Questions tagged [discussion]
The question you're asking is designed to solicit opinions or best-practices on a particular topic, with the goal of reaching community consensus.
1,052
questions
507
votes
13answers
131k views
Stack Overflow Inc., sinat chinam, and the goat for Azazel
On Friday, half an hour before Shabbat and two days before Rosh Hashana, Stack Overflow Inc. suddenly revoked my moderator status on all sites where I had it. I found this out while handling flags, ...
75
votes
2answers
3k views
In sadness, it is time for me to go
Chaveirim,
I write this post with tears literally in my eyes.
Though it pains me deeply to leave my communities, especially Mi Yodeya which I cherish and have helped build for close to nine years, I ...
57
votes
4answers
10k views
Mi Yodeya Publications
Welcome to
Mi Yodeya Publications
where you can download free, printable compilations of hand-picked questions and answers from Mi Yodeya, the online Jewish Q&A community.
Hagada - Mi Yodeya? - ...
50
votes
6answers
2k views
What are some mistakes non-Jewish people should avoid when asking questions on this site?
I am curious and have a lot of questions about Jewish people and history, but as a non-Jewish person I want to avoid treading on toes.
Are there any things I should avoid when asking questions here?
...
39
votes
1answer
1k views
Mi Yodeya Referencer: A Syntax for Linking to Sources
Several times, the community has discussed and requested an easier way to link to sources. So recently, with the help of Hashem yisborach, and @Menachem, I threw together a quick script to do just ...
34
votes
3answers
1k views
Should we try out another platform?
Since the controversies of last year I've been participating less and less, and it looks like other people are doing the same. Part of it is inertia -- less activity and fewer familiar faces means ...
30
votes
3answers
1k views
Welcoming new users
Since the beginning of mi.yodeya 1.0, I've made it my practice to welcome new users. I'd like to make it clear that while I'm happy to continue doing this whenever I get the opportunity, anyone else ...
28
votes
4answers
609 views
Design for Mi Yodeya
Shalom! I'm Jin, I work on the designs for the Stack Exchange sites as they graduate from the beta phase. Each site will have its own unique theme that will reflect its topic and culture. However, all ...
26
votes
64answers
4k views
To celebrate Mi Yodeya's 10th birthday, let's divide and conquer the entire Mishna, Mi-Yodeya-style!
Ten years of Mi Yodeya -- let's learn some Mishna!
Mi Yodeya will be celebrating our tenth birthday in Kislev 5780 / December 2019! As ten is traditionally the Mishna birthday1, let's mark this ...
25
votes
2answers
758 views
What if your Orthodox rabbi tells you to ask your question on Mi Yodeya? [closed]
I can't tell you how often this has happened...
I ask my Ortodox rabbi a question. He doesn't know the answer, and suggests that I ask it on Mi Yodeya. (He knows about this site and sometimes uses it.)...
25
votes
1answer
245 views
in search of: DanF
As I mentioned (here and here), the user DanF has not been online for a while. While I do not know this user at all personally, I feel there is some room for concern.
For as long as I have been on ...
25
votes
1answer
172 views
Meya Alafim - Mi Yodeya? Gershon Gold Yodeya!
Who knows one hundred thousand?
Gershon Gold knows one hundred thousand!
Yeyasher Kochacha to Gershon Gold for achieving 100,000 reputation points! Mazal Tov for being the first Yodeyan to make it ...
24
votes
5answers
1k views
Is there not room for non-orthodox opinions?
Should Mi.Yodeya/J.SE maintain its solely orthodox standing?
I love StackExchange and when I found the Judaism group I thought that it would be interesting to participate. However, I am neither an ...
22
votes
4answers
1k views
How should we handle pluralistic posts?
During the Town Hall Chat Isaac Moses asked the following question:
Consider a Question "I'm injured, so I can't walk to synagogue this Sabbath. What can I do to connect my prayers with those of ...
21
votes
21answers
583 views
Your New Beta Theme
Your site looks a bit different today. The design changes are a "sneak peek" at the new Stack Exchange Beta theme. Yes, we are getting rid of the 'Sketchy' look and replacing it with a more-polished ...
21
votes
3answers
358 views
Is mediocrity encouraged?
