processing these closed questions is not zero, particularly for users who are actively engaged and scanning questions to find things they can help answer.</li> <li>If users see a lot of closed questions, they’ll note that we don’t enforce the guidelines, so why should they? Without any final resolution, asking questions that get closed becomes something we are implicitly encouraging — a broken windows problem. If this goes on for long enough, we’re no longer a community of programmers who ask and answer programming questions, we’re a community of random people discussing.. whatever. That’s toxic.</li> <li>If enough of these closed questions are allowed to hang around, they become clutter that reduces the overall signal to noise ratio — which further reduces confidence in the system.</li> </ul> </blockquote> <p>Or see <a href="https://softwareengineering.meta.stackexchange.com/a/4058/24799">there</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Closed questions should be kept on the site when:</p> <ol> <li>They are a duplicate of another on topic question. As there are many ways of asking the same question it's good that we have the different examples on the site.</li> <li>....</li> </ol> <p>Well that's it really.</p> </blockquote> <p>I could see no meta post on the topic, hence I create one. <strong>When does the community feel it is appropriate to delete closed questions?</strong></p>	[ { "answer_id": 206, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There are three main types of deletions that I personally have made:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https://academia.m...	2012/10/14	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/205", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700/" ]
211	<p>Following up on our recent discussion <a href="https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/205/what-should-happen-to-closed-questions">on closed questions</a>, I'm wondering if it might not be a bad idea to create a tag for closed questions. This might help us to "corral" them a bit better.</p> <p>Thoughts?</p>	[ { "answer_id": 212, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>That's a good idea, I was actually looking for a way to search only for closed questions. </p>\n\n<p>EDIT: The k...	2012/10/16	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/211", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53/" ]
215	<p>There has been some discussion recently here about deletion. What I could suggest, in order to avoid having one question here for each content we might want to delete, is to post as an answer to this question any other questions, answer or comment one would like to delete.</p> <p><strong>If you have at least 2000 reputation</strong>, you can directly vote on posts for deletion: please do so as appropriate. You will also be able to see <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/tools?tab=delete&daterange=last30days">recent posts that have accrued some delete votes</a>: click on the <code>most votes</code> and <code>recent votes</code> headings to see them all.</p> <p><strong>If you do not have at least 2000 reputation</strong>, then please vote on the proposed deletions below: An upvote on the answer means that the post should be deleted, a negative one means that the post shouldn't. All comments are welcome. By default, if after a few days, there has not been any comment <em>against</em> deletion, the post will be deleted. </p> <p>What do you think of such a process? It can also allow to keep track of the deletion, and the reason pro/against. Furthermore, it would move some parts of the deletion discussion from the hidden mod room to a more open space. </p> <p>As F'x pointed out, good candidates for deletion can be found <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/search?tab=newest&q=-%22possible%20duplicate%3a%22%20migrated%3a0%20closed%3a1">here</a></p>	[ { "answer_id": 217, "author": "Noble P. Abraham", "author_id": 1580, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1580", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>A rhetorical question <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3690/what-is-irdam-jour...	2012/10/16	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/215", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]
238	<p>Stack Exchange sites that have graduated run so-called “Community Promotion Ads”: these run in the right sidebar of each page, and are designated according to votes on the Meta of each site. For example, see <a href="https://physics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/980/community-promotion-ads-2012">on Physics.SE</a> how it works.</p> <p>The good thing about these ads is that the new visitors they bring are, for the most part, already users on other Stack Exchange sites, and they now how the system works. Over at <a href="http://chemistry.stackexchange.com">Chemistry</a>, we have <a href="https://physics.meta.stackexchange.com/a/1334/91">placed an ad on Physics.SE</a> and it does bring us some traffic.</p> <p><strong>I’d like to propose that we come up with an ad to run on our sibling SE sites</strong>. I see three points to deal with:</p> <ul> <li>finding a nice motto or a catchy sentence</li> <li>creating the ad itself (having a nice graphics improves one’s click-through rate, but it's not absolutely necessary)</li> <li>coming up with a list of sites we want to target: I’m thinking <a href="https://math.stackexchange.com/">Mathematics</a>, <a href="https://physics.stackexchange.com/">Physics</a>, <a href="https://cstheory.stackexchange.com/">Theoretical Computer Science</a>, <a href="https://tex.stackexchange.com/">TeX - LaTeX</a>, <a href="https://mathematica.stackexchange.com/">Mathematica</a>, <a href="http://english.stackexchange.com">English L&U</a>, <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/">Electrical Engineering</a> (sorted roughly in decreasing order of suitability IMO)</li> </ul> <p>What do you think?</p>	[ { "answer_id": 239, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It's a good idea to plan. But the problem is technically we haven't graduated yet. We're still in beta mode. We ...	2012/10/21	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/238", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/2700/" ]
245	<p>When tagging this question: <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/4930/344">How can I apply to be an adjunct faculty?</a>, I came across four tags that could either be synonyms or at least have more distinct definitions.</p> <p>To be clear, I think that these could either be merged into two or even one tag with synonyms.</p> <p>For reference, here are the current definitions of these tags:</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/career" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'career'" rel="tag">career</a>: Career is a person's "course or progress through life (or a distinct portion of life)". Questions related to academic career comes under this tag.</li> <li><a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/career-path" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'career-path'" rel="tag">career-path</a>: Queries related to progression of academics in various capacities from a student to a professor and the various stages involved in the process.</li> </ul> <p>The following should be considered as well: </p> <ul> <li><a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/job" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'job'" rel="tag">job</a>: Refers to academic job, its advantages and disadvantages. Also related to duties and responsibilities associated with an academic job and academic job search.</li> <li><a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/jobs" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'jobs'" rel="tag">jobs</a>: (no summary)</li> </ul>	[ { "answer_id": 246, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/job\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagg...	2012/10/23	[ "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/245", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/users/344/" ]