Questions tagged [discussion]
The question you're asking is designed to solicit opinions or best-practices on a particular topic, with the goal of reaching community consensus.
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The Engineering.SE position on recommendation/finding stuff questions
In general, most Stack Exchange sites do not deal with recommendation questions such as:
What is a good book to teach me x
Please recommend a widget to help me <...
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Our Scope (and Overlaps with Sister Sites)
This question arises in part from my first question (since deleted). I realized while asking this that perhaps it had already been asked at Aviation Stack Exchange. While they do indeed have an "...
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What should our position be on homework-type questions?
This comes around as a direct result of this question, but I'm sure there will be more questions of a similar nature in the future. As commenters have noted, it sounds like a homework problem, but ...
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Naive design questions (NDQs): "How do I design ______?"
There have been a few questions where users with little to no training are requesting instructions on how to design some object.
Some examples (both happen to be structural):
Asking for a "set of ...
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Don't forget those "high level" tags that target an engineering discipline
There is a huge potential in this site that lies in the same premise that made Stack Overflow one of the largest sites on the 'net — it united all the world's Programmers Engineers regardless of ...
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Are Questions About Engineering Software On-Topic? What questions?
A few days ago, I asked this question. On the one hand, it received a couple of upvotes and got a good answer, which also received a few upvotes. On the other hand, several people voted to close it as ...
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Proposal: Add a custom close reason for homework questions that don't show effort
Update 2016/09/08: Based on the answer provided by Air (it's long, read toward the middle) and more recent usage on the site, Homework-type questions have been closed with the Unclear What You Are ...
hazzeyMod
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Announcing a Pro Tempore election
Summary: Engineering will begin the nomination stage for a special election on August 27, 2018 to bring in two moderators.
For full details of the process, see the announcement on Meta Stack Exchange....
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Do we need a "homework" tag?
The consensus of this post is that homework questions should be allowed, so long as they satisfy certain criteria. That begs another question: Do we want a homework tag?
The tag would have the ...
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Engineering.SE manifesto
By the fifth day of our private beta, we have publicly lost our first user.1
The summary of their reasoning was that they felt the answers to a question they had asked mocked the premise of what the ...
user16
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Expected level of effort or detail in asking questions?
What level of effort or detail should we expect from questions on the main site?
Some of the initial questions so far have been lacking in details that could materially affect the answers provided.
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user16
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Are academic guidance questions on-topic?
We've seen a number of questions asking for academic guidance; so far, they have not been well-received.
Since this question was originally asked and discussed, all the below examples have been ...
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Are history questions on topic?
This was inspired by What engineering advances paved the way for "modern" computers?
Are history questions on-topic for Engineering.SE? We decided on HSM that history-of-engineering ...
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How can I create a new tag?
I want to create a new tag for trains for my question here. How can I do this? Does an admin have to do it for me?
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Should our beta icon be changed from Eg to Eng, or an icon?
I have noticed that Cognitive Sciences SE and probably others use three letters in their blue (beta) icon. Engineering uses two (Eg). It's non-intuitive, and I feel e.g. "Eng" would fit the name ...
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Moderator Pro Tem Announcement
Throughout the beta, we need members from the site whose focus is to engage the community, both in community-building issues and site management. That's why we select a few members from each community ...
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How are we doing?
This post is to help the community track how we're doing as we progress through our private beta into a public beta and hopefully into a full-fledged SE site.
Statistics are provided by the Area51 ...
user16
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How can I use MathJax/Latex to typeset equations on this site?
Engineering.SE supports $\LaTeX$ style equation editing via MathJax. However, most of the guides for typesetting equations with $\LaTeX$ are either too limited or too expansive for new users who just ...
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How should we handle home modification questions?
We have received some questions about home modifications. The answer typically boils down to "It is probably more complicated that you imagine. Hire an engineer."
Each question is similar, but unique....
hazzeyMod
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Should ethics questions be allowed?
Engineering ethics is of concern to all practicing engineers. However, some ethical dilemmas can be difficult to resolve, and outside input may be useful in coming to a conclusion. Unfortunately, ...
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On the liabilities of liability questions
We (the community) need to decide what liability questions are on-topic or not for the site.
Our current liability questions, which I have locked while we resolve this meta question.
Do structural ...
user16
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Who should our pro-tempore moderators be?
From The 7 Essential Questions of Every Beta:
Discussing the criteria of a great moderator is important and picking out potential candidates is a great way to introduce outstanding contributors to ...
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When should I use math markup?
Prompted by this suggested revision.
Here is the body of the question as it appears in my browser (Chrome 40.0.2214.111 m):
Marking up this paragraph with MathJax simply to introduce superscripts ...
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Do my work for me type questions
I have seen a few questions that sound more or less like a full design problem description. In essence the poster is asking somebody to do the work for him.
Now the question is when does the ...
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Canonical book recommendations versus Finding Things Questions
As a community, we've come down pretty clearly against "Finding things questions" (FTQ). That said, there are some edge cases that deserve additional consideration by the community.
One case for us ...
user16
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Is social engineering on topic?
I know there are other questions with great answers explaining the broad scope of Engineering as a topic, and how other sites should not influence how we define our scope. I agree with all that.
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Questions like "What is this?" [photo attached]
There have been a few questions that mostly rely on people knowing what something is in a photo. The latest one is this question on a nautical item. This doesn't seem like a valuable question. It will ...
hazzeyMod
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Change name of chat room?
Currently, our chat room is named "Engineering." While not terribly exciting, it does make the room pretty easy to find. The down side is that it's not terribly exciting and doesn't reflect much ...
user16
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Answering questions with comments
I often answer easy questions with just a comment, for many of the same reasons mentioned in this thread. On another StackExchange site which I'm active on, this practice is fairly common, especially ...
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Let's write tag wikis (sort of)!
We have accumulated quite a lot of tags throughout the first days or so, which is really good! They seem to be helping guide questions and categorize them better.
Let's start writing descriptions! ...
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How to write material design questions
I'm new to asking meta questions, but this seems like something that was important, and I really couldn't find anything else on it. Let me know if this is the wrong kind of question, etc...
Recently,...
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The Engineering.SE policy on check-my-work questions
We have recently received a few check-my-work questions:
Heat Loss per Linear Ft
Problem with Energy Transfer Rate Conversion
https://engineering.stackexchange.com/questions/3687/standard-thickness-...
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Once again, "Would experimental physics themed questions be on topic?"
This was originally asked by Sabre Tooth on Area 51 not too long ago. Perhaps it's relevant to put it on meta now that we're in beta, because although all the people here have clearly been on Area 51, ...
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Do we need the "research" tag?
What's the point of the research tag? Quoting Air in chat,
research seems like a meta-tag to me.
It doesn't describe the questions; it merely gives a bit of (unnecessary) context.
Furthermore, ...
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Do we want a general disclaimer
Wait, what?! Haven't we already discussed the subject of a general disclaimer on the site?
Why yes, yes we have.
And in that discussion, the consensus was that "No, we don't."
But that conclusion ...
user16
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2018: a year in moderation
It's New Year's Day in Stack Exchange land...
A distinguishing characteristic of these sites is how they are moderated:
We designed the Stack Exchange network engine to be mostly self-regulating, in ...
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What should be do about cross postings?
I refer to this question, which was posted (or cross posted) on electrical engineering, and our site.
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/150511/how-can-i-measure-the-brightness-of-a-led
...
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What should we name our chat room?
Exactly five months ago (to the day), Change name of chat room? was asked. The consensus was that it was too early, and so the whole thing stopped. Now that the site's much older, the time seems riper....
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Reaching out to hackspaces
In order to get more knowledgeable1 active users I think it would be worthwhile reaching out to all the hackspace2 communities out there.
I've asked questions of my local hackspace and got great ...
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Should some questions wait to be asked?
I couldn't find any discussion on any other stackexchange site on whether asking too many specific questions is good or bad at the beginning of a site.
My concerns are:
There may not be enough ...
hazzeyMod
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Are career related questions in or out?
Just found this question here:
In Engineering fields, how often do you find yourself being asked to be a "salesperson", and what is your reaction?
which is somewhat career related; ...
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What is the scope of "Engineering" that this site covers? [duplicate]
Are there any disciplines of engineering that this site specifically excludes? It seems Electrical Engineering is covered by EE.SE, whereas Software Engineering is covered by StackOverflow and ...
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Are engineering ethics objective or subjective?
I recently asked a question about the ethics of a situation. Some of the answers surprised me by suggesting that if I could sleep at night what I do must be ethical. This is not consistent with my ...
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Should we have a "soft-question" tag?
I saw this question yesterday, and though, "Hey, maybe it could use a soft-question tag." However, I voted to close it, and it was closed (reasons explained in comments below the question).
There may ...
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Are AutoCAD usage questions on topic here? [duplicate]
Are AutoCAD usage questions on topic here? The CAD proposal didn't pick up steam and was closed.
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What will be the difference between the aerospace engineering and aircraft design tags?
The aircraft-design and aerospace-engineering tags have seen a decent amount of use so far. I created aerospace-engineering1 as a more general term that could be applied to rockets and spacecraft (and,...
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2019: a year in moderation
It's New Year's Day in Stack Exchange land...
A distinguishing characteristic of these sites is how they are moderated:
We designed the Stack Exchange network engine to be mostly self-regulating, ...
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2020: a year in moderation
As we say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new one, we have a tradition of sharing moderation stats for the past 12 months.
As most of you here are aware, sites on the Stack Exchange network ...
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