GEldridge, post #12: If someone has run Start properly I would rather read that than my own reconstruction of it. Posting mine only because the thread has gone quiet. Go to post
Helpful, and short, which on this subject is harder than long.
Start Here · Welcome · continued
Why the Start Here categories exist, and what they are not for posts 31–45
This is a continuation of a long topic, addressed by post number rather than by page. Start at post 1 · go to the accepted answer.
Speaking only to Start as I have actually seen it, rather than as it is usually described: the effect is real, it is smaller than the thread suggests, and the variance between people is larger than the effect.
5 likes 4d
What would change my mind on Start is a second dataset collected by someone with no stake in the first. Until then I hold it loosely and I would rather say so than pretend to more.
28 likes 3d
I changed my mind about Start after someone here asked me for the source and I could not produce one. That is worth saying out loud because it is the ordinary way it happens.
14 likes 3d
Likes here mean "this helped", not "I agree". People like posts that argue against them, and that is deliberate.
2 likes 3d
y.ibarra, post #19: The failure mode on Start is boring rather than dramatic. It is almost always the step everyone assumes was done correctly because it is too simple to get wrong. Go to post
Muting is under-used here. A category you mute stops appearing in Latest for you, and you can unmute it in a second. Most long-term members read four or five categories and mute the rest.
Written from notes rather than memory, which is why the numbers are specific.
The tag pages are usually a better entry point than the categories for a first read. A tag cuts across categories, so following one shows you how the same subject is treated by the analytical people and the practical people at once.
That is a description of practice, not a recommendation of it.
21 likes 2d
The most useful thing anyone has posted about Start in this category was a table of what had been measured and by whom. That is what I would want again.
9 likes 2d
v.bruun, post #15: 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 claim is narrower than it sounds, and deliberately so. 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.
On the reading order question specifically: start with the how-to-ask materials in this category, then read the one to three subcategories where your main questions live. The rest will be discoverable by tag once you understand the structure.
Anyone with a larger sample, please post it.
14 likes 2d
The most useful reply I ever got about Start was a request to state my units. It sounds like pedantry and it has saved me twice.
29 likes 1d
This topic was referenced in
- I joined for one answer and stayed for a year — what changed my mindStart Here › Welcome · 114 replies
Moved from How to Ask by hana.sato. Category placement is not obvious from outside and getting it wrong is expected. This topic will get better answers here. The move is recorded in the public log citing R7.
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