Start Here · Welcome · continued

Lurking for two months before posting: was that the right call? posts 31–60

Start Here › Welcome guidelines trust levels beginner friendly

This is a continuation of a long topic, addressed by post number rather than by page. Start at post 1.

WoodhouseTL2Member18 Nov 2025#31

bench_notes, post #18: Welcome. Two practical notes from staff. Your first few posts are rate-limited, which is an anti-spam measure and not a comment on you, and it lifts on its own. If you hit it and have something to add, edit the post you already made. If anyone has run this properly I would rather read that than my own guess. Go to post

Marked solutions are the site's way of saying that someone asked a good question and someone else gave an answer that actually worked. It is not a competition and it does not appear on your record — it is just how the site learns which topics stay useful six months later.

One of those cases where knowing the mechanism does not help the decision.

0 likes in reply to #18 8mo

f.espinozaTL218 Nov 2025#32

Nothing here requires expertise. The experienced members here got that way by posting questions, not by knowing the answer before they showed up. If you know something useful, post it. If you do not, ask.

I would treat that as a working assumption and revisit it.

29 likes 8mo

gradient_fileTL2Member18 Nov 2025#33

Off-topic posts that do not belong here belong in the Lounge instead. You are not in trouble if a moderator moves your post — they are just routing it to the right place so people who want to read it can find it.

14 likes 8mo

s.kravchenkoTL219 Nov 2025#34

The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.

5 likes 8mo

cohort_notesTL2Member19 Nov 2025 · edited#35

da.bakker, post #24: Worth knowing early: the archive is not retrospectively corrected. A topic from two years ago was accurate when written and may not be now. Every post carries its date for that reason. Worth checking against a second source before it gets quoted onward. Go to post

Worth knowing early: the archive is not retrospectively corrected. A topic from two years ago was accurate when written and may not be now. Every post carries its date for that reason.

I have written this out at length because the short version keeps being misread.

0 likes in reply to #24 8mo

KLindqvistTL4 Moderator19 Nov 2025#36

Staff post. Actions described here are recorded in the public moderation log and may be challenged in Meta.

Welcome. Two practical notes from staff. Your first few posts are rate-limited, which is an anti-spam measure and not a comment on you, and it lifts on its own. If you hit it and have something to add, edit the post you already made.

Written quickly, so the reasoning may be tighter than the wording.

21 likes 8mo

RidgewayTL319 Nov 2025#37

Collapsed as off-topic by two members at trust level 3 or above

The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.

abstract_peakTL1Member19 Nov 2025#38

n.stanescu, post #2: The answer to the reading-order question is: the how-to-ask page, then whichever compound page applies to you, then the sourcing standard. Forty minutes and it saves weeks. That is what I would do. It may not be what is correct. Go to post

Asking as the newest person in the thread: is there a canonical order to read the documentation set in? I have been going alphabetically and that is clearly not it.

Two people can read the same figure differently here and both be reasonable.

2 likes in reply to #2 8mo

erratum_fileTL3Regular19 Nov 2025#39

The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.

The part I am sure of is shorter than the part I have written.

2 likes 8mo

o.vogelsangTL019 Nov 2025#40

Collapsed as off-topic by two members at trust level 3 or above

Joining rather than answering. I have read the orientation set twice and the thing that finally made it click was realising the documentation pages are the destination and topics are how they get written.

so.mbekiTL219 Nov 2025 · edited#41

The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.

0 likes 8mo

FFaulknerTL3Regular19 Nov 2025#42

Stating my assumptions rather than smuggling them in.

0 likes 8mo

b.adeyemiTL219 Nov 2025#43

Reading counts toward trust level, so lurking is not wasted. That is unusual and it is the reason the levels here track familiarity rather than volume.

Worth saying I have only my own numbers here, and n is small.

8 likes 8mo

osmolal_tableTL1Member19 Nov 2025#44

e.dalgleish, post #20: Reading counts toward trust level, so lurking is not wasted. That is unusual and it is the reason the levels here track familiarity rather than volume. The claim is narrower than it sounds, and deliberately so. Go to post

Following, with nothing to contribute beyond having asked the same thing elsewhere.

20 likes in reply to #20 8mo

i.beaulieuTL219 Nov 2025#45

The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.

0 likes 8mo

IMainwaringTL3Regular19 Nov 2025#46

Nobody is going to check your credentials and nobody is going to ask. What gets asked for is the basis of a claim, which is a different thing and applies equally to everyone.

2 likes 8mo

v.malinowskiTL219 Nov 2025#47

The compound and evidence pages are updated regularly and they are worth reading when you are new. They answer the meta questions like "do we have data on this" and "what do the trials actually show" before you ask them.

Someone should write this up properly, and it should probably not be me.

13 likes 8mo

NLoughranTL3Regular19 Nov 2025#48

r.mensah, post #17: The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression. Go to post

The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.

Take it as a starting point and not as a specification.

27 likes in reply to #17 8mo

m.restrepoTL219 Nov 2025#49

b.adeyemi, post #43: Reading counts toward trust level, so lurking is not wasted. That is unusual and it is the reason the levels here track familiarity rather than volume. Worth saying I have only my own numbers here, and n is small. Go to post

Trust levels accumulate over time and they give you access to small things like the ability to edit your own posts without a timestamp. They are not a status symbol and they do not make you more right. Someone at trust level zero with a good question gets better answers than someone at trust level four with a bad one.

Written in the hope of being told what I have missed.

0 likes in reply to #43 8mo

l.oseiTL219 Nov 2025 · edited#50

4 likes 8mo

v.fontaineTL220 Nov 2025#51

se.okafor, post #28: If you are not sure which subcategory a question belongs in, post it in the closest one. A moderator will move it, the move is logged, and nothing bad happens to you. Posting it because the silence on this was starting to look like agreement. Go to post

The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.

A modest claim, modestly supported.

16 likes in reply to #28 8mo

hana.satoTL4 Moderator20 Nov 2025#52

Staff post. Actions described here are recorded in the public moderation log and may be challenged in Meta.

6 likes in reply to #18 8mo

p.iyer_pharmdTL3Pharmacist20 Nov 2025#53

Introducing yourself is fine and requires no question. Post in this subcategory, describe the context that matters for why you are here, and lurk for a bit before posting technical questions. That order works well.

0 likes 8mo

a.aguirreTL220 Nov 2025#54

The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.

If that reads as pedantic, it is, and it has saved me twice.

31 likes 8mo

p.iyer_pharmdTL3Pharmacist20 Nov 2025#55

KLindqvist, post #36: Welcome. Two practical notes from staff. Your first few posts are rate-limited, which is an anti-spam measure and not a comment on you, and it lifts on its own. If you hit it and have something to add, edit the post you already made. Written quickly, so the reasoning may be tighter than the wording. Go to post

Reading the guidelines before you post is genuinely worth the twenty minutes. Not because you will break one, but because the rules explain why the place reads the way it does.

11 likes in reply to #36 8mo

n.okwuosaTL220 Nov 2025#56

steady_state, post #25: Introducing yourself is fine and requires no question. Post in this subcategory, describe the context that matters for why you are here, and lurk for a bit before posting technical questions. That order works well. Go to post

You do not need to introduce yourself before asking a question, and nobody will think worse of you for arriving with one. The introductions subcategory exists for people who want it, not as a gate.

3 likes in reply to #25 8mo

system_suitabilityTL3Analytical chemist20 Nov 2025#57

Understood. Thank you for being specific about the limits of it.

0 likes 8mo

z.okonkwoTL220 Nov 2025 · edited#58

The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.

That has been true for the cases I have seen and I have not seen many.

23 likes 8mo

n.nakamuraTL220 Nov 2025#59

i.beaulieu, post #45: The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression. Go to post

Happy to be the one who is wrong here if it settles the question.

7 likes in reply to #45 8mo

c.niemelTL3Regular20 Nov 2025#60

The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.

If it helps: the failure mode here is usually boring rather than dramatic.

1 like 8mo