Questions tagged [discussion]

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Is this site appropriate for identifying ufos?

I am just asking this question before I post some questions regarding my analysis on a "ufo case on mars" which I think is just I misidentified moon. Because I needed critique of my analysis ...
spaceamoeba1010's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
27 views

Is it okay to seek website recommendation?

I need the data for a specific watchable astronomical event. But until today I couldn't find the data I want. Is it okay to ask users here if they know the source(s) of the data I need (website, book, ...
Snack Exchange's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
218 views

What are your plans for the Annular Solar Eclipse on October 14th, 2023?

On October 14, there will be an annular solar eclipse viewable from the Western Hemisphere. In an annular solar eclipse, the moon appears slightly smaller than the sun. At maximum obscuration, we ...
Connor Garcia's user avatar
  • 16.2k
-12 votes
1 answer
1k views

Question closed under the arbitrary pretext because of its content that undermines common knowledge

Expanding Confusion: Time integral of the reciprocal of the scale factor from Hubble parameter equation I know, I'll only get more downvotes for this statement out of sheer defiance, but I don't care ...
Marcin's user avatar
  • 1
16 votes
3 answers
539 views

Astronomy Stack Exchange 10-year anniversary!

Astronomy Stack Exchange will turn ten years old on September 24th! The first question asked on our site was: How do I calculate the inclination of an object with an amateur telescope? Over eight ...
Connor Garcia's user avatar
  • 16.2k
6 votes
1 answer
88 views

We've been using the [gravitational-waves] tag for 10 years, do we really also need [gravitational-wave-astronomy]?

We have had this tag since 2014: gravitational-waves 181 questions Waves in spacetime formed by the acceleration of massive bodies. A passing wave causes spacetime to be stretched and squashed by a ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 31.3k
-1 votes
1 answer
81 views

Bounty on my question

I have put a 50 point bounty on my question How are the cyclones on other planets studied? 2 days ago. There are 5 more days before the bounty expires. However, I have not yet received a good quality ...
Arunabh Bhattacharya's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
76 views

DaveTheWave isn’t a new contributor; Can we do something about repeated account recreation?

I thought I must be going insane, but no, it’s not just me. Other people have noticed too that DaveTheWave keeps making new accounts. They will then post low-quality content. One they get a reputation ...
Starship - On Strike's user avatar
16 votes
0 answers
535 views

June 5 Strike - Who, What, When, Why, and how to join

Following from Stack Overflow, and as other sites will soon have to (if they don't already have them, I have decided, with some approval, to announce the upcoming June 5 strike on this child meta. It ...
Starship - On Strike's user avatar
-5 votes
1 answer
76 views

Is it justifiable to block someone for posting a factually wrong but still clear question?

My question has in fact two parts. Does it mean you're blocked if you want to mention someone with a @ sign, but no sugesstions show up? Is it justifiable to block someone just because they have ...
Snack Exchange's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
86 views

Spam shouldn't take this long to be deleted

This clearly spam post is at a score of -8 and has been flagged as spam. And yet it has sit there for 12 hours. If nothing else, the 8 downvotes can all flag as spam and it will be deleted. Spam is ...
Starship - On Strike's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
31 views

We've got at least 26 generic i.imgur.com image links that might break on May 15, 2023; should/could they be updated to i.stack.imgur.com?

Below the Math SE meta question Imgur's "old, unused, and inactive content" Imgur plans to change its Terms of Service on May 15, 2023. Part of this will be the removal of "old, unused,...
uhoh's user avatar
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0 votes
3 answers
62 views

Best way to refer to people in posts who have been knighted?

As per tradition, King Charles tapped May on the shoulder with a sword during the investiture Source: BBC Per Wikipedia we can see that Brian May has several accolades; he was a graduate student in ...
uhoh's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
44 views

What is the best way to tag questions about Xuntian, the Chinese Survey Space Telescope?

What is the best tag for China's Xuntian, i.e. the Chinese Survey Space Telescope? It's schedule to be launched this year in the Tiangong space station orbit (but phased away from it) and the ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 31.3k
4 votes
1 answer
44 views

Do we need the [nomenclature] and [naming] and [terminology] tags?

The new question Is "monochromatic source" different than "monochromator" in astronomical instrumentation? included a nomenclature tag I hadn't seen before, I usually use ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 31.3k
7 votes
0 answers
82 views

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 ...
JNat's user avatar
  • 101
12 votes
0 answers
89 views

Congratulations to James(100)K

Congratulations to JamesK on his 100k-hood on Astronomy SE. 1452 answers (and 5 questions). It's a lot! Also - 2.2m "reached", which is an importantly large number.
ProfRob's user avatar
  • 146k
12 votes
1 answer
427 views

Should we at least temporarily ban chatbot-generated content (e.g. chatGPT) until it becomes clearer what it means for Stack Exchange?

Higher question-rate sites have already addressed chatbot-generated posting in an essentially universal negative way, for example: Stack Overflow: Temporary policy: ChatGPT is banned How can we ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 31.3k
2 votes
3 answers
92 views

Is it wrong for someone to post an answer that does not meet their own up-vote standard?

A user could have two standards: A standard by which we think someone else's answer is good enough to up-vote. A standard by which we think our own answers are good enough to post. Question: Is it ...
Connor Garcia's user avatar
  • 16.2k
6 votes
3 answers
110 views

Sourcing papers vs explaining in own words

Is referencing papers like my answer in the below question link (I usually do for complicated questions) good? I saw @Connor_Garcia in this question explained it in their own words while I did so with ...
DialFrost's user avatar
  • 2,105
8 votes
1 answer
175 views

Do we want to change the link about MathJax help?

Astronomy Stack Exchange has MathJax enabled, allowing us to use LaTeX to write equations. Like other SE sites with MathJax, we have a section in the editing help page on how to use LaTeX. This ...
HDE 226868's user avatar
  • 36k
3 votes
0 answers
127 views

The new and increasingly popular "close for insufficient research" close reason, are we headed in the wrong direction here? Is there a way to reduce?

Comment under Why is the moon tidally locked with the earth? with +4 votes I’m voting to close this question because there's no evidence that OP has done any research. Comment under Plane of Moon&#...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 31.3k
3 votes
1 answer
45 views

An [ultraviolet] tag to go with our [gamma-rays], [x-ray], [visible-light], [infrared], and [radio] tags?

We have these electromagnetic tags gamma-rays 11 questions The gamma-rays tag has no usage guidance, can you help us create it? x-ray 36 questions Questions regarding the second-shortest ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 31.3k
3 votes
2 answers
78 views

I can't find this question. Was it deleted?

Yesterday I remember I answered a question about the formation of the planets in the solar system by the user Kerry Frost. There was some debate in the comments on whether the question should have ...
Prallax's user avatar
  • 4,371
5 votes
2 answers
135 views

Should we avoid calling questions that have answers in other SE sites as "duplicate", which already has a specific and different meaning in SE?

There is some healthy overlap between Astronomy SE and some other sites, just for example: space telescope optics, operations and orbits with Space SE astrophysics, cosmology, optics, etc. with ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 31.3k
4 votes
1 answer
39 views

Can we merge tags "tno" and "trans-neptunian-object"?

trans-neptunian-object: Questions about objects orbiting the Sun with an average distance greater than that of Neptune. [24 questions] tno: A Trans-Neptunian object is any minor planet in the Solar ...
Nilay Ghosh's user avatar
  • 4,393
4 votes
2 answers
254 views

Why do some of our most prolific question answerers (and therefore reputation beneficiaries) rarely-to-never up vote questions they answer?

@uhoh's first two lemmas tell us that Stack Exchange is a collaborative effort to generate good answers to on-topic questions, and that answers simply can not exist without someone taking the time and ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 31.3k
5 votes
1 answer
76 views

Should we have a community-specific closing reason for Astrology questions?

Previous discussions: Should we add non-physical and/or astrology questions to the off-topic list? Can we consider Indian Astrology as astronomy? Can we have a guideline about astrology for the on-...
Nilay Ghosh's user avatar
  • 4,393
1 vote
1 answer
34 views

One tag for LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA or three, or none?

We have ligo: 14 questions Questions about the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), a large-scale physics experiment and observatory to detect cosmic gravitational waves. but ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 31.3k
5 votes
1 answer
88 views

Can we have a guideline about astrology for the on-topic section in the help center?

As it stands now, the Help Center for on-topic questions does not mention anything about questions about astrology, which is off-topic such as this recent question (which might get deleted soon by the ...
WarpPrime's user avatar
  • 6,613
2 votes
1 answer
55 views

Is 500 reputations enough to be able to "cast close & reopen votes"?

I have just asked 4 questions here, and thanks to other members two of them were received very well. Now I have surpassed 500 reputations and I have received a new privilege "Casting close & ...
Snack Exchange's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
76 views

For multi-part questions, are both partial and complete answers encouraged?

If a question has multiple parts A, B, and C, then how to the pros and cons balance out for partial answers vs. complete answers? Obviously an excellent answer that covers A, B, and C is most likely ...
giardia's user avatar
  • 2,039
12 votes
2 answers
160 views

Do we need to downvote posts of New Contributors?

