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<p>We will be getting hats again. Thanks for your input.</p>
| 3971 | 2014-11-20T01:59:43.100 | |discussion|status-completed| | <p>Last year around Christmas time we had an awesome promotion in which hats for for gravatars were awarded for completing basic tasks around the site. If you don't remember it, here is a <a href="http://winterbash2013.stackexchange.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">link</a>
to the promo from last year (and <a href="http://stackexchange.com/promos/12/winter-bash">the year before that</a>).</p>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/QOZfx.jpg" alt="hats"></p>
<p>This year, SE is planning to run it for <em>everyone</em> again because we all love hats, right? right?</p>
<p>This year we would need to <strong>opt-out</strong> if we don't want any of this haberdashery. For the purposes of a simple count, <strong><em>upvote</em></strong> this question to indicate you would like hats, and <strong><em>downvote</em></strong> this question if you don't want hats at all.</p>
<p>We've had a lot of fun with this promotion in the past, and I'm sure it's going to be fun again this time.</p>
<p>HOWEVER: this promotion is <strong>optional</strong> for sites, and/or individual users. If the users of this site <em>do not</em> want this in general feel free to voice that opinion. We can opt out of the promotion. Individual users will be able to opt out as well (they will be provided with an "I hate Hats" link to opt out).</p>
<hr>
<p>(Majority of content blatantly stolen from <a href="https://bicycles.meta.stackexchange.com/users/76/freiheit">freiheit</a>'s copy of <a href="https://christianity.meta.stackexchange.com/users/49/wax-eagle">waxeagle</a>'s <a href="https://christianity.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1420/do-you-like-hats">post on meta.christianity</a>.)</p>
| Do you like hats? (2014 Edition) |
<p>As it is stated in the Help Center:</p>
<p>"We ask and answer questions about <strong>electrical and electronics engineering topics</strong>, which include electronics, physical computing, and those working with microcontrollers, Arduinos and embedded systems."</p>
<p>Control Systems is one the major areas of Electrical Engineering so they are welcome in this Q&A site.</p>
| 3982 | 2014-11-24T22:25:06.597 | |discussion| | <p>Control theory is part of many undergraduate electrical engineering courses. Are questions regarding the control theory portion of a control system relevant here? What I mean is not the electronics aspect of it, but rather questions regarding how to improve transient response, disturbance, etc.</p>
<p>If it's not, are there any other stacks more relevant to this?</p>
| Do Control System questions belong in EE.SE? |
<p>Everybody is listing concerns here because they are invested in the site and want to see it continue to do well. On meta, one of the things we talk about is the community dynamics as a whole. To say that the dynamics of a site like this are complicated would be an understatement. </p>
<p>We need to try and keep our existing users. While we can't keep everyone, we should try to maintain an environment where the community doesn't drive long-term users away. Part of this effort is to limit the questions that are frustrating to answer (aka "bad questions"). Questions that are incomplete, questions that change drastically, and questions with a wide scope generally fall into this category. Closing these questions is our primary method for dealing with these issues. This issue is very important to Olin, and is reflected in many of his answers regarding the treatment of questions and users who ask such questions. This is an important issue for long-term site health.</p>
<p>We also need to grow the user base for this site. If we aren't increasing the number of users, then the community will eventually stagnate and die out. Users also make content for the site (questions and answers) so the more users we have the more content will be available. However, new users often aren't familiar with the rules we place on questions, or what information is required to get a good answer, and may unintentionally ask a question that we would consider "bad". This, combined with a different model from a traditional forum, can result in a bad user experience which will result in new users who quit. This issue is very important to Russell, and it is reflected in his meta posts. This is an important issue for long-term site health.</p>
<p>Ultimately, <em>both</em> of these issues are important, but aggressively pursuing one goal will adversely affect the other. I can find anecdotes for both issues, but the plural of anecdotes is not data. It would be nice to actually have data on what is happening so that we can have a balanced approach and adjust our response to new users. Scott is calling for more data so that we as a community can understand what is happening overall and have some numbers to base community policy. To paraphrase, we have issues, but we aren't sure if they are serious issues or minor issues, and more data would help us assess that.</p>
| 4006 | 2014-12-08T21:30:23.720 | |discussion| | <p>What I would like to know is that is there some clearly defined purpose of this site? Is there some goal we're trying to aim for. It seems to me that if there's an agreed set of goals, it could be deduced logically what is the correct attitude and code of conduct to be followed here.</p>
<p>We're engineers, we have the luxury of pragmatism and logical thinking in our skillset. </p>
<p>What are the goals that are most important to you, and what codes of coduct do you see eminating from them?</p>
<hr>
<p>Edit: trimmed the question to tone it down a bit and hopefully leave the essence.</p>
| What is the purpose of this site? |
<p>As per W5VO's answer I think the rooms mostly hang around forever. I've written a data explorer query that I think should give what you're after along with a link to the chat room:</p>
<p><a href="http://data.stackexchange.com/electronics/query/256953/comments-moved-to-chat" rel="nofollow">Comments moved to chat</a></p>
<p>Looking at the list though I remember being in a chat room for the same reason and I'm not on that list. It would exclude anything where the original question / answer was deleted and also if the comment was flagged as obsolete or cleaned up by the user. When they're posted you're the owner of the comment so you can delete it yourself.</p>
<p>Regarding your comment about it being useful to search comment text here is a more general purpose query that someone else has written. The only caveats with the data explorer are that the data dump is only updated once a week and because it's public deleted content isn't visible.</p>
<p><a href="http://data.stackexchange.com/electronics/query/240803/search-post-where-comment-text-like" rel="nofollow">
Search post where comment text like '...'</a></p>
| 4015 | 2014-12-11T00:01:29.400 | |discussion|chat| | <p>How long do chats kept for? Are they kept forever?</p>
<p>I'm particularly interested in chats that are created as a result of the suggestion after a long string of comments for a question, where it says, "Do you want to move this to chat?" or something to that effect.</p>
<p>Obviously, the chat should be kept around as long as the question and comments are, but I wasn't sure if that was the case.</p>
<p>Just wondering.</p>
| How long are chats retained? |
<p>I'd like to expand on Nick's valid answer.</p>
<p>The question you asked is in part off topic, since this site covers practical problem mostly, and career advice is a personal matter.</p>
<p>It is in part subjective, since people might have different opinions on the matter, and both of them could be personally valid. The voting system, which is one of the key features of SE, would not work in this context.</p>
<p>It is ion part too localized, because the answer may depend on time, on place, and on personal traits. Therefore, future readers, which are in a way the main target of the site, wouldn't do much with that advice, unless it perfectly fits their situation.</p>
<p>But the chat would be a great place to discuss this kind of topics, and a lot of good stuff goes on in there.</p>
| 4020 | 2014-12-13T05:21:19.133 | |discussion|support| | <p>I think that <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/143709/selecting-analog-design-or-digital-design">my question</a> does not ask for career advice. Rather I ask the motivations, salary and the future of the two important areas in electronics. How can I edit this question to get good quality answers? </p>
| How can I fix my career related question that was "on hold"? |
<p>Because it's not actually about those topics. If you look at the question, it is purely about using the software. </p>
| 4031 | 2014-12-18T14:16:23.490 | |discussion| | <p>I studied <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3768/are-these-tags-really-unnecessary">unnecessary tags</a>, but my tags were not that much in appropriate. yet they were rejected.
<img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/WBxHx.jpg" alt="rejected"><br>
I meant that Eagle is mostly used for PCB so why is PCB or PCB-design tag inappropriate?</p>
| appropriate tags rejected |
<p>In my experience, the sort of thing you're highlighting is almost universal. I see it on this site (at which I'm a relative newcomer), also on StackOverflow (where I'm normally found), several other SE sites I've lurked on, also the Arduino forum (and the SE Arduino beta site), and ... and ... and ...</p>
<p>It's common to find long-standing, high-rep users giving two types of response: either very helpful and informative or reflecting impatience, humour (however misplaced) or frustration. Often there's no middle ground. I could name a handful of users on SO that almost exactly match these same patterns of behaviour as I've seen in another handful of users here on EE.SE.</p>
<p>Personally, it doesn't bother me unless I feel it's unnecessarily offensive, in which case I'll sometimes flag an answer or a comment before moving on.</p>
<p>So it's not something that I think anyone can "fix" and almost certainly not worth any significant effort to try. It's part of human nature. Ask any experienced person enough stupid questions and eventually you'll get a metaphorical slap.</p>
<p>If you hang around forums enough, you'll be used to it and it will not feel as disrespectful as it would to a complete newcomer. Language differences can mask apparent "stupidity" so it's wise to think twice before being overtly unhelpful, but really I do believe that most people have been around the online world long enough to grow thick skins - probably more so for younger users.</p>
<p>So, I don't condone rudeness, but I don't expect it to stop. I also don't think it's a big problem. Leave things to level themselves out or it will get too personal.</p>
| 4048 | 2014-12-28T12:59:13.307 | |discussion| | <p>We've been discussing the issue of how to treat new users for a long time now, without much results so far (see <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2777/does-ee-se-have-a-problem-with-the-treatment-of-newbies">[1]</a>). The discussion gets lost in arguments between whether harshness is necessary for maintaining quality or not.</p>
<p>But I can put my finger on one problem regarding treatment of newcomers that has nothing to do with keeping high quality and that <strong>can be fixed</strong>. That's the overuse of witty, demeaning comments.</p>
<p>I'll give you a few examples:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?</p>
<p>We do engineering here, not physics phantasy. No technology will ever tell you exactly where something is, so this whole question is pointless and needs to be closed. [<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/145502/can-rfid-technologies-replace-gps-for-location-positioning-applications#comment294455_145502">Original here</a>]</p>
<p>So, how would someone reuse a rabbit? Oh, wait, I don't wanna know. Forget I said anything...</p>
<p>I don't want to confuse the poor little Arduino user with too much information...</p>
<p>We don't care. This a Arduino user-level question, not about electronics or low level programming.</p>
<p>Huh? What? Try asking in English.</p>
<p>Yes. ------------- [Original <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/145343/does-current-change-when-going-through-a-dc-voltage-source#comment294219_145343">here</a> and <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/145343/does-current-change-when-going-through-a-dc-voltage-source#comment294222_145343">here</a>]</p>
<p>When you stick the card into the slot, it cuts a tiny wire, which holds a mass on a pulley. The mass drops down, and hits a teeter-totter which projects a steel ball into the air. That steel ball lands in a receptacle, where it bridges two contacts. These provide current for a filament which lights a candle which burns through a cotton string. By this time, though, the card has also closed a little-known, inconspicuous switch, doing which activated a relay which closed a bigger switch which provided power to the hotel room. [<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/92685/hotel-keycard-switches-on-5-000w-load-when-placed-in-its-holder-how-does-it-do#comment179604_92685">Original here</a>].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I'm also to blame because one of the comments above is mine. And the last one was directed at me when I was a new user.</p>
<p>The thing is that sometimes those comments are flagged, but moderators dismiss the flag as not helpful, arguing that a little humor is healthy or something to that extent (happened in my case). I agree, in a healthy environment humor is good, but that's not the case when one have problems treating new users like we do. The negative effect to the offended person far outweighs any humor benefits these comments may have to the offender and his or her audience.</p>
<p>To correct this problem I propose the following:</p>
<ol>
<li>We encourage users to flag <strong>ALL witty, demeaning comments directed at new users</strong>.</li>
<li>We demand our moderators to take action to correct the problem by deleting the post and letting the offender know that he or she should not mistreat newcomers.</li>
</ol>
<p>I think we should not be lenient towards this behavior, as we are not tolerant with low quality posts. If we do this right, I think this would be a great start at fixing our problematic behavior towards newcomers.</p>
<p>What do you think?</p>
| Treatment of newcomers - enough with the witty, demeaning comments! |
<p>It's tricky because the system can't guarantee an answer for every bounty. Part of the mechanism of "no refunds" is there to prevent questions from staying up on the "featured" tab indefinitely for no cost (or if you don't like the answers you got). </p>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/fKN7x.png" alt="enter image description here"></p>
| 5075 | 2015-01-07T05:11:58.567 | |discussion|feature-request| | <p>Since you will never get back the bounty offered. Its more like a advertising medium. The term bounty confuses many user as in real life an unclaimed bounty return to the original owner. Yes it is clearly stated inside the bounty rules and regulation, but how many of us read the listed rules. One only learns from mistake. </p>
<p>Why shouldn't we rename bounty or put a high alert message when a bounty is clicked. A simple message stating no refund for further information click here could save a dumb person like me whom failed to read the bounty rules and regulation at the first place.</p>
| Is Bounty Equivalent to Advertising Fee? Wished it had a Warning Message Box! |
<p>It's best to assume that anything you post here is a gift which you're offering to anyone in the world to use in any way they deem fit.</p>
| 5088 | 2015-01-16T14:36:30.983 | |discussion|idea| | <p>Is there any way to protect you ideas when you asking question ?<br>
Assuming you ask a problem that provides new ideas innovative, Which ensures that these ideas will be your property and not be stolen by other users ? Is it possible to protect these ideas by the community making them the property of the user and linked to his account.</p>
| how to protect ideas in question? |
<p>This can happen if you are zoomed out - I was able to reproduce with zoom of 90%.</p>
<p>However, we don't support zooming - visual artifacts like this can be expected, but will not be fixed.</p>
| 5093 | 2015-01-20T17:46:54.597 | |bug|status-declined|profile-page| | <p>Admittedly, this is not a <em>colossal</em> problem, but it's been bugging me a bit nevertheless.</p>
<p>In Chrome, user profile pages look like the screenshot below. As you can see, the "About me"-section is below the rest of the information, making the whole page look a bit strange.</p>
<p>This is the only network site I've seen this on, it's even correct on the meta-page. It looks OK in both IE and FF. I'm using Chrome 39.0.2171.95. </p>
<p>I have this both on my work computer and at home. I'm using Win 7 and Win 8, both 64-bit versions, if that's of any relevance. I don't have an adblocker installed, so that's not what's causing it.</p>
<p>Is it possible to fix this?</p>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/ADZBV.jpg" alt="enter image description here"></p>
<p>It looks fine in Chrome when I use an IE "simulator":</p>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/3UFVh.jpg" alt="enter image description here"></p>
| The user profile page is not displayed right in Chrome |
<p>Basically, if its not necessary to know that the microcontroller development board is a arduino, then it's probably OK here. In other words, if you have to say "arduino" in your question for it to make sense, then it doesn't belong here. If you can say "microcontroller" or "microcontroller development board" instead, then there should be no need to migrate to the arduino site.</p>
<p>Sometimes people babble on, and you can't expect those who come here for good quality Q+A about electronics to wade thru a long rambling post to decide whether its really about electronics or just a arduino user issue. It is therefore a good idea to not mention "arduino" in your question, and absolutely never mention "sketch" or "shield" assuming the arduino usages of those words. If your question still makes sense after removing arduino references, post it here. You are safe from migration because nobody will know it has anything to do with arduinos. If your question doesn't make sense without "arduino", "shield", and/or "sktech", then it's a strong clue that it doesn't belong here. Even if it does, it may get booted because people see the buzzwords and don't want to bother reading the rest.</p>
| 5099 | 2015-01-21T13:48:43.793 | |discussion| | <p>So recently a Arduino stack exchange has been created, meaning all any question concerning the microprocessor should be moved to there. While I'm all for that, I'm certain that many of you would agree that there is a lot of overlap between the two SE's. Many EE projects probably use an Arduino.</p>
<p>Now, my actual question is: how do we know what should go where? In <a href="https://arduino.stackexchange.com/questions/8139/how-to-implement-an-arduiono-prototype">this question</a> the author states that he's using the Arduino in his project. The actual question was about selecting a good implementation method for his circuitry, but it was moved to the new SE. So any kind of hardware interfacing with the microcontroller goes there? Wouldn't this mean that for example, any ADC circuit connected to an Arduino gets moved there? Or am I missing some nuance here? Where are the lines between the two?</p>
| Arduino and Electrical Engineering |
<p>You can flag the post for moderator attention with a custom message and include the revision number.</p>
| 5104 | 2015-01-22T15:51:00.287 | |support| | <p>How does one bring inappropriate or malicious editing to the attention of moderators? I know the question or answer itself can be flagged, but that's not what I'm asking about. I don't want to flag the content of the answer, especially since I will have fixed it anyway. I want to bring the malicious behavior to the attention of the moderators. There seems to be no "flag" button in a particular edit. I'd expect to find it right next to "roll back" if there was one.</p>
<h2>Background</h2>
<p>There have been a few cases recently where a user has edited answers knowing full well he was changing author intent (the author explicitly told him this previously). The purpose was clearly to annoy the author, and the edits were even re-done after having been rolled back. In other cases, a typo or two were fixed, but then that used as a opportunity to change known author intent. Since this continues to happen, I looked for a way to flag the edit itself, but found no such mechanism.</p>
<p>How should I handle this if I encounter another such deliberately malicious edit?</p>
| How to flag edits? |
<p>Well, who would have thought that merely offering a solution based on remuneration would have caused such great <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3RYvO2X0Oo" rel="nofollow">consternation?</a></p>
<p>Certainly not I, since the practice is allowed under the site's guidelines, nor would I have thought that I'd be providing a platform for a vociferous rant on the evils of not conforming to a narcissistic mandate. </p>
<p>Oh well... :.( </p>
| 5107 | 2015-01-23T13:51:01.163 | |discussion|answers|comments| | <p>If you take a look at the comments** on this question: <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/144017/replacing-a-switch-and-avoiding-body-diode-conduction">Replacing a Switch and Avoiding body diode conduction</a>. You will see that someone has mentioned being paid for their answer and I was just curious as to whether or not this is deemed acceptable?</p>
<p>You may notice that the question is being asked by me and I have no issue with the person themselves saying that or asking for that sort of incentive I was just wondering where the EE.SE stood regarding this.</p>
<p>The user is clearly an experienced member of the EE.SE so there probably is no issue with it but again - just wondering.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[** Below are the comments in question. They have since been deleted in the original thread.]</p>
<p>Bounty doesn't put any food on the table, and If you're going to sell it and make some money, I'd like to see some of it if you use my idea. Email me if you're interested. – EM Fields</p>
<p>@EMFields I am afraid you are mistaken... Unless your idea has a patent or something I would really appreciate the help. – elliotdawes</p>
<p>Patent??? I'm not trying to restrict you in any way, I'm suggesting that I can help you, for a fee, if you're interested in paying for help you're going to use to make money with. If not, oh, well... – EM Fields</p>
</blockquote>
| Where do we stand with users asking for monetary incentives before providing an answer / idea? |
<p>I think you have a point, and such questions could be closed as <s>"too localized"</s>, as they are unlikely to help anyone else than the OP. (EDIT: "too localized" is not available anymore, and no other option seems to fit the case).</p>
<p>In the specific case of the linked question, I'm not sure it can't help anyone else with similar problems.</p>
| 5118 | 2015-02-04T21:56:29.227 | |discussion| | <p>On stackoverfow we have a Off Topic close reason </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This question was caused by a problem that can no longer be reproduced
or a simple typographical error. While similar questions may be
on-topic here, this one was resolved in a manner unlikely to help
future readers. ...</p>
</blockquote>
<p>How useful are questions like <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/152508/27928">this</a> for future readers, should they be closed/flagged, if yes with which reason, or should they be kept.</p>
| How to handle questions which are resolved by circumstances which are not part of the question |
<p>It links to <a href="http://stackexchange.com/leagues/58/alltime/electronics/2010-09-29/1322#1322">http://stackexchange.com/leagues/58/alltime/electronics/2010-09-29/1322#1322</a>. And there (right sidebar, on the bottom):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>* users with less than 200 reputation are not tracked in the leagues</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I don't think the rounding starts specifically at position 16, but rather that exacter percentages are only shown below 1%. I couldn't find reference for this though.</p>
<p>Note that when a user performs significantly better in some timeframe (week, month, quarter, year – I think), it may say "top 5% this quarter" instead. Also, on Stack Overflow Careers, users may have an indication like "Top 5% for <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/c%2b%2b" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'c++'" rel="tag">c++</a>".</p>
| 5124 | 2015-02-12T08:49:17.573 | |discussion| | <p>On my profile page, it says "top 2% Overall". What does that mean, i.e. how is it calculated?</p>
<p>I know it is not just my overall position within the membership. When clicking on Users - all, since there are 36 people per page, and the first page to have numbers over 101 is 183 (to discount the several thousand members that got 100 points free for coming from another site but haven't participated here), that makes 6588 "active" members. I am number 23 on the first page, so 23 / 6588 is 0.3%. So it's not as simple as that.</p>
