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Can someone point out why the answers to these questions are lifehacks?

I'm having trouble seeing what people think are lifehacks on many of the questions. To me, a lot of these answers are just the conventional answers, but they're getting upvoted so that must mean they'...
GimmeTehRepz's user avatar
  • 1,328
14 votes
2 answers
264 views

What should a good Lifehacks answer look like?

I've been answering questions here on and off since the private beta started. Going by reputation, I think I've done ok - but it doesn't feel that way. Quite frankly, I still have no clear idea of how ...
William the Pleaser's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
355 views

What's the difference between a Lifehack and a DIY solution?

Two questions showed up recently that asked for DIY solutions to their problem. https://lifehacks.stackexchange.com/questions/2393/is-there-a-way-to-fix-the-broken-stand-for-an-apple-cinema-23-...
GimmeTehRepz's user avatar
  • 1,328
6 votes
2 answers
408 views

Does all questions require 'solutions already tried'?

What if I want to ask a question for which I haven't got any idea what to try but want simple solution? What if I want to ask a question for other gender's general problems which I can not try? (She ...
Joachin Joseph's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
74 views

Why is a "psychological problem" off topic? [duplicate]

So I was pointed in the direction of this discussion on meta and I'm wondering why a 'psychological problem' is off topic? Why can't there be a life hack that can deal with such issues? In the ...
Nick J Adams's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
39 views

Taking Action on Tag Synonyms

As you can see from this meta post I've already tried to take action on helping the site to get better tags. Now that we are in public beta, I believe that we need to actually take these actions now. ...
michaelpri's user avatar
  • 11.3k
0 votes
2 answers
219 views

Could we make a space for (dis)proving life-hacks?

I'm thinking that disproving notable but bad life-hacks would be interesting ground for our site to cover. There are some "life-hacks" that seem to get repeated all over the internet even though ...
apaul's user avatar
  • 4,496
8 votes
1 answer
115 views

Are joke answers very low quality?

As we get into the more public realm, I see the potential for people posting pseudo-answers that are meant to be humorous more than helpful, like this one, becoming more commonplace. As I'd hate for ...
Zach Saucier's user avatar
  • 2,792
7 votes
2 answers
107 views

At what point does a hack become a common/standard method?

I guess my question is still a bit hypothetical at this point, but I'm wondering... At what point does a "hack" solution become so common that it it isn't really a "hack" anymore? As in the "life-...
apaul's user avatar
  • 4,496
8 votes
1 answer
70 views

After we elect new moderators what will the changing of the guard look like?

In general I'm wondering how the power shift works once the new mods are elected: Will the new mods go to work immediately? Is there any structured training or is it all "on-the-job" training? Will ...
apaul's user avatar
  • 4,496
8 votes
2 answers
196 views

What needs to be done to keep this site alive?

This is great - 40 minutes ago we became a public beta site! However, this site will need a lot of work to keep it alive. This is going to be quite different from a lot of the other SE sites, as we ...
Tim's user avatar
  • 2,282
8 votes
1 answer
79 views

Did LifeHacks just become a public beta?

It appears that the various controls that were open to me during the private beta have changed. Does that mean that we have been promoted to a public beta?
Adam Zuckerman's user avatar
23 votes
11 answers
2k views

Who should be our Moderators Pro Tempore be? [duplicate]

This community needs to start contributing some names they would like to act as provisional Moderators. Please read this: Moderators Pro Tempore. Here are some basic guidelines: Each nomination ...
Tim's user avatar
  • 2,282
2 votes
1 answer
27 views

Is [cleaning] a meta tag?

Is cleaning a meta tag? The wiki says it is ambiguous and must be used with other tags. Doesn't this mean it's a meta tag? Or is the wiki incorrect?
QuyNguyen2013's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
37 views

What about SE site links in tags?

So I have declared war on the un-defined tags to give the site more help and help people understand what questions are suppose to be about. Since we have off-topic questions I have been including a ...
Pobrecita's user avatar
  • 8,682
3 votes
0 answers
45 views

Close votes in the review queues

This image sums it up: Here we have an item in the review queue (link to review, link to question) You can see that we have 6 people voted - 3 for leave open and 3 for close. I voted to Leave Open ...
Tim's user avatar
  • 2,282
0 votes
4 answers
471 views

Close reason request: They haven't tried anything

Can we have a close reason such as this: Questions that don't give information about what has been tried are off-topic for Lifehacks. Questions searching for a substitute tool require a reason why ...
Mooseman's user avatar
  • 11.6k
3 votes
1 answer
50 views

Do we need better tags?

Since this site has started I feel that we have had too many pointless tags. Most of these tags only have one or two questions. An example of one of these tags is the waking-up tag. There can't be ...
michaelpri's user avatar
  • 11.3k
7 votes
5 answers
316 views

Another user downvoted me based on my gender [closed]

Another user downvoted me based on my gender. The comment can be found here. It reads: @Tim Since Tim is a male name I guess the question is not a real problem for you. I am sure that they are ...
Tim's user avatar
  • 2,282
3 votes
2 answers
117 views

Trying to save off-topic questions with a new less-broad question

In reference to: https://lifehacks.stackexchange.com/questions/289/how-to-wake-up-quickly https://lifehacks.stackexchange.com/questions/239/what-are-some-waking-up-methods-for-non-morning-person Both ...
apaul's user avatar
  • 4,496
-10 votes
1 answer
114 views

Don't close as a duplicate if the duplicate doesn't work for the OP

This question: How can I add new keys to a keyring without hurting my fingernails? Has been closed as a duplicate of this: How can I (painlessly) add/remove keys to my key ring? Now from the ...
Tim's user avatar
  • 2,282
5 votes
1 answer
59 views

Canonical Questions and Answers

Recently this questions has been opened to try to eliminate the different "getting sticky while eating" questions: How can I neatly eat messy food without "common" utensils? Is this the ...
liebs19's user avatar
  • 675
5 votes
2 answers
58 views

Are questions expecting cooking advises falls under the scope of lifehacks?

I am interested to know whether this question comes under the scope of lifehacks SE. My intentions of this thread is to emphasize user may get better answer if this question is posted in cooking.SE, ...
Joachin Joseph's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
87 views

"I have problem X. I would try solution Y, but I can't because of Z"

Given the new scope here, that says (in part) that If the question is not looking for an alternative to a product or solution that they have tried, then that question is off-topic on this site. ...
Shokhet's user avatar
  • 4,267
9 votes
2 answers
123 views

Should you ask questions you already know the answer to?

Sometimes I want to ask a question that I already know the answer to, and I think it is a very good life hack. If the questions would help others and we already know the answer should we answer ...
michaelpri's user avatar
  • 11.3k
4 votes
2 answers
142 views

How do we phrase the clause about illegal activities?

Recently, we got a question asking about How to dispose of dead body quickly?1 I am on the run from the police in my home town of Springhurst, and I need to get rid of the bodies. I only have one, ...
Tim's user avatar
  • 2,282
21 votes
1 answer
245 views

Insights: How we evaluate a private beta

If you haven't read, we are extending this private beta another week to see where this site is headed. During last week's evaluation, I shared some thoughts (internally) with the Community Team about ...
Robert Cartaino's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
51 views

Should questions dealing with how to speed up a process be on topic?

There are several examples thus far dealing with how to speed up a process. They provide a solution in the question itself but are asking about how to quicken this solution. They include https://...
Zach Saucier's user avatar
  • 2,792
23 votes
5 answers
2k views

The scope of Lifehacks

So it should come as no surprise to anyone that this site is struggling. The problem: In the few days this site has been in private beta, we've been trying to: Figure out if there's anything that ...
GimmeTehRepz's user avatar
  • 1,328
4 votes
1 answer
41 views

Should questions asking for alternatives to products be on-topic?

As long as the question is not asking for a product recommendation that is. I forgot my toothpaste and it is impossible to buy in this situation, are there any substitutes? Is there any way to kill ...
GimmeTehRepz's user avatar
  • 1,328
2 votes
1 answer
54 views

Do we need [fashion]?

I saw that a tag for fashion was created and used on one question, but it doesn't really have to do with lifehacks as far as I can tell. Something like clothing seems to fit a lot better. Should we ...
Zach Saucier's user avatar
  • 2,792
-2 votes
1 answer
114 views

Time to stop unsubstantiated threats of closure?

One member of our community is posting comments threatening closure of questions they don't believe are appropriate. I applaud the effort to improve the site, but the comments imply that community ...
James Jenkins's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
79 views

Generic message for Low Quality Answers

Answers on this site can be a little weak at times, so I have begun to downvote the inappropriate ones for: Lacking Citations. Being to short (1-3 sentences long, I haven't done this yet, but may ...
Pobrecita's user avatar
  • 8,682
-4 votes
2 answers
127 views

Are there too many users here?

I already brought this up in the Junk Drawer, though not too much happened from that discussion, so I'll bring it up here. Are there too many users here? I don't have much experience with sites in ...
Shokhet's user avatar
  • 4,267
7 votes
2 answers
80 views

What happened to all of these questions?

So during the definition phase of Lifehacks.SE there was a place where people posted example questions: http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/64409?phase=definition Are these going to be asked ...
hLk's user avatar
  • 567
3 votes
1 answer
113 views

Who are the Moderators? [duplicate]

This proposal has a large amount of users, but none of them have over all of the Privileges if I am not mistaken. So this leads me to ask "Who are the Moderators? And how are they moderating? When I ...
Pobrecita's user avatar
  • 8,682
40 votes
2 answers
614 views

Saving "Lifehacks" ā€” Can we make this a topic space instead of a vague buzzword?

I've been an outspoken proponent for trying new sites like this since you launched, but so far the actual execution hasn't being coming together too well. This site is built on a buzzword, but there's ...
Robert Cartaino's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
104 views

Isn't this considered vandalism?

This question is in line to be closed: How do I decelerate the ripening of bananas? The reason for closure is that it's a duplicate of this question: How can I accelerate the ripening of bananas?, ...
GimmeTehRepz's user avatar
  • 1,328
1 vote
1 answer
101 views

Is the lack of a narrow scope problematic for this site?

There are a couple of existing Meta questions on scope, and lots of ideas about what should or should not be in scope. But as a group we seem to be far from defining scope limits. Is the over ...
James Jenkins's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
102 views

Is 'too specialized' a reason to close vote?

My question: How can I test for electrical current through bare wires without a meter? received a close vote for the reason: This question appears to be off-topic because it is about too ...
J. Musser's user avatar
  • 4,110
11 votes
3 answers
232 views

Is no an answer?

Sometimes there are questions along the lines of "Is there a lifehack for [problem]". In such a case, is it okay to post an answer along the lines of "No"? It seems in a lot of cases where this has ...
fredley's user avatar
  • 7,492
14 votes
2 answers
399 views

Can we stop this close war?

Open a suitcase with a numeric lock when you forgot the key code This question has been closed, reopened, and closed again. Currently, it is in nomination for re-opening. I think we should just stop ...
Kaz Wolfe's user avatar
  • 2,091
12 votes
1 answer
246 views

Let's have some cake and eat it too

While it's a small sample size, I tried a little experiment today. Question 1: https://lifehacks.stackexchange.com/questions/1576/how-do-i-keep-pots-of-water-from-boiling-over No comments. No votes. ...
GimmeTehRepz's user avatar
  • 1,328
3 votes
1 answer
68 views

How is this question too broad

Open a suitcase with a numeric lock when you forgot the key code this question of mine has been closed now for the second time, this is not a rant, so please read the question as objectively as ...
skv's user avatar
  • 887
4 votes
2 answers
74 views

What's our stance on questions about tips?

Should questions about tips be allowed? ie: Tips for falling asleep, tips for waking up, tips for eating fruit without getting sticky. I asked this question about how to fall asleep quickly, and it ...
michaelpri's user avatar
  • 11.3k
5 votes
1 answer
89 views

Are Tools/Products/Devices, when used by design, considered "Lifehacks"?

In relation to these questions: Should product recommendations be on-topic? Do questions asking for common-sense advice really count as asking about lifehacks?... Should we be downvoting ...
Phlume's user avatar
  • 4,537
4 votes
1 answer
35 views

Should [morning-hacks] be a tag?

Apart from losing the -hacks suffix, is this tag useful? If we allow it, does it allow for other temporal tags like night, evening, etc?
fredley's user avatar
  • 7,492
5 votes
3 answers
91 views

To the Questioners: Did you receive the kind of answers you expected?

This is kind of a poll question, but I think its important. Are the answers that were written in your question what you expected to get from a lifehackers community?
Angelo Fuchs's user avatar
  • 1,748
9 votes
5 answers
857 views

Should we be downvoting conventional answers?

This is a site about lifehacks. Currently, it sounds like the definition of a lifehack is that it's an unconventional solution to a problem. Does that mean that we should be downvoting answers that ...
GimmeTehRepz's user avatar
  • 1,328
-3 votes
1 answer
83 views

Can we have a flag reason + queue for "This isn't a hack"?

Can we have a new flag reason and review queue for "This isn't a hack"? Inspired, somewhat, by this question, answers can be given that are 0.00% hackish. I think we can all agree that these ...
Mooseman's user avatar
  • 11.6k