Comment by MCW on Why did my question get a downvote?
Agree - on both points. Yes, we could vote to close as unclear; I'm trying to find a way to offer more constructive criticism. I'm also trying to set this up so that we can drop the link into the...
View ArticleComment by MCW on Sociology dataset
scope would be the first place to check. I thought that text discouraged asking about other social sciences, but it appears that I'm wrong. If the dataset can be used in the study and practice of...
View ArticleComment by MCW on What new community roles should we ask for?
you've linked to an answer. Would it make more sense to link to the question, or do I misunderstand the intent?
View ArticleComment by MCW on Should there be a policy on History SE for the use of...
I'm not sure I understand. can you spell it out for me?
View ArticleComment by MCW on Should there be a policy on History SE for the use of...
Please review this answer Open admission of AI authorship in the context of this question. Should we approve this as approved-site-policy?
View ArticleComment by MCW on Please ban Wikipedia links
Excellent point -thank you for clarifying. I've updated. You may wish to update the question to clarify the misunderstanding and then flag both comments for deletion.
View ArticleComment by MCW on Please ban Wikipedia links
I can see where it might appear that way, but there are no examples because we eliminate them fairly vigorously. We don't want those people here.. I've known T.E.D for several years and I'd bet money...
View ArticleComment by MCW on Is it immoral to post a history-related photo like this one...
I'm not sure that "morality" is properly within the concerns of history. Morality should be discussed with moral authorities, using the sources and methods appropriate - your cleric, or a stack...
View ArticleAnswer by MCW for Why did my question get a downvote?
What is the consensus of historians on… ?If there is in fact a secret cabal of historians that dictates opinions on history, nobody has informed me of it.This anti-pattern may or may not generate a...
View ArticleAnswer by MCW for Standard comment situations: suggestions for close votes...
Question shows no research/effortMainly when from a somewhat established user. For a new user, please consider the more welcoming Question from new user lacking prior researchVariant 1:What has your...
View ArticleAnswer by MCW for Why did my question get a downvote?
The question is written in the passive voiceI won't actually downvote every question written in the passive voice, but I want to call attention to the pattern.Questions of the formWhy is X considered...
View ArticleAnswer by MCW for Why did my question get a downvote?
Cite every non-trivial assertion in your question.If you ask a question about things (people, events, concepts, ideas, theories, etc.), it is courteous to provide a reference or citation to those...
View ArticleShould we unpin accepted answers from the top of the list?
Today we changed the way we sort answers on Stack Overflow. We no longer pin the accepted answer (with the green checkmark) to the top of the list of answers. By default, we now sort strictly by votes...
View ArticleAnswer by MCW for How should we recognize our anniversary?
First, I agree with @T.E.D; looking over the prior examples, the one that stands out for me is:Of all the text blurbs I see there, the skeptics one really stands out: "We live in a world of...
View ArticleHow should we recognize our anniversary?
Our ten year anniversary is coming up. There are rumors that SE corporate is going to give us an anniversary gift. While I'll be happy to celebrate our collective achievement, I wonder how we should...
View ArticleAnswer by MCW for Why did my question get a downvote?
Sir, this is an ArbysOut of scope questionsA parablePerson walks into a Starbucks and says, "I'd like an appendectomy please. I don't react well to standard anesthetics, and I'm diabetic, so....."The...
View ArticleAnswer by MCW for Do questions about current events of historic significance...
We've examined this question several times before, including one that is particularly relevantAre political history questions on topic? 2011How can you tell political questions from historical...
View ArticleAnswer by MCW for Why is it ok for a single person to close a question based...
I'm glad you asked this - it will take me more time to answer than I have at the moment, but the core of the answer is in the comments. Those of us with higher reputation or deeper insight into the...
View ArticleAnswer by MCW for Why did my question get a downvote?
The question relies on a false aggregation More precisely, albeit less tersely, the question aggregates groups in a way that the answer is going to be misleading and perhaps misinformative. Not...
View ArticleAnswer by MCW for Please try to _always_ explain editing of 'controversial'...
as I do not see the removed word as especially problematic on its own, nor even problematic as in "should not appear on the HNQ".You're correct, I should have updated the edit history. I apologize for...
View ArticleAnswer by MCW for Why did my question get a downvote?
Please document your preliminary researchSome questions seem to have come out of a beer and pretzels' discussion with no research. Please do basic research before you post here; check Wikipedia and...
View ArticleAnswer by MCW for Why did my question get a downvote?
The scope of the question makes it difficult to answerThere are assumptions baked into your question - or perhaps simply unclear in your question - that make answers complicated. Questions with...
View ArticleAnswer by MCW for How should moderators deal with comments, when should those...
Didn't mean to ignore this, but it is a difficult question. I was hoping that mulling it over for a while would generate more clarity. I don't think I'm going to get any more clear, so I'll do my best...
View ArticleAnswer by MCW for When are questions on heraldry on-topic?
Good question. I'm not sure that we have a consensus on heraldry.We have many questions on heraldry, 95% of which have answers, so heraldry is not prima facia out of scope.If the question is better...
View ArticleAnswer by MCW for Why did my question get a downvote?
We hate funLinking here for resource and to invite discussion (!) on what the guidelines for H:SE might be. In particular guideline #3 - few of us use the site for business. What would be the H:SE...
View ArticleAnswer by MCW for Why did my question get a downvote?
Terms are ill-definedThis anti-pattern describes questions that rely on imprecisely defined terms; multiple contradictory answers are possible depending on how you define those terms. As a consequence...
View ArticleAnswer by MCW for Site policy for very heavily-trolled topics
Posting a question about a heavily trolled topic does not mean that you are a trollI want to make it explicit that if we flag your question (or answer) as trollbait, it doesn't mean that we think you...
View ArticleMay we deprecate the [policy] tag?
Recommend that we deprecate the tag policy and use the tag site-policy That will enable searching on site-policy to return posts that articulate the policy and culture of H:SE. That, in turn, will make...
View ArticleAre requests for references appropriate on History Stack Exchange?(revisited)
Arguments to treat references in scopeBy declaring requests for references out of scope, we discourage some legitimate and - interesting history questions. History is unusual for H:SE; a large part of...
View ArticleAnswer by MCW for Where is HSE regarding the current strike?
For me, much the same conclusion. I've been somewhat aware of the strike, but the strikers haven't articulated a clear enough platform/agenda to compel my participation.To the extent that this strike...
View ArticleAnswer by MCW for Why did my question get a downvote?
I don't understand your questionWe are a Q&A site. Built into that is the assumption that the Original Poster(OP) asks a question, and we do research to provide an answer.If the title doesn't...
View ArticleWhy did my question get a downvote?
Another in my aperiodic, quixotic rants intended to improve the quality of H:SE posts.I've seen a few questions on meta that resemble "why did I get a downvote?". It struck me that I can't be the only...
View ArticleAnswer by MCW for Unanswered questions with answers or partial answers in...
Mostly I'm answering to refresh the question and boost the signal. Having decided to do that, I'm going to advance a strawman counter-argument. I'm not sure how committed I am to the counterargument,...
View ArticleComment by MCW on How could I improve this closed/deleted question about...
Step 1 for improvement would be to address the issues raised in comments.
View ArticleAnswer by MCW for What could've been a 'correct question' for the following...
This is a non-diamond, personal answer.Two issues were raised in comments, and I think the answer to your meta-question is that the original question should have addressed these issues.Define allies.If...
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