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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Please help me understand why asking about an acid-base reaction was down-voted and closed

I am new to Chemistry on SE and was DV'd several times and closed for this question: What results from the neutralization copper citrate with Na2CO3 It seems on-topic, but I must be missing ...
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1 vote
0 answers
61 views

When should I vote to close?

Seeing this post closed it feels useful to review the motivation behind use of the close option. Yes, the OP considered a number of orthogonal options to rid said food of the offending substance, ...
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-8 votes
1 answer
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To what extent does blender speed dissolve table salt + cold tap water?

I have a question about my Chemistry Stack Exchange post: To what extent does blender speed dissolve table salt + cold tap water? Why does my question need "details or clarity"? Buck Thorn ...
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7 votes
1 answer
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2022: 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 preceding calendar year. As most of you here are aware, sites on the Stack Exchange ...
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3 votes
1 answer
146 views

Why was this question closed as a homework-style question?

I asked this question: Is there a general name for a group connected to a N-atom? While it may not be the peak of my SE presence, I was surprised that it got closed as a homework. The question itself, ...
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2 votes
1 answer
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What are common questions students have about physical chemistry?

If we look at the questions on the Chemistry site, what would a physical chemistry FAQ look like? Because the site tries to avoid duplicates, frequently asked does not mean frequently posted. Ideally, ...
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0 votes
1 answer
90 views

Would it be a good idea to ask here why uric acid is not 1,3,7,9-tetrahydropurine-2,6,8-trione but rather is 7,9-dihydro-1H-purine-2,6,8(3H)-trione?

Would it be a good idea to ask here why uric acid is not what I would have guessed, i.e. 1,3,7,9-tetrahydropurine-2,6,8-trione but rather is something that I find surprising, i.e. 7,9-dihydro-1H-...
1 vote
1 answer
66 views

There's a hole in the help center awaiting to be filled

I just noticed (for reasons you could guess, hint) that there is an edit link in the help center where I did not expect one to be. There is no content to see, so let's create some. Here's the page: ...
12 votes
5 answers
244 views

What is official policy toward AI generated content on Chemistry SE?

A few weeks ago OpenAI released chatGPT, a chat bot capable of generating detailed human readable answers such as encountered on this site. For instance, when fed the question What is the ...
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10 votes
1 answer
66 views

Holiday Bounty Suggestions?

In the past, we've had some "bounty dances." In the spirit of end-of-semester end-of-Gregorian-year Winter/Summer Bash spirit, I'd like to borrowing / shamelessly steal the previous idea, ...
2 votes
0 answers
36 views

Would it be on-topic to ask why guanine is sometimes referred to as "Acyclovir Impurity B"?

"Acyclovir Impurity B" is the name for guanine used by a handful of websites. Googling the term shows this. https://www.trc-canada.com/product-detail/?G836000 which seems to confirm that ...
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0 answers
55 views

How to search for images of compounds?

I am not sure on what SE I should ask this question, so the safest bet I can make is this one. The problem I am facing is that I am not able to find the actual picture of compounds when I search for ...
1 vote
0 answers
108 views

Would this improve my Chemistry question re deducing the IUPAC name of LSD, or, if that is no longer an option, be a good question in its own right?

People have said in the comments of my question IUPAC naming of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) heterocyclic core and its locants that the question would take many pages to answer, and/or that I ...
-2 votes
2 answers
89 views

How to actually ask question

I don't know but, it is my observation but this site is very unfriendly to novice people like me. Note that I am a high school student Asking simple questions like this, or this, only results in being ...
6 votes
1 answer
169 views

Wrong answers from this site showing up on the Google front page

I was looking up some information about N2O5 and came across this question. The worrying thing is that Google automatically displayed the answer with the lowest points (-13 because it was completely ...
1 vote
0 answers
47 views

Reading the tea leaves: continuing to monitor closing and deletion trends on the site

I ran a database query again to see where we are a few months after the recent election. As I inspected the result I wondered if the number of posts deleted as a fraction of those closed was ...
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4 votes
4 answers
148 views

How do we help new users that have a novice chemistry background write questions that don't get closed?

I was wondering how can we help our newer users write better questions and refine them to meet our standards? I am also new to this site, so please feel free to educate me, point me in the right ...
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0 votes
2 answers
69 views

Why is a well researched chemistry question discredited as homework and closed?

Is no one here allowed to ask a question in an area in which they are not a professional? I have asked this question to 3 chemists and 2 physicists, no one was able to answer it even after more than ...
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4 votes
2 answers
110 views

How to append supplementary information as hidden multi-line comment?

What would be an appropriate way to attach non-essential information to the post that is only visible when needed/requested and doesn't get in way or distract the reader? My use-case is an urge to ...
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8 votes
1 answer
103 views

First time askers modal

Stipulations The first time askers modal has two required parts: A sentence about searching for existing answers on the site, and a list of specific actions. These have to stay in place. However, we ...
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6 votes
4 answers
241 views

How can I find out if my question is already answered on Stack Exchange Chemistry?

On the "How to ask good questions" help page, it says to search on the Stack Exchange Chemistry site to see if someone already has asked my question. It also says to mention related ...
13 votes
0 answers
179 views

I Got a New T-shirt Today

Special thanks to Karsten for making this happen!
7 votes
2 answers
116 views

What are your views on how Matter Modeling and Chemistry sites should interact?

This is a question posted by Geoff Hutchison as part of the recent election. Martin suggested we discuss on Meta after the election is done. I reposted with slight edits; I will refrain from cross-...
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8 votes
4 answers
488 views

Proposals for guidance presented to first-time askers

Update: The customized site-specific guidance is live now. To see it, go to https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/ask after logging out (or use a incognito/private window). There seems to be ...
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0 votes
0 answers
32 views

How can you make formatting more efficient? [duplicate]

When writing or editing posts, chemistry and math formatting can take up a lot of your time. There is a set of scripts that can help. You can easily add formulas like $\ce{H2O}$ in the text, or in a ...
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8 votes
2 answers
109 views

How can we guide new users before they ask their first question?

Update: Based on the lively discussion here, there is now a featured meta post where you can propose specific changes. When users ask their first question, they now are shown the following information ...
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16 votes
0 answers
220 views

2022 Community Moderator Election Results

Moderator election #5 on Chemistry has come to a close, the votes have been tallied, and the new moderators are: They will be joining the existing crew shortly — please thank them for volunteering ...
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1 vote
3 answers
78 views

On the usage guidance for tag [computational-chemistry]

At the moment, the tag computational-chemistry has the following usage guidance: A field which employs computers to model and study chemical systems and chemical behavior, using various models, from ...
7 votes
4 answers
337 views

In 2022, how can we use comments to welcome new users and encourage them to improve questions?

It seems that during the 2022 moderator election, this meta site has some more eyes on it, so it might be a good time to think about how to encourage new users to become experienced users and valued ...
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6 votes
1 answer
322 views

I am stepping down as a moderator

I will be stepping down as a mod from Chem.SE at the end of the month. I greatly enjoyed cleaning up old questions, getting popular questions answered, and bringing more traffic to Chem.SE which were ...
11 votes
2 answers
203 views

Thanks for participating in the election and contributing to the site

Update: With the election complete, thanks to all who participated in the chat rooms, with comments, questions, answers*, votes, and also naturally thanks to the candidates. Best wishes to the freshly ...
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5 votes
1 answer
179 views

How are moderators doing, what can we do different or better?

What does the community thinks of moderation so far: what do you like or dislike of what you see mods doing on the site, what should we emphasize, improve, or implement to make the experience better? ...
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11 votes
5 answers
396 views

Why did activity on Chem.SE decline rapidly in the last few years?

While searching for a "duplicate" question, the only post I found worth mentioning was this one: Decline in activity which shows a "peak" in 2017 followed by a decline until 2019 (...
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13 votes
2 answers
307 views

I have nominated myself to become a moderator; you can do the same

Moderators work as a team, and it would be great to have a team that is diverse, has broad combined chemistry expertise, and broad combined social skills. I just self-nominated for the 2022 moderator ...
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6 votes
0 answers
182 views

2022 Community Moderator Election

The 2022 Community Moderator Election is now underway! Community moderator elections have three phases: Nomination phase Primary phase Election phase Most elections take between two and three weeks, ...
12 votes
7 answers
289 views

2022 Moderator Election Q&A – Question Collection

The purpose of this thread was to collect questions for the questionnaire. The questionnaire is now live, and you may find it here. Chemistry Stack Exchange is scheduled for an election next week, ...
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4 votes
0 answers
75 views

T-shirt for sale?

Is there any place I could order one of these? So I guess there is an idea to embroider (made with tools from https://www.vistaprint.com): Detail: I wonder if benzene is under copyright.
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19 votes
1 answer
225 views

So long, and thanks for all the fish

It makes me slightly sad to write this, but after having been a moderator for more than five years, I will be stepping down later this month. This is primarily because I don't have enough time and ...
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28 votes
0 answers
557 views

Happy (7 + 3 = 10)th Anniversary!

Happy 10th Anniversary! On the 8th of May 2012 a little site went into public beta. That meant that everyone with access to the Internet could ask questions about their most favourite science: ...
17 votes
1 answer
406 views

I am quitting from my role as a moderator

All, As you are aware, I was elected to be a moderator of this site last year. As a person who loves chemistry and no longer works in the field, I have been continually happy to provide support where ...
0 votes
1 answer
144 views

Why was my question so quickly closed as too broad? I really don't see how it is

Why would tellurium + sodium hydroxide have been a good gasoline additive (if it wasn't so smelly)? was quickly and unilaterally closed. I'd removed the second question but then there was an ...
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0 votes
0 answers
34 views

Would a [metalloid] and/or [tellurium] tag be appropriate for the site, and /or for my question about tellurium?

When trying to decide how to tag Why would tellurium have been a good gasoline additive if it wasn't so smelly, and why is it so smelly? I discovered that there are many metal-related tags: metal ...
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0 votes
1 answer
51 views

How to improve my question “How can warm steel and wood merge together?”?

Could someone please explain to me why my question How can warm steel and wood merge together? was downvoted, and what I should correct for the next time?
2 votes
1 answer
91 views

Why is my question about the nature and mechanism of "white fumes" from bottles of concentrated ammonia and HCl in close proximity so down-voted?

Update: I'm temporarily deleting the question to think about all the advice here and about how it might be rewritten in a streamlined way. Perhaps it can be broken up into multiple questions, now that ...
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2 votes
1 answer
35 views

How to deal with the tag optical-isomerism?

We currently have a tag optical-isomerism. The IUPAC Gold book has the following to offer (DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.O04308): optical isomers [obsolete] Obsolescent synonym for stereoisomers with ...
8 votes
2 answers
193 views

What's Chemistry.SE take on Mass Spectrometry being proposed on Area 51?

Mass Spectrometry has recently been proposed in the Science section on Area 51 by Chris Herold, the president of MSACL (Mass Spectrometry & Advances in the Clinical Lab). I have no affiliation ...
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3 votes
4 answers
79 views

How can I find/create figures for Chemistry Stack Exchange posts?

Many posts on Chemistry Stack Exchange benefit from figures, including molecular and crystal structures, graphs, instrumentation, experimental setups and experimental results. Sometimes, animations ...
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3 votes
2 answers
145 views

Community bot aggresive closing of spam/abusing false positives

I have noticed in last months the repeated pattern of aggressive closing/locking/hiding/deleting of posts by the Community Bot. The provided reason is incorrectly evaluated spam or abusive post ...
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-3 votes
2 answers
60 views

Is this question fit to be open now?

This question was closed as "Not focused". I have since then edited and simplified. Asking only one aspect now. Is this now fit to be opened?
1 vote
1 answer
32 views

Wrong question closed of a pair of duplicates, best answer is in the closed question

Questions 106820 and 116654 ask the same question pertaining to a highly detailed synthetic chemistry problem. 116654 was closed as a duplicate but contains the much superior answer. I propose that ...
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