Let's get critical: Dec 2013 Site Self-Evaluation

Question

We all love Homebrewing Stack Exchange, but there is a whole world of people out there who need answers to their questions and don't even know that this site exists. When they arrive from Google, what will their first impression be? Let's try to look at this site through the eyes of someone who's never seen it before, and see how we stack up against the rest of the 'Net.

The Site Self-Evaluation review queue is open and populated with 10 questions that were asked and answered in the last quarter. Run a few Google searches to see how easy they are to find and compare the answers we have with the information available on other sites.

Rating the questions is only a part of the puzzle, though. Do you see a pattern of questions that should have been closed but are not? Questions or answers that could use an edit? Anything that's going really well? Post an answer below to share your thoughts and discuss these questions and the site's health with your fellow users!

Posting this in the holiday period wasn't good timing - most people are quite busy then. I certainly was, and didn't get to look at the evaluation questions. — mdma, Jan 2, 2014 at 22:34

Chino Brews · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-24 17:00:45Z

2

I don't know if the Stack Exchange form factor allows this, but it would be nice if we could pin to the right side of the page helpful things such as: (1) links to questions/answers/wikis to common "newbie" questions; (2) a link to a glossary of homebrew terminology and abbreviations; and (3) mathematical formulas useful in homebrewing.

answered Dec 24, 2013 at 17:00

Chino Brews

2,96710 silver badges3 bronze badges

www.reddit/r/homebrewing has something like this
– Chino Brews
Dec 24, 2013 at 17:01
Other SE sites use a faq tag to create the same type of effect. MSO has a very well laid out series of questions composing their FAQ. Pinning is a bit forum-esque which SE tries to avoid afaik. Also consider updating your tour page to provide links to the FAQ and / or canonical questions. For the math formulas, I would recommend opening another question here in meta and tag it as a support-request.
– user6218
Jan 2, 2014 at 1:17
1

I don't know if we have an FAQ, but I certainly can't find it by searching for "FAQ". The comment on "pinning" makes sense. But the FAQ tag you suggest would work similarly. But we spend enough time answering basic questions that we ought to come up with an FAQ, maybe as a community wiki, and then tag it as an FAQ. It should answer questions such as "help, my airlock is not bubbling!", "is my beer infected?", and "help, my beer is flat!"
– Chino Brews
Jan 2, 2014 at 16:19
1

And I like the idea of updating the About page, both for more flavor on what this stack exchange is about, as well as linking the FAQ(s).
– Chino Brews
Jan 2, 2014 at 16:21
Post this as a separate feature-request, please - and try to collect some links you think would be useful!
– Shog9
Jan 8, 2014 at 3:35

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-18 08:22:49Z

Final Results

What does a good crush look like, and does it matter if grains are overcrushed if batch sparging?

Net Score: 1 (Excellent: 1, Satisfactory: 0, Needs Improvement: 0)

Eggwhite as finings?

Net Score: 1 (Excellent: 1, Satisfactory: 0, Needs Improvement: 0)

ReaLemon's preservatives