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<p>Tags are irrelevant to the content of a question. They are for limiting search results only.</p>
<p>My brain has long ago tuned them out when reading a question. If it's not in the question body (comments don't count either), it's not in the question. I'm totally with pipe in your sequence above. I wouldn't have noticed the tag either. The downvote for not adding pertinent information to the question, especially after it was pointed out, was justified.</p>
| 5885 | 2016-07-29T08:19:55.003 | |discussion|tagging| | <p>I am wondering whether tags can legitimately be used to provide context to a question, or if they should be there only to classify the questions and ease searching.</p>
<p>As an example, there has been this question recently: <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/248191/107479">Possiblity of Using Transistor as Resistor</a>.
And here is an extract of some comments that have been made (in case they get deleted):</p>
<blockquote>
<p><sub><em>pipe:</em> Sounds like you're actually designing an IC. If that's true, you must inform us about this quite vital information.</sub></p>
<p><sub><em>OP:</em> [...] Yes, I am designing an IC circuit for a research purpose [...]</sub></p>
<p><sub>[... some more comments, and some time passing ...]</sub></p>
<p><sub><em>me:</em> I'm downvoting because it is a shame you still didn't update your question to indicate you're designing an IC. This is obviously a crucial information. Giving it in the comments is not enough. If you update your question appropriately, I'll remove my downvote.</sub></p>
<p><sub><em>jbord39:</em> dude it's been tagged IC the whole time.</sub></p>
<p><sub><em>me, falling off my chair:</em> An IC tag? We're supposed to see that and guess it means you're <em>designing</em> an IC? Seriously, just add a sentence to your question.</sub></p>
</blockquote>
<p>I don't think my point of view is completely broken in this specific case (except I made my last comment as if it was OP answering, but this isn't really relevant). I don't see how we could assume the <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/integrated-circuit" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'integrated-circuit'" rel="tag">integrated-circuit</a> tag implicitly says your question is about ASIC design. But it's true that, for example, on Stack Overflow, tags are often used to indicate the relevant programming language, without mentioning it again in the question itself. And it's also true that I <em>never</em> think of looking at tags to check if they provide additional context information, which may be a mistake.</p>
<p>So my questions are:</p>
<ul>
<li>Do you always check the tags when looking at a question?</li>
<li>Is it often used to provide some additional context, not explicitly indicated in the question text?</li>
<li>Is this legitimate, or should all relevant information be provided in the question text itself?</li>
</ul>
| Providing question context in tags |
<p>It’s not that simple. Your total vote limit is set in a complicated way such that once you see a “you have 5 votes left” warning, this is correct. More specifically, the limit is set once you cast your 25th answer or total vote (there are conflicting reports as to which is true). So, to use up all your votes, you have to be sure to cast a given portion of your early votes on questions.</p>
<p>See <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/5213/255554">this post on the main Meta</a> for details and join the campaign to simplify the mechanism <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/238680/255554">here</a>.</p>
| 5889 | 2016-08-02T07:35:24.450 | |support|voting|up-votes| | <p>Help says:
"You can vote 30 times per UTC day, plus 10 more times on questions only."
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/privileges/vote-up">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/privileges/vote-up</a></p>
<p>What exactly does it mean?
Today I have up-voted 37 times. So, I would expect to be able to up-vote questions at least.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/KmqXq.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/KmqXq.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
<p>And now I am not allowed to vote for answers nor questions. Message is: "Daily vote limit reached; vote again in 16 hours"</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/MRPhV.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/MRPhV.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
<p>Am I missing something? Or is there some bug?</p>
| up voting limit |
<p>You should not have to follow any links to understand a good answer. That said, links to pages explaining details or alternatives usually makes an answer <em>better</em> and more complete.</p>
<p>Therefore, it does not matter if you link to a question on EE.SE, an answer on EE.SE, an answer on any other website, or another external source. If your answer does not answer the question if the link goes away, it's not a good answer. Linking to a question can indeed be useful, for example to highlight differences between concepts.</p>
<p>It's worth mentioning that if the question can be answered by another question on EE.SE, it may very well be a <em>duplicate</em>, even if it's not a 100% match.</p>
| 5900 | 2016-08-05T18:26:01.157 | |discussion|answers| | <p>Does the community encourage providing links to other questions in your answers?The purpose would be to back up the statements you make,but the answer would be in a way segmented,so it doesn't stand alone.To clarify my second sentence,I will exemplify by saying that the questions are independent of comments,so if the OP has to add any sensible information,he/she should not post it as a comment.I am sure about links to other sites(not SE) are permitted,but unsure if the same thing applies to linking other questions in answers.</p>
| Question about question links |
<p>This is an issue currently being addressed on meta site-wide. <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/166575/why-is-there-a-peeking-duck-in-my-profile-pic">Why is there a peeking duck in my profile pic?</a> or <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/283642/moderator-election-ballot-different-default-images-for-candidates">Moderator election ballot: Different default images for candidates</a> or <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/283643/why-is-my-profile-image-different/283656#283656">Why is my profile image different?</a></p>
<p>You could upload a new avatar to fix it, or just wait till it's resolved site wide.</p>
| 5903 | 2016-08-21T06:03:08.480 | |discussion|bug| | <p>I was poking around the newly designed Network Profile page, and clicked on the "Flair" tab. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identicon" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Identicon</a> embedded in the flair isn't the standard Identicon for my account, which is shared across each stack that I've joined.</p>
<p>Here's a big screenshot (click to zoom). The flair is in the lower-left corner.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/7sY4H.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/7sY4H.jpg" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
<p>I believe they used to be the same. What's up?</p>
| Why is my "flair" Identicon different from my standard Identicon? |
<p>If it is related to electronic design, ask here. Things like mechanical and thermal issues of case design are on topic at engineering.SE. Some of the company management <i>might</i> be on topic at workplace.SE. Much of the shipping and logistics is probably not on topic anywhere here.</p>
<p>There are new SE sites popping up all the time. The best thing to do is go thru the list to see what's available. That's better than us guessing about those we happen to know about. Put another way, you need to do your own homework.</p>
| 5920 | 2016-08-31T22:27:38.813 | |discussion| | <p>I couldn't make title short and to the point, just let me elaborate it:<br>
What is the correct SE site where to ask questions like:</p>
<ol>
<li>Case design(materials, airflow, geometry, standards, etc)</li>
<li>Licensing, certification of product</li>
<li>Manufacturing, shipping, logistics, etc</li>
<li>General questions about product design(EE company management, common non-electronics related practices in product design industry)</li>
</ol>
<p>It would really be nice to have separate "Product design SE", but I suspect not many questions are out there for such thing.</p>
<p>But for example I am designing electronic device and I have question about casing, like what material can I use under high temperature or pressure(just an example). I guess EE is not the best place to ask this, but where to go then? Or maybe its OK here?</p>
<p>Have to say I actually don't have any questions like this at the moment, but I am just curious where can I go if I will have something like this to ask. </p>
| Where to ask questions about product design outside of electronics? |
<p>This has been discussed many times on various sites over the years.</p>
<p>The answer has always been "no".</p>
<p>The definitive answer is probably on Meta Stack Exchange from 2009 on the <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/431/any-way-to-send-a-personal-message-to-another-user">accepted answer to this question</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>it's about the questions and answers, not social networking. But if you want to contact someone, check their profile -- they will provide an URL or email address there.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It boils down to the fact that the focus of the site is the Q&A. We always tell people to vote on the merits of the post and not on who posted it, for example.</p>
<p>You can try inviting a user into chat for a discussion, but they are free to ignore that if they wish to. If a user doesn't provide contact details in their profile then you should assume that they don't want to be contacted off site.</p>
| 5941 | 2016-09-15T13:18:06.410 | |discussion|feature-request| | <p>As far as I can tell there is no private message feature between members here. I understand that, being a basic Q&A site, PMs are hardly necessary but nonetheless it could be useful for personal communication. Obviously no technical questions would be allowed to be asked in private messages, but there are a few people here with whom I would like to speak on topics not related to EE. Am I the only one? Are there any particular reasons why the creators/owners of the site have elected not to host any private messages?</p>
<p>It is a feature request, but I would not be too broken up if it was turned down immediately (provided there is a solid reason not to have it). I'm just curious if this has been discussed before and if a consensus was reached. I am not finding anything about private message discussions here.</p>
| Private Messages |
<p>Just my 2cents, from a new EE-SE user and definitively a "non expert" EE guy.</p>
<p>Many people (like me) ask question to gain some help on EE topics (...I know, this sounds trivial, but this is what all SE network is all about, isn't it?) so it is likely that "boring" topics for you might be "interesting" enough for (the noobs of) us. </p>
<p>Thus, all the up-voting.</p>
| 5963 | 2016-10-02T00:05:50.230 | |discussion|up-votes| | <p>This is of course subjective, but I hope it's OK on meta.<br>
I've been out of EE.SE for a while and now I am reading hot last month questions, to my surprise one of the most popular questions last month was <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/256905/can-you-identify-this-component">this one</a>.</p>
<p>I've seen a lot "identify component" questions and they rarely get more than 1 upvote even after a long time (try search "identify"). And sometimes people ask to identify some cool stuff that you don't see often.</p>
<p>But now there is question about ferrite bead with 15 upvotes and 3 favorites. I just don't get it. EE.SE was always quite stingy on upvotes and now all of a sudden this happens.</p>
<p>And yes, I know and I am genuinely happy that this post is now the first Google result for "gray box clipped to wires" (like Jason C mentioned in comments), but this is the consequence of upvotes, not the reason. Well, unless all upvoters knew that this will lead to that beforehand. So therefore I would want to learn why so many people decided to upvote it?</p>
<p>I understand that this discussion has no benefit to EE.SE, but this is quite shocking to see so many upvotes for such boring thing, while other cool stuff can consider to be lucky to have 1 upvote here. And many people before discussed the stinginess of EE.SE considering upvotes, so I thought I may be not the only one baffled by this.</p>
<p>Once again, I am all for EE.SE being more upvoting community, no offense to people upvoting anything :)</p>
| Why boring questions have so much attention? |
<p>It does seem a bit odd that you're converting designs <em>TO</em> a software package for which you've stopped paying the support fee. (I'd be curious to know the thinking behind that decision, but that isn't relevant here.)</p>
<p>I would recommend that you go ahead and ask a question on EE.SE in which you mention the two software packages involved and give a brief description of the nature of your question without getting into the details. There would be a number of possible outcomes:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Someone will express an interest in answering your question, in which case, you can edit the question to provide the details.</p></li>
<li><p>One or more people will offer pointers to where free support for the package can be found, in which case, you go there to ask your specific question.</p></li>
<li><p>The question gets downvoted and/or closed, in which case, you go ahead and delete it with no permanent harm done.</p></li>
</ul>
| 5968 | 2016-10-07T08:56:08.443 | |discussion| | <p>I have a highly technical question relating to converting design files from one electronics design software package to another. It's not an I.T. question and I'm not certain it fits in the electronics.stackexchange.com remit either. Although it does need the attention of electronics engineers, it's not about designing electronics. The design part is already done and dusted.</p>
<p>I'm reluctant to post it on electronics.stackexchange.com unless someone can reassure me it's really "on-topic".</p>
<p>Where should I ask my question?</p>
| What is the correct SE channel to ask about an electrical engineering SOFTWARE question? |
<p>Debugging of "home electronics" is off topic as that term is likely interpreted by most. The reason is that it usually doesn't have real electrical engineering content. For example, plugging in ethernet cables to routers and PCs isn't electrical engineering, and debugging such a setup is off topic here. <i>"Plug dis inta dat"</i> isn't electrical engineering.</p>
<p>For debugging questions to be appropriate here, they have to be seriously about the electrical engineering aspect. They need to be clear about what exactly the setup is, show a proper schematic, explain what was expected, and what was actually observed.</p>
<p>A bug is a discrepancy between expected behavior and observed behavior. It should be obvious that it therefore takes both to define a bug, but unfortunately we get too many questions not specifying one, particularly what was expected.</p>
<p>Some examples:<ol></p>
<p><li><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/264769/4512">Bad audio quality from two stage audio amplifier</a></p>
<p>This is a reasonably OK question. It shows a good enough schematic, and a reasonably decent attempt to describe the problem. In this case, the desired behavior is implied by the specification of "audio amplifier".</p>
<p>Note that the totally clueless nature of the circuit doesn't make this a bad question, only a rather ignorant one. It's OK to be ignorant, but never to be stupid.</p>
<p><li><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/265077/4512">My LED lamp is blinking. Could the power supply be the issue?</a></p>
<p>Don't let this happen to you. Note the confusing hand-waving trying to describe the problem, no diagram or schematic, and very low electrical engineering content. This is more of a consumer electronics question than about electrical engineering.</p>
<p></ol></p>
| 5985 | 2016-10-22T02:47:46.413 | |discussion| | <p>If I were to ask a question about signal and noise in home electronics, and how to debug an issue, and what possible solutions might be, would that be on-topic? </p>
<p>In my mind, system-level debugging and noise in consumer electronics occupy a weird space between consumer electronics (where enthusiasts are in over their heads compared to engineers) and electrical engineering (where practitioners have a solid understanding of the fundamentals that can cause weird behavior). </p>
<p>As a case in point, I've got a receiver sending a signal to a wireless transmitter to my subwoofer. Somewhere before transmission, the line is picking up an FM station at 140Hz (that's the cutoff at which the sub's low-pass filter removes the noise), but only when the receiver is off. Would it be on-topic to ask how one might debug this setup or isolate the various components from noise?</p>
| Is home electronics debugging on-topic? |
<p>I read that question as a use/repair of some sort of photographiccy thingy.<br>
As such it's off-topic here and should rightfully have been closed.<br>
As for migration - I would probably have erred on the side of SE's policy of "don't migrate crap".</p>
| 5988 | 2016-10-22T19:08:42.133 | |discussion|support|migration| | <p>This question <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/264918/use-paper-as-shim-for-circuit-board-in-3v-device">Use Paper as Shim for Circuit Board in 3V device</a> got migrated to <a href="https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/83915/use-paper-as-shim-for-circuit-board-in-3v-device">http://photo.stackexchange.com</a> from your site.</p>
<p>While there's always debate about where a question belongs, especially if it touches on multiple subjects, I think it's clear that this question is not related to photography, just because the device is used in that field.</p>
<p>Did this one get migrated by accident? Can you take it back? Do you want it back? Do we have to push it back or can you … pull?</p>
| Why was this question about a shim for a pcb migrated to photo.se? |
<p>I made a few <a href="http://data.stackexchange.com/electronics/query/581858/answer-acceptance-stats" rel="nofollow noreferrer">statistics using DataExplorer</a> on the main SE sites, and a few others sites taken randomly (from the ones I visit from time to time):</p>
<pre><code> QuestionCount AnsweredCount AcceptedCount Accepted/Answered
tex 123789 104753 75154 71.7%
mathematics 691306 582320 365594 62.8%
stackoverflow 12804240 11169780 6976659 62.1%
programmers 42679 40457 25164 62.2%
unix 103348 86958 50792 58.4%
serverfault 232025 208532 117444 56.3%
electronics 70754 66819 37490 56.1% ***
english 77106 72596 40655 56.0%
itsecurity 34928 31910 17177 53.8%
superuser 332158 271327 142278 52.4%
workplace 12807 12582 6429 51.1%
arduino 9063 7528 3639 48.3%
parenting 4449 4287 2065 48.2%
raspberry pi 15810 12206 5717 46.8%
askubuntu 246617 195549 83889 42.9%
</code></pre>
<p>We're actually on the average.</p>
<p>We're certainly not on the top, maybe for the following reasons (but that is very subjective):</p>
<ul>
<li>People coming here to ask questions are often unaware of how this site works. They come because they want to know <em>"how to wire two led strips on the same power supply"</em> (we get a lot of questions like that), and they don't really bother looking how the community works. Once they have their answer, they never come back. I think it is less common for <em>stackoverflow</em>, because newbies starting to get into development know that they'll probably have more questions in the future. And I'm not really familiar with <em>askubuntu</em>, but I think they certainly get a lot of people asking a single question, as well, and they have a very bad acceptance rate.</li>
<li>There is another category of questions from newbies in the lines of <em>"is it possible to do this [whatever impossible thing to achieve, or extremely difficult system to design]"</em>. In which case the typical answer is negative, and explains why. Although the answer is correct, it will certainly be more difficult for the OP to accept it (because it also means accepting giving up on his idea). I'm not sure it occurs as often in other fields.</li>
<li>There is also a strange thing happening regularily on <em>electronics</em> that I noticed, is that when we answer, we often provide lenghty information about very technical details that are insignificant to the OP (and may actually confuse him). As if we wanted at all cost avoiding making "approximative enough" answers or omitting some specific cases (probably because we don't like somebody else making a comment telling that we forgot a point). The problem is that OP, if he gets confused by the answers, will then have hard time telling which one helped him the most. It doesn't happen every time, but I think it is more the case on this site than on others.</li>
</ul>
<p>Now, going back to your question: <em>"How could users be more encouraged to hit the button and therefore help others know which answer was really helpful?"</em>. Actually, <strong>I think there is no real problem</strong>. The system, as it is, works well enough. The <em>"which answer is the most accurate?"</em> feedback is, anyway, mostly given by the upvotes, not the accept flag.</p>
| 6005 | 2016-11-21T22:16:18.377 | |discussion|users|user-interface| | <p>Why is the rate for accepting answers on SE:EE so low, compared with other SE sites?</p>
<p>How could users be more encouraged to hit the button and therefore help others know which answer was really helpful?</p>
| Low answer acceptance rate? |
<p>I've looked at all the ones you posted. Only half are legit.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The most egregious. You deleted some key information. No, op was not just "trying to build an audio device". He explicitly told us what he was actually trying, <em><strong>Trying to Drive a Piezo Buzzer</strong></em>. That alone merited a roll-back of your edit, <em><strong>which I just did</strong></em>. Sure it can use some help but deleting facts is not a valid edit!</p>
</li>
<li><p>You removed a nicety and a salutation. It's a push, borderline trivial edit.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Same as 4. You actually deleted a keyword that makes people think OP is trying to modify a commercial product <em><strong>instead of their own design.</strong></em> ALSO grammatically incomplete. You forget to edit in the adjective "A" in multiple places. Incomplete edits claiming to fix grammar make an <em>ss</em> out of me and you.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Same as 3. Same edit attempted twice.</p>
</li>
<li><p>You remove the part explaining OP's experience, but not the whole fluff about not knowing electronics well. Why exactly do one but not the other? Also the Salutations.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Approved though:</p>
<ol start="6">
<li><p>Slight change to inflection, nothing bad.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Best edit out of all of them. You inlined the links.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Simple grammar edits. Good.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Grammar, and removed actual fluff.</p>
</li>
<li><p>You added a run-on sentence but otherwise neutral edit.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Second best readability edit with no content changing.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Simple cleanup.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<h2>Just from going over them, the set that were approved completely ARE SO MUCH BETTER than the set that were rejected.</h2>
<p>They are different in scope. Less content, more formatting changes. Had I seen those edits, I too would have rejected the first half, with #1 being marked as a harmful edit, the others trivial or approve/reject and edit.</p>
<h2>Besides, your own evidence shows that user is not single-mindedly out to get you or anything.</h2>
<p>They approved multiple of your edits, and others agreed with rejecting some edits. Your stats show 90 approved 5 rejected, a 94.5% acceptance rate. Stop complaining about "feedback problem". You made some bad edits and they were rightfully rejected, but overall still batting 900.</p>
| 6019 | 2016-11-28T15:04:14.373 | |discussion|reviewing| | <p>I've a problem in understanding the feedback I get, mostly from <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/users/61257/wesley-lee">one specific reviewer</a> (although it's not limited to him per se); I got <em>"This edit does not make the post even a little bit easier to read, easier to find, more accurate or more accessible. Changes are either completely superfluous or actively harm readability."</em> feedback numerous times:</p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129264">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129264</a>
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129267">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129267</a>
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129326">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129326</a>
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129335">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129335</a>
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129347">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129347</a></p>
<p>All the edits done by me in a batch (mostly oscillator-related, because I was digging up that stuff during my research) were done in the exact same fashion I was doing for the last 5 years on SO: typography, defluffing, style corrections. Most of the times I've removed "developer story", salutations, added/removed missing/extraneous typographical characters or formatting markers etc.; those are IMO hardly things one would call "not making the post even a little bit easier to read & actively harming readability."</p>
<p>I'd understand if the feedback was that "I change the author's intent too much" (although I don't think it was the case in any of the scenarios). What's more funny, is that the reviewer who rejected those suggestions also accepted my other ones, <em>virtually identical in scope and extent</em>:</p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129265">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129265</a>
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129266">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129266</a>
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129320">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129320</a>
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129324">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129324</a>
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129331">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129331</a>
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129332">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129332</a>
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129333">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/129333</a></p>
<p>Am I completely in the dark here, or is there something wrong with the reviewer's feedback?</p>
| "doesn't make the post even a bit easier to read" feedback problem |
<p>Seems like there's good support for this, go ahead and name it <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/superposition" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'superposition'" rel="tag">superposition</a>.</p>
| 6034 | 2016-12-09T22:34:29.663 | |discussion|tags| | <p>We have a tag named <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/superpositiontheorem" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'superpositiontheorem'" rel="tag">superpositiontheorem</a> which is currently on 12 questions. Tags composed of multiple words generally use hyphens between the words by <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/tagging">convention</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<h3>How to format tags</h3>
<ul>
<li>Use all lower case</li>
<li><p>Replace spaces with hyphens (-) to combine multiple words into a single word (e.g., tag "unit testing" as <code>unit-testing</code>)</p>
<p>...</p></li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>Can we rename this tag to <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/superposition-theorem" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'superposition-theorem'" rel="tag">superposition-theorem</a> or perhaps just <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/superposition" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'superposition'" rel="tag">superposition</a>? Since it's only on a few questions it won't take much effort to rename it.</p>
| Rename the superposition theorem tag |
<p>The internet is full of idiots, and some of them come here. I don't think there is anything we can do about that.</p>
<p>What we can do is deal with their idiotic postings. That means downvote, and usually leave a comment explaining what is incorrect. That mechanism already exists, and seems to largely work.</p>
<p>Your point seems to be about comments. Remember that comments aren't really content at all. They can be, and sometimes are, deleted. If there are excessive comments going back and forth, mods will usually clean out the whole lot, or sometimes move them to a chat room. That's basically the same thing because most people aren't going to follow up in a chat room to continue a tedious conversation.</p>
<p>If someone writes something wrong in a comment, you can say so in another comment. Rember to use the @<i>user</i> syntax so that whoever wrote the original comment sees your response. If things get out of hand, flag for moderator attention and suggest the whole mess of comments should be deleted.</p>
| 6040 | 2016-12-19T14:47:40.177 | |discussion| | <p>I am fairly new to this forum but I am repeatably running into the same problem. This is the user who has found a formula or data on the internet which they think can be applied to a problem. They go ahead and post or quote this blindly without giving any thought to its applicability and then insist they are correct because they can refer to some web page. Can we do anything in the guidelines reputation or flagging system to discourage this behavior?</p>
<p>The voting system on answers seems to address the problem there. But it does not apply to comments, Perhaps there should be a flag category a little stronger than not helpful say "just plain wrong". If upheld it could lead to a loss of a little reputation which might just make people think before posting spurious information.</p>
<p>So far I have succeeded in remaining polite but the temptation to call some people idiots is becoming overwhelming. </p>
| Inapplicable internet information |
<p>The system periodically bumps questions with no accepted answer to the front page. This will appear to have been done by the "community" user.</p>
| 6043 | 2016-12-23T17:42:26.390 | |discussion|support| | <p>I'm not sure why the system performed this action for this one:
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/270599/why-is-the-common-emitter-input-insensitive-to-base-width-modulation">Why is the common emitter input insensitive to base width modulation?</a></p>
<p>What does "this question may have good or bad answers" mean?It looks like nobody interacted with the question in a while,so why did this happen?</p>
| Why was this question bumped to the homepage? |
<p>I'm new as well, and have sometimes felt that the community was a bit hostile. His answers look well intended.</p>
<p>Perhaps you could put some faith in that the up/down vote system will promote quality answers without deterring people from trying to participate?</p>
| 6046 | 2016-12-26T11:58:28.597 | |discussion|spamming|users| | <p>There seems to be a user that I keep noticing answering questions with answers that are generally related to the question but only in the vaguest sense rather than specifically addressing the question at hand.</p>
<p>I've downvoted and flagged a few of them, though I am concerned if I start downvoting too many of them the system will assume that I am attacking the specific user. Additionally it seems that the users answers are consistently appearing as having been flagged as low quality in the moderation queue, along with several being answers to questions which are several years old and long since forgotten.</p>
<p>As such I want to put it to the folk here as to whether or not my suspicions are correct, and also give the user a chance to respond if they are real (I've had no response to comments on the answers).</p>
| Possible robot user? |
<p>You will get back the reputation once the answer is deleted (either by a moderator or the user), so if you are 100% sure that the answer is inappropriate then you can go ahead and downvote, there will be a refund.</p>
<p>Leaving a comment is always good because the OP can improve the answer. Once the answer is edited (and turned out to be appropriate) you can remove your downvote, reputation will be refunded again.</p>
| 6048 | 2016-12-26T15:28:29.803 | |feature-request|down-votes| | <p>As a new reviewer and trying to be a good citizen I am seeing numerous first answers to old questions which are low quality and in some cases blatant trolling. </p>
<p>The ideal way to deal with this would be to mark the answer down. This costs me reputation and I am not yet at a level where I can do this without thinking of the cost. </p>
<p>Would it be possible to change the system so that marking down an answer within a review does not cost you reputation. My solution at the moment is simply to flag the answer which costs effort on the part of the moderators. </p>
<p>The bottom line is this. Doing reviews effectively gains me nothing and costs me reputation. Why should I continue doing it?</p>
| Reputation expenditure in reviews |
<p>If anything, we have the reverse problem. Twice in just the last few days, I saw a question with only one mediocre answer, wrote a good answer, and discovered that the OP had accepted the mediocre answer while I was writing mine. In both cases, that was less than one hour after the question was asked.</p>
<p>We want <i>quality</i>, not <i>speed</i>.</p>
<p>Quality comes in part from having lots of competing answers. Your system will discourange answers after the second, because it will be more fuitful to spend time on questions that only have 0 or 1 answer. You may think of your system as encouraging fast answers, but it likeways discourages additional answers.</p>
<p>Who answers first also has a lot to do with what time it was around the world when the question was posted, or when someone happened to have a break and checked the site. Neither of those are related to quality, and often there is little that answerers realistically (assuming they have jobs) can do about it.</p>
<p>If you want to incentivize better answers, don't allow OPs to accept one until either 24 hours have passed or there are at least 3 answers.</p>
| 6060 | 2017-01-02T19:28:03.387 | |discussion|feature-request|reputation| | <p>How would it be if the first and second user who answers a question would gain reputation for being one of the first volunteers?</p>
<p><strong>Why implement this feature?</strong></p>
<p>It can be a reward for loyal people,for those who answer a lot especially.For a reason which I will present below,it can be quite pleasant to see that spending so much time on the site is finally appreciated.This can also be a feature for new,decent users who wish to gain points.It would be fun to race against others,too.I will explain some more.</p>
<p>Since EE.SE's purpose is to be a good archive of questions and answers,I have figured out that certain restriction must be part of my request.Otherwise,the message would be that the quality of the post doesn't matter,only your speed does.I propose two ways:</p>
<p><strong>1st way</strong></p>
<p>In order to receive the rewards,the question should have at least 3 upvotes and the answer should have at least 2 upvotes.Only after these conditions are met will the users receive their rep:+6 for the first and +3 for the second. </p>
<p>By arranging it so users will still have to their best.A rather poor question will probably not have more than 1-2 answers,but those with votes are more likely to have more.</p>
<p><strong>2nd way</strong></p>
<p>The question should have at least 5 upvotes and the answer should have at least 3 upvotes.The rewarded points are the same.</p>
<p>I'd go for more rewarded reputation,but I want to hear some opinions instead.In the very unlikely case that the users answer simultaneously,the will get +4,regardless of the fact that they are the first or the second.The qualitative posters,active people will have another advantage.</p>
| Points for the first and second answerer |
<p>To create new tags on EE.SE, you need <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/95496/reputation-required-to-create-my-own-tag">300 rep</a>.</p>
<p>I somewhat agree a Mifare<sup>1</sup> tag could eventually make sense. We have a few questions relating to this already. There are many many tags much less relevant than this that have been created. And there is also already a <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/desfire" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'desfire'" rel="tag">desfire</a> tag, a <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/iso14443" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'iso14443'" rel="tag">iso14443</a> tag, etc...</p>
<p><strong>But</strong></p>
<p>You have to realize that tags here don't have the same role as on the Stack Overflow site, for example. On SO, people are using tags to filter down the questions because there are thousands of question ranging from programming (in any kind of language: mainstream or esoteric, and in any kind of environment: desktop, mainframe, mobile, embedded), to database, source control, ... anything. If there were no tags, SO would be unuseable.</p>
<p>On the other hand, on EE.SE, although the range of technologies and domains is still very wide, there are much less question. Nobody would filter the questions on "mifare" only: you'll see four questions each year. And people who know mifare, also know how other contactless technologies work, more generally.</p>
<p>So what makes sense is to choose a more general tag for your question, such as the <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/nfc" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'nfc'" rel="tag">nfc</a> tag.</p>
<p>And it doesn't really matter if there is a mifare tag or not. For such a tiny domain (because it is just a tiny field in the whole electronics area, although I agree Mifare is widely used in corporations), if people want to search such questions, they search by text, not by tags.</p>
<hr>
<p><sup>1. Note to people who don't know what Mifare is: it is a protocol used for contactless smart card communication (NFC). And I agree this should have been mentioned in OP's question from the start.</sup></p>
| 6066 | 2017-01-20T18:43:02.403 | |feature-request|tags| | <p>We have quite a few questions with this, <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/search?q=mifare+is%3Aq">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/search?q=mifare+is%3Aq</a>, it's a particular technology people are free to fool around and with a wide professional impact,</p>
<p>Can we have <code>mifare</code> the tag? :)</p>
| Can we have a mifare tag? |
<p>Presumably, the question you answered was off-topic at this site, otherwise it wouldn't (or shouldn't) have been migrated away. At least, that's what <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/10250">the FAQ on migration</a> says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Don't migrate for the sake of migration.</strong> We only migrate questions because they are <em>off-topic on the original site</em>. It is perfectly possible for a question to be on-topic on multiple sites, but that is not a reason to migrate it elsewhere. As a general rule, if someone asks a question <em>here</em>, and it's on-topic <em>here</em>, it should stay <em>here</em>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Normally, off-topic questions are closed and eventually deleted, along with their answers. However, since the question you answered was on-topic at <em>another</em> SE site, it was migrated there instead. Your rep for the answer that you managed to post before the migration went along with it — if you wish to reclaim it, you can sign up for an account at the other site.</p>
<p>As Dave Tweed notes, this is how it's meant to work: you rep on any given site is meant to reflect your <em>on-topic</em> contributions to that site.</p>
<p>To illustrate why that's how it should be, let me give a hypothetical example. I know quite a bit about programming, and currently have 32k rep on <a href="http://stackoverflow.com">Stack Overflow</a>. On the other hand, I know essentially nothing about Buddhism, and I don't even have an account on <a href="http://buddhism.stackexchange.com">Buddhism Stack Exchange</a> (even though I do have quite a few accounts on various SE sites that I've never used for anything other than flagging spam).</p>
<p>Now, suppose some confused user happened to ask a programming question on Buddhism.SE, and I just happened to notice it, and registered an account and answered it there before it was (closed or) migrated to SO where it belongs to. (We all know that some SO users are clueless, and will ask programming questions on any site that even vaguely looks like SO.) Let's also assume that, if nothing else, the OP managed to accept and maybe even upvote my answer on Buddhism.SE before their question was migrated, so that I gained some rep from it. In that hypothetical scenario, should I <em>really</em> get to keep any rep points on Buddhism.SE that I might have earned from that answer, even though it had nothing to do with Buddhism?</p>
<p>Of course, your actual case was (presumably) not quite so clear-cut, since you say that your answer had 10 upvotes when it was migrated, suggesting that at least some other users thought that it was both good <em>and</em> on-topic here. (It's also possible, of course, that the upvoters were visitors from other SE sites via Hot Network Questions, and therefore not so familiar with what's on-topic here, or that they simply upvoted your answer because it was good <em>even though it was also off-topic</em>, with the expectation that it would eventually be migrated to a more appropriate site.) But in any case, the basic principle holds: if the question does not belong on this site, then neither do the answers, or the rep earned from them.</p>
| 6072 | 2017-01-25T16:32:46.213 | |discussion| | <p>I had ten upvotes on an answer I posted to a good question, and then the question got migrated to a site that I am not a user on. I find this rather disheartening. Why can't I keep my rep here if I am not a user on the other site? (Prompted by Nick Alexeev in response to a comment I made on another question)</p>
<p>I am expecting to get ripped apart for asking, so rip away.</p>
| Why does my Answer Rep go away when a Question is migrated to a site I am not part of? |
<p>A opinion-based question might work in <a href="http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/15/electrical-engineering">our EE.SE chat</a>. The customs are more relaxed there. </p>
<p>"<em>What software is best?</em>" is such a common type of question that there is a separate stack for it: <a href="https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/">Software Recommendations SE</a>. It was established for all kinds of software, rather than electrical engineering specifically.</p>
<p><strong>Combined approach:</strong> post a question to Software Recommendations SE, then go to our EE.SE chat - or other SE chats where right kinds of expertise might hang out and post a link to the question there. </p>
| 6074 | 2017-01-28T07:30:52.910 | |discussion| | <p>I understand that asking questions about the choice of consumer electronics are not allowed, and with good reason. Similarly, opinion based questions otherwise too are not allowed. <strong>I would like to know whether</strong> <strong>questions asking about the best simulation software and/or practice</strong>, <strong>related to the design of electronics</strong> (such as a C-E amplifier), <strong>or electrical devices</strong> (such as a dc-dc converter- electric motor setup) <strong>allowed</strong>?</p>
<p>I am in conflict as to whether to ask them as they involve some opinion-related answers (as some them are commercial products), while on the other hand knowing and using simulation tools is a valuable skill for electrical engineers/hobbyists/students etc., and therefore knowing what the best tool is for the purpose beforehand goes a long way. </p>
<p>I have seen this question <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/q/5968/115280">What is the correct SE channel to ask about an electrical engineering SOFTWARE question?</a>; however that question was related to the usage of a certain software, which usually does not bring opinionated answers; while I ask about questions regarding the choice of software tools, which has the possibility of strongly opinionated answers</p>
| Can we ask what software is best for the job |
<p>12 people upvoted your comment, but only you have voted to close the question. Nobody has downvoted the question, and it has attracted reasonably high quality answers. Personally I think it's borderline as to being on-topic, so I'm letting the community decide. Comment votes don't count.</p>
<p>To reject a migration, the question simply needs to be closed. That's it. </p>
<p>As to it getting migrated here - that was likely done by a StackOverflow moderator. Migrations are instant, with no way to easily undo it, and no waiting for the destination site to approve. If you disagree with the question being migrated in the first place, then the proper place to complain is meta.SO.</p>
| 6077 | 2017-01-29T21:13:00.037 | |discussion|on-topic|migration|specific-question| | <p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/283084/does-cpu-work-like-gpu-when-it-comes-to-prediction-and-if-statements">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/283084/does-cpu-work-like-gpu-when-it-comes-to-prediction-and-if-statements</a></p>
<p>is clearly formulated in a way that emphasizes what the programming-technical differences between GPU and CPUs are.</p>
<p>It's hence a programming question, and I can't find it covered under the topics in the help center (<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic</a>).</p>
<p>It is especially <strong>not</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>the writing of firmware for bare-metal or RTOS applications</p>
</blockquote>
<p>but it specifically <strong>is</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Programming software for a PC</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So for me, this is clearly off-topic; at the point of asking, at least 11 people seem to <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/283084/does-cpu-work-like-gpu-when-it-comes-to-prediction-and-if-statements/283087#comment645420_283084">agree</a> with me.</p>
<p>So:</p>
<ul>
<li>Why did we accept this migration?</li>
<li>How to revert it?</li>
</ul>
<p><hr></p>
<h1>edit</h1>
<p>Open basically the same question on meta.SO; closing here:</p>
<p><a href="https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/342521/why-was-this-question-migrated-from-stackoverflow-to-ee-se-and-can-we-please-re">https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/342521/why-was-this-question-migrated-from-stackoverflow-to-ee-se-and-can-we-please-re</a></p>
| Why was this question migrated from StackOverflow to here, and can we please revert that? |
<p>Seems like a no-brainer ... Done!</p>
| 6090 | 2017-02-11T04:01:55.953 | |discussion|tags|tag-cleanup| | <p>When searching up on the tags, I found that there were <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/identification" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'identification'" rel="tag">identification</a> and <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/component-identification" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'component-identification'" rel="tag">component-identification</a>. Shouldn't <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/component-identification" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'component-identification'" rel="tag">component-identification</a> be merged into <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/identification" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'identification'" rel="tag">identification</a> as it already fulfills that question type? </p>
| Component Identification tag merge |
<p>Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange's purpose is to be an archive of well documented questions and answers and since quality is a vital factor, there are rather strict rules which should be followed by everyone.</p>
<p>"Primarily opinion based" means the answers will be mainly biased, subjective and that's not useful to the others. Technical problems, in general, demand crisp objectivity, don't you agree? There are too many things to consider in your case. It's the same as asking "Personally, would you learn microcontroller architecture?". There's no narrow array of solutions and it can depend on your goals. Again, too subjective , it's not going to help others. Well, it might, but by bearing in mind those who came here for the technical problems , one realises that it won't. Anyway, I mentioned why this format must restrict you like that. </p>
<p>If you narrow it down to something like "Why is microcontroller architecture vital for designing this kind of circuit", then nobody should close your question anymore(for this reason at least).</p>
<p>I'm not sure what you mean by:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>EE subjects have steep learning curves, unlike programming for example, which you can try, fail, correct yourself and learn much faster.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, you can use your technique of learning here, too. Your question didn't fit in the format, that's how it happened. Nobody stops you from correcting this issue by making sure you keep in check the next posts you write :) .</p>
<p>Keep calm and carry on :)</p>
| 6092 | 2017-02-11T14:01:52.970 | |discussion| | <p>Hopefully this is not a duplicate, but I have some concerns about this topic, and would like to share them.</p>
<p>I am a relatively new active member of the community, and I saw that the "elder" community (like, over 10k reputation) is quite strict with the question formats. Let's take my question from few days ago:</p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/285404/why-should-i-learn-a-microcontroller-architecture">Why should I learn a microcontroller architecture?</a></p>
<p>I have actually quite benefitted from the answers, lots of experts have shared their experiences. I believe some other folks here have also enjoyed it, however it was put on hold for being "opinion based". </p>
<p>The only sensible reason I could think for that is "lots of people sharing their thoughts about topic so topic stays bumped frequently, which will keep other questions from being reviewed".</p>
<p>This site is home to many experienced engineers, and I actually want to benefit from their experiences as much as I can. And I believe this is needed more in EE, because EE subjects have steep learning curves, unlike programming for example, which you can try, fail, correct yourself and learn much faster.</p>
<p>Has there been any attempts to implement this kind of environment to Stack Exchange? If so, what were the repercussions?</p>
| On "Opinion based answers" |
<p>Looks like a reasonable request ... done!</p>
| 6096 | 2017-02-14T19:15:45.433 | |discussion|tag-synonyms| | <p>Can we alias the far less often used <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/ble" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'ble'" rel="tag">ble</a> to <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/bluetooth-low-energy" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'bluetooth-low-energy'" rel="tag">bluetooth-low-energy</a>?</p>
<p>From its 26 usages, <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/ble" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'ble'" rel="tag">ble</a> is used 10 times in conjunction with <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/bluetooth-low-energy" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'bluetooth-low-energy'" rel="tag">bluetooth-low-energy</a> already.</p>
| Tag alias: BLE / bluetooth-low-energy |
<p>This bug has been reported on <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/290401/how-to-ask-questions-in-private-beta-is-listed-in-every-site-s-help-centre">Meta.SE from January 28, 2017</a>. I'm going to guess that it's a low-priority bug given that it hasn't even gotten an official response in 2 months.</p>
| 6135 | 2017-03-30T19:55:20.033 | |bug| | <p>I was poking around in the help center and saw this:
<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-ask-beta">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-ask-beta</a></p>
<p>I'm pretty sure this is left over from the EE.SE beta or chip hacker days. It doesn't look like its relevant anymore since I cant add beta questions, in that case some of the stuff in the help center should probably be revised. </p>
| Saw a link that probably isn't relavant |
<p>System wide. It's stupid, and really meant for high traffic sites like SO, but everyone is stuck with it. <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/81509/why-does-approving-an-edit-require-more-than-one-vote">Why does approving an edit require more than one vote?</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Multiple approvers are required on Stack Overflow because when only a single person did it, we had a lot of junk edits go by really quickly. Things which contributed little, things which skipped a whole lot of errors, or things that didn't even really revise the post properly. This was bad.</p>
<p>Multiple approvers thus allows some level of check-and-balance, a second pair of eyes can notice errors that were overlooked. It's certainly not a guaranteed success, but since its instantiation there have been fewer reports on Meta Stack Overflow of such problem edits getting approved.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Of course you can force it with an Approve and Edit, or Reject and Edit.</p>
| 6137 | 2017-03-31T09:30:05.040 | |feature-request|bug| | <p>Sometimes when browsing questions I see one with an edit request. It looks a bit like this:</p>
<pre><code>share edit(1) close flag
</code></pre>
<p>Clicking on that <code>edit(1)</code> takes me to a preview where I can see the edit, and possibly approve it. If I approve it, I'm greeted by a window saying:</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This suggestion still needs 1 approve vote from other reviewers.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Why? With a rep of 2000+ I can edit the question myself without having anyones approval, if I want. I don't see the point of having to wait for a second review here. Any approved edits will still show up at the top of the queue, for community review, so I don't see what type of abuse it can prevent.</p>
<p>I assume this is a site-wide feature, but just in case it is not, I'm posting it here in EE.SE, because I'm not sure how much every sub-site can be customized.</p>
<p>I captured a screenshot of the window, but it looks a little bit confusing here since it has the same style as the actual text, so I've tried to move it away from the question.</p>
<hr>
<hr>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/tR66D.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/tR66D.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
| "This suggestion still needs 1 approve vote from other reviewers." Why? I have enough rep to force the edit myself! |
<p>A good test whether a question is a arduino user-level question is whether you can replace all mention of "arduino" with "microcontroller" or "microcontroller development board".</p>
<p>If the question still makes sense, then it's not about the arduinoness. Of course then the OP should have done the substitution in the first place to not give the impression of a arduino-specific question. When "arduino" is mentioned, particularly in the title, then you can't really blame people for closing or migrating without looking at it more closely.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if the question makes no sense without specifically mentioning "arduino", then it's about the arduinoness and doesn't belong here.</p>
<p>The question you linked to fits into the second category. Especially considering code was shown, it doesn't make sense outside the arduino context. It was correctly migrated.</p>
| 6139 | 2017-04-03T13:37:28.010 | |discussion|migration|arduino| | <p>This <a href="https://arduino.stackexchange.com/questions/36664/arduino-uno-usart-problems">question</a> was migrated to Arduino.SE but apart from that the Atmega328P happens to be on an Arduino board it has nothing else to do with Arduino regarding the problem stated in the question.</p>
<p>The question itself is about USART usage on register level no Arduino library is involved.</p>
| AVR question migrated to Arduino.SE |
<p>I wouldn't want to do homework for other people, it deprives them of valuable learning. I've even seen a few people posting exam questions and even one question that appeared to be an in class quiz question of a snapshot of the board where the OP was asking for a <em>quick</em> solution (presumably before the quiz was done. These types of questions are offensive to me, because a student shouldn't be only concerned with the end result (the answer) but should be interested in the process of learning and how to come up with the correct answer. </p>
<p>If your going to post any question, make sure you take the time to format it and put some thought into it, instead of posting a question right out of the book\assignment.</p>
<p>However if you have a homework problem and prove that your working on it and your stuck I don't have a problem with answering that type of question provided that you've shown your attempt. SE is a site for students:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This site is for electronics and electrical engineering professionals, students, and enthusiasts. We ask and answer questions about electrical and electronics engineering topics, which include electronics, physical computing, and those working with microcontrollers, Arduinos and embedded systems.</p>
</blockquote>
| 6148 | 2017-04-07T14:23:09.233 | |discussion| | <p>I am not sure if i am asking in the right place however, i'd just like to know this information.</p>
<p>I have completed a question and have calculated an answer however there is no way for me to know if the gained answer is accurate or if i have a flaw in the method, can i post for users to verify the method? would like to prevent being marked down.</p>
| Can you post worked Electrical questions? |
<p>I second the vote for yes. Given that it has been Quartus II since at least 2002 (possibly earlier), there is really no difference between the two.</p>
<p>I'm not sure if it was necessary or not, but I added <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/quartus-ii" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'quartus-ii'" rel="tag">quartus-ii</a> as a suggested <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/tags/quartus/synonyms">tag synonym</a> of <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/quartus" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'quartus'" rel="tag">quartus</a>.</p>
| 6151 | 2017-04-09T15:00:15.137 | |support|tag-cleanup| | <p>I think we should merge <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/quartus" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'quartus'" rel="tag">quartus</a> and <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/quartus-ii" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'quartus-ii'" rel="tag">quartus-ii</a> tags. Both refer to FPGA/ASIC design software from Altera. Quartus II has been around since about 2003, and recently (since version 15.1) was re-branded to Quartus Prime. I've never seen older versions of Quartus (without the "II").</p>
<p>In any case, most features of the software remained similar throughout the years, so I believe that questions about it would benefit from being kept together. IMO the most reasonable thing to do is to keep <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/quartus" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'quartus'" rel="tag">quartus</a> and make <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/quartus-ii" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'quartus-ii'" rel="tag">quartus-ii</a> its synonym, but I'm sure there are more experienced users here which know what is the right thing to do. </p>
| Merge [quartus] and [quartus-ii] tags? |
<p>I'm not sure we need a fixed policy. You recognize bad questions when you see them. You recognize lack of effort when you see it. </p>
<p>The question you first link to is simply a bad question, homework or not. "Can you check my work?" Is not a valid question. If the poster took the time to explain what he was confused about, where his doubts of his work were, and what concepts he was having trouble with, that would make it a very good question, instead of a fairly bad question -- whether it was homework or not.</p>
<p>Rubber Duck explanations are the posters' friends.</p>
| 6159 | 2017-04-12T16:50:43.273 | |discussion| | <p>Its homework time, seeing as how most universities are approaching finals week. As of late I've seen a few questions that are homework <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/299127/operating-region-for-nmos-transistor-can-someone-check-my-work">with an attempt</a> in the VTC bin. Historically we have talked about <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5667/closing-homework-with-no-attempt-as-off-topic">closing homework with no attempt as off topic</a> but what do you do about homework with an attempt?</p>
<p>I think that these type of questions are fine as long as people put some kind of effort into solving them. </p>
| Closing homework questions with an attempt |
<p>In addition to the actual <em>reasons</em> for this question being closed, as given by the other answers, it's also worth noting that the voting system is not without its own flaws. Sometimes questions are not closed fast enough, and sometimes they are closed too quickly. In this case, you identified a question that was treated unfairly in one way or the other, notified the "proper authorities", the question was re-opened, and arguably the system worked.</p>
<p>The problem as I see it is that when I review questions that are nominated for closure, I'm already biased: <em>"This is a bad question, someone has nominated it, or someone else have voted</em>". For a reviewer (at least for me!), this makes it easier to lean toward adding your close vote instead of using the equally important <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/139836">Leave Open</a> button:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZrcIX.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZrcIX.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
<p>I probably use it less often than I should. It is something I have been thinking of more, the longer I've had the option to vote.</p>
| 6169 | 2017-04-18T19:43:48.310 | |discussion|closed-questions|specific-question| | <p>I'm surprised to see that this question <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/300215/how-to-roughly-know-if-a-electronic-scheme-will-fail-soon-and-protect-from-it/300235#300235">How to roughly know if a electronic scheme will fail soon and protect from it?</a> has been <strong>put on hold as primarily opinion-based</strong>.</p>
<p>It could (maybe) have been put on hold as too broad, because the OP could've narrowed more the question. But, in any case, it's clear to me that the question can be objectively answered within the framework of RAMS engineering, a very specific expertise field.</p>
<p>The OP was asking (maybe without knowing the exact technical terms) two things:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Is there any reliability data (MTTF, failure rate...) available for Raspberry Pi and/or similar SBCs?</p></li>
<li><p>How can I calculate the MTTF (mean time to failure) and then the MTTM (mean time to maintenance) so I can preemptively replace the boards before a failure?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>This is not the realm of "almost entirely based on opinions, rather than facts, references, or specific expertise". It's 100% reliability engineering.</p>
<p><strong>Would it be worth if a moderator corrected this situation? Or, alternatively, what changes needs the question in order to be reopened?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Additional note:</strong></p>
<p>I was really curious about what could other people with RAMS background answer to the OP's question. I'm here to volunteer, but also to learn. That could have been a good question for someone with firmware/software RAMS background to step in. My answer was focused just in the hardware aspects of RAMS.</p>
| Question about RAMS engineering closed as "opinion-based" |
<p>Low-level programming, especially programming related to interfacing with external circuits is very appropriate for EE. Topics related to real-time systems are also appropriate. We also handle some DSP here, but there's also a separate <a href="https://DSP.stackexchange.com/">DSP.SE</a> for the more application-specific questions.</p>
| 6173 | 2017-04-21T14:08:52.027 | |support|asking-questions| | <p>I have some questions about µC and DSP programming but I don't know where these kind of question belong? Pure programming question belong to "stackoverflow" forum but DSP and µC are related to "Electronic engineering" forum. </p>
<p>Does "Electronic engineering" include low-level, embedded and real-time programming? </p>
| Where does µC programming belong? |
<p>No, this isn't acceptable, as posted content belongs to the site once posted here. Questions should only get deleted if they are bad or violate site rules. </p>
<p>When vandalism like this happens, you need to flag one of the vandalized posts for diamond moderator attention. </p>
<p>You could of course rollback the posts, but then you might end up in some rollback-war against the poster. And there can be other reasons why posts get vandalized by the author, such as a hijacked account.</p>
<p>The best thing to do is to let the moderators deal with the issue as whole. </p>
| 6179 | 2017-04-25T10:21:05.597 | |discussion|deleted-questions| | <p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/users/138475/prote">This user</a> has been vandalising (but not deleting) his/her own questions. He/she has edited the questions, wiped out the title and all the text, and replaced it with <strong>"deleted question"</strong>.</p>
<p>Is there any policy in place regarding this kind of behaviour? Is it allowed at all?</p>
<p>I've rolled back all the vandalising edits, out of respect for the users that took the time to answer, and then flagged one of the questions for moderator attention. But I don't know if this is the right thing to do.</p>
| User vandalising (but not deleting) his/her own questions. What to do? |
<p>The help page says</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange is a question and answer site
for electronics and electrical engineering professionals, students,
and enthusiasts.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It doesn't say "...for people who want to do stuff that has to do with electronics but don't know how to go about doing it."</p>
| 6186 | 2017-04-28T04:50:42.407 | |discussion| | <p>The moderation system shuts down questions like these: </p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/301799/can-i-connect-a-button-on-my-motorcycle-to-the-main-button-on-a-garage-door-remo">Can I connect a button on my motorcycle to the main button on a garage door remote?</a></p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/300462/modding-my-laptop-is-5v-to-12v-step-up-module-safe-for-motherboard?noredirect=1#comment695656_300462">Modding my laptop, is 5v to 12v step up module safe for motherboard?</a></p>
<p>I'm sure there are scad's of these types of questions.</p>
<p>Because they are more of DIY questions they get shut down, what kind of self respecting engineer would want to answer a question as basic as switches.</p>
<p>Yet from the <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic">help center</a>:<br>
Consumer electronics such as media players, cell phones or smart phones, <strong><em>except when designing these products or modifying their electronics for other uses</em></strong></p>
<p>So either the moderation community needs to be more lenient or we need to stop advertising that we'll answer these types of questions. </p>
| Are modifying electronic questions on topic? |
<p>Related: <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1037/can-not-get-to-suggested-edits-review-page">Can not get to suggested edits review page</a></p>
<p>There were nonstandard HTML tags used in such a way that the rendering engine gets very unhappy. The original version and probably the diff'd version 2 are probably affected. If you want to see the original content, the "source" tab shows it.</p>
<p>Honestly, I don't remember the reason it was turned into a community wiki, I think the current consensus is that it should be used incredibly selectively. </p>
| 6202 | 2017-05-08T09:52:19.947 | |bug| | <p>I am trying to see the first revision of <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/posts/28255/revisions">this post</a>.</p>
<p>When I click one the <code>1</code> to unroll the text, an image with three 'loading' dots <code>...</code> appears.</p>
<p>After a couple of seconds, a message appears in the developer console saying an HTTP 500 in <code>jquery.min.js:4</code>:</p>
<pre><code>GET https://electronics.stackexchange.com/error?aspxerrorpath=/revisions/28255/ad5f0b0a-ec48-4f45-bc3a-11dc3fc33832/diff 500 ()
</code></pre>
<p>I was interested in seeing the first review to better understand why the post became community wiki.</p>
<p>I have the same problem with the 2nd review. The 3rd one works great.</p>
<p>I'm attaching screenshot.</p>
<p>Is this a bug ?</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/QJtVE.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/QJtVE.png" alt="screenshot"></a></p>
| Can't access review history because of HTTP 500 |
<p>Once you're out of school and have a real job doing engineering, the first thing to do for answers is a little digging on your own. The trick is not to look for the specific answer to your immediate problem, but to learn more about the concept being applied. Nowadays there are good papers and write-ups on just about every topic out there.</p>
<p>Of course finding them isn't always so easy. Many search terms cough up lots of extraneous hits, and then modern search engines are getting more and more cluttered with ads. Try different ones. Don't just go for Google all the time. For example, I start with Bing more often lately, although that's gotten more ad-infested over just the last few months too.</p>
<p>Posting the specific problem here on EE.SE is reasonable once you've made a attempt to learn about the concepts behind it. First, think about the problem clearly and what exactly the issue is. Then post a <i>clear</i> and <i>concise</i> question. If it takes more than half a page of text to describe, then you haven't thought about the real problem clearly enough. Go back and think again.</p>
<p>After you've done some learning on your own and you still can't figure out what's going on or how to attack a problem, ask a senior engineer you work with. That's not their main job, but is part of it. The job of any senior engineer does or should include mentoring junior engineers. If you have a history of first trying to learn up on the topic, then asking when you get stuck, you'll probably find most of them are eager to help you and guide you to the solution.</p>
<p>If you are a junior engineer that isn't working with at least one senior engineer, get out of there now. Learning from someone senior is a important part of your education and career development. Engineering school was just the start. Mostly you learn theory there, with some practical experience from side projects to help put the theory in context. Almost never is there any formal training in realities of engineering in a production environment where something is made in high volume, cost of field failures have to be considered, etc.</p>
<p>When you do engineering professionally, you also have to keep the cost/benefit of various ways for you to solve the problem in mind. Your employer needs good return on the substantial cost of keeping you around. A few hours here and there learning about concepts relevant to your job is acceptable and even expected. However, wasting two days wondering why your processor keeps randomly resetting when the senior engineer could have spotted the problem in half a minute is not in the company's best interest. Of course constantly interrupting the senior engineer with trivial stuff that saves you 5 minutes each time and costs him 10 minutes in interruption and broken thought process is not in the company's best interest either. It's also a good way to get yourself canned by having the senior engineer tell the boss you're a moron behind your back.</p>
<p>In any case, no, contacting past professors about a technical problem at your new job is not appropriate. It's not their job to teach you anymore. They need to spend their time on the next batch of students they <i>are</i> getting paid to teach. College doesn't come with a lifetime free support contract. Also, professors are usually very good at the theory, but too often amazingly clueless about real world engineering.</p>
| 6206 | 2017-05-12T02:01:37.970 | |discussion| | <p>If I were to have hard questions regarding circuit design, where would be the best places to go for help?</p>
<p>First things that come to mind are co-workers and stackexchange. Sometimes co-workers don't know the answer. Stackexchange is great and I wouldn't be surprised if it was the best option.</p>
<p>Is it inappropriate for me to consult my past professors now that I am a professional? My questions are related to projects at work, but I am mostly curious for myself as an engineer.</p>
<p>Any other resources I am missing?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
| What are the best places to go for engineering help as a professional? |
<p>That's only an issue for users with rep < 3,000. I can see that your rep is currently some 1,000 and that's probably why you're asking yourself about this. I had this very same doubt until I got beyond the 3,000 rep mark.</p>
<p>That's what I did then and what I do now:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>When I had rep < 3,000 I just downvoted the question and hoped that a higher rep user saw that as a signal and closed the question himself. There are a lot of users with rep > 3,000 in EE.SE, and they pull they trigger fairly quick when a bad homework question comes in. Sometimes I also flagged it as "unclear what you're asking".</p></li>
<li><p>Now that I have rep > 3,000 I can add off-topic reasons (which also automatically adds a comment to the question, very convenient), an option unavailable if you're below that mark. See the screenshot below. That's what I use for this kind of questions when I'm the first user voting to close. Other users prefer to vote to close as "unclear what you're asking", and sometimes I use that option if the question already has 3-4 closing votes, just to avoid messing up too much.</p></li>
</ol>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/15eT4.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/15eT4.jpg" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
<p>However, all of these are just guidelines, personal preferences or unwritten rules at best. I would also like to see a dedicated "homework attempt with no solution attempt" off-topic flag. It would be a convenient feature for users under 3,000 rep, and would also send a clearer message to users incurring in this kind of off-topic.</p>
| 6214 | 2017-05-23T18:45:57.580 | |support|feature-request|flagging| | <p>I saw several question about homework with absolutely no proof of attempt these days. I wonder if these question deserve a flag? If yes, which one? None of the actual flag fit for this need. </p>
<p>As said WesleyLee in the comment section of <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/307028/116604">this post</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>At first looks like "low quality", but this question would be
salvageable if OP edits his attempts in. And "in need of moderator
intervention" seems a bit too dramatic. I really don't know</p>
</blockquote>
| Which flag to use for no attempt on homework question? |
<ol>
<li>We are all volunteers here. Asking a question about a unusual variant of something common, and not pointing that out is wasting time and is volunteer abuse.
<li>Either the OP hadn't thought about it, or was too absorbed in his own little problem to notice. <i>Somebody</i> had to point it out to him.
<li>Telling someone how to ask a question properly, especially when they just did it wrong and caused wasted volunteer time (not just mine), is not berating them, bitching, or having a hissy fit (as you said in the edit comment). Clearly they needed to hear it.
<li>Telling them publicly<ul>
<li>Makes it impossible for them to claim later, in case of repeated occurance for example, that they didn't know.
<li>Has more impact since it's less easy to just skip over and not notice.
<li>Is hopefully something the offender finds at least a little uncomfortable, and is therefore much more likely to take care to avoid in the future. Remember, their inconsiderate action was the original cause of all this, so making them squirm a bit is well deserved.
<li>Informs bystanders to head off them making the same mistake in the future.
</ul>
<li>Part of the purpose was to inform readers why the answer apparently didn't match the question. That answer got a few downvotes after the OP apparently provided more information in comments elsewhere. Comments aren't for content, and we can't be expected to read them to answer questions. We also aren't notified when a comment is added to a question we answered. So unless we go back digging up old answers, then going to the top and reading the whole messy comment chain below the question, we don't know the OP said anything new. Judging answers based on comments elsewhere, especially when posted after the answer, may be unfair, but it happens.
<li>Nothing in the statement you quote was personal or insulting.
<li>It is <i>You</i> who is out of line. Your objection is that the original paragraph was only to berate the OP, however it was <i>you</i> who referred to others as "bitching" and having a "hissy fit". I don't know of any universe where the second is acceptable but the first not.
</ol>
| 6217 | 2017-05-23T23:10:28.980 | |discussion|answers| | <p>The answerer to a certain question had this to say when the questioner edited his question to make some clarifications;</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The above was written in response to the original question, which made
no mention of this mouse not being USB. Since pretty much all new mice
have been USB for a decade or more, it was reasonable to answer in
that context. When you ask about something unusual, it's your
responsibility to make that clear.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Above this paragraph was a good answer for USB mice - and below it a good answer for non USB. This whole paragraph doesn't add any value to the question and exists only to berate the asker.</p>
<p>So I edited it out, and the edit got accepted. He just reverted the edit, presumably because he thinks that the asker <em>should</em> be publicly shamed instead of just letting him learn.</p>
<p>On stack overflow (my main community) this sort of stuff would not stand - but I was wondering how this community dealt with it if at all.</p>
| Does this community have an official stance on entire paragraphs of an answer devoted to berating the asker? |
<p><em>Self-answering this based on a <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6220/i-want-to-vote-on-questions-in-the-close-votes-review-queue?noredirect=1#comment14750_6220">comment by Nick Alexeev</a>.</em></p>
<p>This is a site-wide decision, and the rationale behind it is explained in the answers to two StackExchange meta questions:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/211641/up-down-voting-on-questions-in-the-close-votes-review-queue">Up/down voting on questions in the close votes review queue</a></li>
<li><a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/140405/why-is-voting-removed-from-new-review-system">Why is voting removed from new review system?</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Essentially it boils down to:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The core philosophy here is that each queue focuses on a specific task or question, and provides the tools most important for resolving it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>and</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You're given a subset of questions (generally skewed toward the worst) without a chance to even read the answers, and may indeed be predisposed to voting when you don't really have a strong opinion on the contents of the post.</p>
</blockquote>
| 6220 | 2017-05-25T11:57:57.240 | |feature-request| | <p>Sometimes I would like to vote on a question while reviewing close votes.</p>
<p>I can already edit the question and add a comment from the same page. Is there a particular reason for the vote functionality being hidden in that view?</p>
| I want to vote on questions in the Close Votes review queue |
<p>Hopefully not.</p>
<p>The point of closing a question is to prevent bad questions getting the desired result. Unfortunately, there are always some who either don't care about the site quality or put their own personal looking smart ahead of it. As a result, we have to lock them out.</p>
<p>Those very new here are much more likely to not get how this site works, and blunder around making a mess or otherwise defeating the quality mechanisms. We therefore try to limit what newcomers can do before they become more in tune with the site mechanics.</p>
<p>Rep is used as the measure of how much we trust you to deal responsibly with these issues. It's not perfect, but reasonable enough. To put it bluntly, you only have 18 rep, so we don't want you doing these things because we don't trust you to do them right.</p>
<p>The solution is not to look for ways around this system, but to learn the site and its customs. That comes with time and experience here, measured in rep. There are quite a lot of privileges that you earn at various rep levels. The system isn't perfect, but works well enough. Whatever one thing you want to add to that question is immaterial in the larger scheme of things. We'll be fine without it.</p>
<p>So go answer some questions or ask some good question yourself. You'll get more rep and access to more privileges. By that time, you'll hopefully understand how this site works, and what you do with those privileges will be beneficial to the site.</p>
| 6221 | 2017-05-25T16:28:48.510 | |discussion| | <p>This question:<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/307369/what-makes-a-computer-a-computer"> "What makes a computer a computer? [closed]"</a> has been put on hold.</p>
<p>The original poster was unable to ask their question in a format suitable for this medium but I think the implied question - What is the difference between ASICs/micro-controllers and computers? - can be addressed to add value.</p>
<p>While more specific, this question:<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/182322/is-beaglebone-black-a-microcontroller-or-computer"> "Is BeagleBone Black a microcontroller or computer?"</a> is along the same lines but I feel fails to address some of the theoretical components.</p>
<p>I have written an answer - referencing Alan Turing's model for computation and the critical differences between memory management between micro-controllers and computers that I think could elucidate the subject (i.e. without an MMU microcontrollers lack support for crucial paradigms like processes, dynamic linking, and protected memory that most programmers use to reason about computers).</p>
<p>I would normally include this in a comment but as a low rep user I am unable to do so, nor am I able to direct message the poster.</p>
<p>Do I have any recourse?</p>
| How to provide input to questions on hold as a low rep user |
<p>Keep in mind that EE.SE is just a sub site of stackexchange programming time is split between all of the sites, its not likely that you'll get a new feature as it needs to work for most of the sites and needs to be maintained </p>
<p>What little of the sites that did have blogs have now had that <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/291741/we-will-no-longer-be-hosting-blog-overflow">feature removed</a> because they were not used. </p>
<p>You might want to poke around on the stack exchange meta to learn how things work globally.</p>
| 6225 | 2017-06-05T17:26:46.423 | |discussion|feature-request| | <p>After asking <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/309176/116604">a question</a> on EE forum concerning an aspect of my home project, I figure out that some peoples were interested by what I am planning to do. And maybe those people want to follow the project, to see how it grows. </p>
<p>So I thought that it may be a good idea to create a kind of new feature where people could deposit some file, introduce the project, explain what they are doing and why. Other people could ask the project owner about a specific part of the code, schematic, or overall system. </p>
<p>It doesn't look like anything existing on stack exchange so I'm pretty sure that won't be possible.. But still, I think it's a good idea :)</p>
| Project deposit feature |
<p>I think we already have the tools to handle these questions. As with any broad class of questions, there is quite a range from <i>How do I increase the gain of this amplifier:</i></p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/om6pT.gif" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/om6pT.gif" alt=""></a></p>
<p>To <i>What's the purpose of C2 in this audio amplifier:</i></p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/SeBIo.gif" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/SeBIo.gif" alt=""></a></p>
<p>The first is just random garbage thrown at us, whereas the second is a legitimate question with good opportunity to teach some electronics in the answers.</p>
<p>The first needs to be closed for the nearest handy reason (I'd probably pick <i>too broad</i>, but it really doesn't matter) and downvoted because the OP clearly didn't do any research at all, and just copied some mess he found in a dark corner of the internet somewhere.</p>
<p>So as with all these things, the answer is <i>it depends</i>, and it's a judgement call each time. It's hard to come up with a clear rule, but I'll know it when I see it.</p>
<p>Broadly, we don't want whole circuits the OP doesn't understand dumped on us. However, explaining details of how a circuit works, what it does, why particular components were chosen, what the criteria for choosing the components are, etc, can be good questions.</p>
<p>Of course no matter what else, these question need to be written with a little care, no sloppiness, and the schematics must also be neat, readable, and follow common conventions.</p>
<p>When the first thing I see is a wiring diagram instead of a schematic, I downvote on principle, refuse to read the text, then vote to close as <i>unclear</i> since without reading the text I don't know what is being asked. The same holds true for anything else that makes a question annoying to read and is just wasting the time of the volunteers here.</p>
| 6248 | 2017-06-19T08:29:57.387 | |discussion|close-reasons| | <p>There's a significant amount of questions¹ of the type:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Here's a {LED driver|amplifier|inverter|…} circuit I found on some website, explain how it works, or why we need {component}?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Problems with that are that</p>
<ol>
<li>getting answers here (because most of us are very enthusiastic about explaining practical simple circuits) inhibits OP's own research efforts, and</li>
<li>many of these circuits are especially low-quality from an electronics point of view:
<ul>
<li>I've seen many circuits that are supposed to be "high-gain, low
noise RF amplifiers", but are obviously copied from a website that copied them from another website, that copied them from an amateur radio mag, which copied them from another mag, which copied the circuit from someone who designed a basic Germanium semiconductor circuit without in-depth understanding of how these work in the 1950s</li>
<li>I've also seen numerous <em>dangerous</em> <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/311766/simple-square-wave-power-inverter-circuit-question">inverter</a> circuits (things supposedly designed as resonant inverters, but where, probably through partial copy, the info on how to pick values and what <em>not</em> to supply with these, alongside with a total disregard for security measures), and most prominently</li>
<li>hundreds of 555-related questions that just are copies of basic 555 circuits where OP would simply need to research what the individual component values <em>do</em> to answer their own question (but can't, because the website they got the circuit from doesn't <em>explain</em>, but just <em>display</em> the circuit).</li>
<li>Also: the occasional total bullshack <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/264011/how-to-improve-rf-meter">circuits</a> sold by dubious vendors. </li>
</ul></li>
<li>They often don't even link to the original source, which makes constructive feedback even harder.</li>
</ol>
<p>Now, I consider these to be questions of especially low quality for the following reasons:</p>
<ul>
<li>they are <em>all</em> based on a lack of research – I know that for a beginner that is enthusiastic about building something that <em>does</em> something for the first time, it'll be hard to even find the appropriate ressources, but I really can't see why we're the ones to link to the same pages every day</li>
<li>they might benefit future readers in the same situation, but most of them really are duplicates, and again, spotting the duplicate from a couple questions that come up in a search for the keywords in OP's question would qualify as the minimum research</li>
<li>we're basically helping the proliferation and usage of badly-explained and badly-designed and outdated circuitry. I personally think we shouldn't.</li>
</ul>
<p>So, of course, I can <em>downvote</em> such a question (which I think is the common thing we do for "bad question, do some research"), but I'd rather have a clear help page/rule entry that points out <em>why</em> exactly people shouldn't ask these.</p>
<p>Now: <strong>How do we want to approach such questions?</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Only downvote, close as "unclear" if appropriate? </li>
<li>Only downvote, tend to close as "too broad", because an answer would basically mean explaining the basics of the type of circuit in question?</li>
<li>Have a separate close reason "Don't ask questions about circuits copied from a source that doesn't explain them without in-depth understanding of the topic"?</li>
</ul>
<p>I'm slightly leaning towards the third option, as it's the clearest.</p>
<p><hr>
¹ citation might be needed, but really: I <em>do</em> think we agree it's a common phenomenon </p>
| How to deal with "Explain/Fix this Circuit I found somewhere (and don't really understand)" kind of questions? |
<p>Yes, but you'll probably get better answers on <a href="https://dsp.stackexchange.com/">DSP.SE</a>.</p>
| 6252 | 2017-06-20T20:31:22.943 | |discussion| | <p>In my case, I want to ask about IIR, but as algorthim and the math involved in it, not as circuits.</p>
<p>Is it OK to ask about it here?</p>
| Algorithms based on signal handling and systems are acceptable here? |
<p>You are overthinking this. Everything anyone writes here is public. If they don't want something pointed out and talked about, they should have thought of that before posting it publicly.</p>
<p>If you want to discuss any particular passage, regardless of who wrote it, link to the source question or answer here, and ask what you want to ask. If the part you want to ask is small enough, copy it into the question here, but still provide a link to the question or answer it appeared in so others can look at context.</p>
<p>If you object to something that was written, object to the post, not the user.</p>
| 6259 | 2017-07-09T11:15:15.040 | |discussion| | <p>Let's suppose that a certain user makes me wonder if he/she should be trusted or not and I wish to discuss this on meta. Perhaps some people would recommend flagging right away, but the idea is that I'm not sure if the person in question is doing something wrong.</p>
<p>However, if I decide to make a post that implies some sort of public shaming, which is not quite right. How should I address such situations? Can one talk about such a thing here without problems?</p>
| Discuss a user's behaviour without making "name and shame" happen |
<p>Yes, you're missing some information. This particular user has only been with us for 5 months, but has had an unusually high number of issues raised against him. He's having a hard time fitting in here, and this is just one more problem among many. The moderators are trying to manage the situation as best we can.</p>
| 6263 | 2017-07-12T13:07:45.157 | |discussion|spam| | <p>I'm quite surprised to see <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/314860/72179">this answer</a> go, especially with a "spam or rude/abusive" epitaph on its grave. From what I can see, the last revision of the answer had 24 upvotes, 2 downvotes and looked like this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It can be done, with a few precautions.</p>
<p>Don't put them in the same bed with, especially when the batteries are charged.</p>
<p>Don't put them in the upper bed, especially if the bed isn't sturdy.</p>
<p>Don't heat them up when you sleep with them.</p>
<p>Be careful about leaky or old batteries. Acid spill can be bad.</p>
<p>I would also recommend against sleeping with them when they are being charged with or discharged at high current levels.</p>
<p>It is generally safer to store them away from your bed, preferably in a acid resistive isothermal chamber.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Regardless of the usefulness of the answer, I believe that having a history of content deleted as abusive is a pretty strong black mark against the account (involving rate limits for questions, answers and comments and more CAPCHA) which the user doesn't seem to deserve.</p>
<p>Or did I miss something that happened behind the scenes?</p>
| Why was this answer deleted as rude/abusive? |
<p>There are a lot of ways this type of question can go wrong. I think it needs to meet these qualifications:<ol></p>
<p><li>The schematic must be <b>clearly drawn</b>. When tracing the connections on a board, the first pass is usually a messy ratsnest. We don't want to see that. Clean it up and present it properly before asking others to spend their volunteer time looking at it.</p>
<p><li><b>Don't just dump a circuit on us</b>. <i>"What does this circuit do?"</i> or <i>"Tell me all about this circuit?"</i> are not good questions here. You have to show some effort, what you've found, and demonstrate the ability to understand answers. Ask about specific things you are unclear about. <i>"What's the purpose of R1, between the emitter of Q7 and ground?"</i> might be OK. <i>"I see that R1 creates higher input impedance at the base, but why does it need to be 100 kΩ? From what's driving the base, and what's connected to the collector, it seems 2 kΩ would be sufficient."</i> would be better.</p>
<p><li>Explain what you are trying to accomplish, and where the circuit came from. The answer could be quite different if it came from a textbook, the manual of a HP instrument from the 1980s, or what you think is embodied by a board you are trying to reverse engineer.</p>
<p><li>Tell us what you know about what the circuit is supposed to do, or that you have observed it do. In other words, tell us the specs you do know. It can often be useful to tell us what you don't know but you suspect could be relevant.</p>
<p><li>Stick around, especially in the first couple of hours, to answer questions. Some things will be unclear, and there will likely be parameters that you didn't realize are relevant.</p>
<p>I vote to close a question immediately when information is missing. That starts the process, so you have to respond quickly before too many others see it and agree there is missing information.</p>
<p><li>When answering questions, <i><b>never</b></i> take the attitude that the answer is not relevant. If you knew what was relevant, you wouldn't be here having to ask.</p>
<p><li>No matter how good any one answer seems, give everyone at least 24 hours to see the question and respond before you accept one.</p>
<p></ol></p>
| 6285 | 2017-07-30T05:51:50.207 | |discussion|legal| | <p>I have read many application/design notes, data sheets and lectures and other stuff about electronics. But when I come to real application I find many components that I don't why they are used(e.g phone charger). </p>
<p>I am working for 2 years, in a new product development department, we have no seniors to give us much information. The products we are developing are commercial. We have not copy other products circuits, but we want to gain the knowledge. </p>
<p>So if I did a reverse engineering and obtain the schematics then want to ask a question (in forum like this one) I have to include the detailed schematics as not to get no answer or negative votes. </p>
<p>Isn't this violate the proprietary/patent rights? </p>
| Electronics circuit reverse engineering and proprietary rights |
<p>Another way to look at it is, once you've earned a few hundred reputation points, you can <em>spend</em> those hard-earned points moving bad answers down.</p>
<p>Downvoting bad <em>questions</em> is free, but downvoting a bad <em>answer</em> costs you one rep point. (<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/privileges/vote-down">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/privileges/vote-down</a>) (This only applies to the main site, not the meta site.)</p>
<p>As a practial matter, those rep points are only good for unlocking priviledges (everyone's a moderator, to some degree) and perhaps placing a bounty on the rare overlooked gem of a question that needs more attention.</p>
<p>Still, I know what you mean, the first time I got downvoted on an answer years ago, I "quit" for a week. Then after I calmed down a bit I went back and fixed my answer (which actually was indeed flawed). Since then I've learned to double-check my answers before posting. Engineer types do thrive on carefully-tuned negative feedback.</p>
<p>Can't find the quote, I think it was either Joel Spolsky or Jeff Atwood; when you put a number next to sombody's name, they tend to do whatever they can to make that number increase...</p>
| 6288 | 2017-08-04T17:52:51.683 | |support|bug|reputation|down-votes| | <p>Funny. Though it hurts a lil. :D</p>
| I downvoted an answer today and that downvote shows to have deducted my reputation by 1. Why? |
<p>Can we add an additional reason for voting to close a question, i.e. "No answer accepted within 90 days"?</p>
<p>If the question is a good one and worth keeping, it could be asked again by someone, answered by them and accepted and the original deleted.</p>
<p>I take the point that only the OP can say if their question has been answered, but if enough people consider that it has, it's probably more likely that the OP hasn't asked the right question in the first place.</p>
| 6291 | 2017-08-05T18:23:53.233 | |feature-request|flagging| | <p>I'm tired of seeing bumps made by community. It's always questions made by one-timers making an account, receiving answers and leaving forever without accepting an answer. Many of those questions have answers that do solve the question asked, but because the person who asked the question has left the building and will never come back the right answer will never be accepted. </p>
<p>Is there any way to introduce some flag for answers that do solve the question asked? I don't have enough reputation to vote to close so I don't know exactly how that procedure works, but can there be something similar for an answer like "Vote to accept"? </p>
<p>I'm not aware of how much authority our moderators have, so this question might be all in vain, but there must be some way to get rid of the questions with answers? Right now I'm avoiding questions bumped by community.</p>
| Vote for an answer to become accepted |
<p>I don't think the voltage is important enough to be a tag - yes, it should generally be specified in the question, but asides from maybe high-voltage (over 50-60 volts), I don't think there is much benefit from having those as tags (even 3V3 and 5V), as most devices have a tolerance range, i.e. maybe 4.5-6.5V and 4.75-5.25V would both be classified "5V", but those are a bit different and the nuance is better explained in the question rather than via tags - especially when you get into "automotive 12v" which generally means devices can handle spikes up to ~18V, but if you have a more sensitive 12V device, such as maybe a router or a switch, it's unlikely to be as robust. </p>
| 6301 | 2017-08-10T20:58:00.440 | |discussion|tags| | <p>What should we do with the <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/12v">12V</a> and <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/24v">24V</a> tags? </p>
<p>I can't see a reason to group questions with the same voltage because many different types of circuits could be defined by either voltage. </p>
<p>We seem to have people relating this most to automotive applications due to tag descriptions, but if you look at the questions listed, they have automotive or battery applications or even solar. Someone could be designing a circuit with a 12V Vcc and throw that on the 12V tag.</p>
<p>I think these tags should be deleted. The questions in each tag are smattered with different unrelated subjects.</p>
<p>People should come up with a tag for their specific application, if its automotive, then they should use an automotive tag. If its a battery tag, then use the battery-charging or battery-operated tag. </p>
<p>I checked the 5V and 3.3V tags before I wrote this, but they actually have titles. However, if we were to change the 12V and 24V tags we should look at them also. At least the 3.3V and 5V tags have titles and seem to be associated with level shifting: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>"Questions regarding 5V level signals, level-shifting, and circuits."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>3.3V has the same thing:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"Questions regarding 3.3V level signals, level-shifting, and circuits"</p>
</blockquote>
<p>instead of an ambiguous title like the 12V and 24V. </p>
<p>I don't know if I'd get rid of the 3.3V or 5V tags as they actually have a title (although I'd be much happier if we split those tags into something more meaningful, like 3.3V-CMOS or 5V-usb power ect) or just kill them also. </p>
<p>Again the voltage level has little to do with the question if you look at the other tags associated with the 3.3V and 5V tags. </p>
| Delete the 24V, 12V, (and maybe 5V, 3.3V) tags and discontinue use of tags associated with a voltage |
<p>I think this falls to the realm of UX. You expect to have the ability to save your work, <strong>by default</strong>, while they are not. This expectation may come from the fact (I think so) that most web services allow you to save when you have an account. However, not doing so is absolutely acceptable. The thing to "blame" is the popularity of free saving feature of other web services.</p>
<p>However, I do share with your frustration.</p>
| 6302 | 2017-08-13T18:20:45.677 | |discussion|circuitlab| | <p>I wanted to draw a circuit and export it to a PDF for a university project. I found out about them by a link on this site. When I tried to print, it says</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You must save your circuit before exporting. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>When I tried to save, it says</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Error: create an account to get started. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ok, if doesn't cost anything, why not? I'm disappointed about what happened when I created the account and tried it again, though</p>
<blockquote>
<p>An active Circuit Lab membership is required to save circuits. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Man, that's gross. I understand that "to get started" does technically not mean "in order to save". But why do they need to trick their users with nifty word games? This is a well known bait technique, usually applied in marketing to promise things for no charge. I did not expect Stack Exchange to link to such a fraud site.</p>
| Please stop the account-bait with circuitlab |
<p>Questions about use are off-topic.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Questions on the <em>use</em> of electronic devices are off-topic as this site is intended specifically for questions on electronics <em>design</em>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Questions about repair are off-topic.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Questions on the <strong>repair</strong> of consumer electronics, appliances, or other devices must involve specific troubleshooting steps and demonstrate a good understanding of the underlying design of the device being repaired. See also: <a href="http://meta.electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/2478/is-asking-on-how-to-fix-a-faulty-circuit-on-topic">Is asking on how to fix a faulty circuit on topic?</a></p>
</blockquote>
| 6314 | 2017-08-20T09:25:41.000 | |discussion|on-topic|scope| | <p>As a normal user, sometimes my <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripheral" rel="nofollow noreferrer">peripherals</a> don't work as expected. Here is the question I want to ask:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have a PS3 controller, but my computer doesn't recognize it when plugged in for the first time for a couple of hours or more not using it. However it recognize the controller after replugging it. Since in theory it shouldn't be like that, I wonder what is happening.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It's on-topic on Super User, but seems to be poor-received (example: <a href="https://superuser.comhttps://superuser.com/q/1167862/301042" rel="nofollow noreferrer">What makes keyboard suddenly stop working when BIOS is loading?</a>). There is a <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/peripheral" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'peripheral'" rel="tag">peripheral</a> tag on this site, but the questions there seems to have more technical knowledge than I have. From <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic">What topics can I ask about here?</a>, it is not clear that this kind of question explicitly be on-topic, but IMO it doesn't fall on the off-topics:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This site is for electronics and electrical engineering professionals, students, and enthusiasts. We ask and answer questions about electrical and electronics engineering topics, which include electronics, physical computing, and those working with microcontrollers, Arduinos and embedded systems. We feel the best Electronics Design questions have a schematic, links to pertinent datasheets or some source code in them, but if your question generally covers …</p>
<ul>
<li>a specific electronics design problem</li>
<li>the theory and simulation of electromagnetic forces</li>
<li>a communication scheme</li>
<li>the writing of firmware for bare-metal or RTOS applications</li>
</ul>
<p>and it is not about …</p>
<ul>
<li>a shopping or buying recommendation</li>
<li>consumer electronics such as media players, cell phones or smart phones, except when designing these products or modifying their electronics for other uses</li>
<li>Programming software for a PC</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>Would question asking for reasons and fixes on peripherals be on-topic here? If yes, will it be well-received?</p>
| Would questions about peripherals asking in user perspective be on-topic? |
<p>Posting that question to DIY.SE was the right decision on your part. If you posted it to EE.SE, it would get migrated to DIY.SE. The EE.SE members are good with principles and design, but an electrician would be better with knowledge of the building codes.</p>
<p>Other than that, you can post a link to your DIY.SE question into our <a href="https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/15/electrical-engineering">EE.SE chat</a>.</p>
| 6317 | 2017-08-20T18:19:27.260 | |discussion| | <p>I asked a question about surge protectors on <em>diy.stackexchange.com</em> (<a href="https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/121445/surge-protector-for-appliances-per-appliance-non-standard">Link to the question</a>) and did not receive an answer. I assume the reason is the lack of sufficient expertise on that site. So I was thinking of asking it here.</p>
<p>Would it be on topic here since it relates to electronics, or would it be off topic because it's not technical enough?</p>
| Are questions about consumer electronics such as this on topic here? |
<p>I'm inclined to make the tag <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/motor-controller" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'motor-controller'" rel="tag">motor-controller</a> and merge both <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/esc" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'esc'" rel="tag">esc</a> and <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/speedcontroller" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'speedcontroller'" rel="tag">speedcontroller</a> into it. I'm not sure that the distinction between BLDC and brushed DC motors is useful in the tags, but I'm open to corrections.</p>
<p>Update:</p>
<p>Tags <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/esc" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'esc'" rel="tag">esc</a>, <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/speedcontroller" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'speedcontroller'" rel="tag">speedcontroller</a>, and<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/speed-controller" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'speed-controller'" rel="tag">speed-controller</a> have been merged together. They all have synonyms to <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/motor-controller" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'motor-controller'" rel="tag">motor-controller</a>.</p>
| 6340 | 2017-09-01T20:09:38.297 | |discussion|tags|tag-cleanup|tag-synonyms| | <p>The tags <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/esc" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'esc'" rel="tag">esc</a> (113 questions) and <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/speedcontroller" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'speedcontroller'" rel="tag">speedcontroller</a> (89 questions) are essentially the same thing, and both poorly named (cryptic or unhyphenated). I propose that they should be merged/synonymized, perhaps to something like <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/speed-controller" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'speed-controller'" rel="tag">speed-controller</a> or <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/motor-controller" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'motor-controller'" rel="tag">motor-controller</a>, but in any case there should not be two tags.</p>
<p>I'm bringing this up on meta because they both have a substantial number of questions, and neither one is a good name for a mere synonym proposal, so it seems worth moderator action. (I have been trying to remove <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/controller" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'controller'" rel="tag">controller</a>, an ambiguous tag whose own excerpt says it shouldn't be used, and a significant fraction of its uses are about motor controllers.)</p>
<p>Caveats:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/speedcontroller" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'speedcontroller'" rel="tag">speedcontroller</a> excerpt claims that it could be used e.g. for devices which control fuel flow to an engine. This seems unlikely to be useful or used.</p></li>
<li><p>It might make sense to make further distinctions:</p>
<ul>
<li>brushless motor controllers vs. brushed motor controllers (we already have <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/brushed-dc-motor" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'brushed-dc-motor'" rel="tag">brushed-dc-motor</a> and <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/brushless-dc-motor" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'brushless-dc-motor'" rel="tag">brushless-dc-motor</a>, which could be taken as supporting the distinction or as that we should use those tags instead)</li>
<li>digital/PWM control vs. various <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/296059/how-does-this-circuit-control-motor-speed">more specialized/simplified things</a></li>
</ul>
<p>and arguably <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/esc" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'esc'" rel="tag">esc</a> might mean one of those, but I don't think it is consistently used that way, and I think there should be a tag that suits all-kinds-of-motor-controllers since they have common elements.</p></li>
</ul>
| Tag merge/synonym proposal: [esc] [speedcontroller] |
<p>Look into the stacks which Dave had mentioned. If you find that EE.SE would be a good fit, you're welcome to give it a try. If it turns out that some other stack is a better fit, we'll benignly migrate your question there.</p>
| 6349 | 2017-09-20T15:39:10.513 | |discussion| | <p>I would like to ask a question about CPU design; I am no sure whether it belongs on this site or not. It is at an architecture level, rather than at the level of transistors and other components.</p>
<p>Where would the appropriate place be to ask a question about CPU design?</p>
| Where to ask about processor design |
<p>I have restored the answer, but it could be improved by the OP.</p>
<p>I'm not sure why, given that the question included the suspicion that there is no solution to the problem as posed, a proof of it would be considered a non-answer. It at least deserves to be discussed.</p>
| 6352 | 2017-09-21T10:52:13.547 | |discussion|deleted-answers| | <p>My question is regarding a mod-deleted answer to: <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/329935/25328">Digital Logic circuit - exam question</a>. In this day and age with modern design methods, it seems to me that a software algorithm used to solve a difficult design problem or prove it is unsolvable, is a valuable tool.</p>
<p>An answer by new user @Ido Kessler presented some source-code that he said ran for 2 hours and returned false. The answer needed a little improvement so I wrote a comment asking that he include a description of the algorithm and his level of confidence that the algorithm was correct and the software bug-free. The question was deleted while I was writing the comment.</p>
<p>Ido Kessler obviously spent some time working on this method of proof and I was intrigued as his method could be adapted to other hardware-design problems and be a useful tool. I therefore feel that this was an important answer and should not have been deleted.</p>
<p>I should note that I had not yet up-voted the answer as I wanted to wait for the improvements I was suggesting, and verification that no one else had a valid solution to the problem (no one did).</p>
<p>What better answer could there be to a problem that is un-solvable than a proof showing that the problem is unsolvable?</p>
<p>Edit: I know that the line for software here is often drawn between embedded (allowed) and PCs (often not allowed); but although the software in the answer was probably intended for a PC, the software was intended to solve a hardware design problem and in my opinion allowances need to be made for that.</p>
<p>Edit2: Here is the link to the restored answer: <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/330122/25328">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/330122/25328</a></p>
| Software proof that a hardware design problem is unsolvable - why was the answer deleted? |
<p>Yes, we do have a view for most upvoted. </p>
<p>Go to <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions</a><br>
Select the <code>votes</code> tab.<br>
<a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/iP9W1.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/iP9W1.png" alt="votes tab"></a></p>
<p>This tab is available for search results too. If you make an <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/searching">advanced search</a> with time limits, and sort by votes, then you could find out the most upvoted of the week, month.</p>
| 6354 | 2017-09-22T01:41:21.303 | |feature-request| | <p>Looking for a list of questions with the most upvotes. Like most up voted questions of the day, week, month, all time. </p>
<p>Does this exist?</p>
| Is there a list of the most up voted questions? |
<p>I know I come late to this.<br>
I had the same experience with members of my family. The say they can't find anything on Google and are astonished when I can find it immediately.<br>
I have come to the conclusion that searching on Google requires a certain mindset which I (and probably you) have, but a lot of people lack. </p>
<p>Just to remind you of what kind of questions people ask:
<em>"Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?"</em></p>
<p>Having written all that: Yes on several occasions I have put in the comments: "use Google with <.....>"</p>
| 6380 | 2017-11-22T17:10:37.747 | |feature-request| | <p>I seriously think we need this choice under the close flags...</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/mWamG.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/mWamG.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
<p>There are just so many questions that obviously fit this category and need to be marked for closure, <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/341279/design-circuit-using-sr-latch-d-latch-and-positive-edge-trigger-d-flip-flop">example</a>, but simply do not fit under the other options. </p>
<p>What is the general consensus of which of the others is most appropriate?</p>
<p><strong>EDIT:</strong></p>
<p>Question was marked as a duplicate of the LMGTFY question....</p>
<p>This question has NOTHING to do with allowing <a href="http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Let%20ME%20Google%20that%20for%20you" rel="nofollow noreferrer">LMGTFY links</a>.</p>
<p>Despite my attempt at humor in the image... </p>
<p>THIS QUESION has to do with adding a close reason <strong>"User obviously did no research or demonstrated no reasonable effort to answer their question."</strong></p>
| Let me Google that for you |
<p>Your revised version of the question no longer has anything to do with the moderators. Note that this time the question was closed by 5 ordinary users.</p>
<p>One reason it got closed may be that you state a very unusual and seemingly silly requirement, but refuse to justify it. That makes it sound like it is indeed silly, religious, and arbitrary. People won't take you seriously that way, and they don't want to waste time answering what may well turn out to be a X-Y problem.</p>
| 6384 | 2017-11-23T21:35:01.247 | |discussion|bug|moderation|moderators|unanswered-questions| | <p><strong>The question in question has been reopened and closed but is still need to be open so more answers can be given. I will gladly read even if it is hypothetical and upvote.</strong> </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I have a question about my Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange post: <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/341481/can-solar-cells-be-wired-to-produce-120-volts-ac">Can solar cells be wired to produce 120 volts AC?</a></p>
<p>This doesn't answer my question really. I was hoping that someone whom has experience in solar design could get a chance to answer before it was closed by the same person who answered it in such a short time? Thous gaining reputation with out any other valid answers could be given seams like cheating and left me without the input from other experts who did not even have a chance to look at it? </p>
| Unfair use of Moderation tools |
<p>The question got deleted because the user account itself was deleted.</p>
<p>The account was deleted by the user himself.</p>
| 6412 | 2017-12-15T20:03:13.190 | |support| | <p>See the question <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/344999/4512">Is this circuit OK for a Nixie Tube clock?</a>.</p>
<p>I know it wasn't a great question and it was at -2, but it did have one answer at +2, and that answer was accepted. One of the two points in the single answer ended up not applying due to the OP providing incomplete information. The other point is still valid and possibly useful to the OP.</p>
<p>I could understand if the OP got frustrated and deleted the question. But, it got deleted by "community", which is a bot as I understand it. I thought only questions with no answers with positive score got cleaned up automatically.</p>
<p>Obviously I'm misunderstanding something. How does the "community" cleanup algorithm really work?</p>
| Why was this question deleted by "community"? |
<p>According to the canonical post on the subject <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/86997/what-can-i-do-when-getting-we-are-no-longer-accepting-questions-answers-from-th">What can I do when getting “We are no longer accepting questions/answers from this account”?</a> the answer is that possibly you can, the relevant parts are:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The only way for the ban to be lifted is by contributing positively to the site in other ways.</p>
<p>If you are banned from asking questions, then writing a few quality answers that get upvoted might enable you to ask questions again. But as the internals of the filter are secret, there is no way to know for sure.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Something you might not be aware of is that while the question block won't expire automatically:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you're unable to improve your existing questions, you'll get the chance to ask one new one 6 months after your last question. If that question is positively received, you may be able to continue asking questions; if not, then the ban will be reinstated.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Just to add a few personal comments and observations:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>I've never seen it confirmed that suggested edits will help lift a ban, although they might because it is a form of positive contribution. But if you do that the edits will get reviewed by others so make sure you fix all problems and don't introduce any new ones otherwise they'll get rejected which might make things worse.</p>
</li>
<li><p>While Stack Exchange don't confirm it officially the question ban does seem to related to answers to me. A few times I've seen users on Stack Overflow that have a bunch of heavily downvoted questions that still seem able to post new (often bad) questions because they have posted lots of good answers. Although the few I've seen have something like 50+ answers so that might not be an easy path to follow.</p>
</li>
<li><p>Another problem you're likely to have with answers is that you don't seem to have a lot of experience / knowledge in the field and often simple questions are answered within minutes and posting new answers that don't really add much isn't normally well received. For those question what you'd really have to do is find some with mediocre answers and spend some time writing an outstanding answer.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>But looking at some of the questions you've posted around the network most of the problematic ones seems to revolve around physics which you seem to have an interest in. I'd recommend getting maybe a high school level physics book and having a red hot go at reading it all and doing all the exercises, your question would be received much better if you showed a bit of basic understanding / research and you'd probably be able to work out for yourself why some ideas wouldn't work.</p>
| 6414 | 2017-12-16T04:48:38.787 | |discussion| | <p>I have tried to fix and make my low quality questions better to no avail, if I do anymore the questions I get more down votes. Can I do stuff like answer questions with in my ability and edit grammar mistakes to gain the privilege back?</p>
| My question banned is still active after months? |
<p>You really need an education in electricity and magnetism up to the point where you can understand <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_equations" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Maxwell's Equations</a> before even thinking about Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Electrodynamics (virtual photons).</p>
| 6416 | 2017-12-17T04:54:48.167 | |discussion| | <p>I really love it here and I don't want to loose any more privileges. I've revised the question but it only got me more down votes. It is with in the scope of this sight but 5 people out of 1000s decided it was off topic. Once on hold or closed the question is practically dead. Can some one actually help me with this question instead of shooting me down? I' will read and up vote 3 of you questions. I learn here and I am learning that the system is intolerant. Don't you want to pop up on top every time on google?</p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/313938/tesla-make-anything-that-didnt-work-like-this-divise?noredirect=1#comment820250_313938">Does Tesla make anything that didn't work like this divise?</a></p>
| Why is this question still gettng downvoted? |
<p>This is getting ridiculous.</p>
<p>You have clearly learned nothing from your previous questions here. Attempting to answer this question would be pointless, and just repeating what was previously said anyway.</p>
<p>Go read the previous answers:</p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/q/6331/4512">Low quality question tag?</a><br>
<a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/q/6414/4512">My question banned is still active after months?</a><br>
<a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/q/6416/4512">Why is this question still gettng downvoted?</a></p>
<p>Or better yet, just go away altogether.</p>
| 6420 | 2017-12-21T22:08:53.010 | |support|editing|reputation|homework|promotion| | <p>I am learning so much here, but have a ways to go. What are ways that a low rep novice user like myself be of assistance? </p>
| How can I help? Novice in Electrical |
<p>I think the most important thing when it comes to editing is making sure the question is readable (good grammar and punctuation) so it looks presentable. Get rid of all the text speech. Changing equations is another way to make questions look good. Sometimes there are formatting errors. </p>
<p>The next thing that may be a little hard to do is <a href="https://www.acs.edu.au/info/environment/bio-science/technical-documentation.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">eliminate first person speech</a> (if its a question that is worthy of making it look professional). In doing this is helps the editor be a better technical writer. In academic and technical settings first person speech (pronouns) are harder to read and not necessary.</p>
<p>I sometimes rewrite the answer and provide a specific question to make it more readable. </p>
<p>If the OP objects to this, they are more then welcome to edit their own post.