I can see nowadays, more than two downvotes on posts of newbies to the site (SE) or instant closure of question. I don't feel one will wantedly ask Low quality posts, either they might lack knowledge ...
Kavin Ishwaran's user avatar
8 votes
0 answers
34 views

2021: 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 ...
JNat's user avatar
  • 101
2 votes
0 answers
22 views

Do we have enough tags to "span the space" of astronomical eclipses and transits? Is something missing or needs changing?

We have solar-eclipse 143 questions Questions about the complete or partial blocking of the sun by the moon. and lunar-eclipse 60 questions Questions regarding an event where the Earth goes ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 31.3k
2 votes
0 answers
44 views

Site customization ideas?

Just today, we graduated from beta! :D @ConnorGarcia notes in his post: Site customization, such as custom background and badge design isn't immediately planned but may be available in the future. I'...
WarpPrime's user avatar
  • 6,613
24 votes
3 answers
274 views

Graduation of the Astronomy Stack Exchange

The Astronomy Stack Exchange site is scheduled to graduate from Beta to a full site today, December 16th. The moderator team would like to congratulate our entire user base for the contributions that ...
Connor Garcia's user avatar
  • 16.2k
3 votes
2 answers
111 views

Should this question be reformulated or should I post a new question?

It seems there are many approaches to calculate the speed of Sun (for instance: Oort constant, CMBR, and others). Instead of having a "correct answer", what about "survey answers"? ...
Julio Otuyama's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
36 views

Post your pictures of the Beaver Moon Lunar Eclipse here!

Last year I posted a place for Great Conjunction photos. As tonight's eclipse will be longest partial lunar eclipse in about 500 years, I just wanted to reach out and offer a spot to compile a list of ...
WarpPrime's user avatar
  • 6,613
1 vote
1 answer
22 views

Removing the [ar] tag?

This question used to have a tag called ar. I'm assuming this was a mistake, so I edited it out of the tags. Would it be possible to remove it?
WarpPrime's user avatar
  • 6,613
4 votes
1 answer
39 views

Should we add the eyepiece tag to all questions that are about eyepieces? Or instead delete it since tagging would be a hopeless, quixotic quest?

I've just asked How does eyepiece exit pupil diameter affect image clarity and viewing experience? and added the eyepiece tag. It turns out this is only the 2nd question to use this tag, the first was ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 31.3k
1 vote
0 answers
53 views

Is "But really you would do better to ask your teacher. They are paid to answer this kind of question." in an answer the wrong message and anti-SE?

This answer to When can Moon occult Venus? feels to me to be the worst possible message. To me it looks like "you are wrong, you used the wrong number, here's the right number, and instead of ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 31.3k
1 vote
2 answers
99 views

Is insta-closing of potential duplicates always the best way? In low Q-rate sites? Is there something to be said for slow-closing or eventual closing?

Constellation search from April 22 2007 received three good answers before it was correctly closed as duplicate to our canonical Where can I find the positions of the planets, stars, moons, artificial ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 31.3k
8 votes
2 answers
213 views

Do we want accepted answers to be pinned to the top?

Stack Exchange staff have announced an upcoming change to the way answer acceptance works. Currently, the original poster of a question can accept one non-deleted answer. This does several things, ...
PM 2Ring's user avatar
  • 13.2k
11 votes
1 answer
64 views

Should we close an unclear question with acceped answer?

I know, if a question is unclear, we should close it right-away, because otherwise people might interpret it in different ways and give inconsistent answers. But sometimes, before we can close it, the ...
Prallax's user avatar
  • 4,371
3 votes
0 answers
21 views

Should the E-ELT tag get "sent to the cornfield" and replaced by extremely-large-telescope?

When tagging What two "little observatories" run by a university in Chile and "by Germans" are near the future site of the Extremely Large Observatory? I typed "extre..." ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 31.3k
2 votes
1 answer
51 views

How old is our Astronomy SE?

How old is our Astronomy SE ?. Unlike other sites, why there is poor patronage despite having great reception in Astronomy ? And what is the qualification to "graduate" ?
Kavin Ishwaran's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
94 views

New to Stack exchange. What is Meta and Beta in Astronomy SE?

it's been 10 days joining stack exchange ! I observed that there are two Astronomy SE, Meta and Beta ? So what is the difference between them ?
Kavin Ishwaran's user avatar
13 votes
0 answers
102 views

Congratulations to @ProfRob for reaching 100k reputation!

Congratulations!!! I'm quite late to the party after a break from SE, and I've seen that @ProfRob has hit 100,000 reputation, a new milestone for our site!
WarpPrime's user avatar
  • 6,613
7 votes
1 answer
102 views

What exactly count as a "hypothetical question"?

From help-center: Questions that are purely hypothetical, for example a question such as 'Could a black hole destroy the universe' or 'What if our solar system had two suns' (however, feel free to ...
Nilay Ghosh's user avatar
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