Especially in light of the recent changes to reputation points for questions, it seems like this site encourages (via positive reputation) quantity over quality. Especially when one could receive a ...
21
votes
0answers
1k views
Where did all these posts come from?
As part of the process for creating the Jewish Life & Learning Stack Exchange, mi.yodeya (an early Stack Exchange 1.0 site) has agreed to provide a jump start to this community by migrating their ...
20
votes
53answers
910 views
Where do you live?
With an eye toward designing in-person community events (e.g. this), it would be useful to have some idea of how many Yodeyans live where.
So, let's try to collect some basic data about this while ...
20
votes
1answer
731 views
What questions on other Stack Exchange sites are of special interest to Jews?
What questions on other Stack Exchange sites are relevant to Mi Yodeya? I'm thinking of ones that might be on-topic or almost on-topic on MY (or entire tags of such questions).
(But I'm not ...
20
votes
1answer
211 views
A newbie perspective after 60 days and 90 Q&As
I have now been active on MiYodeya for 60 days, asked/answered ca. 90 questions and thought I would share some newbie perspectives in the hope of being helpful to the more established users out there ...
19
votes
2answers
506 views
Karaites - in scope?
Are questions about non-rabbinic forms of Judaism (Karaite, Sadducee, Essene, etc.) in scope here?
I've added a tag (non-rabbinic-judaism) to at least group these questions. It would be great if ...
18
votes
28answers
717 views
PTIJ: JOKE-A-THON!!!!!!1! [closed]
If you missed the earlier "Answerathon" thing, you can read about it here.
Welcome to the first-ever Mi Yodeya Joke-a-thon!
The goal here is to post as many funny jokes as possible and get ...
18
votes
3answers
337 views
Is asking and answering on Mi Yodeya on shabbat discouraged?
I'm not Jewish and I don't know much about Judaism, so I bring my apologies if this answer is trivial or offensive in some way. Please edit it in such case.
I've recently discovered the StackExchange ...
18
votes
4answers
2k views
How modest should this site be?
(Inspired by this recent question and by past experience on mi.yodeya, such as under the tznius-modesty tag.)
Do we need rules, explicit or otherwise, for what sort of adult-oriented content we'll ...
18
votes
1answer
1k views
If I know the answer to a question..............
There seems to be some confusion as to whether a question can be asked if the questioner knows the answer. I have asked some questions where I knew the answer and have often received answers I was not ...
17
votes
2answers
306 views
What is Mi.Yodeya like for women?
I am asking this question in response to a suggestion from Isaac Moses. It is primarily directed at female users of Mi.Yodeya--relatively few of whom exist, I am told. (I'd also be surprised if there ...
17
votes
1answer
192 views
New Design Launched
As you can see the new design just went live. Which means this site has been officially launched! Congratulations! Thank you for your valuable design feedback.
If you're still seeing the old favicons,...
16
votes
5answers
543 views
A silly question doth not a Purim Torah post make
We have a relaxed off-topic policy for Purim Torah. It is documented here and here. The context of this exception is
silly parodies of real Torah discussion - could be a worthy exception to this ...
16
votes
2answers
260 views
Policy on cross-posting material?
I have noticed a growing practice of taking questions/answers from another similar site and posting them here. I don't have a problem with taking inspiration from a question/answer somewhere else, but ...
15
votes
5answers
385 views
Better to post an answer with no source, or not to post at all?
Sometimes I read a new question, and I want to provide an answer, but I don't have the time at that moment to find the appropriate source citations.
Then, I will receive comments in my answer asking ...
15
votes
2answers
575 views
Commentless downvotes
Is there a policy to encourage people to make comments when they give downvotes? Commentless downvotes do very little to improve the site. If something is wrong, you should explain what about it is ...
15
votes
1answer
268 views
Is this a suitable platform for non-Jews to ask questions about Judaism?
I am not Jewish, but my curiosity was piqued about some aspects of Judaism after having political discussions elsewhere online with Orthodox Jews.
I am particularly interested by the way in which ...
15
votes
2answers
356 views
I don't think we're explaining sourcing properly to new users
A lot of opinion follows:
Here at Mi.Yodeya, we place a strong emphasis on sourced questions and answers. New users, who are unfamiliar with this, often ask unsourced but otherwise decent questions (...
15
votes
3answers
189 views
Contributors with a lack of knowledge
I have had a great experience on Mi Yodeya in general, but I have noticed that certain aspects of the site/community can be discouraging to contributors with a lack of Jewish knowledge. For example:
...
15
votes
0answers
95 views
Can we link the Hebrew Mi Yodeya in the banner?
Currently the logo and the words mi yodeya in English in the banner serve as a link back to the home page. Clicking on the Hebrew does nothing. Would it be possible and/or advisable to link the Hebrew ...
15
votes
0answers
96 views
Meya Alafim - Mi Yodeya? Shalom Yodeya!
Who knows one hundred thousand?
Shalom knows one hundred thousand!
Yeyasher Kochacha to Shalom for achieving 100,000 reputation points! Mazal Tov for being the second Yodeyan to make it there!
Think ...
14
votes
1answer
382 views
How do we treat questions that are Asur to ask? [closed]
Some questions, like this one, are anticipated by Halachic decisors and are expressly prohibited. How should we treat them on Mi Yodeya? Should we delete them? Should we close them but keep them ...
14
votes
3answers
385 views
What do you do when a moderator is saying insulting or belittling things?
As a follow up to this question in which there is a discussion of what to do when someone is being insulting or belittling in a way that may not violate the rules. What should one do when it is the ...
14
votes
2answers
248 views
Ahavas Yisrael and Mi Yodeya Dynamics
Perhaps I should begin this "question" with a few prefacing remarks.
As I had mentioned in my very first participation here "One Jewish Practice," I am Jewish and an atheist. In more recent times, I ...
14
votes
2answers
142 views
FAQ post request: "Am I required to cite sources?"
I propose that we add an official faq post that makes it clear when, in answer posts and also in question posts, sources are required (meaning that we may close/delete if they're missing) and when ...
14
votes
0answers
156 views
Commenting: Constructive vs Hypercritical
I just wanted to ask whilst there exists a code of conduct which points to the requirement to approach people with politeness and the like, I do feel that sometimes there are certain users who in ...
14
votes
0answers
192 views
LAUNCH IS COMING! How shall we promote it?
Dear Fellow Yodeyans1,
I have exciting news for those of you who haven't been following chat for the past few days. It seems that Judaism.SE is slated to launch out of beta within the next few weeks! ...
13
votes
11answers
525 views
Design Ideas for 404, Captcha, and Error pages
As you all know, StackExchange's resident designer, Jin, has informed us that our site is due for graduation soon. Jin has been really awesome about getting input and ideas from the community about ...
13
votes
4answers
513 views
Should we have a jargon policy/guideline?
For mi.yodeya, I wrote up a jargon guideline (lightly adapted below) intended to make content on the site accessible to as many interested people as possible. It was not followed very closely on m.y, ...
13
votes
1answer
329 views
Should we flag outside of Israel? [closed]
The Bavli, M'gila 14 says:
שאין אומרים הלל על נס שבחוצה לארץ
We do not praise a flag that is outside of Israel.
Should we non-Israelis flag posts on Mi Yodeya?
This question is Purim Torah and is ...
13
votes
4answers
404 views
Will there ever be a Meet-up?
Just putting this out there. What are the chances of an official M.Y. (or J.SE) meet-up/tweet-up of sorts?
13
votes
2answers
160 views
Christian answers as Spam
This morning, I saw (and subsequently down voted) answers by a new user Dr. Cortes, which appeared to be trying to answer the questions with Christian messianic responses (eg. about Yoshke and Paul). ...
13
votes
1answer
257 views
Who cares which answer the questioner thinks is the best?
The way answers are ranked across the Stack Exchange Network is that an accepted answer appears first, followed by the other answers in decreasing order of votes. If there is no accepted answer then ...
13
votes
1answer
142 views
What does the moderator job entail?
Some aspects of the moderation job are obvious -- reviewing flags, cultivating site direction via discussions in meta, paying attention to first posts/edits/etc. Other aspects are not so visible; ...
13
votes
1answer
190 views
2012 Community Moderator Election Results
Well, Mi Yodeya's very first moderator election has come to an end. Our winners are:
Please give them a warm welcome, and hearty thanks and congratulations for volunteering!
Also, a sincere ...
