Timeline for "Research" Level
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 12, 2011 at 21:24 | comment | added | Kaveh | I didn't mean a clear/strict line. I have stopped voting to close questions unless it already has 4 close votes. Just to make it clear, I think what we like about this question is not the question itself but rather the answers. If we can restate a question which is boarder line or leaning to be off-topic in a way that would make it on-topic and still gets the same good answers to the OP's original question then I think we should do it. Preserving the POV of OP and the original tone of the question should not be the main concern when a question is getting closed as off-topic IMHO. | |
| Oct 12, 2011 at 21:20 | comment | added | Suresh Venkat Mod | I don't think it's easy to draw a clear line. And the comments on meta indicate that maybe we're drawing too tight a line. In the particular question under consideration, what made it a good question were the number of high quality answers. Which suggests to me that we should be a little slower to close, and allow potentially borderline questions to develop a bit. Obviously this doesn't mean we can't close clearly out of scope things. | |
| Oct 12, 2011 at 21:17 | comment | added | Kaveh | On the other hand, cstheory is still mainly for researchers, so I think that "basic questions by typical undergrad students taking their first course on a topic" would be probably be off-topic. Obviously an expert might give a very good and informative answer to a very basic question (and this has happened). The question is where should we draw the line for the scope? Are we going to let questions of any level because they might lead to deep answers from experts? There is a trade-off here on where is the optimal point to draw the line to keep it usefulness and interesting for researchers. | |
| Oct 12, 2011 at 21:15 | comment | added | Kaveh | no, obviously an undergrads can and do ask good and on-topic question as anyone who has taught a good undergrad class knows. There is no disagreement on that. | |
| Oct 12, 2011 at 20:56 | comment | added | Suresh Venkat Mod | But an undergrad POV doesn't disqualify the question, unless you're thinking that undergrads are not capable of asking questions that have deeper ramifications. | |
| Oct 12, 2011 at 20:03 | comment | added | Kaveh | I disagree. We cannot keep the POV of an undergrad student taking his first course on a topic, keep the question open, and preserve the research-level scope of the site. | |
| Oct 12, 2011 at 16:25 | history | answered | Suresh VenkatMod | CC BY-SA 3.0 |