<p>The percentages start with 0.06% for Olin (top dog), then 0.12%, 0.24%, etc. gradually reaching 0.97% for member position 16. Then it jumps to 2% for the next 16 persons (obviously some rounding going on here) and jumps again to 3%.</p>
<p>Something magical about 16?</p>
<p>Just curious.</p>
| Ranking on profile page -- what does it mean? |
<p>I would say that questions about cell phone CPUs are subject to the same rules as every other type of CPU - shopping questions are off-topic, but design questions are fine.</p>
| 5126 | 2015-02-14T15:27:54.617 | |support|asking-questions|on-topic| | <p>I would like to ask a question about the available selection of cell phone CPUs (systems-on-a-chip). Would it be on-topic on Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange?</p>
| Are questions about cell phone CPUs on-topic here? |
<p>Mods don't delete accounts <em>on request</em> for various reasons (which are probably on meta.stackexchange.com somewhere). Follow the directions on <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/deleting-account">this help center page</a> to request your account to be deleted.</p>
| 5129 | 2015-02-16T02:06:25.007 | |support| | <p>I would like to delete my account for Electrical Engineering S.E but I do not know how. I could not find the the delete button. Is there a procedure I need to follow. I googled it showed to delete my stack exchange account which I would like to keep. I just wan't to get rid the Electrical Engineering account. I believe this question may be a duplicate. Planning to use reverse engineering to get my answer as linked and related question would immediately pop up and save up my search time. IF none found please guide me and for the down voters go ahead down vote this question as I'm going to delete this profile anyway.</p>
| Please delete my Electrical Engineering Account |
<p>Mark has stepped down as a moderator. </p>
<p>The Soup Nazi reference comes from <a href="http://www.embeddedrelated.com/showarticle/741.php" rel="nofollow">this blog article</a> discussing Stack Overflow (though many parts are still relevant to our site).</p>
<p>To summarize, Mark was unhappy with the direction of moderation (both community and elected moderator). He wanted a lighter touch from moderators, but things haven't been trending in that direction. He left <a href="https://twitter.com/markrages/status/568158411151564801" rel="nofollow">the following message</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Apologies to everyone who voted for me for moderator. I wasn't able to fulfill my promises.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While Mark has not been an active mod for a while, he will still be missed.</p>
| 5133 | 2015-02-18T18:57:29.180 | |discussion| | <p>Someone using Mark Rage's account is editing whole questions and answers to just contain this picture:</p>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/h59yb.jpg" alt=""></p>
<p>There are many examples, <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/11263/4512">here</a> is just one, but others are easy to find.</p>
<p>What the heck is going on?</p>
| What's with the angry chef picture? |
<p>You got the link text and the link URL swapped. You should use this instead:</p>
<pre><code>[SparkFun According to Pete 3-5-12: MOSFETs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFt8hkh17_w)
</code></pre>
<p>which renders like this:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFt8hkh17_w" rel="nofollow">SparkFun According to Pete 3-5-12: MOSFETs</a></p>
| 5137 | 2015-02-22T01:00:20.073 | |support|comments|hyperlinks|markdown| | <p>I just wrote a comment to an answer and wanted to include a formatted link, but the result was completely broken.</p>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Qioal.png" alt="screenshot result"></p>
<p>The link was formatted 100% according to documentation:</p>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/f58jG.png" alt="screenshot draft"></p>
<p>Can you fix this?</p>
| Link in comment not displayed/parsed correctly |
<p>I don't see any real compelling reason to rush. I'm looking at the recently closed list, and many of the moderator-closed questions are duplicates. If the person who has enough drive to go dig up the appropriate dup happens to be a moderator, I can live with that, and in fact, thank them for doing the tedious part of the job that they signed on to do.</p>
<p>There are a few non-dup closings by a mod after only a few close votes, and I'm hoping that that is being done judiciously, and passed over by mods on close calls. That said, the numbers on the review queues have seemed very high to me lately, and somebody has to clear them (I suppose). If its a moderator, it can look heavy handed, but if they don't do it, the backlog would just keep growing and quality would go down. If the numbers are high because we're short a mod, maybe we do need an election, but if we'd like the board to be community moderated, then the community needs to step up.</p>
<p>In the meantime, I'd suggest that if you see something closed with less than five votes that you think shouldn't have been closed, post it on meta for discussion. I know that has the potential to sound like an "I don't like the way moderation is going" whine, but its the only way I can think of to give the moderators feedback on how the users want the stack moderated. If the discussion goes "yeah, I don't think that should have been closed", then the mods can adjust if they want to (or not, if they don't), and if the lions share of discussion goes "I'm fine with that" then there's no real compelling reason to adjust.</p>
<p>Individual users unhappy with a close can reach out to the asker through comments and say "If you fix this by doing X, I'll vote to reopen", and then do so if they follow through-- maybe even lobby for reopen votes on meta if its important.</p>
<p>My own experience is that a single close vote is often jumped on by other users fairly quickly, and that those questions end up closed anyway. Perhaps the best course is to lobby for reopening on what you feel are the most grievous occurrences, regardless of it was mod-closed or vote-closed.</p>
| 5139 | 2015-02-23T18:13:55.953 | |discussion|election|moderation|moderators| | <ul>
<li><p>Mark Rages <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/a/5135/17592">has voluntarily stepped down as a moderator of this site</a>. Until his temporary suspension he has been relatively active, mostly in the review queues. </p></li>
<li><p>The <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/election/3">last election</a> has brought us two moderators from the camp that strives for high quality questions and puts questions on hold directly rather than tries to deal with the OP first to improve the question in a less drastic way. Mark Rages was a more clement moderator.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>This turn of events means that things can only become more strict on this site in the near future. Of course, some people may be happy with this turn of events, others may not. This question is not to discuss that.</p>
<p>Instead, I'm interested in the way both the community and the moderators look at this turn of events. Specifically, I'm wondering if it's time to let the community decide in which direction we should go now. That Mark Rages stepped down means things will change in a direction that the users who elected him (and others) wouldn't have liked. That feels kind of unfair to me.</p>
<p>As I <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5133/whats-with-the-angry-chef-picture#comment11156_5135">wrote</a> before:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[Mark Rages] stepping down also means things will continue 'trending in that direction [of demanding high Q from new users]', even though he hasn't been active for a while. That's a pity, and perhaps a new election to fill that spot should be considered, to let the community decide in which direction we should continue.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So, I'm basically interested in any opinion on this matter, and in the votes on your answers...</p>
| Now that Mark Rages has stepped down |
<p>I think this is fine, as long as the tag doesn't provide context that <em>only</em> exists in the tag. Specifically, some users will ask a question that doesn't mention Arduino at all, but they include the tag <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/arduino" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'arduino'" rel="tag">arduino</a>. In that case, consider adding a sentence to the question that either fills in the generic context needed (e.g. 5V I/O) or states that it's with an arduino.</p>
| 5141 | 2015-02-26T13:39:17.330 | |discussion|tags|editing|arduino|reviewing| | <p>I'm taking on a background mission of deleting inappropriate <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/arduino" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'arduino'" rel="tag">arduino</a> tags as they come in, like in <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/157139/11684">How to switch a Bluetooth module with a P-Channel MOSFET high-side switch?</a>, which has absolutely nothing to do with Arduinos. The tag has become an absolutely meaningless <a href="http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/08/the-death-of-meta-tags/">meta-tag</a>, and really skews our statistics</p>
<p>Its interesting that this doesn't seem to happen with the microcontroller tag.</p>
<p>As an update, meta tags are officially discouraged:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There’s been a major uptick recently in tags that are not useful and just add noise. I want to stress that these are usually added in good
faith, and I am not questioning anybody’s motivation – I know that
they all mean well. But this particular category of tags is one that
has been historically referred to as meta-tags on MSO, and these tags
cause a lot of problems.</p>
<p>The reason meta-tags are a problem is that they do not describe the
content of the question. They describe some other aspect of the
question, like the author’s skill level, or the author’s motivation
for asking it, or generally what “kind” of question it is (poll,
how-to, etc.).</p>
<p>Meta-tags are actually a subset of a larger problem that I usually
call dependent tags. These are tags that don’t say anything by
themselves – you can’t tell what the question is about unless they’re
paired with some other tag (or several of them). These tags are a
problem because people don’t realize this and will often use that as
the question’s only tag. This is the insight that had eluded me for
two full years. Seems obvious in retrospect, doesn’t it?</p>
<p>From this point on, meta-tagging is explicitly discouraged.</p>
</blockquote>
| Poor abused Arduino tag |
<p>No. Users can vote how they want. The standards users maintain for voting also differ per user. Some users for example may have the rule of thumb to never downvote questions of new users.</p>
<p>Anyway, have a look at <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/121350/205264">this Meta.SE post</a>. From an answer there:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>First, you should never take a down vote personally. Remember that a down vote only takes away 2 points of your reputation, while up votes add considerably more (5 for questions and 10 for answers). Everyone who uses any Stack Exchange site for any length of time will gather down votes here and there. The "best" will take every down vote as an opportunity to rethink a post, and ponder how it could be improved.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And also from that answer, on whether users should explain their downvotes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Some users leave a comment on their post asking for the down voter(s) to explain themselves. Be aware that this may not have the effect you want. It may, in fact, just attract more down votes. If anyone responds to your query, it's likely as not to be the person(s) who down voted originally, so your response might not be as accurate as you would like.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Asking for explanation on downvotes is generally not well received though. You're supposed to learn by doing.</p>
<p>I really encourage you to read the whole linked answer.</p>
| 5156 | 2015-03-08T17:40:33.743 | |discussion| | <p>Suppose that I make a question after having searched the existing ones; the question seems to satisfy <em>all</em> the conditions usually requested (clear, specific, detailed); but anyway the question receives one or more downvote, even without an evident reason.</p>
<p>Is there something that a user can do against such, unjustified down votes?</p>
| Unjustified downvotes |
<p>I'll take ownership as an early flagger. You ended the original post with something along the lines of "is this right?" or "am I missing something?", which requires a response, and an answer soliciting discussion is not an answer. Better to post the clean answer, and DV the original answer if you believe it to be incorrect. If you want to have a discussion about it, or are unsure, post it as a question and refer to the original.</p>
<p>Or, perhaps best for this particular case: a comment on the original answer saying "don't you mean 2(Vdd-Vc)?" would have been direct and to the point.</p>
| 5161 | 2015-03-15T20:00:30.437 | |discussion|moderation|deleted-answers| | <p>I was pretty shocked to see my answer to <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/101530/what-is-the-equation-for-the-555-timer-control-voltage">this question</a> deleted by moderators within 20 minutes of posting.</p>
<p>Particularly since they were alleging that my answer need to go because it was a "follow up question".</p>
<p>When in fact <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/160011/52289">my answer</a> (if you have the rep to see it) is actually challenging the accepted answer with a new answer. If I did my math right, the existing answer (prominently echoed in the question) is wrong.</p>
<p>So regardless whether I am right or wrong, it raises a couple of questions of process:</p>
<ul>
<li>I had a call out to the person who wrote the current accepted answer, asking them to check my answer and see if they agree. If they do agree, I don't particularly care if my answer gets swallowed up in a revision of the accepted answer. But the point is: can't the moderators at least give the people working on the question more than 20 minutes to sort this out before stepping in with the big guns?</li>
<li>so now my answer is deleted because "it should be posted as a new question". I don't agree - I think I'm trying to fix an existing question. Posting a new question seems exactly the wrong thing to do as it will just pollute EE.SE with redundant questions. But it seems I have no right of appeal? How exactly do I do that? <em>[update: partial answer - seems I can flag my answer for moderator attention. Yet to see if that does the trick]</em></li>
</ul>
| How to challenge the deletion of an answer? |
<p>For a brief time, that answer scored +1. Positively-scored posts cannot be deleted by anyone but moderators, and so are ineligible for /review - thus the review task was invalidated.</p>
<p>If you come across an extremely low-quality post, or an answer that does not attempt to answer the question, flag it - regardless of whether or not it's currently in review or was previously in review, it'll then be forwarded to /review and/or the mod team for handling.</p>
| 5168 | 2015-03-18T11:30:07.723 | |support| | <p>I just noticed the following low quality post review and must say I can concur with null that it should be deleted, given the question makes no mention of problems "welding" the battery:</p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/low-quality-posts/66591">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/low-quality-posts/66591</a></p>
<p>However it's currently three weeks old and viewing the reviews page anonymously I can see there's only one LQP review outstanding and I know what that one is. I think a delete / undelete may cancel a review as can an edit or a "Looks OK" review but I can't see any sign of any of that on that particular answer. So I wonder what caused it to be removed from the queue?</p>
| What caused this review to disappear from the low quality posts review? |
<p>I'm stupid every now and then. I might hold a stupid belief about something or other and someone comes along, calls me stupid and explains why I was being stupid. On the other hand someone comes along and tries to explain my ineptitude without calling me names. Do I bother listening?</p>
<p>Answer: I probably listen to the guy calling me stupid more often than to the guy not attracting my attention with that special word. It's a special word that rings a bell and puts me into "listen mode".</p>
<p>Everyone is stupid now and then and calling them stupid, to my way of thinking, is helping them come to terms with their stupidity as speedily as possible. They learn and then they are not stupid any more about that particular thing. </p>
<p>But they (including me and you) are still stupid because most folk have a few of these wrong beliefs locked-away inside of them but, for now, having just had one of those numerous stupidities removed, the person ought to feel grateful. Showing gratitude is another issue!!!</p>
<p>That's how it works for me - someone calls me stupid, I listen and the stupidity gets fixed and, believe it or not, I'm happier and grateful. Not calling me stupid (or "retarded" because that is also a word that works for me) is likely to lengthen the time I remain stupid/retarded. </p>
<p>Not calling me stupid AND not helping me understand the errors of my ways is downright rude as far as I'm concerned. So please do call me stupid if you think I'm wrong because you'll be doing me a favour and I will be grateful.</p>
<p>"Read the data sheet" does not have the same meaning as "you must always read the data sheet" but, to my way of thinking "RTFD" informs the recipient that he or she should always read the data sheet. It's a golden rule and "RTFD" being so succinct is probably better than "you must always.." etc..</p>
<p>How is calling someone stupid AND helping them understand the error of their ways NOT being nice? It works for me but maybe some folk don't ever regard themselves as being stupid? </p>
<p>I'm with Olin all the way on this and my motivation is to help people and I'm sure his is too. Please don't forget that.</p>
| 5175 | 2015-03-20T22:03:54.757 | |discussion|support|comments|flagging|reviewing| | <p>A new user asked a question, found out the answer, and took the time and effort to inform us about that and even make his solution clear with a diagram: <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/160744/17592">Arduino IR Receiver (Answer)</a>.</p>
<p>Now, he used Fritzing, which is clearly just not good enough for some people - sigh -:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Enough with those stupid wiring diagrams already! We do electronics here, which means we communicate circuits with <em>schematics</em>. – Olin Lathrop <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/160720/arduino-ir-receiver/160744#comment326830_160744">8 hours ago</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>I flagged this comment as rude or offensive. This comment violates all three points in the <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/be-nice">Be Nice</a> policy. My flag was declined. </p>
<p>Why?</p>
<p>Whether you agree with the comment or not, <strong>this is not a way to treat other human beings.</strong> This comment clearly violates many policies, written and unwritten rules that are on the very base of the StackExchange network. Clearly there are some disagreements about the treatment of new users and other things. But has this lead to the point we can't trust the flagging system anymore?</p>
<hr>
<p>I've done a small test, and flagged some other comments:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>A comment on <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/157190/17592">Understanding to isolating sensor input capacitance</a> which was removed (thanks for that).</p></li>
<li><blockquote>
<p>What a mess! What MOSFET? What switch? Which capacitor do you think is the "filter" capacitor? Do you realize that D1 will always be reverse biased and therefore off? What's with the base of the transistor tied to the case of the opto, which also seems to be shorting across both inputs of the LED? <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/158803/theory-of-operation-for-discharging-filter-capacitors-with-a-mosfet-switch#comment322572_158803">link</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Declined, but clearly not in line with Be Nice, as it calls something (the post? The circuit?) a mess, which falls under the category name-calling (amongst others)</p></li>
<li><blockquote>
<p>You've asked a bunch of questions about motors here in a short time. Try to actually understand the answers to the other questions before blurting out new questions. You have already been given a lot of information that it seems you haven't taken the time to absorb and think about. People here want to help, but not if you don't appear to be learning. <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/159518/torque-and-speed-of-a-dc-motor#comment324116_159518">link</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>"actually understand" is border-line, "blurting out new questions" is insulting.</p></li>
<li><blockquote>
<p>Your question makes no sense because there is no standard "up" for a ethernet connector, and you didn't specify one either, yet you expect we know what you mean by "upside down". <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/160122/why-are-ethernet-ports-always-upside-down#comment325575_160122">link</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Could've been much worse, but yes, I think even saying 'your question makes no sense' shouldn't be allowed.</p></li>
<li><blockquote>
<p>-1 for blatant RTFM failure. <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/160266/timer2-in-pic16f877a-to-be-used-for-pwm-as-well-as-uart#comment325854_160266">link</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>RTFM = Read The Fucking Manual. How <em>that</em> can be considered OK or even border-line, I really fail to see.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Note: all examples come from one user. I do not mean to pick on that user, which is why I didn't copy his/her name. It was simply because with this I could easily find a great enough comments pool to test with.</p>
<p>Note 2: since I flagged all these comments in a short timeframe, it's likely one mod reviewed all, so this test may very well not be representative.</p>
| My rude/offensive flags on insulting comments were declined |
<p>As a rule of thumb:</p>
<p>a) if it's a short "thanks!", I remove such parts <em>if and only if</em> there's something else to fix in a post. There usually <em>is</em>, because 99% of the time such salutations are a sign of a newcomer, but if a question/answer is otherwise top-notch, it's a good idea to spend your energy elsewhere.</p>
<p>b) If it's, e.g., a 3-sentence "I would be very grateful if somebody would help me. Any help would be appreciated. My sincere thanks.", IMO it warrants an edit action of its own, because it makes harder (sometimes a lot) to figure what OP really wants/needs.</p>
<p>BTW, in such situations I often find the main question/problem statement repeated a couple of times in the text, sometimes the paragraphs are ordered strangely (e.g. question asked first, repeating the title just below it, the actual problem/research/thoughts described after that etc.) - in short, the <code>Thanks!</code> is usually a sign that there is something in need of fixing. If there ain't, I suppose it's best to let it be.</p>
<p>NB this is also, not surprisingly, along the lines of what e.g. Olin says on this matter.</p>
<p><sub>As a side note: Greg, you got my +1 for <code>or one of the million other ways to write an insincere, impersonal "thank you"</code> - that's the main problem with such <code>Thanks</code> IMO - they usually don't make me <em>feel</em> better <em>(regardless of the fact that's not what Q/A is about for me)</em>, but they usually make the Q/A worse in terms of readability & content.</sub></p>
| 5185 | 2015-03-26T18:10:05.207 | |discussion|editing|reviewing| | <p>Occasionally, I see a question on the main site that ends in</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Thanks!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>or</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Thanks for any help that you can give.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>or</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>or one of the million other ways to write an insincere, impersonal "thank you".</p>
<p>I've read <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/2950/270967">on the main Stack Exchange Meta</a> that we should edit these out: they're noise, and they don't add anything to the question. I think that's how it works on Stack Overflow, where the number of questions is much greater than what we see here. However, EE:SE is much smaller and more personal, and people might have different opinions.</p>
<p>Should I be editing these out?</p>
<p>(I guess my question also applies to</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Hi,</p>
</blockquote>
<p>and</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Would appreciate any insight you have</p>
</blockquote>
<p>and</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[insert name at bottom of question]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>)</p>
| Should I be removing "Thanks!"? |
<p>Yes, questions on how to teach some aspect of electrical engineering are on topic. We don't get many questions like that, but there have been some good ones that were well received and well up-voted. For example:</p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/50460/4512">Illustrating op amp feedback without control theory</a><br>
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/83155/4512">Design a cheap 1.5V / 12V DC motor driver for high school students</a><br>
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/56578/4512">What is / how can I get a student-safe power supply for electronics projects?</a></p>
<p>To avoid the question being too opinion-based, make sure to ask something specific. For example, <i>"How do I keep students interested to get to how transistors work?"</i> is too open ended, but <i>"What would be a good experiment to demonstrate in front of a class to show how a BJT works?"</i> would be better.</p>
| 5200 | 2015-04-08T14:12:54.000 | |discussion| | <p>I recently learned there is a stack site <a href="https://matheducators.stackexchange.com/questions">dedicated to math educators</a>. I lurked around a little and found some very, very interesting questions (such as <a href="https://matheducators.stackexchange.com/questions/41/what-is-a-good-handwriting-font-for-mathematics">this</a>).</p>
<p>I am no teacher at all (I'd like to become one though) but I think that there are some among the frequent users of this board. I also think that sharing experience on how to explain our beloved EE would be great because teaching a subject is one of the (if not the) most noble things you could do. This <em>is</em> a teach 'n learn board after all.</p>
<p>I don't have any particular example question in mind, I can try to think of some though, I was thinking of something like "Do you think that analogy X is good for concept Y" or "Usually A is taught before B but for x, y and z I think it should be the opposite".</p>
<p>I know you guys are already screaming "Primarily opinion based you fool!" but I actually read the help center and the last section, that I copy here for you, gives me some hope:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Some subjective questions are allowed, but “subjective” does not mean “anything goes”. All subjective questions are expected to be
constructive.</strong> What does that mean? Constructive subjective
questions:</p>
<ul>
<li>inspire answers that explain “why” and “how”</li>
<li>tend to have long, not short, answers</li>
<li>have a constructive, fair, and impartial tone</li>
<li>invite sharing experiences over opinions</li>
<li>insist that opinion be backed up with facts and references</li>
<li>are more than just mindless social fun</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>Do you think that a "teaching question" would be on topic? If yes, do you feel that some sort of limitations or rules should apply? Which ones?</p>
| Is it okay to ask teaching questions? |
<p>Seems OK to me, given that you keep the questions specific. Personally, I think you'd be better off in chat asking how to find a good consultant to get it done for you. I suppose that depends on how important it is that you get it right quickly, and what it will cost if you get it wrong.</p>
| 5203 | 2015-04-09T15:38:39.900 | |support| | <p>I'm a software engineer who works for a small unnamed company, however the firmware department has all quit together over a dispute about wages in the company(mainly because the marketing guys earn more). now I'm needing to write an EEPROM and I'm not sure if I'm allowed to ask on this site for tutorials and help in what certain things mean on the data sheet but like on SO these questions may not be allowed so I thought better ask here first before I post on the main site</p>
| Is it ok to ask for help getting started |
<p>Arduino mod here. I've been asked to migrate the question back to EE, but in this case I'm inclined to leave it on the Arduino site.</p>
<p>I think it's a decent question and is potentially within the scope of either site. The main reason I'm not migrating it back is because it's been answered. The goal of migration (according to the Stack Exchange guidelines) is to ensure a question has the best chance of a good answer. It seems to have got that now so re-migration seems unnecessary.</p>
<p>However, I agree with those who are saying it shouldn't have been migrated to us in the first place (or at least not quite so quickly). The question was about the shift register, not the Arduino itself. If it had been lingering for several days with no answer then it might be different. Please try not to jump-the-gun though.</p>
| 5211 | 2015-04-15T18:06:07.040 | |discussion| | <p>why was <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/164973/turning-all-35-leds-on-sequentially-with-mm5451">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/164973/turning-all-35-leds-on-sequentially-with-mm5451</a> migrated.</p>
<p>It has nothing to do with the Arduino, it is a general ee question. Is this another baseless "because they have an sucky Arduino" migration?</p>
| why was Turning all 35 leds on sequentially with MM5451 migrated |
<p>A (new) feature is that if you suggest that a question is a duplicate, the original asker can agree with you and the question will be closed immediately (as a duplicate).</p>
<p>Meta.SE link describing the UI and behavior:
<a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/250930/161579">https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/250930/161579</a></p>
| 5233 | 2015-04-28T01:35:38.693 | |discussion| | <p>Just curious. I marked <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/166960/1322">a question</a> as a duplicate an hour or so ago, and came back later to see if it had indeed been closed. It had, and I expected to see a list of names after mine, or at least one more name besides mine, i.e. a moderator.</p>
<p>Instead what it said was "marked as duplicate by tcrosley, Community"</p>
<p>What does Community mean in this context? I've never seen that before.</p>
<p>I know that Community magically brings back unanswered questions to the active list every so often, and she (somehow seems like a she) "owns" Community Wiki answers. Not sure what else her superpowers are.</p>
| What does it mean to have a question immediately marked duplicate by "Community"? |
<p>According to their site scope, dev questions are off topic. Dumb. Apparently those questions belong on Stack Overflow.</p>
| 5237 | 2015-05-01T18:11:32.573 | |discussion| | <p>Why was <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/167520/is-there-a-way-to-simulate-hc-06-bluetooth-module-communication-with-android-dev">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/167520/is-there-a-way-to-simulate-hc-06-bluetooth-module-communication-with-android-dev</a> rejected as a migration out? I saw it hit the android stack but now it is back there and closed. </p>
<p>This question is purely about Android usage and development and emulation, and only tangently about electronics.</p>
| why was http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/167520/ rejected as a migration out? |
<p>Yes some salutations are blocked automatically at the start of posts, it looks like you've hit one of the rare cases where it's a false positive. You can see the following answer that shows the regular expression used to remove them:</p>
<p><a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2950/should-hi-thanks-taglines-and-salutations-be-removed-from-posts/93989#93989">Should 'Hi', 'thanks,' taglines, and salutations be removed from posts?</a></p>
| 5242 | 2015-05-08T11:34:32.897 | |support| | <p>I can't start an answer with "Hi-z" (this one: <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/169579/4245">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/169579/4245</a>)</p>
<p>I had to stick it in back-ticks to effectively escape it.</p>
<p>Without that the "Hi-z" was changed to just "z".</p>
<p>Is this Stack Exchange thinking I'm being needlessly familiar and chatty?</p>
| Oddness starting a post with "Hi-z" |
<p>I believe it's going to be rolled out to all sites and the only reason the release has been staggered is because of changes needed to upgrade the CSS style sheets. There's a summary here of which sites have been done already and which are planned and that includes EE.SE:</p>
<p><a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/253359/list-of-communities-with-base-css-updates-completed">List of communities with base css updates completed</a></p>
<p>If you look at the revision history you'll see progress on the remaining sites is slow but steady, but I'd expect it to be completed within <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/19514/203972">6-8 weeks</a>.</p>
| 5244 | 2015-05-09T06:00:26.763 | |feature-request| | <p>I have seen many stack exchange sites have modified their user-page and started using the <a href="http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2015/04/two-new-user-pages-one-new-stat-this-ones-big/">new user-page</a>. Why EE.SE isn't? </p>
| Why EE.SE is not using new user-page? |
<p>Sorry, but this is unlikely to happen</p>
<ol>
<li>It's something new and (somewhat) confusing to use. It does not lower any barriers to add schematics.</li>
<li>We already have a built-in schematic editor, CircuitLab</li>
<li>Using software to make a human-readable schematic is <em>hard</em>. Sure, two components are easy, but 5-10 can be impossible.</li>
<li>Such software does not exist (to my knowledge). StackExchange doesn't develop MathJax, CircuitLab, or the syntax highlighting, and they probably wouldn't develop this.</li>
<li>StackExchange has an agreement with imgur to host images. As long as you upload the file directly, (which is really easy) the image will be there as long as necessary.</li>
</ol>
| 5263 | 2015-06-07T14:50:45.807 | |feature-request| | <p>I'm not happy uploading screenshots everytime I have a question about a circuit. Besides that, SE itself does not host the images used in the posts, which might lead to broken links in the future.</p>
<p>Can we have a code that generates a circuit after compilation? Analogous to MathJax in math.SE in order to type formulas.</p>
<p>It can be similar to the syntax of current simulation programs, for example, the code</p>
<pre><code>$
V1 N001 0 1
R1 N001 0 100
$
</code></pre>
<p>would display a circuit having a 1 V DC supply connected to a 100 Ohm resistor and showing a ground connection.</p>
| Code to represent circuits |
<p>For your own posts, you can use:</p>
<pre><code>user:me
</code></pre>
<p>This doesn't work for display names, and won't ever work, because names are not unique.</p>
| 5271 | 2015-06-10T12:26:31.783 | |feature-request| | <p>I know that you can limit searches to just your own posts by typing:</p>
<pre><code>user:usernumber
</code></pre>
<p>in the Search box, e,g, "user:1322 fpga" (since I am usernumber 1322) to search all my own posts (questions and answers) that include fpga in them.</p>
<p>But what's with this usernumber business? Why can't I just type in a username like this?</p>
<pre><code>user:tcrosley
</code></pre>
<p>Doesn't seem to be much of a stretch to convert the latter into the former.</p>
| Searching your own posts by username |
<p>I only saw this question just now and haven't gone back to look at the history. However, two problems immediately struck me:<ol></p>
<p><li>Too many bad assumptions.</p>
<p><li>Too many different questions.</p>
<p></ol></p>
<p>1 makes it difficult to write a simple answer, so it's easier just to close. It's a bit like trying to answer <i>"Since tomatoes only grow on rocks, why are they always purple?"</i>.</p>
<p>2 makes it difficult to answer since you either have to answer a lot of questions or it's not clear what the question really is. These questions are too broad in scope, which is one of the close reasons here.</p>
<p>You may have some misconceptions and a bunch of questions, but this site works best when you don't first try to lecture, and then only ask one question at a time. If there are misconceptions behind that, they will probably be explained. That will probably help clarify other questions. If there are still other questions after that, ask them one at a time, and make sure your new questions take into account things you've learned from previous questions.</p>
| 5274 | 2015-06-12T13:32:19.557 | |discussion| | <p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/175166/where-to-put-fuses-with-a-new-relay-added-to-a-car">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/175166/where-to-put-fuses-with-a-new-relay-added-to-a-car</a></p>
<p>And maybe suggestions on how I can improve it?</p>
<hr>
<p>I wanted to get a more complete answer that answers my question of:
Where do I put the fuse in automotive circuitry?</p>
<p>I am also asking clarification on background knowledge that may or may not affect this question. e.g. electricity flow, electron flow, proton flow, etc.</p>
<p>I mention the headlight circuit, but I am trying not to limit the question to just the headlight circuit. This is more about the automotive system in general and how fuses work and how/why electricity flow directions affect the way the fuses work or not in whatever component circuitry in the automotive system.</p>
<p>I am sure much of the background knowledge stuff applies to more than just the automotive, but I am unsure of exactly what and how so I ask this question for clarification.</p>
<p>References:<br>
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/95016/how-the-current-flows-in-a-car?rq=1">How the Current Flows in a Car?</a><br>
answer mentioning different flow types: <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/95049/66759">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/95049/66759</a></p>
| Why is this a bad post, im too noob to understand |
<ol>
<li>Not a good fit for the main Q&A board. Questions like this routinely get closed as opinion-based.<br>
Should be alright for our <a href="http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/15/electrical-engineering">EE.SE chat</a>.</li>
<li>Could work on the main Q&A board, provided that everything else is good with the question.</li>
<li>Polls "suggest me a uC" routinely get closed. This kind of information becomes outdated quickly. It's also <strike>religion-</strike> opinion-based.</li>
</ol>
| 5281 | 2015-06-30T18:58:43.010 | |discussion| | <p>Is asking suggestions on EE stack exchange on topic?</p>
<p>For example: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>I'm looking for a intro semiconductor textbook, what are titles of books that have helped you?</p></li>
<li><p>My circuit design for this problem looks like this, is there any suggestions for me to improve?</p></li>
<li><p>I'm looking for a beginner microcontroller, what are MCUs you have worked with that had documentation, guides and are generally user friendly?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I'm just trying to get a clear answer.</p>
| Is asking suggestions on topic on EE stack exchange acceptable? |
<p>The first question, <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/179429/4512">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/179429/4512</a>, is one of the poster cases for a bad question, since it's no question at all. I voted to close on account of this not being a show and tell site, and downvoted to kick the OP in the butt for dumping crap on us.</p>
<p>If something related to this were properly asked, then it could easily be too broad. To me it reads as <i>too complicated</i>, which usually means too many things would have to be considered in the answer to be a good fit here. <i>Too broad</i> is the closest close reason we have, and it usually fits <i>too complicated</i> pretty well. Another could be <i>unclear</i>, since I find myself reading it then thinking "Huh? What did he say", and reading it again. Actually at that point I just vote to close as <i>unclear</i> and move on.</p>
<p>The second question, <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/141100/4512">Connecting PC and embedded system via USB</a>, is at least a question. This one also reads <i>too complicated</i> to me, but from the first pass reading it seems that maybe someone with more patience and specific knowledge of what the OP is talking about could possibly write a useful answer. Then seeing it has a answer, and that had 4 upvotes, I feel the best thing to do is just leave it alone and move on if you don't want to delve into it. That's what I did.</p>
<p>If this question didn't have any answers, then I could see the point in closing as <i>unclear</i>, since it refers to this USB3300 thing without any definition or link to a datasheet, mentions "ULPI" without definition, and the general hand waving level seems a bit high. At first glance it doesn't seem to qualify for <i>too broad</i> as it appears something reasonably specific is being asked about. However, without really understanding the question, that may be a incorrect conclusion.</p>
| 5292 | 2015-07-09T20:29:41.100 | |discussion| | <p>I have been much more active on Stack Overflow than here, and realize that the question closing guidelines may vary a bit. I'd like some help making sure I understand this site's definition of "Too Broad". </p>
<p>I recently came across <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/179429/49184">this EESE question</a>, and flagged it for closure as too broad. However, a few months back, I answered <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/141100/49184">this EESE question</a> and didn't flag it. Looking back at it now, it seems just as broad as the one I flagged.</p>
<p>Are one or both of these questions too broad by EESE's standards? If not both, what makes one Too Broad and not the other one? Should I have avoided answering the second one to discourage overly-broad questions?</p>
<p>Note: I have read through <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/q/3003/49184">this MEESE question</a>, and don't think either of my examples fit the criteria described in the accepted answer for a question to <em>not</em> be "too broad". Am I being too critical of my example questions?</p>
| Is this question too broad? |
<p>I'm not real interested in reviewing every decision, but I can provide some rough numbers for discussion.</p>
<p>There have been about 30 migrations to Arduino since July 1, and about 120 Arduino tagged questions that stayed over that same time period. One in 5 is getting migrated.</p>
| 5313 | 2015-08-02T06:31:12.360 | |discussion| | <p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/182864/arduino-relay-shield">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/182864/arduino-relay-shield</a> was migrated to the Arduino Beta stack. Aside from it having NOTHING to do with Arduinos from the meat of the question (will this new design work?), it seems it was blindly migrated. Was this a request by OP or what?</p>
<p>As no response is forthcoming, it's obvious that one Mod has decided that Arduino questions are off topic, despite established community policy that they are on topic, and that questions are not supposed to be migrated to beta stacks against standard Stack Exchange policy as well. He will typically snipe any question he feels is ""off-topic"" to be migrated out within minutes of it being posted. This is unacceptable. Moderators are not supposed to dictate policy, or ignore the community, they are supposed to enforce what the community decided on.</p>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/YsUNS.png" alt=""></p>
| Why was http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/182864/arduino-relay-shield migrated? |
<p>Closing that question was inappropriate. It may well be that there is nothing one can do from inside LT Spice to use the specific processor more efficiently, but that's what the question was about.</p>
<p>Perhaps the difference is that I've never used LT Spice, so it wasn't obvious to me at all that the question wasn't about some little-know app configuration, or perhaps other suggestions on how to optimize a particular simulation (really, there aren't some relvant control for that in LT Spice?).</p>
<p>Those that argue that this is asking how to change the laws of physics can only be saying that because they already know the answer. If there were some controls inside the program to allow more effective use of different processors, I doubt these people would be closing the question. This means the OP can't know the question is close-worthy without knowing the answer to the question he's asking, which is unreasonable to ask.</p>
<p>Instead (assuming there are in fact no tweaks in the program), the proper action is to answer the question stating that there are no such tweaks, and that's all you get. That may not be the answer the OP wished for, but is still a valid and useful answer.</p>
| 5333 | 2015-08-14T03:22:55.523 | |discussion|closed-questions|on-topic|close-reasons| | <p>I really cannot understand why <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/185597/ltspice-iv-uses-50-of-processor-no-more-no-less">this question</a> about LTspice settings was abruptly downvoted and, moreover, closed in almost no time.</p>
<p>OK, it wasn't the best question one could expect, but it was comprehensible and it did show a moderate effort to understand what was going on under the hood.</p>
<p>What really struck me was the reason for closing it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This question does not appear to be about electronics design within the scope defined in the help center.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What?!? A question about a SPICE simulator is not on topic here? And where else would it be on topic then? On StackOverflow? SuperUser? Any idea? </p>
<p>And that reason is <em>blatantly wrong</em>, <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic">help-center excerpt</a> (emphasis mine):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the theory and <strong><em>simulation</em></strong> of electromagnetic forces</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If it is not on topic, then I wonder why <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/search?q=altium+is%3Aquestion">similar questions on, for example, Altium designer</a> aren't subject to the same treatment! <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/174131/altium-slow-from-too-many-primitives">Just one in particular</a> (the first I found about an efficiency issue).</p>
| Why a question on LTspice settings is not "on-topic"? |
<p>As a general mention, if you put a decent amount of effort in an answer, then it is in your interest that the question is not closed. If you understand the question enough to offer a useful answer, try to edit the question to improve it, upvote it, or mention (in the question comments) why the question is OK. Closure is the first step towards (potential) deletion of a question.</p>
<p>The close system is intended to prevent this situation from happening in the sense that ideally the question would have been closed before anyone posts an answer. The first close vote came right as Olin posted his answer, and Andy posted about 30 minutes later. The first close vote puts it in the Close Vote Review Queue, where it gained four more close votes.</p>
| 5335 | 2015-08-15T02:02:48.833 | |discussion|bug| | <p>In the last few days I've noticed several closed questions getting deleted. This would be unremarkable if I had been noticing a steady drizzle of these all along, but I haven't. Maybe this has something to do with how I noticed the recent deletions, which is by some unusual rep changes. That would only happen if I answered a question that was ultimately closed, and had non-zero rep from that answer.</p>
<p>However, this brings up the question of when/if closed questions are deleted. Many closed questions are total crap, and I'd expect them to be deleted quickly. Others may be poorly asked, but yet gather some decent answers. Does the system just delete all closed questions eventually, does a mod have to clean them out, or something else?</p>
<p>For example, see <i><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/149885/4512">DC Motor reversing relays using a micro switch</a></i>. It was poorly asked and I can see why it was closed, yet Andy and I both wrote useful answers that I don't remember being covered here otherwise. If a automated process eventually deletes closed questions, then that's just the way it is, but if a human looks at each one, then what's the criterion for deletion?</p>
<p>Related to this, there seems to be a bug in how the rep change from such a question is accounted for. I got one up vote and one down vote on the deleted answer, for a total of +8. I'd expect to loose that 8 when the question is deleted. Yet the rep for the day shows both a -8 and a -2 for that answer, which I don't undertand. On the other hand, the rep total for the day looks like it's calculated for a net -8 due to the deleted question. Please understand I'm not quibbling about the miniscule rep difference, but either there is a bug to be pointed out or I've got a misconception about how the system works that I'd like to clear up.</p>
| When are closed questions deleted? |
<p>There are (currently) 35 <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/simulator" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'simulator'" rel="tag">simulator</a> questions, and 355 <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/simulation" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'simulation'" rel="tag">simulation</a> questions. While there <em>could</em> be a distinction between the two tags, in practice there isn't. </p>
<p><em>Edit</em>: With a community vote of 3 in favor, 1 against, the tags will be merged.</p>
| 5338 | 2015-08-15T15:32:15.473 | |discussion|status-completed|tag-synonyms| | <p>I've not the required rep to use the usual tag synonym proposal procedure. I think <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/simulator" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'simulator'" rel="tag">simulator</a> should be made a synonym for <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/simulation" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'simulation'" rel="tag">simulation</a>. There's already such a pending proposal for that. Probably a mod should step-in and act accordingly.</p>
| Making [tag:simulator] a synonym for [tag:simulation] |
<p>Any edit of a question changes the activity value of a question. Any activity of a question will push it to the top of the active question list, the default sortation of the front page. That is by design.</p>
| 5347 | 2015-08-19T17:26:20.323 | |discussion|tagging|retagging| | <p>About an hour ago user Paebbels went on on a tagging spree for "Lattice" (The PLD manufacturer) so of the "TOP QUESTIONS" about half are about Lattice parts, this seems undesirable because a small percentage of electrical engineering is PLD's and a very small percentage of PLD's are Lattice. Does this work itself out? Because right now this looks more like "Lattice stack exchange" than "Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange"</p>
| Adding a tag is moving a bunch of similar questions to the top of the "Active list" Is this desired behavior? |
<p>As a relative newbie, I've found datasheet links in answers to be incredibly valuable. If you itch to put in a link, <em>go for it</em>.</p>
<p>However, if it's not fun or is dragging you down, don't. This place is supposed to be both useful and fun. Don't burn out or fret over a little detail like datasheets.</p>
<p>Unless we could get a script that automatically says "You mentioned the LM317. Would you like a datasheet with that?"</p>
| 5353 | 2015-08-25T04:40:04.240 | |discussion|editing| | <p>We all know how important are datasheets in EE design so we appreciate users when they link to datasheets. </p>
<p>However, sometimes an otherwise good question is posted which lacks datasheets links, so the usual practice is to ask the OP in a comment to provide the links. Alas, I've collected some experience in doing this and I discovered than many newbies, especially hobbyists, have some trouble finding the right datasheet or they don't even know what a datasheet is. Moreover, new users don't know what are our policies regarding datasheet links, so they may link to some vendor's product page instead of direct-linking to the PDF on a manufacturer's server.</p>
<p>The fact is that sometimes I grow tired of this janitorial work of writing a comment like "please provide a link to. ... blah, blah" and then reply to "datasheet? what is that?" or "I can't find it on SuperCoolGoods, Inc. website" and simply edit-in the question (or answer, sometimes) to provide the links myself. Ok, it is less educative for the OP, but sometimes I have little time and I deem it is better spent on making the post better, instead of trying inducing the OP to learn how to do it himself.</p>
<p>In editing the post I try to be the less intrusive as possible (if no other editing is needed), so if the OP mentions, say, an LM317, I simply add a link around the part number without modifying the wording.</p>
<p>Sometimes, however, the post is so conceived that this cannot be done (part numbers only referred to in the schematic, for example), so I usually restrain myself from editing, although I feel an itch to add something like a BOM at the end of the post like:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Links to relevant datasheets:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/lm317.pdf" rel="nofollow">LM317</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.fairchildsemi.com/datasheets/TL/TL431.pdf" rel="nofollow">TL431</a></li>
<li>...etc...</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>So my question boils down to this: <strong>is it acceptable to directly append such a list of datasheet links to questions when it would be impossible or very difficult to edit the post in a less intrusive way?</strong></p>
| Should I edit-in datasheet links straightaway? |
<p>The SE crew is tweaking the rules which seems to have retro-active effect. The changes are related to <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/266696/254079">this discussion</a>. As far as I understand, a <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/213020/254079">similar thing was done in 2013 event</a>.</p>
<p>Suggestion: As you review these new late answer, review the questions too.</p>
| 5388 | 2015-09-29T19:32:20.570 | |support|late-answers|review-queue| | <p>I just opened up my review queue, and there are 409 late answers. I've gone through a few of them, and they range in age from over a year old, to posted today. Was something changed in the way the late answers queue works? <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2811/76-first-posts-in-review-queue">Related</a>?</p>
| Did anybody else just have a ton of late answers pop up in their review queue? |
<p>Sorry about that. We accidentally <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/267281/155160">included a wrong file in another file</a>.</p>
| 5405 | 2015-10-02T17:56:45.430 | |bug|status-completed| | <p>Sometime earlier today, I started getting this alignment problem on all User Profile pages on EE.SE (both main and meta sites). See an example below:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Nr9es.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Nr9es.png" alt="User Profile glitch"></a></p>
<p>I added the red rectangles to show the empty spaces that appeared in place of the usual content.</p>
<p>Is it just me? I tried it on Chrome and IE and both showed the same problem.</p>
<p>Here's another screenshot showing more page contents. It looks like the rest of the page is shown on the left column. Before the glitch, the content used to be distributed among two columns.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/MOppP.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/MOppP.png" alt="User Profile glitch 2"></a></p>
| What's wrong with the User Profile Page alignment? |
<p>It happens when a question contains one of your favorite tags, so you must have one of microcontroller, audio or embedded selected under your favorite tags. I'm pretty sure it has been a feature quite a while (although I don't use it myself) so maybe the color scheme has just changed under the new layout which makes it more apparent. But I guess more likely you've probably just added some favorite tags?</p>
| 5418 | 2015-10-07T11:46:24.847 | |discussion|questions| | <p>Why there are few questions which has yellow background instead of normal white in EE stackexchange. Is there any priority or something? Is this something related to the new design? What does this mean?</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/eNzSU.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/eNzSU.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
| Yellow colored questions in EE stackexchange? |
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/3XD5e.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/3XD5e.png" alt="Are you damn sure about destroying electical?"></a></p>
<p>I was. I also blacklisted the tag. Please look over <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/untagged">untagged questions</a> to provide correct tags or vote to delete.</p>
| 5421 | 2015-10-07T20:05:43.787 | |discussion|status-completed|tags|tag-cleanup| | <p>I got thinking, and the <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/electrical" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'electrical'" rel="tag">electrical</a> tag is pretty dumb. What's everyone think about nuking, banning, and retagging the affected questions? There are 197 at the moment, 30 of which are single tag.</p>
| The "electrical" tag |
<p>I think the [constant] tag is an easy decision: all of the questions in the tag have other tags, so nothing would be untagged after it's removed. I vote to burn it.</p>
| 5426 | 2015-10-08T18:20:29.103 | |discussion|tag-cleanup| | <p>I noticed an <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/131699/51760">old question</a> about time constants which is tagged with <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/time" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'time'" rel="tag">time</a> and <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/constant" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'constant'" rel="tag">constant</a> as if the asker intended to tag the question with <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/time-constant" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'time-constant'" rel="tag">time-constant</a> (which does exist). Then I noticed <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/137764/51760">another one</a>.</p>
<p>I think both of these questions should be tagged <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/time-constant" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'time-constant'" rel="tag">time-constant</a>.</p>
<p>But what about <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/time" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'time'" rel="tag">time</a> and <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/constant" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'constant'" rel="tag">constant</a>, which have 68 and 11 questions, respectively?</p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/time" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'time'" rel="tag">time</a> seems to be useful for some of <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/time">its questions</a>, such as those which involve determining system time, measuring a time, or perhaps to refer to time domain as opposed to frequency domain. On the other hand, there are questions about settling and charging time for which it may not be appropriate, and there are questions which should instead be tagged with the existing and more specific <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/lifetime" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'lifetime'" rel="tag">lifetime</a> (e.g. <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/155723/51760">this one about battery lifetime</a>).</p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/constant" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'constant'" rel="tag">constant</a> doesn't seem to be particularly useful for any of <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/constant">its questions</a>. It is mostly used in questions about constant voltage, constant current, constant power, etc. There is already a <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/constant-current" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'constant-current'" rel="tag">constant-current</a> tag, and in any case <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/voltage-source" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'voltage-source'" rel="tag">voltage-source</a>, <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/current-source" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'current-source'" rel="tag">current-source</a> or <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/constant-current" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'constant-current'" rel="tag">constant-current</a>, and <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/power-supply" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'power-supply'" rel="tag">power-supply</a> seem to be better tags for these questions.</p>
<p>What should be done with <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/time" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'time'" rel="tag">time</a> and <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/constant" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'constant'" rel="tag">constant</a>? Should they be removed entirely? Should we simply clean up those questions tagged with them that can be re-tagged with more specific tags? Should we not bother?</p>
| Clean up "time" and/or "constant" tags? |
<p>Yes, Nick tends to knee-jerk migrate any post that merely mentions Raspberry Pi or Arduino, without considering whether the question is really appropriate for the destination site.</p>
<p>I've undeleted, reopened and edited <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/191535/11683">your original question</a>, and added a comment. Note that it is still borderline off-topic, since it's really about the use of existing devices rather than electronics design. But I'm going to err on the side of calling it a system-level design question. Let's try to keep it from crossing the line.</p>
| 5431 | 2015-10-11T23:31:46.540 | |discussion|migration| | <p>Originally I made this question on the Electrical Engineering site but it was migrated to the Rasberry Pi site. </p>
<p><a href="https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/q/36627/34975">https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/q/36627/34975</a></p>
<p>It was later closed as off topic on the raspberry pi site - a decision I agree with as it the fact my scenario uses a Pi really has no bearing on the question posed.</p>
<p>So is the question I asked off topic for this site as well or was someone being a bit over zealous?</p>
| Post Moved to Rasberry Pi Site |
<p>Here's what I'll propose:</p>
<ol>
<li>Retag all questions tagged <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/shield" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'shield'" rel="tag">shield</a> that refer to EMC shielding to <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/shielding" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'shielding'" rel="tag">shielding</a></li>
<li>Get rid of any non Arduino shield questions tagged <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/shield" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'shield'" rel="tag">shield</a></li>
<li>Merge <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/shield" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'shield'" rel="tag">shield</a> into <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/arduino-shield" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'arduino-shield'" rel="tag">arduino-shield</a> and <strike> make <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/shield" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'shield'" rel="tag">shield</a> a synonym mapping to <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/arduino-shield" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'arduino-shield'" rel="tag">arduino-shield</a>.</strike></li>
<li>Change the <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/arduino-shield" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'arduino-shield'" rel="tag">arduino-shield</a> [wiki]<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/tags/arduino/info">1</a> to include a reference to <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/shielding" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'shielding'" rel="tag">shielding</a></li>
</ol>
<p>I'm suggesting that we make <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/shield" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'shield'" rel="tag">shield</a> map to the Arduino usage to reduce workload. If you look at the <em>majority</em> of the questions in <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/shield" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'shield'" rel="tag">shield</a>, they are Arduino. I suspect EMC questioners would be more likely to distinguish between the two usages, and would result in the fewest false taggings.</p>
<p>(upvote/downvote as you see fit, and I'll revisit this in a bit.)</p>
<hr>
<p>I ended up retagging 3 out of the 34 tagged questions that were EMC related, and I merged the remainder into <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/arduino-shield" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'arduino-shield'" rel="tag">arduino-shield</a>. The shield tag should delete itself automatically in a day or so as long as nobody adds a new question. We'll try it this way and see if it sticks. Below is an image of the tag dialogue after getting rid of the shield tag:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/x7RHS.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/x7RHS.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
| 5452 | 2015-10-19T17:04:05.277 | |discussion|status-completed|tags| | <p>Prompted by <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/196104/why-are-arduino-peripherals-called-shields">this</a> question, I'm bringing up the <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/shield" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'shield'" rel="tag">shield</a> tag. Searching "shield" under tags brings up: <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/shield" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'shield'" rel="tag">shield</a>, <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/shielding" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'shielding'" rel="tag">shielding</a>, and <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/arduino-shield" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'arduino-shield'" rel="tag">arduino-shield</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/shielding" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'shielding'" rel="tag">shielding</a> is exactly what you would expect it to be, referring to EMC. <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/shield" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'shield'" rel="tag">shield</a> seems to be a synonym of <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/arduino-shield" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'arduino-shield'" rel="tag">arduino-shield</a>. I don't have the tag rep to propose a synonym, but why not merge them? Thoughts?</p>
| The "shield" tag |
<p>Here are my proposed actions for this tag:</p>
<ol>
<li>Start working on retagging all single-use instances of <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit'" rel="tag">circuit</a> using <a href="http://data.stackexchange.com/electronics/query/372728/find-questions-with-a-single-tag-now-case-insensitive?Tag=circuit" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the SEDE query from Passerby</a> right now. (Everyone can do this).</li>
<li>Delete the tag administratively, and blacklist it. </li>
<li>Finish retagging any question in <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/untagged" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'untagged'" rel="tag">untagged</a></li>
</ol>
<hr>
<h3> Regarding "circuit-design" </h3>
<p>This tag, as mentioned, was originally deleted way back in 2011. As envisioned, this tag could encompass a large number of questions (say 20%-30%), since designing circuits is a major part of EE. I am against bringing this tag back, as I don't think it would be useful for categorizing questions, and it would have the temptation to go back and add it to a bunch of old questions.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> Marked as Status Complete on 11/10/15 due to <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit'" rel="tag">circuit</a> being cleared out.</p>
| 5455 | 2015-10-20T02:35:22.007 | |discussion|status-completed|tags|tag-cleanup| | <p>Despite the <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit'" rel="tag">circuit</a> tag wiki saying "<strong>This tag is nearly useless</strong>" and "nearly useless. Consider using more specific tags to narrow your question down." -- which would seem to discourage its use -- the <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit'" rel="tag">circuit</a> tag is one of the most popular tags (currently the 10th most popular). But just quickly scanning the newest <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit'" rel="tag">circuit</a> questions, those that are tagged only <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit'" rel="tag">circuit</a> with no other tags either seem to be poor quality questions, or could more accurately be tagged <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit-analysis" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit-analysis'" rel="tag">circuit-analysis</a> or <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit-design" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit-design'" rel="tag">circuit-design</a>.</p>
<p>Passerby kindly provided a data analytic link for single-tag <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit'" rel="tag">circuit</a> questions:
<a href="http://data.stackexchange.com/electronics/query/372728/find-questions-with-a-single-tag-now-case-insensitive?Tag=circuit" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://data.stackexchange.com/electronics/query/372728/find-questions-with-a-single-tag-now-case-insensitive?Tag=circuit</a></p>
<p>I initially thought questions that are tagged only with the vague <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit'" rel="tag">circuit</a> seemed to actually be about circuit analysis. But several of these questions are asking for help with circuit design, so maybe <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit-design" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit-design'" rel="tag">circuit-design</a> should be re-activated.</p>
<p>The more specific tags <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit-analysis" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit-analysis'" rel="tag">circuit-analysis</a>, <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit-protection" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit-protection'" rel="tag">circuit-protection</a>, and <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/integrated-circuit" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'integrated-circuit'" rel="tag">integrated-circuit</a> seem useful and should be kept.</p>
<p>Suggested action:</p>
<ul>
<li>unlock <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit-design" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit-design'" rel="tag">circuit-design</a> and use as a complement to the existing <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit-analysis" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit-analysis'" rel="tag">circuit-analysis</a></li>
<li>lock the vague/"nearly useless" <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit'" rel="tag">circuit</a> tag to prevent new questions using this tag</li>
<li>gradually retag the best single-tag <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit'" rel="tag">circuit</a> questions</li>
<li>retag only a few at a time, to avoid spamming the "active questions" page</li>
<li>most of the <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit'" rel="tag">circuit</a> questions are really about <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit-analysis" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit-analysis'" rel="tag">circuit-analysis</a> or <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit-design" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit-design'" rel="tag">circuit-design</a></li>
<li>delete any useless <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit'" rel="tag">circuit</a> questions</li>
<li>repeat until bliss is achieved</li>
</ul>
<p>Alternate action:</p>
<ul>
<li>change the tag wiki to declare that <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit'" rel="tag">circuit</a> really means questions about how to design circuits, and to use <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit-analysis" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit-analysis'" rel="tag">circuit-analysis</a> for questions about how something works.</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit'" rel="tag">circuit</a> is one of the biggest tags, and will probably need a lot of time and effort to fix. But these "please don't use me" tags remain an attractive nuisance as long as they're available.</p>
<p>Interestingly, this very topic was discussed way back in 2011 at the dawn of time, when both <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit'" rel="tag">circuit</a> and <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit-design" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit-design'" rel="tag">circuit-design</a> were removed. It's not clear when or why <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit'" rel="tag">circuit</a> came back while <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit-design" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit-design'" rel="tag">circuit-design</a> did not.
<a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/845/remove-circuit-tag">Remove circuit tag?</a></p>
<p><em>(Note: an earlier version of this request was posted 2015-10-08, but was subsequently deleted to avoid pulling focus off another tag discussion. Since then there's been more tag cleanup requests so I think it's worth opening to discussion.)</em></p>
| The "circuit" tag |
<p>Looks like a pretty vague tag, and not very widely used -- looks like only 17 questions "in all time" and 4 in the past month. The most upvoted questions tagged <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/divide" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'divide'" rel="tag">divide</a> seem to be about:</p>
<ul>
<li>Arithmetic division (1/x) (i.e. multiplicative inverse) on a microcontroller or in HDL</li>
<li>Frequency division (i.e. prescaler)</li>
<li>Analog division of Voltage (analog computer / operational amplifier)</li>
<li>A circuit analysis question about current division in parallel resistors</li>
<li>and most recently, a downvoted question that seems to be about separating an 8 bit number into two 4 bit fields.</li>
</ul>
<p>I guess it may add some value as clarification when paired with another tag, but by itself it's pretty ambiguous. I think the value of having question tags is to make it easier to find relevant questions (for those who bother doing research before posting), and also makes it possible for subject matter experts to notice new questions with that tag.</p>
<p>There is already an existing tag <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/voltage-divider" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'voltage-divider'" rel="tag">voltage-divider</a>, so perhaps </p>
<ul>
<li>create <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/frequency-divider" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'frequency-divider'" rel="tag">frequency-divider</a> (for prescalers and counters producing one output frequency from a higher input frequency. Not to be confused with frequency-division multiplexed RF modulation.)</li>
<li>create <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/arithmetic-division" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'arithmetic-division'" rel="tag">arithmetic-division</a> (for microcontroller or FPGA/HDL calculating arithmetic 1/x or performing integer modulus division)</li>
<li>create <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/analog-computer" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'analog-computer'" rel="tag">analog-computer</a> (for operational amplifier circuits that perform math operations such as add / multiply / divide / log / exponent )</li>
<li>retag all 17 questions as appropriate</li>
<li>burninate <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/divide" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'divide'" rel="tag">divide</a>.</li>
</ul>
| 5462 | 2015-10-31T10:26:48.287 | |discussion|tags| | <p>Can anyone figure out what it's supposed to be about? It has no usage guidance and anything from voltage/current/frequency dividers to floating-point division algorithms seems to be in there.</p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/divide">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/divide</a></p>
<p>There are no tags for divide<strong>r</strong> or division.</p>
<p>We probably don't want the SO tags as-is, but for the sake of comparison:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/division">https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/division</a> "In mathematics, division (÷) is an arithmetic elementary operation."</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/divide">https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/divide</a>: "Separate or be separated into parts" (Meh) They also have a <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/split">"split"</a> tag.</p></li>
</ul>
| The "divide" tag |
<p>I disagree with Nick on this one. Your first question was a very generic question relating LCD display resolution to power consumption — an important <em>engineering</em> question for anyone in the business of designing such systems, and very much on-topic for this site.</p>
<p>Your second question related strictly to the use of a particular device, not its design, and is indeed off-topic here.</p>
| 5464 | 2015-11-01T19:43:18.163 | |discussion|on-topic| | <p>I have asked <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/77696/27002">this</a> question on how LCD/LED size influences energy consumption in mobile devices. I was very doubtful, if this question is on topic, and thus placed a lot of explanation in end paragraph.</p>
<p>I have received certain number of upvotes, three great answers and a comment, that this question is valid for this side.</p>
<p>Being "armed" with such arguments, I have asked <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/198095/27002">a very similar question</a> on how WiFi being enabled or not influences energy consumption in mobile devices.</p>
<p>Question was closed as off-topic, then attempted to be migrated to Super User, where migration was rejected and SU's question again closed as off-topic.</p>
<p><strong>What am I missing? How can question on correlation between LCD/LED size and energy consumption be on-topic, while similar question, on corerelation between WiFi and energy consumption (both questions in context of mobile devices) be off-topic?</strong></p>
| Are questions on energy consumption on-topic here? |
<p>Peronally, I write it as IIC, and have done so consistantly here on EE.SE. It stands for "Inter Integrated Circuit". I dislike cutesey abbreviations like I<sup>2</sup> for double-I.</p>
<p>It should be plenty clear enough what IIC means, it's nicely searchable, and more accurately indicates what it's abbreviating anyway. Cutsey "squared" notation be damned.</p>
| 5492 | 2015-11-28T08:54:02.133 | |discussion| | <p>Some questions involving I2C have been edited to I²C. They refers to Inter-Integrated Circuit, according to Wikipedia, is <code>pronounced I-squared-C, a multi-master, multi-slave, single-ended, serial computer bus invented by Philips Semiconductor (now NXP Semiconductors). It is typically used for attaching lower-speed peripheral ICs to processors and microcontrollers. Alternatively I²C is spelled I2C (pronounced I-two-C) or IIC (pronounced I-I-C)</code></p>
<p>What is the preferred spelling on EE.SE? Should spelling being i2c, I2C, or I²C, or something else?</p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/91796">The recent edit</a> to <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/203076/">I2C bit banging</a> is why I bring this up. Even the url is not handled correctly by the SE system, as the ² breaks the automatic url recognition. A search for <code>i²c</code> will only bring up results for <code>IC</code>.</p>
| I2C vs I²C, naming convention |
<p>This is another one of those really dumb tags proliferated by people that don't know better. After a cursory glance at the usage, I would be in favor retagging and banning it.</p>
| 5497 | 2015-11-28T17:52:54.443 | |discussion|tags| | <p>What is the generic <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/system" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'system'" rel="tag">system</a> tag supposed to be about? There's already <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/control-system" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'control-system'" rel="tag">control-system</a> and at least the most recent "system" questions are just of the latter kind. It would take a bit of stamina just to survey what went into the generic system tag...</p>
| The "system" tag |
<p>I just cast the last close vote on your question, and gave you a -1 for good measure.</p>
<p>I personally find it obnoxious to have to chase down pertinent information to a question. No, I'm not going to follow a link to get such information. A link to reference information, like to a datasheet, is OK. Even then, if the question is about something specific in the datasheet, that small piece should be copied directly into the question.</p>
<p>I'm not getting paid to be here, and have no obligation to answer your question. Put another way, you are asking me for a favor. Expecting me to do your work for you in properly assembling a question so that I can then do you a favor is insulting and disrespectful.</p>
<p>Since I didn't follow the link, I don't know what you are asking, so I voted to close since the question is unclear. The downvote is a way to say <i>screw you</i> for the disrespect.</p>
| 5498 | 2015-11-28T22:33:53.317 | |discussion|down-votes| | <p>What might I do to improve the question <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/181419/81679">How to gather data about how weight is distributed by feet on a surface over time?</a>? It is linked to a similar question that was upvoted a bunch, so wondering how I might improve it to make it more useful for the site.</p>
| How to improve this question? |
<p>Could be okay, but be specific about what you are asking. For example, are there certain specs that you don't know how to interpret? Do you have a specific kind of project in mind that might require a specialized DMM? </p>
<p>If you just ask "which one is better?", the answer will be "Read the specs for each and see which one meets your need for a lower price".</p>
<p>Even if you ask, "how often will I need a capacitance measurement function?" that's an opinion or anecdote based question and the answer depends entirely what kind of project you work on.</p>
| 5510 | 2015-12-07T18:36:44.883 | |discussion| | <p>Can I ask a question about which one of two multimeters would be better to buy or it will be closed? I don't want a comparison between a lot of them as it would be opinion-based but just between 2 of them.</p>
| Comparison of 2 multimeters |
<p>I'll throw in that there are a few other criteria and reasoning behind the rules, and varying degrees of flex in the rules. And to be pedantic, "too broad" and "off topic"are mostly orthogonal criteria. Let's try to avoid "off topic" in general. </p>
<p>Most close reasons are in place to basically protect the community from high effort, high frustration, low reward questions. Imagine a random user asking the same question that Olin did, expecting a long-form answer. It would be closed as too broad since demanding a long answer from multiple users is outside the norm. Another aspect is that the subject material may be so wide ranging that knowing which part is relevant to the asker is difficult. </p>
<p>If you provide the answer along with the question, that provides a good counter argument to the "too broad" complaint. You are still required to follow the other rules. </p>
<p>If the only thing you're worried about is the question being closed as "too broad", then go for it. Post the answer along with the question. Try doing just one to see if you like how it is received. </p>
| 5530 | 2015-12-15T21:22:42.660 | |discussion| | <p>Every once in a while, I'll stumble upon a high-rep member who will have written a question and then a very lengthy answer that very effectively answers it. <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/28251/rules-and-guidelines-for-drawing-good-schematics/28255#28255">Case and point, a great Q/A by Olin</a></p>
<p>I want to make sure, are these on topic given they are usually inherently broad questions or is there a few things to watch out for when making these types of questions? I have a couple topics that I want to write a Q/A on.</p>
<p>I feel like it wouldn't be an issue if I had the answer already written up so I could answer it right away as to avoid confusion. </p>
| Are broad explanation type questions on topic? |
<p>@SethKitchen - I'd consider it "Off-topic -- Other". It was moderator closed, because it took a moderator to deal with the bounty sealing it open, but it doesn't take a rocket engineer to see that it would last about 5 minutes to get reclosed with 14 downvotes, no upvotes, a string of comments from users who would have voted it closed, and its own special metapost about how the bounty prevented closure. Just because nobody can think of a SE to put it on, doesn't mean that it belongs here. Maybe there's an Area51 proposal to consider. – Scott Seidman 8 mins ago </p>
| 5534 | 2015-12-16T15:16:40.567 | |discussion| | <p>I'd like to appeal <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/205537/what-video-streaming-audio-streaming-is-used-in-microsoft-hololens">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/205537/what-video-streaming-audio-streaming-is-used-in-microsoft-hololens</a></p>
<p>This question: <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/57104/how-to-appeal-a-closed-question">How to appeal a closed question?</a> says I should link it here and explain my case.</p>
<p>While my question may or may not be suited for Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange (it was being debated and from the massive amounts of downvotes I got I probably am incorrect). But the reason given for why the question was put on hold makes no sense (the use of electronic devices are off-topic). In no way am I asking how to use a HoloLens. </p>
<p>I feel like there was no good radio button option to put my question on hold so they chose some random one. If my question is going to be put on hold I want to it to be for a legitimate reason (ie computer engineering questions do not apply at electrical engineering stackexchange).</p>
<p>Please reopen, then if you must, put on hold for a legitimate reason. </p>
<p>UPDATE:
The reason this angers me is I posted very similar questions on other SE sites which I was upvoted for. Only this site destroyed my question. And it was not clear to me what the issue was. The next time I ask a question, it will probably be just as bad because I still don't understand what was wrong with that question other than it was NOT "electrical engineering" enough. But to myself I will continue to think, mob mentality makes it so much easier to downvote/close/call off-topic answers you can't answer than to take the time to find the answer.</p>
| Appeal Hold on Question |
<p>Looks like this tag was cleaned up in 2016. If it shows up again, remove it on sight.</p>
| 5550 | 2015-12-24T22:00:51.647 | |discussion|tags|tag-cleanup| | <p>The <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/problem" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'problem'" rel="tag">problem</a> tag is impossibly, uselessly vague. Any question posted on this site is <em>implicitly</em> a "problem"! The questions under this tag have nothing at all in common, beyond that many of them are rather low-quality. </p>
<p>Can we please burninate and/or blacklist this tag? It's useless.</p>
| There's a problem with [problem] |
<p>When you upload images using the "add images" button, the images get copied to Imgur, and multiple resolution copies are made in addition to the original. By default, the original is selected. However, you can easily change which one is used by appending a modifier to the link. For a visual example, consider the following image from your post:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/RbokL.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/RbokL.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
<p>The link for that picture is <a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/RbokL.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://i.stack.imgur.com/RbokL.png</a>. Now the resized copies must be different links, so they are creatively named RbokL<strong>s</strong>.png, RbokL<strong>m</strong>.png, and RbokL<strong>l</strong>.png. Note that I am taking the existing hashed base file name (RbokL) and adding either <strong>s</strong>, <strong>m</strong>, or <strong>l</strong> for the <strong>s</strong>mall, <strong>m</strong>edium, or <strong>l</strong>arge version. </p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/RbokLs.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/RbokLs.png" alt="enter image description here"></a><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/RbokLm.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/RbokLm.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/RbokLl.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/RbokLl.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
<p>Keep in mind that you need to upload them to the Imgur service for this to work (that's what the add picture button does). Your post just links to the wikimedia pictures, which is plagiarism (no attribution) and will break if they ever change the link. Please fix that.</p>
| 5553 | 2015-12-27T02:23:18.690 | |support| | <p>The answer is <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/206482/exactly-what-is-the-role-of-the-zero-order-hold-in-a-hybrid-analog-digital-sampl/207926#207926">this</a>, and the two PNG images in the middle are just too big. i dunno the syntax for how to do this and i only am copying syntax from other answers.</p>
<p>thanks,</p>
<p>r b-j</p>
| can anyone tell me how to scale down PNG images i put in an answer |
<p>If you were to edit your original, answered question, then either:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the original answers would no longer make sense, which is undesirable because it makes the page less useful and takes away from the answerers' efforts, or</p></li>
<li><p>you would be asking two questions in one post, which is undesirable because then the answers are likely to answer one and miss the other, or do a good job on one and bad on the other.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>For these reasons, editing a question like this is a bad idea, and you should instead ask a new question (and, as already said, link to the old one if you like, but make sure it stands on its own as well).</p>
<p><em>However</em>, if your new question is really just being more precise about old question, so you're more tweaking “what makes a good answer” than “what is the question”, then it <em>might</em> make sense to edit the question. Be careful.</p>
<p>A different case: If you've asked a question that <em>hasn't</em> been answered (or has been answered extremely poorly), then editing it into a better question about the same topic does no harm.</p>
| 5558 | 2016-01-02T04:42:17.453 | |discussion|asking-questions| | <p>I have asked a question and received some comments and an answer. Having solved the original problem, I now have another question related to the same circuit.
Should I ask a new question or edit the original question? If I should ask a new question, should I link to the new question from the original question?
My thinking is that it should be an ongoing discussion regarding the same circuit but I'm not sure of proper etiquette.</p>
| Asked question, then had a related new question |
<p>Your perceptions seem to be somewhat skewed by the organization in which you're working. In the projects in which I've been involved, it's the <em>hardware</em> guys that are writing the HDL and the <em>firmware</em> guys that are writing the microprocessor code — sometimes for microprocessors that are embedded inside the FPGAs.</p>
<p>And I disagree that an HDL is "in essence a programming language." HDLs describe hardware, which is fundamentally parallel, while conventional programming languages are fundamentally sequential. It takes very different mindsets to do a good job in both.</p>
| 5562 | 2016-01-04T13:09:37.653 | |discussion|asking-questions| | <p>Question... Where to draw the line with regards to HDL on EE.SE? This is akin to Arduino questions that appear on EE.SE where most are migrated but some aren't.</p>
<p>VHDL & Verilog are used to describe logic that could target hardware (be it ASIC, FPGA etc...) but they are in essence a programming language. Thing is ... writing in VHDL/Verilog has both hardware & software considerations. </p>
<ul>
<li><strong>SOFTWARE</strong>: how to describe a certain logical sequences</li>
<li><strong>HARDWARE</strong>: synthesis querks (Actel & if/elsif… tree’s), mapping onto an LUT, timing etc..</li>
</ul>
<p>When you compare StackOverflow (SO.SE) there are 2743 VHDL tags & 2,390 verilog tags. When the same tags are compared on ElectricalEngineering (EE.SE) there are 668 VHDL & 601 verilog thus SO.SE is geared towards accepting VHDL/Verilog coding queries. </p>
<p>Not all of the EE.SO questions that are tagged VHDL or VERILOG are valid EE.SO queries. Take <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/10041/how-to-convert-a-floating-point-number-to-integer-using-vhdl">How to convert a floating point number to integer, using VHDL?</a> shouldn’t this have been migrated to SO.SE </p>
| HDL and the EE board |
<p>I read your question and as a beginner myself I found that you tried to explain the question to the best of your ability. The problem is that some users respond in short aggressive ways. The response to your linked question and even this one here are clear examples of that happening. It would be great if one day we could block users but until then just do your best to ignore them or find other places to ask beginner questions.</p>
| 5597 | 2016-02-01T20:30:33.557 | |discussion| | <p>I'm new to electronics, and i made a schematic of something i wanted to try to build. </p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/214546/charging-two-18650s-with-solar-panels-and-usb-charger">I asked something and included a picture of what i meant</a>, but a battery i linked apparently had too much mAh to be realistic.</p>
<p>Instead of correcting me and explaining that a 18650 couldn't hold that much power, i was ridiculed by someone that didn't even bother to try to answer my question. </p>
<p>I thought this was strange, but I didn't expect a moderator to do the same. Instead of correcting the other commenter, or helping me, he made some stupid joke about how <em>fire</em> was in the name of the battery and that my battery would catch fire because it had so much mAh. </p>
<p>From the "<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/site-moderators">reputation & moderation</a>" page in the help center i got this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>(moderators) are patient and fair, lead by example and show respect for their fellow community members in their actions and words</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I don't think this moderator did any of that, is that normal?</p>
<p>thank you</p>
<p>edit: you guys are right, im an idiot, i should have done more research. i won't remove the post so others dont make the same mistake</p>
| condescending moderator |
<p>It's usually covered in that site's <strong>Help → Tour</strong>. (Menu at very top of page.)</p>
| 5603 | 2016-02-04T12:45:15.363 | |discussion|guidelines| | <p>I understand that there are different desires for what types of questions this community should be addressing. It is dificult to know when a question does not fit. Is there a guidelines somewhere?</p>
| Guidelines for types of questions |
<p>Silent rep changes. Some events, when done quickly enough after the initial event, will just be silently adjusted, removing both events. If enough time passes (I think 1 UTC day), it will no longer silently change.</p>
<p>Accepts and Unaccepts. Down vote and Up vote. Bounty. User removal.</p>
<p>If enough time has passed, you'll notice a new event line on your reputation in your profile, and it will say Unaccept.</p>
<p>As @Matt has pointed out, -15 would indicate a removal of the 15 rep accept bonus.</p>
| 5613 | 2016-02-08T20:11:05.113 | |support|down-votes| | <p>I answered <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/215738/why-do-we-need-to-find-the-current/215781#215781">this question</a> and it's showing up with a -15 in the achievements drop down. When I look at the question I've got one up-vote and no down-votes.</p>
<p>Anyone know what that signifies?</p>
| I've got a '-15' in achievements drop-down but can't see why in thread |
<p>What are the key pieces of information with respect to a motor that is needed when analysing a circuit & its control. </p>
<ol>
<li>terminal inductance</li>
<li>terminal resistance</li>
<li>BackEMF</li>
</ol>
<p>inductors, resistors, AC & DC voltage sources are available as is annotation. Just stating a load is a motor really doesn't help with circuit or control analysis. </p>
| 5617 | 2016-02-10T21:15:55.783 | |feature-request| | <p>If there is a way to add more symbols in the circuit editor, I think a motor symbol would be appropriate. There may be additional symbols people would want. Is this possible? Is it difficult?</p>
| Can additional symbols be added to the circuit button? |
<p>We couldn't make that change if we wanted to. The schematic editor and simulator is Circuit Lab's, and it's behind a paywall now. We're lucky they let us continue to use their software for free.</p>
| 5618 | 2016-02-10T21:19:58.247 | |feature-request| | <p>In the circuit editor when you do a time domain simulation you can only look at voltage. In traditional spice packages, its common to be able look at currents also. Usually this is done by highlighting a the port of a part (not the wire connecting two parts, thats a voltage). It would be nice to be able see the current. It would also be nice to type in simple equations to do power analysis. For Example: V(Node1)*V(Node2) or V(Node1)+V(Node2) or V(Node1)*I(Node2). Is this functionality that is desired by the community and could be implemented?</p>
| Circuit editor functionality - current scope |
<p>I'm not too sure what exactly you want. Perhaps these two questions (<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/211511/solve-a-circuit-with-the-nodal-analysis-1">1</a>) (<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/216848/solve-a-circuit-with-the-nodal-analysis">2</a>) are similar enough to merge, but the others aren't.</p>
<p>Homework questions are explicitly allowed. You can't get upset for someone asking about a homework problem - save that for the people who just post a picture of a homework problem and expect results. </p>
<p>I've looked through the questions, and they generally follow all the guidelines we like to see in homework questions:</p>
<ul>
<li>There is a clear schematic</li>
<li>Effort is demonstrated towards solving the question</li>
<li>The question is more about how to solve the question than begging for an answer</li>
<li>The writing is clear and the equations are formatted nicely</li>
</ul>
<p>Honestly, I don't see issues with the questions as they stand. If you say "they didn't learn" then I will hand it right back to you with "you didn't teach". I'm glad to hear that you didn't have any issues learning material with any of your studies, but not everyone learns that way.</p>
| 5624 | 2016-02-12T15:12:14.920 | |discussion| | <p>This new user has been walking forward with homework questions, and the irritating part is that he has not learned from previously asked questions, instead keeps looking for the answers.</p>
<p>So his approach involves setting a topic: nodal analysis, then enumerating it for a particular case. or more importantly, the question seems more about how to mathematically describe the current for nodal analysis.</p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/216784/solve-a-circuit-with-the-nodal-analysis-2">Solve a circuit with the nodal analysis (2)</a></p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/211511/solve-a-circuit-with-the-nodal-analysis-1">Solve a circuit with the nodal analysis (1)</a></p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/216647/how-to-find-the-current">How to find the current</a></p>
<p><strike><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/216848/solve-a-circuit-with-the-nodal-analysis">Solve a circuit with the nodal analysis</a> </strike></p>
<p>I don't that's ideal for this forum, nor would anyone who's curious to learn about a topic (KCL in this csae) should have to browse through multiple questions to gain full understanding of <strong>how to mathematically describe a current flowing through a branch</strong>. </p>
<p>Should these questions be combined to a single question, and the answer contain multiple cases?</p>
| Should we combine these questions? |
<p>If you want to <em>be a part of</em> EE.SE and do what's expected of you, then do this:</p>
<ol>
<li>Read the meta - Look at questions that have come up and the response to them and learn how the community makes decisions. </li>
<li>Learn how the moderation system works - Participate in moderating, read the help center on the guidelines for how to write good questions and closing questions. Realize that some decisions come down from SE's guidelines.</li>
<li>Read the help center for guidelines </li>
<li>Be nice and help other people. </li>
</ol>
| 5630 | 2016-02-14T23:20:54.977 | |discussion|new-users|meta|moderators| | <p>I am a newcomer to EE.SE and have asked and answered a few questions here over the past few months. I read nearly daily via my phone. I would like to contribute as much as possible since I gain so much from just reading through the daily posts, however as many Meta posts have addressed recently, there are several factors that seem to dissuade folks who are new to the field from posting/answering/commenting/ etc. </p>
<p><strong>Please note, I am not trying to address aforementioned factors in this question; let's all play nice</strong></p>
<p>What I <em>do</em> want to address is this: what are the expectations of the community leaders with respect to ordinary members who are new to the field? Since this is a community which exists to build a knowledge-center for the Electrical and Electronics Engineering field, how can ordinary members who are new to the field contribute to this end? Or can they?</p>
| What is expected of members of EE.SE? |
<p>While it'd sometimes seem nice to be able to take some of the garbage posters' heads in your hands, open the /tour page & help center too, thenforce them to sit there and read it... Unfortunately I don't think any of us have time for that, and most new users are simply not going to read & follow 'the rules' until they 'get in trouble' for braking them</p>
<p>As another possible solution (well, a partial one, at least) I'd like to at least see first questions/answers be <em>marked as such</em>, if not placed in a 'first posts,' 'quarantine,' or 'unfiltered' tab until the first post/late answer/low quality review has been done.</p>
<p>I don't think it has yet become necessary to impose a 'total lockout' lf questions/answers 'pending approval,' but I definitely see a benefit to reliability of information and ease of browsing if 'questionable' content is at least noted as such.</p>
| 5646 | 2016-02-17T20:57:57.743 | |discussion|feature-request| | <p>There are a lot of people with less than 10 experience or have posted less than 10 times that create problems for the community. Some of these problems can be seen in these posts.</p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3783/attitude-to-new-users-regarding-off-topic-questions">Attitude towards new users...</a>
<a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5597/condescending-moderator">Condescending Moderator</a>
Amongst others meta posts.</p>
<p>This leads to the community firing back in some cases. This could lead to alienation, which isn't necessarily a bad thing if the users don't want to contribute but may also throw off some people who really want to learn. I can't say that I haven't had my share of comments that wern't condescending. I think this could be solved with a technical solution. There needs to be a bigger barrier for new users with questions. Something needs to force them to read the rules and\or give them some incentive to write good questions. </p>
<p>Would this be useful to the community? </p>
<p>If so what are some ways this could be accomplished? </p>
| Problems with new users |
<p>I suggest that migrations or other actions taken out of a feeling of irritation toward a "lazy OP" who can't read the data sheet should be curtailed. This is a Q&A site. People come here because they don't know things. The whole point of the Arduino and Pi platforms in particular is that people can get involved with microcontrollers without having much of an electronics background. One can use a Arduino, for example, without even knowing what microcontroller is on the board, let alone reading the data sheet for it. So if you were never a beginner, and never asked someone a question that you could have answered yourself with a little research, then by all means, pile on. Otherwise how about some patience?</p>
| 5659 | 2016-02-19T15:53:56.540 | |discussion| | <p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/217643/sinking-80-ma-from-a-microcontroller-without-any-driver-circuit">Sinking 80 mA with a microcontroller without any driver circuit?</a> is a general question on parallel current sourcing capabilities, but it was single handedly closed and migrated to Arduino.Se. It has nothing to do with Arduinos specifically, and mentioned other platforms in the same sentence, like the Raspberry Pi, yet was migrated to Arduino.</p>
<p>It was rejected for that reason, and still remains closed here, as <strong><em>this question does not appear to be about electronics design within the scope defined in the help center.</em></strong> when it's clearly about electronics design.</p>
<p>Why?</p>
| Why was "Sinking 80 MA from a microcontroller without any driver circuit" migrated? |
<p>The orange indicator shows the (approximate) number of tasks awaiting a review. </p>
<p>The review page shows the number of tasks awaiting <strong>your</strong> review. This excludes the items you are not eligible to review: because you flagged the post, or voted to close it, or have reviewed it already, etc. </p>
<p>It's a pretty expensive process to identify which of the review tasks you are eligible for. So this is not done for the orange indicator, which is shown on every page load (SE has a lot of page loads...). In addition, the number it shows is cached. </p>
<p>Reference: <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/233535/review-counts-in-top-bar-and-review-dont-match">Review counts in top-bar and /review don't match</a></p>
| 5675 | 2016-02-23T05:18:40.860 | |support|review-queue| | <p>So having reached 10k yesterday, that triggers the next privilege of accessing the mod tools. As a result, there is now the little orange number on the top bar next to the review button. This used to (pre 10k) just show when there were edits pending but now shows up when anything is pending. Makes sense.</p>
<p>But I have a question. What does that number represent? For example, I've just been through the queues and whatnot and they are now empty as far as I can see, but yet the number of posts pending review shows 15:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/nUED2.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/nUED2.png" alt="Pending or not?"></a></p>
<p>Is there something obvious I'm missing?</p>
<hr>
<p><sup>p.s. I have refreshed the page and it is still there</sup></p>
| Review Queue - Posts awaiting review |
<p>Due to third-party intervention, the post has now been unlocked.</p>
<p>Further, after reflection, I felt the moderator in question had some good criticisms about my answer. I have <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/revisions/219945/10">edited</a> it accordingly, including working in a milder version of the 'target-audience disclaimer' from which the conflict arose. </p>
| 5689 | 2016-03-01T17:50:33.480 | |discussion|answers| | <p><strong>Context</strong></p>
<p>Yesterday I posted <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/219945/62533">this answer</a>, to <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/219734/62533">this question</a> on the development of LED illumination as an industrial product.</p>
<p>Possibly relevant is that my answer initially contained mention of, and Amazon links to, a specific product. This prompted a quite-valid 'spam' criticism in a comment, in response to which I edited out all reference to the product in question. I had debated about including the deleted material, and so didn't hesitate to remove it when challenged.</p>
<p>Anyways, also in comments, a moderator criticized some of the aspects of my answer. I attempted to respond to this criticism, but the moderator was not mollified. In an effort to put an end to the back-and-forth, I posted an <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/219734/why-did-leds-take-so-long-to-appear-as-light-bulbs#comment472230_219945">admittedly snarky response</a> (EDIT: now deleted at some point by someone other than myself), the audience of which I intended only to be the moderator in question. The mod then edited my comment, verbatim, into the head of my answer. I rolled back his edit; he re-rolled it back in, and so on. After a couple of these back-and-forth cycles, he rolled the disclaimer back into the post and locked the answer as 'pending content dispute.' </p>
<p><strong>Questions</strong></p>
<p>Regardless of the interpersonal conflict underlying these events, I feel a disclaimer of this sort is superfluous. An expert in the field will likely read the answer and think, "Well, duh." A non-expert will hopefully read the answer and think, "Huh! Didn't know that." </p>
<p>My questions:</p>
<ol>
<li>Is such a 'target-audience' disclaimer required for this question, per site policy?</li>
<li>If so, might I at least choose my own wording for it?</li>
</ol>
| Do I need to include a target-audience disclaimer in this disputed answer? |
<p>This markdown syntax makes the picture clickable:
<code>[![description][1]][1]</code><br>
When clicked, it behaves like an ordinary image file in your browser.</p>
<p>Example:
<a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/4QwAU.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/4QwAU.jpg" alt="description"></a></p>
| 5692 | 2016-03-02T15:56:27.167 | |support| | <p>I want to ask a question which has relatively wide schematic that would not be legible at the width allotted to SE questions.</p>
<p>Is there a way I can post the schematic so that readers will be able to view the wide image?</p>
| Large schematic handling |
<p>Because someone decided that there is something wrong with common courtesy. Frankly, I find it silly, and a waste of effort to edit such things out.</p>
| 5694 | 2016-03-02T21:47:21.177 | |discussion|editing| | <p>I was recently browsing EE.SE and came across <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/posts/220482/revisions">this</a> revision (Revision 2) by moderator Nick Alexeev on <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/220482/reading-a-light-dimmer-from-an-arduino">this</a> question. I understand the revision of the tags, but I'm wondering why the simple "Thanks for your help!" on the bottom was removed. The text doesn't detract from the quality of the question as far as I can see; it's something that I myself have written on my answers and questions. Is this revision proper formatting of an SE question, or was it an unnecessary edit?</p>
| Why was "Thanks for your help!" edited out of this question? |
<blockquote>but I specifically asked in the question if there might be a better stack where the question might be fit for migration.</blockquote>
<p>Not our problem. Off topic here is off topic here, whether we know of a better place for the question or one exists or not. We are not the help desk for the SE site or the rest of the internet.</p>
<blockquote>Apparently the community decided there wasn't.</blockquote>
<p>More likely they didn't want to encourage people coming here dumping random questions on us expecting us to tell them where those questions really should have been asked.</p>
<p>We are here to discuss electrical engineering, not how to use the internet.</p>
<blockquote>Anyway, while the only existing answer did provide some interesting information, it didn't really answer the question (see the edits for the resolution).</blockquote>
<p>I didn't see the question originally, but what Spehro said was the first thing that went thru my mind as I was reading your symptoms. It is actually a very reasonable answer to the information you provided.</p>
<blockquote>My meta-question is if I should just delete the question, since the community decided it was off topic anyway. Or leave it, since the existing answer is very interesting.</blockquote>
<p>Leave it.</p>
<blockquote>I'd rather delete it myself, rather than incur the negative rep and black marks of having the community delete or close my question.</blockquote>
<p>I'm not sure it works that way. I believe the algorithm that checks your posting quality and suspends your posting privilege if too low is not fooled by you deleting low quality posts. In fact, I think that makes things worse.</p>
<p>You probably can't delete it anyway since there is a upvoted answer. Put another way, you have no right to delete Spehro's answer, which is what deleting the whole question would do.</p>
| 5723 | 2016-04-05T02:18:08.103 | |discussion|close-reasons|off-topic| | <p>So I asked <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/226112/105571">a question</a>, which is now on hold. I get why it's on hold (off topic), but I specifically asked in the question if there might be a better stack where the question might be fit for migration. Apparently the community decided there wasn't.</p>
<p>Anyway, while the only existing answer did provide some interesting information, it didn't really answer the question (see the edits for the resolution).</p>
<p>My meta-question is if I should just delete the question, since the community decided it was off topic anyway. Or leave it, since the existing answer is very interesting.</p>
<p>I'd rather delete it myself, rather than incur the negative rep and black marks of having the community delete or close my question.</p>
| Off topic question on hold, no real answer |
<p>Either here on EE.SE (we had controller questions in the past), or on Engineering.SE (versed in heat transfer). </p>
<p>You could post it here first. If it doesn't pick up, then post a flag to the moderators with custom text along the lines of "<em>Please migrate this question of mine to Engineering.SE.</em>" We'll migrate it.</p>
<p><em>p.s.</em> Do not cross-post the same question to multiple stacks, though. StackExchange policy is against cross-posting.</p>
| 5738 | 2016-04-21T18:23:11.693 | |discussion|scope| | <p>I have built a pid controller that I am using to make yogurt, but I am having trouble tuning it because of the change of thermal conductivity during the culture. Where is the best place to ask about it EE.SE, Chemistry.SE, ENG.SE or Cooking.SE? I am afraid that pid questions would thoroughly confuse the folks over at cooking. Although Chemistry.SE does have a cooking tag, they have no pid tag or open pid questions, Eng.SE does have a pid tag, but my question is about the interaction of the software and the food. Where Should I ask?</p>
| yogurt on a pid controller: where to ask |
<p>As long as you are adding something new, it's not really a problem to make a new answer. You can also mention why other answers are incorrect in your answer, though try to avoid phrases like "The answer above" as the order can change.</p>
<p>You can also put a comment on the "wrong" answer as well.</p>
<p>It is easy to change the accepted answer from one to another, but if the user that asked the question hasn't returned to the site in 3 years don't expect your answer to become "accepted".</p>
| 5746 | 2016-04-25T15:05:10.910 | |discussion|answers|late-answers| | <p>Is there an accepted way of answering an old (3 years) question that has an accepted answer that I think is incorrect or giving misinformation?</p>
<p>Are comments to the answer the way?</p>
| Answering an old question that has an accepted answer |
<p>I'm sure this has come up on Meta before, I can't find it easily.</p>
<p>In previous discussions, almost everyone was in agreement that these sorts of questions are strictly <em>not</em> really within the remit of EE.SE and should technically be shutdown.</p>
<p>However, most everyone thought that there was enough of a historical momentum to these questions that we should just keep them. Call it puzzle solving.</p>
<p>So, yes, it is inconsistent with some of the other stuff that gets shutdown, but it is just a little quirk of this stack and is accepted.</p>
| 5755 | 2016-04-29T09:15:52.710 | |discussion|asking-questions| | <p>EE.SE has quite a few questions asking to identify unknown parts, usually ICs. These are quite rare, so I cannot say I'm annoyed by them. Yet every time I see one, I come to to think whether they are useful to anyone besides the OP.</p>
<p>In fact, these questions are essentially duplicates in terms of information one could reuse: </p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_integrated_circuit_packaging_types" rel="nofollow">identify the package</a>.</li>
<li>google for the package name plus the markings, try adding the word <em>datasheet</em> to the query.</li>
<li>try using <a href="http://www.random-science-tools.com/electronics/SMD_markings.php" rel="nofollow">IC markings</a> <a href="https://www.ecadata.de/ddv/mysucheca.php?F_SPRACHE=2" rel="nofollow">search engines</a>.</li>
<li>identify the IC manufacturer <a href="http://www.elnec.com/support/ic-logos/?method=logo" rel="nofollow">by logo</a> to refine the search, or search on manufacturer's website.</li>
</ul>
<p>Should we post these instructions somewhere and close "identify this part" questions which show no evidence of the OP performing a basic search?</p>
| Does the site benefit from "identify this part" questions? |
<p>That question is on hold since it's asking for our opinion what the OP can do. We have no way of knowing the OP's capabilities, nor is that about electrical engineering. This question is just as bad as the <i>"Does anyone know ..."</i> type of questions we get here occasionally.</p>
<p>If he instead had asked whether installing a resistor backwards matters electrically, then that would be extremely naïve but valid question.</p>
<p>You may say that interpreting the former as the latter should be understood. Maybe, but it's still annoying when people don't ask what they really want to know. Attention to detail matters in engineering, so sloppiness with language isn't tolerated, just like other types of sloppiness. Stop and actually <i>think</i> about the words you are using instead of blindly writing canned phrases. </p>
| 5763 | 2016-05-02T16:42:06.730 | |discussion| | <p>The question <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/231435/102305">Does it matter if i put a resistor in backwards?</a> is currently on hold:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"put on hold as unclear what you're asking..."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I realize some SE functions have limited, fixed vocabulary, so maybe it's on hold for a slightly different reason. But it looks to me like the question is asking a straightforward question that the comments suggest is perfectly clear to many people.</p>
<p>So far the answers are straightforward - electrically; no, but for circuit board inspection and validation purposes - possibly. </p>
<p>I'd like to add another answer in good faith and I feel it can contribute. I've left <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/231435/does-it-matter-if-i-put-a-resistor-in-backwards#comment503027_231435">this</a> and <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/231435/does-it-matter-if-i-put-a-resistor-in-backwards#comment503030_231435">this</a> comment asking that the hold be lifted so that I can add my answer, but I am not sure if this is the best way to make such a request, or if it's even <em>allowed</em> to make such a request.</p>
<p>Can I have some 'best-practices' guidance how best to <em>ask that another's question be taken off of 'hold' so I can contribute another answer</em>?</p>
| How to ask that another's question be taken off of 'hold' so I can contribute another answer? |
<p>Yes, but questions about the application of commercial products are specifically off-topic.</p>
<p>The reason for this is that without knowing anything about the design of the circuitry associated with the solar panel, it is impossible to infer anything about its behavior outside the applications specified by the manufacturer.</p>
<p>You would either have to get more detailed documentation from the manufacturer, or do some reverse-engineering in order to derive the information from the object itself. We WILL answer questions at this level, but you have to show significant effort and understanding on your own; otherwise, it becomes a hopeless case of "20 questions".</p>
| 5768 | 2016-05-05T15:30:59.773 | |discussion|on-topic| | <p>I asked a question <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/232319/automatic-adjusting-output-into-automatic-adjusting-input/">here</a> about two specific products and their use in conjunction with each other in an electronic circuit. The question was put on hold as off-topic, but I believe this was in error. In the defined community scope of reference, it clearly states </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This site is for electronics and electrical engineering </p>
</blockquote>
<p>And electrical engineering is defined as </p>
<blockquote>
<p>a field of engineering that generally deals
with the study and application of electricity, electronics, and
electromagnetism</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Therefore, asking about using two devices in conjunction with each other in an electric circuit is fully within the <strong>community defined</strong> scope.</p>
<p>If not, please do clarify.</p>
| Clarification of community scope |
<p>First, your answer was deleted and turned into a comment by a moderator. As long as your comment is relevant to the question, I'm not going to just delete it to enforce the rules, consider it some slack for the new users. Hopefully the new user will get 50 rep fast enough that it won't happen again. </p>
<p>If you keep posting comments as answers, we will stop turning them into comments and just delete them. And after that, the system will stop accepting answers from you entirely. </p>
| 5771 | 2016-05-08T12:03:25.913 | |discussion|comments|reputation| | <p>I noticed that although when I directly click "comment" under someone else's question I get reminded that my reputation is not high enough yet, if I answer a very short answer it gets converted as a comment on the original post.</p>
<p>I have no opinion whereas it's a good or a bad thing, I just wanted to point it out! If it's voluntary, why not let the users under 50 rep comment the OP's post (if they can do it anyway by posting a short answer)?</p>
| users below 50 rep can still comment OP |
<p>I'm going to go ahead and remove that tag. The existing tags <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/boolean-logic" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'boolean-logic'" rel="tag">boolean-logic</a> and <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/digital-logic" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'digital-logic'" rel="tag">digital-logic</a> fill the problem space fine.</p>
| 5774 | 2016-05-16T18:50:19.773 | |discussion|status-completed|tag-cleanup| | <p>There is a tag named <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/combinationalcircuits" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'combinationalcircuits'" rel="tag">combinationalcircuits</a> which has 12 tagged questions that seem to range from mostly combinational logic circuit type questions to one about power electronics. There was also another question just asked about resistors in parallel that used the tag (I've retagged that one).</p>
<p>It seems to be a rather useless tag and should probably be deleted (IMO). Doing so wouldn't leave any existing questions untagged nor make them harder to find.</p>
<hr>
<p>If not deletion, perhaps renaming it to <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/combinational-logic" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'combinational-logic'" rel="tag">combinational-logic</a> or something similar would make sense (and then remove the tag from a couple of existing questions). But I don't see much point in that given how few questions there are using the tag.</p>
| Tag Cleanup: [tag:combinationalcircuits] |
<p>In <em>general</em>, you should flag answers like that as spam. </p>
<p>In <em>this particular case</em>, it seems as though we the moderators didn't deal with the posts (by removing the link or deleting the post). It looks like this was merely an oversight. </p>
| 5777 | 2016-05-28T13:26:46.027 | |discussion|flagging|spamming| | <p>These two answers (from the same person) clearly promote pcbgogo, and the author is clearly affiliated (when you look at the profile, but it is not explicit when you read the answers). But it somewhat answers the question. Is that spam ? I don't want to flag lightly.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/111569/pcb-fabrication-vs-pcb-assembly/200092#200092">PCB fabrication vs PCB assembly</a></li>
<li><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/55826/pcb-prototyping-and-fabrication/200091#200091">PCB Prototyping and Fabrication</a></li>
</ul>
| Should this be considered as spam? |
<p>There are people, not being me, who think extra lines like that cause clutter.</p>
<p>I see the point of "Hello, ..." and "I have a very specific problem..." being removed, though the latter seems to be invulnerable to such scrutiny the last months. Those initial lines with <em>no information</em> make the overview/excerpt system pointless.</p>
<p>Personally, however, I do not see the point of removing final thanks.
Maybe some international (to me) element finds it clutter through inherent societal apathy. Whatever it be, someone decided to make it a rule (officially), for some reason, that such ends also do not belong.</p>
| 5782 | 2016-05-30T08:15:13.580 | |discussion| | <p>When I started out on EE.SE I asked a couple of questions with the "Thanks for help" line at the end because I wanted to express my genuine appreciation for people taking the time to answer my questions - only to find after 5 minutes people snagging it off.</p>
<p>Could I ask why this is? For the sake of appreciation and sacrificing one line, it seems pointless (except for those looking to earn the "editor" badge).</p>
| Why are "thankyous" depreciated on EE.SE? |
<p>I'm strongly tempted to delete the answer as "not an answer", regardless of the fact that it is the accepted answer.</p>
<p>Kevin Vermeer hasn't been seen around here in several years, and clearly has no interest in it any more. (For that matter, the OP hasn't logged in in 6 months, either.)</p>
<p>Here is my reasoning:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>First of all, any part of any answer that warns about the dangers of non-isolated supplies is just noise — the OP acknowledged the danger in the question itself.</p></li>
<li><p>The numbered answers that Kevin supplied are simply wrong.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Taken together, these mean that the entire post is not a valid response to the question in the first place.</p>
<p>I'd welcome any discussion, especially by the other moderators, before I act. There just doesn't seem to be any clear SE policy that applies directly to this situation.</p>
| 5788 | 2016-06-03T13:23:10.880 | |discussion|answers| | <p>More specifically, I'm talking about this answer: <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/5572/how-efficient-is-a-capacitive-power-supply/5589#5589">How efficient is a capacitive power supply?</a> (the second part of the answer, which is, I think, essential).</p>
<p>Despite the comments people have made on this answer, I must say it has already confused me a few years ago, and I recently saw it again. It has been accepted at the time, and still has >0 votes (even with all the downvotes). The user doesn't seem to be around anymore (although he has been very highly active at a time, it seems, and was having a very high rep - which adds to the confusion), so he certainly won't edit it.</p>
<p>Would it be good practice to edit it myself and use the strikeout style for the part that is wrong (still leaving it here so the comments and context still make sense) ? It would of course change the intent. But I'm afraid if it stays like that, it would confuse other people, as it did for me at a time.</p>
| What to do with wrong accepted answers on old posts? |
<p>The first example would be off-topic, because it's too broad and also the internet is riddled with advise about car electronics (not as easy as wall adapter power, even though instructables makes you think it is) and 12V (9V~36V+) to 5V generation. So some personal research should give you more than enough to start with and ask specific questions about if something is unclear.</p>
<p>The second is off-topic because of.... pretty much the same reasons.</p>
<p>In basis none of the topics are nescesarily off-topic, but any question requires you to first put in effort, using this website and/or others. Most electronics and electrical subjects have many articles available on reliable sites and if there's stuff unclear, or things you doubt, <strong><em>almost</em></strong> any question on that is on topic. So long as it is possible to write an answer to it in reasonable time (let's say a rule of thumb of 15 minutes or less) by an experienced hobbyist or professional. Spending more time on it, will then be up to us, if we want to.</p>
| 5791 | 2016-06-06T07:08:58.683 | |discussion|asking-questions|on-topic| | <p>I'd like to ask a serie of questions about power supplies, power solutions and other similar (as mentioned in title). For example:</p>
<ul>
<li>How can power microUSB-equipped device directly from car electrical grid?</li>
<li>Is there any diagram for making own miniUSB to microUSB adapter?</li>
</ul>
<p>But, I have a feeling that these are more like shopping questions or otherwise off-topic questions here and would like to confirm this before asking to not get all these questions mass-closed.</p>
| Are questions about cables, connectors, plugs, adapters and powering solutions on-topic here? |
<p>Migration policy is not a subject where the moderators agree. You get a flag resolution based on which moderator sees the flag in the queue. </p>
<p>Migration is something where the migrating mod makes a decision that cannot be easily undone or reviewed. If one moderator decides to migrate a question, it's gone.</p>
| 5794 | 2016-06-06T19:57:01.930 | |discussion|flagging| | <p>Is there any mechanism to apply the correct decision to all flag of a question?</p>
<p>I flag this post:<a href="https://arduino.stackexchange.com/questions/24930/can-an-attiny-print-results-to-a-console%20">Can an ATtiny print results to a console?</a> saying that it was better to be migrated to the arduino exchange. The flag was rejected by a moderator X than fewer hours later the post was effectively migrated to Arduino exchange. What is the management behind the flag, is it by the "feeling" of a moderator X that the flag is rejected or accepted? It is pretty inconsistent for the management of the forum that moderator X reject it than few hours later moderator Y migrated or close the question. </p>
<p>Should the decision of 1 moderator concerning a flag should be considered as the final decision to maintain consistency across the management of flag?</p>
| Flag management policy |
<p>A general review of a complex circuit would have to be classified as "too broad".</p>
<p>However, if you have specific questions about some particular aspect of your design that could be answered in a few paragraphs, that would be perfectly acceptable.</p>
| 5800 | 2016-06-11T13:05:13.950 | |discussion| | <p>I recently designed a board layout in Eagle and was thinking to post question so that anyone can review it and verify it as I am a beginner.<br>
This type of questions are ON topic or OFF topic on Electronics stackexchange. If they are ON topics where can I upload schematics or board layout. ?</p>
| Asking reviews about the designed circuit On topic or Off topic.? |
<p>Thanks for askng first!</p>
<p>Unless your question is specifically about the design of the electronic circuitry of the product, it sounds like it would be a better fit on the more general <a href="https://engineering.stackexchange.com/">Engineering.SE</a> site.</p>
| 5810 | 2016-06-21T13:12:12.060 | |support|specific-question| | <p>I have an idea for a sports equipment invention "a new product" that a track and field athlete can use to practice and train his sport. The technology involves a laser beam. I'm wondering if my idea is feasible and/or if it has already been done because we think the idea is good. Is there a more appriopriate place to ask about the feasibility of my product idea, or is it ok to ask it at electrical engineering?</p>
| Is this question ok for electrical engineering? |
<p>No answer in almost a week... It seems nobody really knows what is the policy on this.</p>
<p>I think it is because there is actually no clear policy. A previous <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/402/what-is-our-policy-on-dangerous-stuff">relevant discussion</a> here on meta also showed there were no official guidelines on this matter, although the general consensus seemed to be <em>"there should be no restrictions"</em>.</p>
<p>I also personally think that there should be no restrictions on questions asked, as long as answering them is legal (the only exception I know of being building <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomb-making_instructions_on_the_internet#Legislation" rel="nofollow noreferrer">bombs</a>).</p>
<p>Moreover, I am quite confident that export rules restrictions here are irrelevant. These rules control hardware, softwares in a few cases (mainly cryptographic software), but I'm pretty sure they don't apply to simple information like what we're sharing on this site. Exporting from where anyway? The servers location? The poster's location?</p>
<p>So I don't see any reason to rule out these questions, and if anyone had such reasons in mind, I think he would have made a post here already. So we can certainly consider anyone is free to ask how to make his stun gun even more lethal, how to switch the high voltage for his DIY electric chair, ... (as long as the question is well-asked and not too broad).</p>
<p>Now, anyone is also free <em>not</em> to answer, and I certainly won't, as I don't value much these devices and their use.</p>
| 5821 | 2016-06-28T19:38:54.297 | |discussion| | <p>I just saw in the review a question about a stun gun electric circuit which can deliver 20kV. Does the website has any guidance regarding potentially lethal circuits that the main point is to be a weapon? Also, are these questions under the authority of government concerning weapons export rules?</p>
| Do we have any guidelines toward weapons design? |
<p>I'm curious how often you anticipate this being used, and for what purpose. More than 9 times out of 10, a video in a question does nothing to clarify the answer, and (personally) I won't watch it anyway: I'd rather spend one minute reading a clearly written answer than waste several minutes watching a poorly lit, shaky video.</p>
<p>There are so few instances in which a video or sound byte is really <em>essential</em> to a post, that simply linking to an external video or audio host (of which there are many) seems completely sufficient.</p>
<p>Finally, as Olin mentioned, adding such functionality would only encourage the unnecessary use of such media, leading to even more low-effort questions.</p>
| 5824 | 2016-06-29T10:10:55.353 | |discussion|feature-request| | <p>I keep a request for uploading sound files (wma, amr, mp3, midi etc). animation-file in gif format is being already allowed (and helpful) , but some-other sorts of video files (video recording files) such as mp4, AVI, 3gp, etc. within a strict limit of file-size and time. </p>
<p>At the same-time, amazingly small SVG files (for still-image quite like png-s and gif-s) from wikipedia, could not be directly used here. If the spectrum of allowed formats for still-images slightly broadened, this website will basically be benefited.</p>
| Feature request for uploading small-sized sound and movie file, and SVG format still image files |
<p>Your question reads as if you have misunderstood the purpose of the electronics.stackexchange site. Please go and read its help centre, and check that this question makes sense in the context of electronics.stackexchange.</p>
<p>Anyone posting a question must understand the scope and purpose of the site, and accept that their question may get downvoted, closed or even deleted if it is not a good fit. </p>
<p>The community does not require anything more from a question than it fit the purpose of the site, and be clear enough to answer.</p>
<p>The community doesn't usually need to understand the motivation of the person who asks a question. The question needs to stand on its own merits. Why should we care why it is asked if it is a good question which people feel is worth answering?</p>
<p>As Olin has explained, some of the 'fates' make no sense. Giving the ability to mark questions as 'almost immediately deletable' is pointless because <em>we don't want those questions</em>. It would be better to have a 'Do not post, delete immediately' button next to the 'Post Your Question', and likely less web development work.</p>
<p>Also, who would be struggling with a problem, post a question, and mark it in anyway that might reduce the chances of getting a good answer? I find that very hard to imagine. So some of the categories make no sense. There might be an argument for using a homework tag. IMHO the others are purely confusing, and detract from the existing system's simplicity and elegance.</p>
<p>Also, who is better at categorising a question? The person who is stuck and doesn't understand how to answer it, or the people who propose answers, and feel knowledgable enough to vote and hence identify better or worse answers? It seems to me that the person asking the question may be the least qualified to make any value judgements.</p>
<p>Finally, you identified in a few of your comments questions which were downvoted then upvoted. E.g. <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/243414/what-is-the-function-of-picture-tube-charger">What is the function of "Picture tube charger"?</a> and <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/243612/how-crt-allows-use-of-ligh-guns-or-pens-etc">How CRT allows use of ligh-guns or pens etc?</a></p>
<p>It may have taken a few hours, but the results seems to have worked out fine. </p>
<p>That demonstrates that the existing system, without any changes works. Further, there is no reason to believe that accurate use of your categorisations by the person asking the question would have had any effect on the community answering it, or that your categorisations might have lead to a better outcome.</p>
<p>Finally, it is extra development work, which, IMHO, at best makes an existing simple and effective process more complex. So you need some evidence that their is a problem to address.</p>
<p>Your proposal appears to either cater for types of questions we do not want, or it saves no effort for people answering questions, and it asks for a value judgement from people asking questions, when by definition they don't understand the answer.</p>
| 5836 | 2016-07-05T19:17:55.673 | |discussion|feature-request|deleted-questions| | <p>This website, evaluates question only on the basis-of public-votes, where the asker do-not have any right to put any evaluation to own question. But there is need for judging the question also from the viewpoint of the asker's own. </p>
<p>The site requires downvotes, or mark for deletion etc. to distinguish 2 type of question ( type-1: some-of the questions are basic. They adds up the knowledge to future. And type-2 : that do-not adds-up significant-knowledge to the future. (Since this is a publicly-edited site, all-sorts of questions indeed come).</p>
<p>Now, these 2 (or actually many-more) -type of questions. It is as-if assumed, that, if a question attract more votes from other-user, it is useful. And if they accumulates some downvote ... then it is assumed that, the question has no importance for the future, and become prone to deletion.</p>
<p>But that is not the practical truth. In many-cases (though not all-cases), as an asker, I (i.e. creator of the question), feel some future-importance of the question, but since such- judgement is a subjective-process (same thing felt as different, by different-persons) ; often a good question is mis-rated by other users. Later-on, on further manually-correspondence and discussion, the rating get up-rides in a drastic rate, or sometimes get deleted before they reach to right person.</p>
<p>How it could be resolved?</p>
<p>No I'm not telling to stop downvote or deletion-system. but I'm telling to change the criteria for deletion. </p>
<p>The asker could define the type or quality of the question, by selecting some options/ categories/ form-fields. </p>
<p>(Since, On a problem/ question, only the asker (the creator) can tell the best.) </p>
<p>This will Not add-up a vote to the question, but will help the judges to better-understand the question, on the basis of asker's evaluations, and also will help to automatically (programically) slow-down the deletion.</p>
<p>Obviously in case of severe misrate by the asker/ vandalism ; moderators could re-evaluate the question.</p>
<p>EXAMPLES:</p>
<p>(These are just some examples. they could be further)</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/2Qh6h.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/2Qh6h.jpg" alt="Ask Categories"></a></p>
<p>Thus the website can ask categorie/ quality of the question, from the user; that would help a lot in sorting-work. ( Also, The website could warn the users to not-to-post homework-style question, or make sure it is a conceptual or rare (unavailable on web) question)</p>
<p>Also, the website should ask the user about what should be the fate of this question, in another form-field. (Also If it is a transient-requirement question, website could warn user. The website could warn the asker to ask such question in the chat-section).</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/86Kq9.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/86Kq9.jpg" alt="Ask Fate"></a></p>
<p>These will improve question-evaluation, will help to save proper-question to future for the right-person, and to reduce stack-overloads (bad-questions)by preventing (instead curing) programically, on basis of evaluation of </p>
| Feature-request- Some user-selectable categories for better filter, as-well stack-overflow |
<p>Community review is purposely designed to prevent any one user from dominating the process. Therefore, each user only gets to vote on a post just once.</p>
<p>Yes, that means that you'll sometimes get locked out in a situation like this. The most you can do at this point is to leave a comment that will guide other reviewers in the right direction. Or if you think it's urgent enough, raise a moderator flag on it and explain what the issue is.</p>
| 5843 | 2016-07-07T09:56:42.883 | |feature-request|exact-duplicates|closing| | <p>I'm aware the title is rather unclear. Couldn't manage to formulate it correctly.</p>
<p>I actually found this question:</p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/242033/half-bridge-with-dual-powre-supply-and-two-n-channel-mosfets">Half Bridge with dual powre supply and two N-channel Mosfets?</a></p>
<p>is similar to this one, which was asked previously:</p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/196203/is-it-possible-to-build-an-h-bridge-with-only-n-mosfets-and-these-other-compone/196207#196207">Is it possible to build an H-Bridge with only N-MOSFETs (and these other components)?</a></p>
<p>So, naturally, I went to close it as duplicate, so we can vote, etc... Unfortunately, I forgot it, but I had already voted to close it (as unclear), before an edit was made to make it more clear (<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/posts/242033/timeline">timeline</a>). So I can't do it.</p>
<p>I really think it is a duplicate. Shouldn't the fact that the question has been edited be relevant, and allow me to cast a new "close as duplicate" vote, although I already casted a close vote before? I mean, the question wasn't formulated the same at that time, and the close reason is different.</p>
<p>Maybe this belongs to the main meta, as well. Not sure.</p>
| Close as duplicate *after* I voted to close before question was edited |
<p>From the Stackexchange Terms of Service page:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the event that You post or otherwise use Subscriber Content outside of the Network or Services, with the exception of content entirely created by You, You agree that You will follow the attribution rules of the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license as follows:</p>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li><p>You will ensure that any such use of Subscriber Content visually displays or otherwise indicates the source of the Subscriber Content as coming from the Stack Exchange Network. This requirement is satisfied with a discreet text blurb, or some other unobtrusive but clear visual indication. </p></li>
<li><p>You will ensure that any such Internet use of Subscriber Content includes a hyperlink directly to the original question on the source site on the Network (e.g., <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12345">https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12345</a>)</p></li>
<li><p>You will ensure that any such use of Subscriber Content visually display or otherwise clearly indicate the author names for every question and answer so used. </p></li>
<li><p>You will ensure that any such Internet use of Subscriber Content Hyperlink each author name directly back to his or her user profile page on the source site on the Network (e.g., <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/users/12345/username">https://stackoverflow.com/users/12345/username</a>), directly to the Stack Exchange domain, in standard HTML (i.e. not through a Tinyurl or other such indirect hyperlink, form of obfuscation or redirection), without any “nofollow” command or any other such means of avoiding detection by search engines, and visible even with JavaScript disabled.</p></li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p>As for how you would cite it, you would use your Style Guide's rules for a single webpage. <a href="https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">For example, MLA Works Cited, Electronic Sources (Web Publications)</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong><em>Important Note on the Use of URLs in MLA</em></strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>MLA no longer requires the use of URLs in MLA citations. Because Web addresses are not static (i.e., they change often) and because documents sometimes appear in multiple places on the Web (e.g., on multiple databases), MLA explains that most readers can find electronic sources via title or author searches in Internet Search Engines.</p>
<p>For instructors or editors who still wish to require the use of URLs, MLA suggests that the URL appear in angle brackets after the date of access. Break URLs only after slashes.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Aristotle. Poetics. Trans. S. H. Butcher. The Internet Classics Archive. Web Atomic and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 13 Sept. 2007. Web. 4 Nov. 2008. ‹<a href="http://classics.mit.edu/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://classics.mit.edu/</a>›.</p>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p>Of Course, <a href="https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Best_practices_for_attribution" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the Creative Commons has their own suggestions for attribution</a>.</p>
| 5854 | 2016-07-10T21:09:11.363 | |discussion| | <p>The website contains many users who are skilled and know what they are doing in the field. For example if a person had to do a engineering report, is the stack exchange able to be to cited?</p>
| Can Electrical.SE be cited? |
<p><a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1398/what-does-so-have-that-we-dont-syntax-highlighting">This brings back memories....</a></p>
<p>As always, @dim makes good points as to how to explicitly set the code formatting language.</p>
<p>However, I will also add that if you can identify a tag where a lot of coding is involved in a dominant language, you can always bring it up on Meta.EE. At that point, we (the mods) can set the default code language for a tag. Lets be sensible here, meaning no code tags for <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/led" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'led'" rel="tag">led</a>.</p>
| 5877 | 2016-07-20T13:21:36.287 | |discussion|feature-request|tags|syntax-highlighting| | <p>I just added a "c" tag to make sure the code blocks are properly shown.
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/246993/stm32-sleep-mode-interrupt-gets-executed-but-the-cpu-stays-in-wfi">STM32 Sleep Mode: Interrupt gets executed but the CPU stays in WFI</a>. In this case, there was plenty of room for tags, but in some cases there isn't. Also, users simply don't know that if they specify the language as a tag, their blocks will read better-- so they don't.</p>
<p>Is there not a better way to format code blocks that don't require us to waste a tag to specify the language. I can understand the need to specify language as a tag in a programming stack, but not here, where programming is usually a secondary issue. </p>
| Wasting a tag to properly format code |
<p>These are some of the <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/dont-ask">guidelines</a> that EE.SE has decided upon. If you don't want to click on the link I'll quote it below. There are also good resources on asking questions <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic">here</a> and <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-ask">here</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page.</p>
<p>Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>IMO there are a lot of questions that are boarderline, if the question is boarderline I think the user should be warned attempt to fix it. I suppose the question could be closed also and that could be a warning, they can always edit and reopen it. (Which a lot of people can't figure out why and just leave it closed, another portion of users try to edit their question and fail to fix the problems, these questions should stay closed)</p>
<p>This problem happens because you have a few camps of people: Beginners and Experts, and those who participate in community and those who want an answer. It seems that there are more people who just want an answer and don't want to participate, or even format there question correctly. I think the community could be a bit more lenient in some cases, but only in cases where the question directly relates to electrical engineering. Why? because the dont ask help page also says this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If your motivation for asking the question is “I would like to participate in a discussion about ______”, then you should not be asking here.</p>
<p>However, if your motivation is “I would like others to explain ______ to me”, then you are probably OK.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If a user were to ask a question on the latter, it would be closed. And I think explanation questions should be closed, most of the time if users 1) Do sufficient research 2) Ask a good question, then the question of closing it shouldn't even come up.</p>
<p>Some questions get past the reviewing process, I don't think there are enough people that understand the guidelines of the site, and so bad questions get answered and they should be closed to get rid of the clutter.</p>
| 5880 | 2016-07-27T23:17:24.993 | |discussion|support| | <p>I have more experience on Stack Overflow than EESE, and I often come across questions here that strike me as too broad, but are either left open or even have upvotes. All of the following questions seem like "here are my requirements, design this for me" or "explain this massive complex topic" questions:</p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/37146/how-do-i-design-my-very-own-arm-based-processors">How do I design my very own ARM based processors?</a><br>
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/136086/how-do-i-design-a-current-transformer">How do I design a current transformer?</a><br>
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/171403/how-to-design-blinking-leds-circuit-using-analog-elements-only">How to design blinking LEDs circuit using analog elements only?</a><br>
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/153742/how-to-design-mutual-inductor-in-proteus-for-wireless-charging">How to design mutual inductor in proteus for wireless charging?</a><br>
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/216561/how-to-design-a-pattern-detector-state-machine-in-vhdl">how to design a pattern detector state machine in vhdl</a><br>
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/163306/how-design-a-circuit-to-control-a-switch">How design a circuit to control a switch?</a><br>
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/155676/how-to-program-enc28j60">How to program enc28j60??</a><br>
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/51194/how-to-design-a-state-feedback-controller-using-an-algorithm">How to Design a State Feedback Controller using an algorithm</a></p>
<p>I can think of a couple of explanations:</p>
<ul>
<li>EESE really does have a more relaxed definition of "too broad" than SO</li>
<li>There aren't enough people with close-vote privileges for closures to keep pace with the incoming questions</li>
<li>The standard of "too broad" is exactly the same and I'm misunderstanding why these particular questions don't meet it</li>
<li>Some combination of all of the above</li>
</ul>
<p>I've recently started reviewing first posts here (I've been doing it on SO for a while), and I want to make sure I'm understanding this site's expectations before I make a bunch of bad reviews.</p>
<p>I have read over this question and its answers: <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/q/3003/49184">Should "how to design a project" questions always be put on hold as "too broad"?</a>. The accepted (and most upvoted) answer makes perfect sense to me, but the example questions I've listed don't appear to meet that answer's criteria.</p>
<p><strong>TL;DR</strong><br>
I would appreciate some commentary on the example questions I've listed. I would like to hear which of those questions I'm correctly and incorrectly judging as "too broad" and why.</p>
| Am I correctly understanding EESE's standard for "too broad"? |
<p>No, it's really not a EE.SE question, and there's a two main reasons for it:</p>
<ul>
<li>It's a high-level question about computer software (video drivers). </li>
<li>It is not an electronics design question</li>
</ul>
<p>In <em>general</em>, one should be familiar with the standards and requirements of a site they recommend migration to - just because it's off-topic on one site doesn't make it on-topic or a good question somewhere else.</p>
| 5883 | 2016-07-28T21:33:31.870 | |discussion|on-topic| | <p>A user posted <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/q/38612478/656243">this question</a> on Stack Overflow. I close-voted and left a comment that it felt like an electronics question. They then <a href="https://superuser.com/q/1105842/105558">posted the question to SuperUser</a>.</p>
<p>I asked them why they didn't post it on Electronics, which was met with:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The questions I´ve looked at have nothing to do with my question, or
does not answer it in a manner I understand (ie software developer
perspective).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Before I push for them to post to Electronics another time, I thought I'd verify that the question is on-topic and answerable. Should I continue recommending that the OP posts it here?</p>
<p>(Edit: if you think that it IS a software question, please let me know that too, and I'll be happy join in a re-open vote.)</p>
| Is this question on-topic for Electronics? |