15 votes

It's Identity-Crisis time

Three years ago, September 18 2013 I posted a question in Area 51 exploring whether a 2nd attempt to launch an economics.se seemed to have a chance to succeed. It wasn't a site proposal proper, just ...
Alecos Papadopoulos's user avatar
12 votes

We need more PHDs/Professionals on this site/why are we not getting them

As economists they understand a number of facts: There are network effects: being on the site as a professional economist is more valuable when other professional economists are here, But being a ...
Ubiquitous's user avatar
  • 16.9k
11 votes
Accepted

What kind of maths/stats questions allowed?

This is a difficult question—which is why the physicists have wrestled with it so much. I would tend to be inclusive because it would be better to have overlap between two SE sites than to have gaps ...
Ubiquitous's user avatar
  • 16.9k
11 votes
Accepted

Questions of “poor taste”

On the Ancestry: I agree the question's reference to the ethnic group was eyebrow raising (In fact I am partially through my grandmother part of the ethnic group that was referred to in the post so ...
1muflon1's user avatar
  • 54.4k
10 votes

Econ.SE Potential Moderator Election -- Community Interest Check

Please leave an answer if you'd be willing to run for a moderator position, should we decide to run an election. I would be willing to run if there was an election. If desired, please leave an ...
1muflon1's user avatar
  • 54.4k
9 votes
Accepted

Questions about academia in economics

I would not consider such questions on topic here. They are about professional prospects related to the Economics discipline, not about the content of the Economics discipline itself, which is the ...
Alecos Papadopoulos's user avatar
9 votes

Experts: how do you view these kinds of questions?

Vote up if you agree with the following: I like to see/answer technical, specific, graduate-level questions on this site. This site should be a primary destination for drawing on the kind of high-...
9 votes
Accepted

Bad in my opinion vs. low quality

According to this answer on Meta.SE: You should Delete a post If the post is rude or offensive [possibly flag] [ANS] If the answer asks another question [ANS] If an answer is actually a ...
Herr K.'s user avatar
  • 15.3k
9 votes

Who are PhDs and PhD candidates on this site?

I am an econ PhD (working in IO). I feel a little pessimistic about the viability of an econ overflow site. We initially tried to moderate this site to be focused on professional-level economics, ...
Ubiquitous's user avatar
  • 16.9k
8 votes
Accepted

Images as answers

My interpretation is that images are unwelcome (in questions or answers) when they contain only text and are used because posters are simply unwilling to retype the material themselves. The posting ...
Ubiquitous's user avatar
  • 16.9k
8 votes

Does the site want questions on "everyday economics" about consumer markets?

My approach: questions about pricing, relative prices and the like are on topic here but it is my impression that they will rarely get an answer that matches the very narrow and specific level that ...
Alecos Papadopoulos's user avatar
8 votes
Accepted

Is frequently promoting an economics site spam?

Two questions are mangled here: Is it okay to advertise an (on-topic) site? Is it okay to edit this into other people's content? 1. The first question I would answer with a clear yes, when relevant ...
FooBar's user avatar
  • 10.7k
8 votes
Accepted

Joke list question got to Hot Network Questions but looks like it should be closed

Other Stack Exchange sites have tried these joke questions. In almost all cases, they've turned out to be a bad idea. They're junk magnets. They do not incentivise new high-quality content. They do, ...
410 gone's user avatar
  • 8,123
8 votes

Are questions about voting systems on topic?

The obvious answer is "questions about the economics of voting systems are on topic here". That's a bit vague, but I guess as a minimum it would include questions about the incentives created by ...
Ubiquitous's user avatar
  • 16.9k
8 votes

Why are you not answering questions?

Looking at the list of unanswered questions, I suspect part of the reason might be that there aren't enough experts on the site. Most of the questions I see listed there are fairly long and ...
Ubiquitous's user avatar
  • 16.9k
8 votes

Why are you not answering questions?

I completely agree with Adam Bailey's comment. Another reason could be that many (unanswered) questions seem to be posted by new users who join the site just to ask that one question and never come ...
BB King's user avatar
  • 6,128
8 votes

Experts: how do you view these kinds of questions?

Vote up if you agree with the following: I like to see/answer reference request questions on this site. These questions are easy to answer if I happen to know a relevant reference. Helping active ...
8 votes

Nominating Possible New Moderators

I would like to offer up myself, Kitsune Cavalry, for nomination. Now I know what some of you veterans are probably thinking. Kitsune is nothing but a rabble-rousing charlatan, who has built a ...
Kitsune Cavalry's user avatar
  • 6,578
8 votes
Accepted

How to deal with poor behaviour and rants

Here's the formula I try to apply: Be fairly willing to delete bad comments on the spot. Be ready to cast the deciding vote (e.g., to close a post) iff there are already a few votes from the ...
Ubiquitous's user avatar
  • 16.9k
8 votes

Should we have a tag for Family Economics?

Here are some relevant parts of the JEL classification, which might offer some guidance ...
Ubiquitous's user avatar
  • 16.9k
8 votes

Who are PhDs and PhD candidates on this site?

I am a recent Econ PhD graduate with research interests primarily in public finance. Like Ubiquitous, I also feel pessimistic about the viability of an econ overflow site.
BB King's user avatar
  • 6,128
8 votes

Proposal to make the site more useful for experts (PhDs, academics, professionals)

Tag all beginner questions with beginner tag My proposed solution, copy-and-pasted from the question. Short description: Require that each question that isn't an "expert-level question" be ...
jmbejara's user avatar
  • 9,345
8 votes
Accepted

Update Policy for Low-Quality Answers: Citations Required

Here is my proposed FAQ on answers, the text is based on mashup of ideas in and under the two other answers of HerK and Jmbejara, as well as putting them into appropriate FAQ format (i.e. this FAQ has ...
1muflon1's user avatar
  • 54.4k
8 votes

Should we reduce the number of votes required to close from 5 to 3 close votes?

I think this would be a beneficial change. It doesn't give a good impression of the site when low-quality questions take a long time to be closed, and perhaps in the meantime receive low-quality ...
Adam Bailey's user avatar
  • 8,311
7 votes

What kind of maths/stats questions allowed?

I agree with Ubiquitous that it is better to have overlap between SE sites than gaps. A further point in favour of inclusiveness is that the rates of unanswered questions of these types, as of just ...
Adam Bailey's user avatar
  • 8,311
7 votes
Accepted

Winter Bash 2015

We should opt in, some people will not care, others will find it fun.
Giskard's user avatar
  • 28.6k
7 votes
Accepted

Profiling when voting to close

I'm actually quite against the "effort" part of what we're having, but I accepted it for now as a simple rule to prevent overflow of "bad questions", as bad questions correlated with low-effort ones. ...
FooBar's user avatar
  • 10.7k
7 votes
Accepted

Prolonged Trends of the Beta; Adjustments?

The rules for graduation have changed. It's now all about questions per day. That's not to say that any questions are good: we're looking for questions about real economics problems that people face....
410 gone's user avatar
  • 8,123
7 votes

Where are we now?

Here is the Area 51 snapshot: Source on 2/26/16 Compared with four months ago it looks like we doing better on some attributes and worse on others: 0.8 questions fewer per day 3 percentage points ...
BKay's user avatar
  • 16.3k
7 votes
Accepted

Should I downvote valid answers to off-topic questions

My gut feeling would be no. But then I read this: Should one downvote answers to off-topic questions? It seems like the accepted approach in the broader SE community is that answers to off-topic ...
Ubiquitous's user avatar
  • 16.9k

Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible