Intro to newcomers

  • Context: Suggestion 
  • Thread starter Thread starter pinball1970
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Rules
Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
3 replies · 4K views
pinball1970
Gold Member
2025 Award
Messages
3,852
Reaction score
6,173
@jedishrfu posted a small summary of the main rules to a new poster.

I think this is a really good idea.

New posters do not read the rules and they get upset when what seems innocuous to them, is an absolute no no to PF.

Cranks, trolls and the like will always be so, but the odd inquisitive chap may get put off early doors when they could have been a contributor.
 
Reply
  • Like
  • Informative
Likes   Reactions: symbolipoint, weirdoguy, BillTre and 4 others
Physics news on Phys.org
Here is jedi's reply for reference:

jedishrfu said:
Welcome to PF!

You could browse the thread discussions and see if there any discussion that you can contribute to. As an example, someone posts about relearning classical physics as a senior citizen and you could recommend a good book like Susskind's Theoretical Minimum book on Classical Mechanics.

You could start a discussion on a topic that you'd like to know more about. Tell us what you know and where you get stuck. For example, you might be curious about why special relativity explains the magnetic field when current flows in a straight wire.

---

When asking a question or solving a problem, we may view it as homework because if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we conclude it's a homework problem.

We've had folks present a problem without showing us what they did. We would conclude its homework, and they would say they aren't students. However, we've also had students come here trying to trick us into solving their problems.

---

Lastly, you could browse our site global guidelines. There are some topics we don't discuss. In particular, personal theories, fringe science like perpetual motion machines, impossible spacecraft engines, and several other topics,

We also don't review a person's work, such as an unpublished paper. We are not a peer-review site. We can and do discuss peer-reviewed papers published in respectable journals like Nature. Sometimes, we discuss arxiv papers if the science is mainstream but cutting edge from well-known authors and institutions.

We are a highly moderated site, so read our site's global guidelines to learn more.

Should you see any spam or questionable posts that violate our policies, use the report button to bring them to our attention. We appreciate these heads-up reports. It really helps our moderation efforts to keep the site clean.

Take care and enjoy PF,
Jedi
 
Reply
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: weirdoguy, BillTre and pinball1970
It's not natural to read rules for any new platform. We just want to dive right in, so it is on "us" to find ways to inform on expectations here. Every new member also receives a DM with a link to the rules and helpful threads.
 
Reply
  • Like
  • Informative
Likes   Reactions: symbolipoint and pinball1970
Greg Bernhardt said:
It's not natural to read rules for any new platform. We just want to dive right in, so it is on "us" to find ways to inform on expectations here. Every new member also receives a DM with a link to the rules and helpful threads.
Fair enough