42
votes
Accepted
How best to use the review queue?
A compendium of comments I've found useful. Feel free to add more.
Questions
Self-study
Is this a question from a course or textbook? If so, please add the self-study tag & read its wiki.
...
24
votes
Are you allowed to edit an answer that you disagree with?
No.
Substantive content should not be changed in someone else's answer. Nor should editorial content be added. People who disagree should leave comments, downvote, and/or post their own answer. In ...
21
votes
$\LaTeX$ macros for expectation, variance and covariance?
To typeset an operator, it is much better to use \operatorname instead of \mathrm, as explained on tex.SE: What's the difference ...
- 95k
21
votes
If I use my own StackExchange answers elsewhere, am I violating copyright law?
See http://stackexchange.com/legal & https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.
For what it's worth,† my understanding of all that is that you're perfectly free to reproduce anything ...
- 27.8k
18
votes
Are you allowed to edit an answer that you disagree with?
No. Reasons for editing are described in here:
When should I edit posts?
Any time you feel you can make the post better, and are inclined to do
so. Editing is encouraged!
Some common ...
TimMod
- 115k
17
votes
Accepted
If I use my own StackExchange answers elsewhere, am I violating copyright law?
Your content is yours: you own it, and can use it howsoever you wish. You may also license it to other people to use it.
By posting something here, you grant Stack Exchange a license to host and ...
- 113
17
votes
Accepted
What is considered an "unanswered question" in Stack Exchange?
Q: Why does the "Unanswered Questions" tab show questions that have answers?
A: The Unanswered Questions tab shows questions that have no answers with a positive score nor an accepted answer....
- 95k
16
votes
$\LaTeX$ macros for expectation, variance and covariance?
For Corr, Cov and Var I usually use \DeclareMathOperator{\Corr}{Corr}, which, done once in an answer, allows me to just write ...
- 20.9k
15
votes
Best practice: How to request clarification from the author without 50 rep to comment?
@whuber's stamina is admirable, but I have to endorse @NickCox's suggestion: You just have to hang in there, contribute answers to questions that don't need clarification (etc.) until you get to 50.
...
15
votes
Accepted
Correcting authors' typos in excerpt from papers
My thoughts first on what one does if one is writing a question:
If you're quoting a paper, you should quote it verbatim and then explain why the original is wrong (including quoting the correct ...
- 261k
15
votes
Why do we have a tensorflow tag if questions about programming are off topic?
The actual criterion is in our help/on-topic (search for programming). A question containing code or asking about code -- or even sometimes asking for code is not automatically off topic, but many are....
- 261k
15
votes
Are you allowed to edit an answer that you disagree with?
FWIW, I deliberately have not read the thread in question and therefore have no views here on who is more nearly right, and so forth.
I think this is more general inter-personal etiquette than site ...
- 49.1k
14
votes
Accepted
When is traffic slow on CrossValidated?
Based on number of posts:
Time of day: Looks like 3:00-7:00 (all times are UTC) is half as busy as 14:00-18:00
day of week: Saturday is the least busy day, followed by Sunday
combined: 6:00-7:00 ...
- 261k
12
votes
How to write R code in my posts?
When you are writing a question or an answer, a set of icons is visible above the text field.
One icon is a pair of curly braces, $\{\}$. To add a block of code, highlight the block and click the ...
12
votes
Accepted
Using all votes in Elections
Yes, your votes will still be used. You may cast just one or just two out of the three you are allowed.
I base this conclusion on having analyzed (in detail) the results of some other elections. A ...
whuberMod
- 290k
12
votes
Accepted
Why was this question closed as unclear? Please vote to reopen it!
I can answer 20% of why this question was closed, being one of the five close voters. The question has been edited since, and may well be edited again, so I won't make a running commentary on whether ...
- 20.9k
12
votes
Are you allowed to edit an answer that you disagree with?
Your main point is well answered already. I will just address what you could do about the technical argument leading to disagreement: Can a seasonal ARIMA model mimic a periodic model? Can you please ...
- 65.6k
12
votes
Accepted
How can I figure out why my reviewer privileges were revoked and how can I get them back?
Your efforts to try to improve the site are appreciated!
As I understand it, if enough reviews / suggested edits are rejected you'll automatically generate a (temporary) ban without any intervention ...
- 261k
12
votes
Accepted
Why is stats.stackexchange.com called Cross Validated, not Statistics Stack Exchange?
Ten years ago, it was a custom that every site got its own name (i.e. Stack Overflow, Super User, Server Fault), not just [topic] Stack Exchange. There was a community poll (sadly, the results are no ...
- 816
12
votes
Accepted
How to change SE’s readability-destroying font?
Here is a reasonable work-around on FireFox:
Install Stylus.
Click Stylus' badge in the tool bar, and select Manage.
Select Write new style, and paste the below into it (edit as needed, e.g., add <...
- 26.6k
11
votes
How to contact another user?
If they do not supply contact information in their profile, then you cannot contact them privately through this site. SE does not work that way. We respect our users' wishes to remain private.
If ...
whuberMod
- 290k
11
votes
Accepted
Why was an answer considered off-topic and when it was deleted?
The deleted answer has been restored.
I am guessing that the deletion of that post was a well-meaning response to a (well-upvoted) comment by a community member claiming that it did not answer the ...
whuberMod
- 290k
11
votes
Accepted
Many (historical) duplicate questions - how to pick a "canonical" question?
A. There's a number of levels of association of similar questions
$\quad $ (4 by my reckoning, if we also count 'not quite similar enough to do anything'):
Where the questions are exact duplicates, ...
- 261k
11
votes
How to follow a question?
The closest thing to this we currently offer is an RSS feed for every question:
You can follow the feed from there, and get notifications with whichever feed reader you have. It should be updated ...
- 101
11
votes
Accepted
Must logging out of CV really require 4 clicks?
If you click the icon at the top right (the one that looks like a hamburger), a list drops down. That list includes a link to log out. That way will only take you two steps.
11
votes
Accepted
Who implemented and operates/maintains the user Community?
The SE developers implemented and maintain it. Note that it is the same on all SE sites, so this question presumably belongs on meta.SE, not here (it is almost certainly a duplicate, however). The ...
11
votes
Accepted
A mod removed my answer (referencing the answer from comments) to my question saying it doesn't answer it
"See so-and-so's comment" doesn't meet the standard for an answer on our site. Answers should be complete in themselves; for example, if BruceET was to delete his comment, your answer would be useless....
- 261k
11
votes
Why am I seeing sponsored advertisements?
The company is shifting to behave more like a standard profit-seeking enterprise and less like an idealistic start-up. There's no doubt that it takes a lot of money to run SE, and that money has been ...
11
votes
Accepted
(Why) does CV post comments under my name and without notifying me?
This is what the software does when a user proposes that a question is a duplicate. The software isn't smart enough to figure out the contextual information about who authored which question, and the ...
SycoraxMod
- 79.4k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible