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About answers which are posted to questions.

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-2 votes
1 answer
244 views

Mass downvoting of a well referenced pertinent answer: Why is an answer that is a complement to others considered so bad?

I spent many hours writing this answer and many days preparing it. Is it fair to desk-reject the above paper based solely on this one sentence? The question primarily asks if it is fair to desk-...
-2 votes
2 answers
149 views

How to lift an "answer ban" / why banned at all?

I am new to this Stack, though I have been participating in other stacks before. I answered a couple of question but have got constantly bad reactions, which for some reason are not very well liked. ...
5 votes
1 answer
195 views

How to deal with a plagiarized answer?

The answer at https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/182163/15446 is a copy/paste from https://www.modernintimacy.com/13-tips-for-how-to-heal-from-a-toxic-relationship/ (as noted in the comments by @...
17 votes
7 answers
299 views

On answers to reference requests that do not provide references

I have noticed several instances (and there have been a few flags) where the question says quite clearly something like: I am looking for references about [some topic]. I'm not really interested in ...
16 votes
8 answers
1k views

Should the answer that appears on "top" be the OP's "accepted answer" or the answer with most votes?

UPDATE: Having gotten mixed feedback on this change across the network, SE has decided as a default to keep the "old way", but sites can have a discussion like this one to request the "...
9 votes
9 answers
820 views

Frame-challenge guidelines – idea collection [duplicate]

Update: The FAQ is now live. Please do not make changes or discuss them here anymore. A frame challenge is an answer, comment (or part thereof) that doesn’t attempt to answer the question as is, but ...
6 votes
5 answers
728 views

How to deal with a question that contains a false premise? How do I make a frame challenge?

Somebody posted a question that makes an assumption I disagree with or think might be wrong. How do I best inform the asker of this? Do I post a comment or an answer, or should I vote to close the ...
4 votes
1 answer
363 views

Frame-challenge – guidelines proposal [duplicate]

Update: The FAQ is now live. Please do not make changes or discuss them here anymore. This is a follow up to the idea collection, please see that post as to what this is about. First of all, thanks ...
-3 votes
2 answers
424 views

Removal of answer content by moderator --- edit detracts from the answer

My recent answer to a question about how to address racist comments has been edited by a moderator (eykanal) to remove a substantial portion of the content. As authority for the edit the moderator ...
0 votes
2 answers
272 views

Should we focus on having more objective answers?

This critical answer on Academia.SE from Meta.mathoverflow deserves some attention, in my view: The problem with academia.SE is that it is very different in style from MO and other SE sites. The ...
2 votes
0 answers
58 views

Should one post two (conflicting) answers to a question? [duplicate]

In answer to a recent question, a user has posted two different (conflicting and quite short) answers. I'm wondering if this is recommended behavior. The question has the form What is the best way ...
15 votes
3 answers
649 views

Dealing with "In my experience..." answers

This particular SE has the significant problem that many answers will be "soft" in nature; there's no real literature on much of this, making many questions answerable only through "in my experience......
5 votes
3 answers
213 views

Why can't I answer question about gender pronouns?

I found Am I conveying disrespect if I omit my gender pronoun from a conference nametag? through the Hot Questions list. I was interested in posting an answer, but I don't see the answer box. I have ...
4 votes
3 answers
352 views

Do the answers and opinions on Academia Stack Exchange reflect the opinion of whole academic community?

I'm wondering what is the similarity percentage of answers and opinions, which are given on Academia Stack Exchange to users, to the opinion of academic community as a bigger entity? In other words, ...
27 votes
14 answers
4k views

Why are we challenging the premise rather than answering the question (question on potential sexist remarks)?

I find the reaction to this question quite unreasonable. The responses were overwhelmingly negative and focused on trying to prove that OP is wrong in assessing whether a given situation was possibly ...
23 votes
6 answers
656 views

Does Academia.SE welcome answers from laymen who are not active in Academia?

I frequently see questions from this stack in the Hot Network Questions list (the network-wide list of questions in the right sidebar) that I find interesting. I sometimes answer them and have ...
8 votes
2 answers
357 views

Should I remove my answer which has been invalidated by an edit to the question?

For the question Should I report a PhD student’s incompetence to their supervisor? I gave an answer based on an assumption that the OP and a supervisor were based at the same institution - information ...
3 votes
3 answers
163 views

Answers in comments

I have noticed a tendency on this site for people to post answers as comments. I don't know why this is, but it happens often, and then the comment gets many "up-votes" as an "answer." My approach ...
3 votes
2 answers
152 views

How should we deal with good answers given just as comments?

Recently I was browsing through the "unanswered questions" section, and I found many questions which had good answeres - but those were given as comments. Some of them are very short, but still a ...
5 votes
2 answers
245 views

I notice that if I downvote an answer, I lose reputation points - how come?

How come I lose reputation points for downvoting? Is reputation sort of like a "currency" and that it "costs" me reputation points to downvote an answer? I currently upvoted back that answer, since ...
1 vote
7 answers
365 views

What to do about posts that don't answer the rewritten question?

A controversial question was substantially rewritten, but not before a number of answers were posted and discussed at great length. Is it appropriate now to flag the existing answers that don't ...
0 votes
1 answer
46 views

What to do with old posts with with unaccepted answers?

I've seen many posts where answers are provided yet none are accepted. These include questions where the given answers are straightforward and clearly correct. For instance, in this post, two ...
6 votes
1 answer
90 views

The spam filter caught my answer and I want to know why

I attempted to post this answer to this question, and it was rejected by the spam filter. Instead of receiving any kind of detailed "remove this wording, this looks like advertising, etc." I received ...
1 vote
1 answer
71 views

How to select an answer to a question that I recently asked?

In my most recent question regarding whether to abandon an open math problem, I got (surprisingly) much more dialogue than I anticipated. I had expected very quick answers that all say something like,...
2 votes
1 answer
143 views

Questions that call for answers based on opinion to some degree

I have see quite a few questions placed on hold because they call for answers based on opinions rather than facts. My question is: is this an appropriate standard for Academia.stackexchange? I ...
2 votes
1 answer
72 views

Answering etiquette

I have some etiquette questions. Suppose you read a question that interests you, and you think you could write a helpful answer. Is it your responsibility to read the answers that have been posted ...
-4 votes
1 answer
62 views

Conflict on answering same question about mentioning MOOC courses

The answer of this question: mentioning MOOC's I took in my scholarship application Yes! Why not? It shows that you go beyond what is required of you, and you have a genuine interest in ...
12 votes
4 answers
441 views

What are we generally looking for in answers?

I am interested in learning what users of this site look for and appreciate in an answer. On this site, what are the characteristics of a good answer? (Examples of exceptionally good answers, and ...
29 votes
5 answers
1k views

Why do people on academia.SE often suggest courses of action that are very different from what most people would do in real life?

When browsing this site, I see a lot of questions like Should I let a senior student/professor/etc be a coauthor on my paper when he didn't do any work/made only negative contributions to the ...
15 votes
3 answers
214 views

Evidence based answers

I understand that questions on AC.SE are going to be "softer" in nature than the programming questions typical of SO.SE, but I think our answers often are "softer" then needed. I often read answers ...
8 votes
2 answers
143 views

What is the etiquette of providing more than one answer to the same question?

I am thinking specifically of this question, where my answer would be wholly different based on the type of virtual teaching environment. I would like to provide separate answers for each environment ...
4 votes
2 answers
100 views

What is the policy on keeping bad questions with useful answers?

Say, a question that is not a perfect fit for the site was posted - mostly some consider it to have some merit, some do not. What if said question generates some very useful answers (not just upvoted,...
8 votes
1 answer
183 views

Answering without real experience

I am new to the academia and read a lot of how to be a good student/researcher and teacher. This said, I really have no real experience in some questions on Academia.SE but I do have a sense on how ...
6 votes
2 answers
161 views

How to deal with different disciplines / fields?

Many of the current answers begin with "It depends on your field" / "There is no one answer". Indeed, each field is unique, although they share common grounds. For questions that depend on the ...