More often than not, it's easier to edit the post than it is to let them edit it so edit away. </p>
| 6424 | 2017-12-27T14:39:19.947 | |support| | <p>As someone who went from 500 rep to 3k rep in a couple of month's, I've come to miss some of the "privileges" of having low rep.</p>
<p>In the same way that moderators might want to simply "vote close" rather than insta-close a question. I want to simply make a suggestion for an edit rather than an insta-edit. I want my edits to be approved by other people, especially the persons question/answer I am editing. Otherwise it feels as if I am stepping on other people's toes. </p>
<p>Before I had instant edit privilege, I saw "oh this.. certainly need a little puff to look better / get the point across seamlessly". And knowing that other people would only say "yes" if it was correct gave me the feeling that "if your edit is crap, then it won't go through". Like a safe edit. </p>
<p>Nowadays I barely edit (only did some edits for the hat thingy), and the only edits I do is text to mathjax edits so it looks "correct" / "serious" / has the quality of being on EE.SE.</p>
<hr>
<p>With that said, <strong>is there any way to make suggested edits to questions / answers as someone with +3k rep</strong>? Or should I make 3x 500 bounties to drop my rep to below 2k? Because I really miss that feature.
<br>But then.. if I got below 2k rep, then I will miss the vote to close option, because some questions really... need that vote. </p>
| How do I make a suggested edit? |
<p>Relevant Post: <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/440/tex-delimiters-should-be-changed?rq=1">TeX Delimiters should be changed</a></p>
<p>Basically, the initial SE implementation of MathJax decided to use the <code>$ ... $</code> syntax despite the following notice in the documentation:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Note in particular that the $...$ in-line delimiters are not used by default. That is because dollar signs appear too often in non-mathematical settings, which could cause some text to be treated as mathematics unexpectedly.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I'm guessing it was originally for a "pure" site that never has to worry about the cost of components, so they thought it should never be a problem.</p>
| 6427 | 2017-12-27T19:31:22.857 | |bug|mathjax| | <p>I noticed that in our Stackexchange, the inline for Mathjax is different from the Math SE or Physics SE.</p>
<p>For the Math and Physics SE, the way the inline for their equations for Mathjax equations is: <code>$ equation $</code></p>
<p>However, on our website, the way we inline our equations is: <code>\$ equation \$</code>. </p>
<p>Why is that? Is it a different version of Mathjax?</p>
| Why does our inline syntax for Mathjax different from say, the Math SE? |
<blockquote>Perhaps I should ... give the OP a day or two to comply.</blockquote>
<p>Absolutely not!<ol></p>
<p><li>There is a good chance you'll forget to come back and vote to close. There is no mechanism within SE for a reminder.</p>
<p><li>It noises up the site and dissipates volunteer energy. It's fine to tell the OP what you think is wrong, but it's important that bad questions get closed as quickly as possible. A lengthy comment chain going back and forth with the OP is not desirable. Everyone should be held to the same standard consistently. Letting someone slide by because you wrote a comment reduces overall site quality.</p>
<p><li>As long as a bad question remains open, it is vulnerable to some selfish wannabe that can't resist looking smart at the expense of the overall site. Think about it. That's why there is a close mechanism in the first place. If everyone could be trusted to not provide the desired result for a bad question, we wouldn't need to lock out new answers by closing questions.</p>
<p><li>It puts the OP on notice that the comments about things needing to be fixed are serious. The clock is ticking. Fix it or else. These are empty threats until the close process has at least been started.</p>
<p><li>The first close vote puts the question on the close review queue. That gives the question more attention from others to specifically evaluate whether it should be closed or not. Otherwise, a bad question with a uninteresting title might not get enough attention to ever get closed.</p>
<p><li>It doesn't work most of the time anyway. Most bad questions that receive comments are never edited. It's a fool's errand waiting on the OP to come back and fix a problem.</p>
<p><li>The site is more important than the salvage value of any one question. We get plenty of good questions here. We're not hurting for traffic. Spending time turning a bad question into a mediocre one is not worth it. A new good question will come in soon enough. Spend the time to answer that instead. Meanwhile, the bad question needs to be dispensed with as expediently as possible.</p>
<p><li>Consider the volunteer resources that make this site work a limited and finite resource. You want as much of that time applied to providing good answers to good questions as possible. That builds the best repository, which is a stated goal of SE. Time spent dealing with bad questions is time not spent writing good answers to good questions. Therefore, it should be clear that bad questions should be dealt with as expediently as possible with the least amount of volunteer drain.</p>
<p></ol></p>
| 6429 | 2017-12-29T20:40:29.897 | |discussion|vote-to-close| | <p>On occasion, when I come across a particularly bad question (e.g. homework with no attempt; or requests such as "why doesn't this work", where no schematic or sufficient detail is given), I'll go ahead and immediately vote to close.</p>
<p>I'm beginning to wonder, though, if this is in bad form. Perhaps I should down-vote, paste a standard form comment, and give the OP a day or two to comply.</p>
<p>How do "you" approach these questions? Is there a generally agreed upon (albeit unofficial) grace period?</p>
| Typical grace period before voting to close questions |
<p>I wondered about that myself, and I eventually concluded that it's the number of answers that the question has.</p>
| 6435 | 2017-12-31T10:09:42.280 | |support|flagging| | <p>When viewing the flag history page, I find that each entry has a number following the title of the flagged post. For instance:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/zW7CY.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/zW7CY.jpg" alt="example flag entry"></a></p>
<p>What does the circled number represent?</p>
| Profile flag history: What does the appended number represent? |
<p>While I appreciate the effort you have put into editing your question, it is still far too broad. The nub of it seems to be:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>How do I write multiple streams of real-time data to a filesystem?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And the answer is that you need a filesystem driver that supports having multiple files open simultaneously, and has enough performance to support the total data bandwidth. This also has implications about the hardware platform (CPU and memory) you choose and the operating system you run on it.</p>
<p>The fact that the filesystem is on a memory card is not relevant, except for the constraints it puts on performance. Same thing for the sources of data, and how you compress and buffer that data.</p>
<p>You have all of this information jumbled together, yet you have made no hard choices on any of the technology. You're essentially asking us to do the entire top-level design of your system for you. THAT is what makes the question too broad.</p>
| 6437 | 2018-01-02T07:41:14.310 | |support|closed-questions| | <p>I have searched long and hard for information on how to save photo/video taken by an NTSC camera to an SD card and also save other data taken from sensors to that same SD. I have not yet figured it out, but am still determined to find an answer. The question that I ultimately <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/347421/sd-card-both-photo-video-recording-and-data-logging">asked</a> on EE.SE was put on hold because, I admit, it was originally worded in a very convoluted and broad way. I have now edited it to the best of my abilities to make it specific, conforming to the site's rules, and to include the kind of information that I am looking for. Is there anything else I can do/any other edits I can make to get this question reopened?</p>
| Are there any other changes I should make to this question to get it reopened? |
<p>It's just your vote, meaning that you think it is fine as it stands. If enough people agree with you, no action will be taken. But it still gives people with different opinions the opportunity to vote, too.</p>
| 6443 | 2018-01-07T19:41:49.910 | |discussion|review-queue| | <p>Does the previous actions by other users count in, as if it is like "no <em>more</em> action needed" or is it some kind of vote which is meant to indicate that it is OK, no matter what previous opinions are?</p>
| How is "no action needed" interpreted? (review queues) |
<p>[Let me preface by saying that I don't have a general prejudice against specialized EE software questions and EE lab equipment questions. I've asked and answered a few of those myself.]</p>
<p>The question boils down to: "<em>How to work the zoom on the Saleae logic analyzer chart?</em>" It's more of a software (usability?) question than an EE question. As such, it's a better fit for <a href="https://support.saleae.com/hc/en-us/community/posts" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Saleae's own support forum</a>.</p>
| 6449 | 2018-01-09T12:12:05.400 | |discussion|support|on-topic| | <p>I have a question regarding the usage of the PC-based software that is delivered with a Logic Analyzer.</p>
<p>I see that some software questions seem to be on-topic already, e.g. <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5748/are-questions-on-working-with-plc-programming-software-on-topic-here">PLC software</a>, <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2952/are-electronic-cad-software-related-questions-on-topic">CAD software</a> and also a question about <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5333/why-a-question-on-ltspice-settings-is-not-on-topic">LT Spice</a> was closed incorrectly.</p>
<p>I tend to say a Logic Analyzer question would be too specific for SuperUser. It would probably not be off-topic, since it is about computer software. However, I don't think I would find the right people to answer the question.</p>
<p>I would <em>like</em> the question to be on-topic here, but that's not my decision :-)</p>
<p>Here's my hypothetical (at the moment) question:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In Saleae Logic 1.2.17, I have captured 10 bytes of RS-485 data. Unfortunately, the zoom level is either too small to see the details or too high to see all the 10 bytes. Scrolling with the mouse wheel and using the arrow keys for zooming increases or decreases the zoom level just too much.</p>
<p>However, I know it must be possible to get the zoom level right, because I have a screenshot of the exact same 10 bytes where all the details fit on the screen. The screen has the same resolution as mine.</p>
<p>How would I fit the zoom level so that all my 10 bytes are displayed?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Can I ask it (along with a 2 screenshots of current zoom levels and 1 screenshot expected zoom level) or is it off-topic?</p>
| Are software usage questions on-topic if they belong to a logic analyzer? |
<p>Too many of your complaints say "depending". That is to say, "depending on if the work is good or bad". I retort that good work is good work, and bad work is bad. I am never ok with bad work. </p>
<p>But I'm super ok with hand-drawn <strong>graphics</strong>, as long as it is good work. As to your points: </p>
<ul>
<li>Handwriting should not be in a graphic, for search reasons. If it is doubled in the text, it is redundant and adds clutter to the graphic. <em>But that is something <strong>you</strong> can fix</em>.</li>
<li>Formatting "might be" poor depending on screen size? Viewing quality content on a phone is like listening to <em>Loveless</em> or <em>Dark Side of the Moon</em> on a cellphone speaker. <em>Surely you can't mean</em> excellent content should be dumbed down to work well on your phone. </li>
<li>If you use custom formatting options, and it doesn't handle all content well, your stuff is broken, not the contributor. </li>
<li>Absolutely agreed, if a picture is hosted not at official SE locations, edit the post so it is. That is an SE policy not to rely on outside sites, which can 404 over time. </li>
</ul>
<p>SE is a <em>gift economy</em>. People contribute freely like beer. Often we have real luminaries with very limited time to compose answers, so they use the tools <em>they</em> work best in. I draw my own circuit diagrams rather than use CircuitLab because I need to use 11 colors and I package info CircuitLab refuses to, like screw colors and cable bundling. </p>
<p>Others give, but <strong>you also are here to give</strong>. Your proper response to a posting you feel can be improved is not to throw rocks and judge, because that damages the gift economy by deterring giving. The proper response is to <strong>improve it</strong>. So feel free to edit the post, textify his handwriting, fire up Photoshop and cut up his doodle into several graphics and place them inline. Capture his intent, then comment to say "Did I capture your intent?" </p>
<p>I've done this for others, and it never occurred to me to be mad or bitter about it. I don't get your problem. </p>
<p>When you just fix it, you change the author in a different way, instead of driving him off, you get him thinking "you know, I could just do that myself" and next thing you know, he will. It's educating by demonstrating, rather than "educating" by rallying people into downvote harassment, which, I can't see where the pot of gold would be on that. </p>
| 6450 | 2018-01-09T12:50:51.210 | |discussion| | <p>I've noticed a user who seems to answer mainly via a picture of scribble and maybe a few words instead of writing it down, using the circuit simulator and MathJax.</p>
<p>An example would be <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/349018/65584">this</a> answer. [The <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/revisions/349018/1">initial version with the scribble</a>.]</p>
<p>I was wondering if this is an acceptable way of answering questions.</p>
<p>In my opinion answering in a picture of scribble is not acceptable as:</p>
<ul>
<li>depending on the handwriting it is barely understandable</li>
<li>formatting gets very poor depending on the screen size</li>
<li>people who use custom formatting options (think high contrast or something) will loose their possibilities to make changes</li>
<li>In the future the hosted picture (depending on where it is hosted) might disappear rendering the answer completely useless</li>
</ul>
<p>I'm just not sure what the appropriate action is: just down-vote or should they be flagged for attention?</p>
| Is answering questions in pictures of scribble acceptable |
<p>There is already a mechanism that requires sufficient rep to edit answers. If your rep is too low, then edits go onto a review queue instead of just happening. That lets others who presumably know the system more than someone with low rep decide whether the edit is something that should be allowed.</p>
<p>This apparently worked, since you said it was a <i>pending</i> edit. In other words, the system didn't let him edit your answer. The person was only able to <i>propose</i> an edit. Apparently this happened recently enough before you logged in that the edit hadn't been resolved (rejected or accepted) yet. You as the post author can single-handedly reject a proposed edit. It looks like everything worked to properly deal with a bad proposed edit.</p>
<p>I don't think we need more than we already have to handle edits from new users. This really has nothing to do with whether the user is who asked the question the answer is for is the one proposing the edit. Some other moron could have proposed a bad edit too.</p>
<p>Bad edit proposals that alter author intent get rejected pretty reliably. I've seen a few of those on my posts over the years too. Often they are rejected before I even realize the whole thing happened.</p>
<p>In the rare case where a new user manages to edit one of your posts to say something you don't want to say, just roll back the edit. If it persists, call it to the attention of a moderator.</p>
| 6462 | 2018-01-13T17:27:59.137 | |discussion|editing| | <p>I had an odd thing happen a month or so ago when I answered some question, (unfortunately I forget which) but the OP was one of those user's that does not seem to accept what people are telling them.</p>
<p>I logged in to discover a pending edit on my answer from the OP trying to change the context of the answer to his mistaken beliefs of how it worked.</p>
<p>Sort if like <em>"I reject your reality, and substitute my own.."</em></p>
<p>I was sort of shocked he was even able to do that.</p>
<p>Should the owner of a question be able to edit the answers to said question?</p>
| Should an OP be able to edit answers to their own question? |
<p>Comparing two products would be off-topic, but a more general discussion about how to measure what you need would be fine.</p>
| 6465 | 2018-01-20T17:39:40.140 | |discussion| | <p>Are shopping question where a user(Me) has done a bit of research but is noob and doesn't want to stupidly spend money on a High end(> 150$) electronic measurement device and is comparing two products but cannot figure out which one suits his needs valid?</p>
| Regarding the shopping questions! |
<p>I disagree that we should banish all things Ebay or otherwise. We do have the option to close out the OP in a hurry if it is that bad.</p>
<p>Speaking of bad, what concerns me more is an OP with little to no skills who wants to build a Tesla coil from an Ebay power supply. That is like trouble squared.</p>
<p>Yet in spite of that often and dreadful combination I do not think we should just close because of poor or missing documentation alone. They are many hobbyist who know the pin-outs of many IC's by heart-like me. And may have spent decades building this-and-that, so they do not mind hand-me-down parts from Ebay or other parts brokers with high prices.</p>
<p>What we should question the most is <strong>does the OP know what they are doing?</strong>
The worst case scenario is the OP knows little and has no documentation. From there it gets a little better. Does the OP have documentation to present to us but lacks skills? Does the OP have much skill but is missing a detail or an understanding of a dubious spec?</p>
<p>The variations I have seen in just a few years suggest that we continue as is and let the close/re-open and migrate system take out the garbage too messed up to work with. This includes what seems to be a good question and documentation but a stubborn OP who does not cooperate with us, such as providing us with a diagram or schematic.</p>
<p>The close option gives us the option categories we need to take the garbage out of the system, sometimes in one day.</p>
<p>I see NO point in putting a noose around the OP's neck just for lack of documents. We must judge such events based on the OP's skill (or lack of) as well.</p>
| 6469 | 2018-01-23T13:24:46.383 | |discussion|close-reasons|vote-to-close| | <p>There's numerous instances where inexperienced users bought things off the internet that didn't come with anything resembling sufficient documentation, often even of very basic things like operating voltages, and expect us to compensate for the shortcoming of the seller.</p>
<p>I think we should not tolerate these kinds of questions for (at least) two reasons:</p>
<ul>
<li>Politically, and economically, it's unsound to support business models where people of no technical expertise whatsoever sell components on the internet, getting around having to actually afford documenting their parts, whereas companies that actually do offer even the minimum feasible documentation have expenses. This is made morally worse by the fact that "clones" and plain counterfeits that don't even incur <em>any</em> R&D costs are among the things that are most heavily sold in this form.</li>
<li>It's bad for the quality of questions on this site. Basically, the same reasoning as against product recommendation questions apply: Information outdates quickly, this isn't a catalogue, the questions are usually underresearched. </li>
</ul>
<p>Finally, I also <em>do</em> think it's bad for beginners. If I accumulate my experiences with things that people have bought over {insert direct far-east import marketplace platform here}, it's that these things seldom work as well as to expect from a reasonably engineered and quality-assured product, and that's usually the reason why the price tag's so low. </p>
<p>Beginners are led to believe that not getting the specs of what they pay for from whoever they pay is the norm. And that should really not be the case. And, if we don't proliferate quickly outdated info based on guessing on (usually actually stolen) product photos, we can at least avoid giving this impression a platform.</p>
<p>So:</p>
<p><strong>Can we please have a close reason</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>I'm voting to close this question as off-topic, as StackExchange should not be used as substitute for sufficient documentation. Please refer to the manufacturer, seller or service dealer for sufficient documentation, as is the standard for any reputable business.</p>
</blockquote>
| Explicit close reason: "OP bought undocumented stuff, asks us instead of seller for documentation" |
<p>As others have stated, your question is simply too complex. </p>
<p>As a volunteer, seeing something as complete as that it tends to put me off. I could spend all day analysing and simulating parts of it but that really is way too much time for this hobby pastime. Moreover, without being able to sit down with it hooked up to a scope on the bench, a lot of anything I could say would be just hand-wavy generalizations.</p>
<p>In truth, if you need a proper review, you need someone local to help with hands on experience to really do it justice.</p>
<p>Further, that is also a pretty niche development area that many folks really do not have much experience with. </p>
<p>Me, and I am sure many others, just move on to the next question without giving it an up or down vote.</p>
| 6483 | 2018-01-30T18:29:54.623 | |discussion|bounty|unanswered-questions| | <p>Original question: <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/352304/review-request-diy-dc-to-50mhz-differential-oscilloscope-probe">Review request: DIY DC to 50MHz differential oscilloscope probe</a></p>
<p>It is getting completely ignored (save for two comments), despite an outstanding bounty and several edits no narrow down the scope. I don't think that my question is too broad, too low effort or too niche for the knowledge of other users. At the time I'm writing this, it has four upvotes, one downvote and no close votes that I am aware of. What is wrong with my question, and how could I improve it? Is it just too boring to answer? Is this kind of question acceptance on this site? This led me to believe that it is: <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/399/circuit-review-acceptable">Circuit review acceptable?</a></p>
<h1>edit:</h1>
<p>In addition to downvoting, please tell me what I'm doing wrong. Downvoting alone is completely useless and only serves to annoy people.</p>
| Why is my "circuit review" question getting no attention? |
<p>No you can't <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6503/can-spell-check-of-electronics-terms-be-updated#comment15599_6504">blame google chrome</a>, at least not directly. You'll have to look further and/or deeper into language settings and spelling dictionaries, possibly even saved mipsellings of words. Oh no!</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/1jL9D.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/1jL9D.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
</blockquote>
| 6503 | 2018-02-20T14:39:30.600 | |bug| | <p>The spell checker doesn't seem to know many common electronic terms. This is quite surprising for an electronics forum. Is there a library file somewhere that can be updated with common electronics terms such as inductor, MOSFET, ferrite, and I'm sure many others?</p>
| Can Spell Check of Electronics Terms be Updated? |
<p>The behavior is expected, as you are commenting on Marcus' answer, the OP in this case is the answerer.</p>
<p>In general 'OP' is used for who posted the question, but in the case of comments, the author of the commented post gets notified of all comments and that's why there is no need to tag him. (sorry for the repetition)</p>
| 6505 | 2018-02-26T15:59:29.650 | |support| | <p>I'm trying to address a comment to the person who answered my question using @name. This is similar to what was described in <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/657/names-disappearing-in-comments-why">this thread</a>, except in my case, I'm the original poster, and I'm addressing only one person in my comment. In other cases, this works fine for me--in fact, while typing @name in the comment field, the user name usually pops up above what I'm typing as an auto-complete. In this case, there's no auto-complete, and after I submit the comment, the @name is stripped out. One thing that's different about this username is that his last name, which is German, contains an umlaut over the letter "u". Could the special character be causing a problem? Or, is this a feature that the user can turn off, so that he receives no notification of comments that are addressed to him?</p>
| Trouble addressing a comment using @name |
<p>That's how much score (upvotes) remain and how many questions you need to answer until you get that tag badge (bronze badge for <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/circuit-analysis" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'circuit-analysis'" rel="tag">circuit-analysis</a> in your case).</p>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/so9Wv.png" alt="enter image description here"></p>
<p>You have 97 upvotes out of 100 required.<br>
You have answered 32 questions, while 20 is required.</p>
| 6508 | 2018-02-27T21:10:14.687 | |support|user-accounts| | <p>OK so once you get to a certain rep you get to see these numbers. </p>
<p>Help is useless.</p>
<p>Anyone know what they mean?</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/4VNvu.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/4VNvu.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
| I give up, what do the score stats mean? |
<p>Just to clarify what I think the situation is. Please correct me if I have misunderstood the current rules: -</p>
<ul>
<li>When making an <strong>answer</strong>, if you want to mention such and such a book as being quite useful then, this should not be regarded as a problem. Of course, any book recommendation is a personal opinion and should be taken as such.</li>
<li>When making a <strong>question</strong>, if you ask for book/literature recommendations and, expect answers to contain such recommendations, don't be disappointed if someone informs you that asking for these recommendations is off-topic.</li>
</ul>
| 6512 | 2018-03-05T08:50:57.730 | |discussion| | <p>Here we have <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/891/are-book-recommendations-a-good-fit-for-this-site">Are book recommendations a good fit for this site?</a> a thread for book recommendations.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I'm pleased that I learned about The Art of Electronics from this question..... <strong>book recommendations help fulfill the educational goals of this site and should be allowed or encouraged.</strong> Of course, <strong>if in future it is observed that book recommendations are causing a problem, I would be happy to revise my opinion on this.</strong> </p>
</blockquote>
<p>For those who are students/learning new subjects would need some help to have a idea what book would be easy to understand/standard book/the book which is mostly preferred (for instance, The Art of Electronics:Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/616/basic-electronics-book?answertab=votes#tab-top">from here</a>). In our EE.SE, we have many experts who can recommend good books for beginners but it is considered as off-topic.</p>
<p>So, I want to know why book recommendations are marked as off-topic?</p>
| Why book recommendations questions are off-topic? |
<p>Standard practice would be to add a comment under the question, and then nominate the question to be reopened, which places it in the review queue to be examined by other community reviewers.</p>
| 6513 | 2018-03-05T12:06:46.950 | |discussion|closed-questions| | <p>Today, User Andy aka closed <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/359830/beta-for-inverting-amplifier-via-op-amp">a question</a> as duplicate. I however disagree with this, as in my opinion this question was regarding something far more specific than the general solution provided in the question it was supposed to be a duplicate of. However, I don't want to start a "yes it is - no it's not - yes it is - etc" in the comments. </p>
<p>Is there a standard practice to bring this up? I don't want to "undermine" Andy aka, nor do I want to go out and say that Andy aka is "wrong" and I am "right" since I don't have any authority to make that claim. </p>
| A question was closed as duplicate, but I dissagree with it (I am not OP). What is the correct way of bringing this up? |
<p>The help entry states</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange is a question and answer site
for electronics and electrical engineering professionals, students,
and enthusiasts.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Seems pretty clear to me.</p>
| 6520 | 2018-03-19T03:49:48.990 | |discussion| | <p>Double checking; there aren't any restrictions ahead of time <em>for whom</em> the "Stack Exchange network of websites" are available, are there? </p>
<p>Surely this is just a poor choice of words, and the author has been to busy to notice the up voted <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6492/negative-questions/6494#comment15592_6494">comment</a> below the <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/a/6494/102305">post</a>. </p>
<p>If I'm wrong and SE is not for some people, please enlighten me.</p>
<p>The post goes on to explain the purpose of the site, but I think the idea that some people should be excluded from using SE because of who they are can't be the author's intention, and an adjustment to the language could make this clearer.</p>
<p>The answer goes on to talk about how users <em>interact</em> with the site, and that's certainly a reasonable way to approach the OP's question. So maybe a "Yes, but..." makes better sense than concluding that "SE is not for some people"?</p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Y2xyS.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Y2xyS.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>Somewhat related: <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/q/2923/102305">Is this site for beginners?</a></p>
| Is this site for everyone? |
<p>Tags are used to describe the topic of the question (<a href="https://stackoverflow.com/help/tagging">see help center</a>):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A tag is a word or phrase that describes the topic of the question. Tags are a
means of connecting experts with questions they will be able to answer by
sorting questions into specific, well-defined categories.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What you suggest here seems completely outside their scope. Nobody will sort the questions to answer only "darwin award"-type of questions. This isn't an expertise domain (although I know a few people would could claim such a degree). </p>
<p>The warning could be part of the answer, but should certainly not be added as a tag by the answerer. And I don't think anyone would (but, as per the rules, they should not, anyway) ask a question specifying a "killyourself" or "darwinaward" tag beforehand.</p>
<p>See also <a href="https://stackoverflow.blog/2010/08/07/the-death-of-meta-tags/">this blog entry from Jeff Atwood about meta-tags</a>.</p>
| 6526 | 2018-03-19T20:44:24.837 | |discussion|legal| | <p>I've seen it happen several times, someone will ask how to build a railgun, or how to charge large capacitors to high voltages while demonstrating a level of skill and attention to safety that can only be described as (to be polite) "here, sign this disclaimer, this is your problem now, I'm out of the legal blast range now."</p>
<p>Same story with the guy who puts an isolation transformer on his scope and uses a totally standard probe on non-isolated mains-powered stuff. Sorry, can't find a link at the moment, but it was definitely there a few months ago. Also the guy was a teacher, I remember. Wow.</p>
<p>So, I was kinda baffled by the absence of a "kill yourself" tag, or should it be "suicide"? There is an "electrocution" tag but it seems to only be used in questions from people who actually worry about safety, which is obviously not the same...</p>
<p>Thus, next time someone wants to build a <a href="http://eecindia.tripod.com/fibPF.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">fibrillator</a> (it's the opposite of a defibrillator in case you wonder) what should we tag it with? </p>
<p>I'm torn between "killyourself" and "darwinaward" myself.</p>
| Kill Yourself Tag |
<p>So, you had a choice of courses of action on getting your questions closed do you:-</p>
<p>a) Try to learn from the experience and stop posting nonsense or ridiculously broad unanswerable questions.</p>
<p>or</p>
<p>b) Accuse the volunteers here who are freely giving their time and effort of picking on you.</p>
<p>Can I suggest that you give this matter a bit more thought. Several very senior people on this site have already given their opinion as per Olin's answer <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6416/why-is-this-question-still-gettng-downvotedalthough">here</a> it appears that I am not allowed to express the same sentiments. </p>
| 6528 | 2018-03-20T19:15:52.967 | |discussion|scope| | <p>When ever I ask a question it is always the same group of people down voting and closing my questions and got my banned on questions. Isn't that serial behavior and is not tolerated?</p>
<p>It may take longer to close, so be it, that way it is sure that the questions was closed with bias. When the same users down vote me, close my question and in some cases answer then close it so it cannot be deleted makes it serial. </p>
<p>IMO Users who all they do is close questions to get a badge without helping the question first then they are not really helping. </p>
<p>Just because they couldn't answer it doesn't mean someone out there with experience in that question can't. The expert in those fields will never see it if these few close it right away. </p>
| Same mob of people keep closing my questions. Serial closing? |
<p>Questions regarding how to write firmware for microcontrollers is on-topic here. It is also on-topic on Stack Overflow.</p>
<p>Be aware however that SO does not allow tool or library recommendation questions, so questions like "which IDE/tool/library is best for..." are off-topic there. But it is however perfectly fine to ask how to solve a specific IDE-related problem. You can use the <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/embedded" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'embedded'" rel="tag">embedded</a> tag on SO to get attention from the right kind of people. </p>
<p>In this specific case you should also have used the <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/eclipse" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'eclipse'" rel="tag">eclipse</a> tag. There ought to be some Eclipse gurus over at SO, that you are unlikely to find here. I'm guessing that your question drowned in the SO flood, which easily happens if you don't use popular tags, since that site has such massive traffic.</p>
<p>I'd do like this:</p>
<ul>
<li>Questions regarding the use of well-known generic IDE:s such as Eclipse, Codeblocks, QT etc will most likely to get the best answer at SO.</li>
<li>Questions regarding the use of microcontroller-specific IDE:s, such as IAR, Keil, Green Hills, MPLAP etc will most likely to the best answer here at EE.</li>
<li>Questions about IDE/tool/library recommendations should be asked at <a href="https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/">https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/</a>.</li>
</ul>
| 6536 | 2018-03-29T10:30:09.187 | |discussion| | <p>Sometimes I have a question about the IDE meant specifically for use for a microcontroller (e.g. System Workbench for STM32, TrueStudio).</p>
<p>At StackOverflow most people are focussing on PC/Linux, not to microcontrollers. But Electrical Engineering is focused to hardware design, not software related questions.</p>
<p>Or is there another forum I should ask such questions?</p>
<p>An example of such question <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49551843/stl-stdlib-in-ac6-system-workbench-sw4stm32-eclipse">Question</a></p>
<pre><code>STL/stdlib in AC6 System Workbench SW4STM32 Eclipse
I'm using Eclipse AC6 SW4STM32 System Workbench, which is used for STM32 microcontrollers.
I can add e.g. vector as include, but I get a linker error that vector is not known.
Is it possibly anyway to use STL/stdlib to use in Eclipse System Workbench projects?
</code></pre>
| At which forum should I ask questions about microcontroller (software) IDEs? |
<p>I'm not a mod, so had nothing to do with declining the flag.</p>
<p>However, that question is about computer architecture, which is on topic here. The question itself isn't great because it gives very little context, and doesn't even speak to anyone not having detailed knowledge of its tiny corner of the world. But that doesn't make it off topic.</p>
<p>Your flag was correctly declined.</p>
| 6550 | 2018-04-10T10:51:36.463 | |discussion|flagging| | <p>I raised an off topic flag with the specialisation of "Blatantly off-topic (this question has nothing to do with electronics design)" for the question <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/367427/it-ttt-block-in-assembly-language">IT TTT block in assembly language</a> which was declined. I would like to know why I was wrong to flag it so I don't make the same mistake again. </p>
<p>Would the decliner please enlighten me how I was wrong?</p>
| Reasons for a declined flag |
<blockquote>Should I ask for help finding a chip in the EE forum?</blockquote>
<p>No. We don't do component recommendations here.</p>
| 6552 | 2018-04-13T09:01:51.543 | |discussion| | <p>I'm looking for a specific chip, which I know how to use - just can't find one with enough parallel channels (so its not really a knowledge question as such...) but can't find a suitable candidate. I've looked on all the usual sites, but can't find one. Is this a reasonable question to ask in the EE forum, if not - where could I ask this?</p>
| Should I ask for help finding a chip in the EE forum? |
<p>I'd say the line is between how to do 'something' with the software (in-topic) and how to 'use' the software or how it works (off-topic).</p>
<p>Think about it: it should be about engineering, not software support. In that case I think it's fine.</p>
| 6558 | 2018-04-16T07:53:50.997 | |discussion|asking-questions|scope| | <p>If I have a question about features of <a href="https://www.solidworks.com/category/electrical-design" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Solidworks Electrical</a>, specifically about it's features to draw schematics for power electronics, would they be welcome here?</p>
<p>A possible alternative would be Engineering.SE, but I think it could just as well work here. Just that the <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic">help center</a> isn't explicit about it, so I better ask here first.</p>
<p>Update:
First <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/solidworks-electrical" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'solidworks-electrical'" rel="tag">solidworks-electrical</a> question posted <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/368848/53015">here</a>. Don't hesitate to let me know if I screwed up.</p>
| Are questions about Solidworks Electrical welcome here? |
<p>Close 'em. They are "homework questions" (whether or not they are actual homework), which is a category that is of dubious long-term value to the site in general.</p>
| 6560 | 2018-04-16T18:24:05.987 | |discussion|homework| | <p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/users/171026/mj13">This</a> user has asked 3 very similar questions in a short span of time (one of which was an exact duplicate of another older question which I answered).</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/SCJAK.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/SCJAK.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
<p>All three questions seem to variations in the same series of exercises:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/NDjph.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/NDjph.png" alt="enter image description here"></a>
<a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/unEHP.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/unEHP.jpg" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
<p>He does not seem to be learning from the answers as on each question he asks how to approach the problem, then someone solves it for him, and he moves to the next one.</p>
<p>So, would it be reasonable to close the questions or are those legitimate questions for EE.SE?</p>
| Similar questions on same topic, mark as duplicate? |
<p>This site is ultimately driven by <b>good</b> questions getting asked. Asking good questions helps the site. It doesn't matter whether you also answer questions or not.</p>
<p>The important point is that anything you post, whether questions or answer, be of high quality. I just looked at your question history, and its positive but spotty. Out of 19 questions, 4 have been closed. Two have a negative score, 8 have 0 score, and 9 have a positive score. You should be examining what you did right and wrong in each case, and strive to improve the quality of your questions going forward.</p>
<p>Don't worry about the total number of questions, or the mix of questions versus answers.</p>
| 6574 | 2018-04-27T23:45:06.070 | |discussion| | <p>How is someone perceived asking more questions than answering them?</p>
<p>As the website is mixed between experts and beginners, there is obviously going to be an imbalance. But someone like myself still learning to ask more questions than answers, it generally looked down on? I find on StackExchange the bar is set high (which is good) but it limits you to only answering questions you <em>really</em> know. Do you feel as long as the questions are quality it does not matter or more effort should be made to answer (even if others do it better), or wait and learn and give back to the community later?</p>
| Too many questions? |
<p>This indicates how many votes you have cast this month and this week.</p>
<p>Why the number of votes for a month smaller than the number of votes for the week? That's because the month is 2 days old and the week is 4 days old, at the moment of writing.</p>
| 6579 | 2018-05-03T01:13:29.983 | |support|design| | <p>The <em>Votes Cast</em> section on the user-profile activity page, has <em>Month</em> and <em>Week</em> fields. What do these indicate?</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/ivTcb.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/ivTcb.jpg" alt="votes cast section"></a></p>
| Votes cast: month, week |
<p>It can mean Original Post, or Original Poster, and often used interchangeably both here and on the web in general. It's very old internet slang/shorthand that pre-dates Stack Exchange/Stack Overflow. See <a href="https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/424366/does-op-mean-original-poster-or-original-post">"Does OP mean “original poster” or “original post”?"</a> on the English stack exchange for more info and examples.</p>
| 6586 | 2018-05-11T00:47:39.393 | |discussion| | <p>I came across a question asked by a new user. The new user was refered to as OP in the comment section. I'm not familiar with what it means in that context. Can someone clarify this for me? Is there a particular background story to that acronym?</p>
| Acronym OP for a new user |
<p>It shouldn't matter, if its a good question, you've tagged it appropriately and there are a reasonable amount of 'experts', someone will look at it. If your question is getting views and you aren't getting answers, it's probably a good time to see if it's a well written, answerable question. If it isn't then you might want to change that.</p>
<p>Another possibility is you've written a question that doesn't have a lot of expertise in the area, most people here do circuit design.</p>
| 6602 | 2018-05-22T16:24:43.880 | |discussion| | <p>Quick inquiry about proper behavior on this stack exchange. I wrote a question recently and posted it during a period where not a lot of active users are active. Thus, my question didn't receive a lot of views or answers. </p>
<p>My question was, is there a proper behavior regarding question bumping? I know that editing my question will put it back on top of the queue, but I don't want to infringe on any written or non written rules.</p>
| Manual bumping of a question |
<p>It does seem like Intel and Altera are getting close to finalizing the acquisition. The www.altera.com website warns it will be redirected to intel.com on 6/30/2018.</p>
<p>Here's my proposed set of actions:</p>
<ul>
<li>Create the tag <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/intel-fpga" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'intel-fpga'" rel="tag">intel-fpga</a></li>
<li>Replace <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/altera" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'altera'" rel="tag">altera</a> with <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/intel-fpga" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'intel-fpga'" rel="tag">intel-fpga</a></li>
<li>Make <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/altera" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'altera'" rel="tag">altera</a> a synonym of <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/intel-fpga" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'intel-fpga'" rel="tag">intel-fpga</a></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>My rationale is that the <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/altera" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'altera'" rel="tag">altera</a> tag is a good filter for FPGA/CLPD questions, and <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/intel" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'intel'" rel="tag">intel</a> focuses on x86/x64 type offerings. There is also a good argument for merging <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/altera" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'altera'" rel="tag">altera</a> into <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/intel" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'intel'" rel="tag">intel</a>, or making <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/altera" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'altera'" rel="tag">altera</a> a synonym for <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/intel" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'intel'" rel="tag">intel</a>. If someone feels strongly for either of those alternatives (or even doing nothing), please post an answer suggesting that.</p>
| 6609 | 2018-05-30T19:16:26.003 | |discussion|tags| | <p>Since Altera was acquired by Intel in 2015, Altera brand was withdrew. The company (Altera) completely became a part of Intel and all social media accounts were renamed "Intel FPGA". <sup><a href="https://twitter.com/intelfpga" rel="nofollow noreferrer">1</a>,<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/intelfpga/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">2</a>,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/IntelFPGA/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">3</a></sup></p>
<p>Should we create <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/intel-fpga" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'intel-fpga'" rel="tag">intel-fpga</a> tag to use instead of <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/altera" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'altera'" rel="tag">altera</a>, or should we add <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/intel" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'intel'" rel="tag">intel</a> and <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/fpga" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'fpga'" rel="tag">fpga</a> tags to the (new) questions?</p>
| Which tag(s) should be used for Intel FPGAs? |
<p>Here is what I think was missing in the question:</p>
<ul>
<li>The inclusion of the contents of page 81, instead of just a reference (now fixed)</li>
<li>A few words of explanation on what is a "Adam 4055 module". You provided the link, which is good, but it isn't enough. Just like the missing contents of page 81, you need to explain, with just a few words, what this thing is, so we know the context without having to follow links.</li>
</ul>
<p>Basically, you need to explain <em>within the question itself</em> (not through links), the general context of the question. You can assume that people know what a resistor is, what a microcontroller is, etc..., but you can't assume we know what a "Adam 4055 module" is. And give this information at once, because if we need to follow links, people will consider the question isn't complete. The principle is that every question should be self-sufficient. Providing links is good (and if you don't provide datasheet links, sometimes, people will get upset too), but enough explicit information within the question text itself is essential. Same for acronyms (some people ask questions with lots of acronyms). Except for a few, like "MCU", you need to be explicit, because they may have multiple meanings, and it can quickly get ambiguous.</p>
<p>For more information, here are the things you generally need to take care of, when asking a question: <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2990/electrical-engineering-question-checklist">Electrical Engineering Question Checklist</a></p>
<p>But overall, the question isn't that bad. What is good about it, for example, is the fact that you explained what you think the solution is, and clearly explained the difference between your setup and the example setup given within the product documentation.</p>
<p>So, even if it is a basic question, I don't consider it a bad one, and I wouldn't downvote that myself, even in its original state (but different people have different standards).</p>
<p>So, don't focus on a single downvote. It may even be reverted by an upvote...</p>
| 6619 | 2018-06-15T09:59:45.523 | |discussion| | <p>I just posted a <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/q/379970/36640">question</a> on EE. I am not used to this peculiar SE guidelines, where could I found it if any.</p>
<p>I have received <a href="https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/78917/discussion-between-jlandercy-and-andy-aka">few comments</a> from an user that I do not completely understand. I also found myself a bit uncomfortable about the path he used.</p>
<p>What should I do in order to improve my question. Is it just about the page citation? Or is there something else to improve that I have missed?</p>
<p>Thank you,</p>
<p><strong>Update</strong></p>
<p>Having the above user commenting again:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Page 81 <strong>does not</strong> have the schematic you eventually embedded in your
question. That appears to be on another page entirely. I downvoted you
because your incompetence wasted time and you argued about it and you
didn't fix your question. Your question is still not fixed. This isn't
rocket science, it's plain common sense.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I post what I do see in one of my PDF reader:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/PC9zP.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/PC9zP.png" alt="Look what there is on page 81"></a></p>
<p>Other PDF readers also agreed. From this now I can understand that it is not my question which has a problem. And I do feel very unconformable about the words he is having with me.</p>
<p><strong>Update 2</strong></p>
<p>Having time to chill out about this meta, I just want you to add some inputs:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>All users are not native speakers</strong>, and this can be a great challenge at some point, for this kind of <em>fora</em>. I am part of it, English is not my mother tongue;</li>
<li>Sometimes you do not understand why someone does not understand what you are talking about. It just happens, like it happened with this Q&A. I think the reason why is mainly because <strong>we do think in different ways</strong>, and this is also a great challenge not an incompetence. The inefficiency is to stick to the problem and miss all possible solutions. I am glad, because I have understood where the misunderstanding resided; </li>
<li>There are users when they browse a 300 pages PDF that let them <strong>go to ease of a search bar or page indexing</strong> instead of looking for footpage numbers (that's what led to this misunderstanding, I have learnt from it). Personally, I do read huge books and PDF and I manage them differently. I used PDF page index because I thought it was easier, I just skipped (it literally goes out of my mind) the footpage number, but I did mention the section number, as I ever do when I want to keep a reference;</li>
<li>I don't think my reference was that incomplete (now updated to comply both footpage number and page indexing). I had also first linked the section number because I knew, as scientist, that references are important. Section tree may have led some user to find the page I was talking about. So I do not feel incompetent about this peculiar reference. What I felt was misunderstanding and some ardor or zeal from another user. Anyway, the most important is the quality of the information, not how it arose. Now fixed, we can go forward;</li>
<li>Clearly, people do have different standards, they also do have different habits, manners and ways to behave;</li>
<li>Finally, politeness and humility are good qualities. We should never lose them. I should not have used the word binary in this context, but I did. I apology for that.</li>
</ul>
| Having problem to understand how to improve a question I posted |
<p>Battery capacity vs. lifespan was discussed here many times (<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/329217/battery-capacity-and-duration">example</a>), and so was wire gauge vs. voltage drop (<a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/263690/determining-suitable-wire-gauge-for-led-strips-voltage-drop">example</a>). If your question boils down to repeating the same calculations for your set of numbers, it will likely not be received well.</p>
<p>If you've done your own calculations, built your circuit, and observed a discrepancy you cannot explain, that would make a much better question. </p>
| 6622 | 2018-06-23T08:05:30.503 | |discussion| | <p>I am working on a permanent lighting array for my bicycle. I'm not an electrics or electronics person, but this is a real plan and I intend to complete it.</p>
<p>I have current and voltage measurements, wire gauges/lengths, and specs of my battery source.</p>
<p>Is it on-topic for this site to lay all that data out and check my working and calculations ?</p>
<hr>
<p>Possibly related <a href="https://electronics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5365/is-specific-circuit-debugging-questions-on-topic">Is specific circuit debugging questions on topic?</a> but that's about a circuit - my question is simpler because there is no circuit, and the schematic would be quite simple.</p>
| Are "check my working" questions on-topic? |
<blockquote>
<p>Still, at least a couple of times I have revisited the question/answer the following day, and found replies that made me regret my down-vote. For instance, I may read a response that points out subtleties of the original post that I hadn’t considered.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In this case you should actually edit the post to make it more clear and include the subtleties you missed, <em>especially</em> if you got the new information from the comment section. After the edit, you can also flag the comments as <em>no longer needed</em> - you have taken care of the issues.</p>
<p>You are probably not the only one who misunderstood the original post, so the edit will lead to two good things:</p>
<ol>
<li>The post is now a better post for everyone.</li>
<li>You can remove your downvote.</li>
</ol>
| 6627 | 2018-06-29T02:46:59.677 | |discussion|feature-request| | <p>I try to use down-votes judiciously, and only do so when I truly feel that the -1 is deserved. </p>
<p>Still, at least a couple of times I have revisited the question/answer the following day, and found replies that made me regret my down-vote. For instance, I may read a response that points out subtleties of the original post that I hadn’t considered.</p>
<p>In cases like this, where I no longer feel that the down-vote is warranted, I’d like to be able to uncast the vote. But, of course, since up/down votes are locked-in after an hour or so, I’m prevented from doing so unless the original post is edited.</p>
<p>I can see the logic in locking up-votes, which might prevent retaliations from disgruntled users, but I fail to see how disallowing down-vote retractions is beneficial.</p>
<p>Is there a valid rationale for locking down-votes?</p>
| Why are down-votes locked |
<blockquote>
<p>Neither answer actually addresses its question:</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Completely matter of opinion. Both identical answers do address the questions imho.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the first case, the question specifically asks about connecting to thru-holes without solder, whereas the answer implicitly requires soldering header pins.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Soldered header pins are not required, press fit, or offset pins that are held by friction is enough, and you could wire it around the edge holes. Even if we don't assume it's 100% correct, the answer is still on topic, and "not an answer" answers normally aren't even on the same planet (It's a little wrong to say a tomato is a vegetable, it's very wrong to say it's a suspension bridge.)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the second case the question is asking for PCB inter-connectors, and the answer rather clearly misses the mark.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Wire wrapping is a valid PCB inter-connect method. It predates most other newer methods. <a href="https://workmanship.nasa.gov/lib/insp/2%20books/links/sections/301_discrete%20wiring.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">NASA still uses it!</a>. That answer is 100% on topic to OP's question.</p>
<h2>Your actual concern:</h2>
<p>Is it Spam? Sure, it could be. But! THATS NOT ALWAYS A PROBLEM. Specifically from the rules regarding self-promotion:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The community here tends to vote down overt self-promotion and flag it as spam. Post good, relevant answers, and <strong>if some (but not all) happen to be about your product or website</strong>, that’s okay. However, you must disclose your affiliation in your answers.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/promotion">https://electronics.stackexchange.com/help/promotion</a></p>
<p>If OP happens to <em>spam</em> his website on more, lets say a nice arbitrary 5 posts, then custom flag for a moderator to review, and maybe they will shoot them a message or warning. <strong><em>For the most part, it looks like someone just passionate about a technique they use.</em></strong> No overt ads on their website, not spamming unrelated multiple posts, and they aren't even selling it.</p>
<p>Side note, the user in question has a few posts across Stack Exchange over a few years and none are off topic or questionable.</p>
| 6636 | 2018-07-11T21:02:22.927 | |discussion|support| | <p>These two answers were posted by the same user, both to old questions (one of which is almost 8 years old).</p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/384155/111988">How can I make connection on pcb (circuit board) holes without solder (for prototyping)?</a></p>
<p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/384151/111988">Board to board connections</a></p>
<p>Both answers are <strong>identical</strong>, and both promote the author's website/blog. The author <strong>did</strong> disclose his affiliation.</p>
<p>Neither answer actually addresses its question:</p>
<ul>
<li>In the first case, the question specifically asks about connecting to thru-holes without solder, whereas the answer implicitly requires soldering header pins.</li>
<li>In the second case the question is asking for PCB inter-connectors, and the answer rather clearly misses the mark. </li>
</ul>
<p>The answers were in the review queue and I flagged them as spam; both flags were subsequently disputed. I have no problem with the decision - I just want clarification. </p>
| Does this constitute spam? |
<p>After the errant tag has been removed from the question (i.e. the question has been correctly re-tagged) then the (now unused) tag <em>should</em> be auto-purged from the list of tags - assuming that it is not in use elsewhere. This happens after a certain period of time. when the auto-purge scripts are run, which I believe happens daily at <em>03:00 UTC</em>.</p>
<p>See <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/19753/how-can-we-get-rid-of-misspelled-and-unused-or-zombie-tags#answer-19754">this answer</a> to <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/19753/how-can-we-get-rid-of-misspelled-and-unused-or-zombie-tags">How can we get rid of misspelled and unused (or “zombie”) tags?</a>, the emphasis is mine:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You should edit out the tag from all the questions that use it. Note
that you should probably seek consensus on the per-site meta before
doing so, if the tag was somehow added to a significant number of
questions without anyone noticing the misspelling.</p>
<p><strong>Tags not associated with any question are automatically destroyed at
03:00 UTC every day.</strong></p>
<p>Tags which are misspelled should have the questions under them
retagged to the appropriate tag, which will result in the misspelled
tag's destruction due to having no uses.</p>
</blockquote>
| 6647 | 2018-07-26T13:43:08.367 | |support|tags| | <p>This <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/371361/identification-of-a-part-on-a-power-lines-lightning-arrester">question</a> has the tag <strong>lightn</strong>
which has no other references.</p>
<p>It's easy to delete the tag at the question itself, but how does one get the tag removed from the <a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/tags">forum's list of available tags</a>?</p>
| Found what appears to be effectively a bogus tag - what to do? |
<p>You're not the only one. See <a href="https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/371881/why-am-i-getting-the-moderator-engagement-survey">this SO post</a>. You should be getting an email soon saying something like</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Please forgive us, we just goofed</strong></p>
<p>I would like to sincerely apologize. I just mistakenly sent you an email that was meant for Stack Overflow moderators. Please ignore it.</p>
<p>Thank you for your patience, </p>
<p>Anita M. Taylor, Email Marketing</p>
</blockquote>
<p>To summarize - a survey is being sent out to all the mods and they made a mistake and sent it to a bunch of non-mods. The mods now have their survey and you guys get the apology email =) No need to fill anything out, obviously.</p>
<p>To quote Tim Post's answer there:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This was a mistake on our end. In order to consolidate the places where we have people's contact information, we've been moving everything into one system. This has been great, we don't have to worry about spreadsheets and CSV files gathering dust in storage, but getting used to new stuff can get a little hectic.</p>
</blockquote>
| 6651 | 2018-08-01T18:37:21.400 | |bug|moderation| | <p>Just wondering how many folks out there received this in their inboxes recently ... i'm a little perplexed since I'm <em>not actually a moderator</em> on any SE site. </p>
<p>Seems weird since the questions are implying an actual diamond-user (were you elected or appointed, etc.)</p>
<p>Did any other 20k+ non-mods get this survey, or am I just a glitch in the matrix?</p>
| Stack Exchange Moderator Survey email - including non-moderators? |
<p>Our <a href="https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/15/electrical-engineering">EE.SE chat</a> is the only place on EE.SE to ask about paid freelance consultations.</p>
| 6682 | 2018-08-30T02:50:15.337 | |support| | <p>If I was looking to pay for free-lance consultation on circuit-project, where on this site would I start?</p>
| Looking to pay for consultation on circuit-project. Here? |