16
$\begingroup$

I'm in the process of learning about neural networks. I'm the kind of person who wants to pull them apart and glue them back together to really get a solid idea of how all the pieces work. I'm doing this on my own (e.g., Not at a university / school) and I have no point of contact to ask for help.

Right now I have 8 questions written down that have come to me while reading but I don't want to spam the site. Should I include them all in one question or post one per week or something else?

$\endgroup$
4
  • 8
    $\begingroup$ How strongly are these Qs related to each other? Is it likely that if you have an answer to Q #1 it will, by itself, help you understand Q #2? (I guess you can see where this is going: if yes, then post one #1 and wait to have it clarified; maybe after that you will not need to post #2 at all.) $\endgroup$
    – amoeba
    Oct 24 '16 at 14:27
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ If you do include several in one post then please number them (or letter them) to make it easy for people to respond selectively. $\endgroup$
    – mdewey
    Oct 24 '16 at 15:09
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ Related: meta.stats.stackexchange.com/questions/3029. $\endgroup$
    – amoeba
    Oct 24 '16 at 16:00
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ Your consideration of etiquette is much appreciated! However, even from a completely selfish perspective, one factor to consider is how you can use this site most effectively. In this context, it might be wise to post fewer questions at first, and be adaptive based on the response you get. For example, as a new user it may take some time to get the hang of crafting "good questions" (i.e. that get a good response). Or perhaps this week the super-user with all your answers is on vacation, but next week will be back! $\endgroup$
    – GeoMatt22
    Oct 25 '16 at 22:14
14
$\begingroup$

I'm not sure there is a 'too many' in a general sense. Let me make a couple suggestions:

  1. Try to keep your threads consistent and manageable.

    I think it's OK to put more than one question into the same thread, when the questions are closely related, or are variations on a theme. When there are many questions that aren't closely related, the thread is at risk of being 'too broad'. Remember also that the longer a question statement is, the fewer people will actually read all the way through it.

  2. It is often appropriate to post a set of threads in a series over time.

    There can be a logical ordering of questions such that answering one provides some information about the next, etc. I would think about asking questions one thread at a time as you learn more. You don't necessarily need to wait a week in between questions, but I probably wouldn't post more than a couple at a time, even if they are wholly unrelated.

$\endgroup$
12
$\begingroup$

  1. You should generally ask questions separately unless they're very closely connected (in a way that it's natural to answer them together). Posting laundry-list questions will get your question closed.

  2. You should be okay posting a several questions a day, but the people best placed to give good answers may only have time to look at one or two, so the more you post at once the more likely that you'll miss an opportunity for a good answer (i.e. if you post 8 in a day, that may work out less than optimally).

    I'd suggest keeping yourself to about 2-3 a day and I'd suggest spacing them out by a reasonable interval (half an hour to an hour, say), to get a good chance of an answer or two on each.

$\endgroup$

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .