StackExchange through my eyes

Over the years of contributing to StackExchange Electrical Engineering (SE EE) I have accumulated quite a few observations that I decided to share in this post. In this way, I want to give some, albeit refracted through my vision, information to newcomers.

First impressions

My involvement with StackExchange began in late 2014 with enthusiasm as usual. But I was a bit taken aback by the rough treatment there and after three months I stopped participating. I returned again after five years of collaborating in the more academic but sterile environment of ResearchGate... and I have stayed here ever since.

StackExchange was the first time I encountered such a strange question-and-answer platform. To me (only) asking and answering questions is a too limited form of communication between human beings. Indeed, it is a very essential part of this process, but it cannot be reduced to this alone. And in SE EE any other form is suppressed. I still cannot figure out why the discussion is banned; so is not that way the OP (the questioner) gets very valuable indirect answers? If we graphically represent the connections between the participants in the site, we will get many rays that go out from the OP and reach the responders, but there are almost no horizontal connections between the latter.

My mission

The main thing for me is that I "take StackExchange seriously" and refine my answers so that they serve not only the OP, but also future visitors; to me they are more than answers. In fact, I have been working daily for this site for the last few years.

For me, my SE collaboration is a way to perpetuate my circuit philosophy by answering specific questions. It is great that SE has a history of everything since the platform was created. Thus, a huge number of questions, answers and comments have accumulated, which can be accessed through Google. Because my Circuit Stories blog will be gone, so will my Circuit Fantasia site, but what I wrote on StackExchange, ResearchGate, and Circuit Idea will remain. It will always be relevant because it is a "circuit philosophy" and not a set of specific, unrelated circuit implementations. Philosophy is eternal; it is immortal like the soul of man. Specific implementations are temporary; they are mortal like the body of man. Therefore, I shape my answers so that they will benefit a wide audience in the future.

For me, the form does not matter, only the content. Is it a question, an answer or comment, it is all the same to me.

Questioners

The most positive thing about the so-called OPs (from "original poster") is their all sorts of questions. They keep popping up and are sometimes very original and unexpected. They are StackExchange's greatest asset, and I am there because of them.

But a characteristic thing about them is that they are extremely selfish. I used to think that only my students were like this, but it turns out that this is a universal human trait. Specifically:

• They are interested in solving their specific problem (most often homework) and then they disappear; they do not want to "waste their time" anymore. I often wonder how it is possible for them to ask such interesting questions and then remain silent?
• They do not assist me in preparing the answers in such a way that they will be useful to others in the future.
• It is not possible to have a dialogue with them in order to clarify their problem (these cases are counted on fingers). I have written to them directly, but they usually do not respond.
• They cannot wait to play the simulations that I have devised and prepared with great desire and enthusiasm.
• I have not had the OP react to my reply to their old question so far.
• They try to get their questions answered in direct contact via email, but I refer them to the site with the explanation that it should benefit everyone.
• In many cases they show ungratefulness (there is not even a 1+), although we try our best to solve their problems without receiving any payment. Whatever we have answered has required effort on our part.
• They are careful not to expose themselves, even though they are anonymous.
• With this behavior, they support the negative behavior of some respondents and together they create a wrong idea about the answer.

Answerers

The positive thing is that there are many good professionals here, practitioners who complement my "philosophical" answers very well. We can divide them into two groups - with constant participation (to which I also belong) and with episodic participation.

If I have to describe them in one word in terms of their human qualities, it is very simple and we all know it but are ashamed to say it - envy. Yes, this is the most ordinary human envy that arises in us when we see that someone is superior to us in something. This is what makes them keep quiet and pretend not to notice what was written, and in more severe cases of envy, downvote. Simply put, they do not want to acknowledge the achievements of others.

The problem is that most here are very good specialists and circuit designers who can calculate, design and make circuits... but that does not mean that they intuitively understand them that well, see the ideas in them and can explain them in an impressive way. These are simply different abilities of the human brain - one has one, another has another (well, it happens, although rarely, that all are combined). And when you see that someone has these abilities and has used them to do something with all their heart, you feel envious because you think "they should not be able to do that". And here the reaction varies widely - from complete silence, chattering nonsense of a general nature, to a persistent vote against. And the rest watch and remain silent...

The few critical remarks are not in terms of content, but of form:

• I have used the site for self promotion, 
• I have put many links to my resources, 
• I have not answered the OP's question, 
• It was like a blog post,
• It was too long ("a wall of text"), etc.

In fact, I have received almost no substantive comments regarding the ideas behind circuits and their implementations. Here are some of my techniques I would like to see commented instead of "empty meta babble":

• My innovations in the technology of writing questions and answers that no one notices and comments:
• Starting with an introductory "methodological" part.
• Revealing the most general basic idea.
• Introducing the circuit idea step by step.
• Illustrating the individual steps with schematics of the same type. Thus a kind of "movie" is obtained from individual "frames".
• They are placed in identically sized numbered frames (in pale gray so as not to intrude).
• So the scale of the elements is the same and there is consistency.
• All my (even the most basic) circuits are working CircuitLab simulations; I have no "lifeless" schematics.
• My hand-driven conceptual schematics simulate the real circuit at the lowest possible level.
• Ammeters and voltmeters used as "visualized resistors" greatly simplify circuits.
• Behavioral sources, controlled sources, and negative resistors (-R) greatly simplify conceptual schematics.
• Concept devices also simplify schematics.
• "Ideal" diodes with desired forward voltage instead of real diodes, LEDs, and Zener diodes, make conceptual diagrams clearer.
• Adjusting the input quantities and device parameters to obtain the desired output quantity is a powerful technique for "man-controlled" simulation experiments.

A big problem with the site is that almost all contributors are anonymous. It makes them behave in ways they would not behave if they were not:

• They downvote without justifying why.
• They close the questions without any, even elementary explanation.
• Some who have accumulated a lot of reputations, behave openly arrogant and feel privileged. For example, they do not allow you to write a comment under their answer (they report it to a moderator who deletes it).
• It is not accepted to express admiration, to praise, to give a compliment, which would be an incentive for even better answers. I have done it and it is getting confusing. Generally speaking, almost every connection attempt has failed. And it should be the opposite - we admire each other for what we have created, and if someone has achieved something more, we should also strive to achieve it.

The most unpleasant thing I observe is that they do not show a sense of solidarity with their colleagues. More specifically, when I am attacked, no one (even people who know me well and have convinced themselves of my qualities) intervenes to support me. They could neutralize the intentional downvotes with upvotes, but they do not. Also the OP does not bother to do it... everyone passively watches…

Another unpleasant trait I have noticed is that they do not treat their outstanding colleagues who have left the site with respect. A typical example is the incredible jonk who left suddenly over a year ago. I dedicated one of my best answers to it, revealing the philosophy of the basic transistor amplifier, but no one commented on it. Another example is Tony Stewart, who is an outstanding professional but is serving some weird sentence... and no one cares. No one responded positively (more precisely, they reacted but with a downvote) even to my Q&A with a dedication to Gordon Deboo who, at the same time as Howland, invented the famous current source with a grounded load.

As I have said above, there are good professionals between answerers. However, for most of them it is a job, a craft, while for me it is the meaning of life. I am not engaged in practical activity now, but I was in the past. I have been an electronics hobbyist since childhood, and not a "copier" of circuits, but an inventor. I gained a lot of experience in my automotive electronics company and in the university laboratory. But mainly I think about the ideas on which circuits are built.

Moderators

I had a different idea about them before - that they should not only treat us formally, but also appreciate and encourage the work done. In this sense, I have not had the feeling that they are helping me, and in some cases the opposite. I feel some kind of negative attitude toward me that makes me feel like an intruder. It is as if they are constantly stalking me to catch me in a "transgression". It turns out that no matter what I do, it always turns out that I did something wrong. There is some absurdity in this regard for me, because here we work without pay, and waste a lot of time and effort. What we would like to receive is an appreciation for our work. One-click voting is thought to do the job, but I do not think so.

I have not encountered such strict moderation anywhere else. For example, on Wikibooks and ResearchGate, where I have contributed for years, a moderator has not interfered with me at all. Only on Wikipedia I have some not very pleasant memories, but there the problem is different - it is forbidden to publish your ideas but only from "repeatable sources" (which, by the way, is a convenient way to hide your own ineptitude).

In particular, I have good impressions of Sam Gibson, who has helped me shape my materials. I feel some guilt towards him because I feel like I have often wasted his time.

The site

Pros

A very big advantage of SE EE (as well as Wikibooks and ResearchGate) is that there are no ads that just drive me crazy. They made me stay off YouTube, Quora and other such circuit forums. I do not know how they do it, but it is a real miracle these days. This allows you to calmly focus on the essence of this activity.

Cons

• Overall, this is a very selfish site.
• The site policy is strange to me. It might have a meaning for its owners that I cannot see.
• The concrete trivia questions abound; there is no "philosophy". The titles are full of incomprehensible abbreviations.
• Interesting and useful questions are closed for no apparent reason, and no simple explanation is given for this.
• At the root of everything negative is anonymity.

What I would like SE EE to be like

I will try to outline what I imagine such a site should look like.

Questioners

• They are inquisitive and do not just ask questions that only directly benefit them.
• They are interested in the answers and react to them through comments in which they ask additional questions and thus a dialogue is obtained.
• They encourage those who answer not only by upvoting, but also by writing a few words expressing their gratitude.
• They do this even when the answers are written years later.
• They respond to comments.

 Answerers

• They do not envy their colleagues.
• They express their opinion about what others wrote.
• Their ideas are valued and encouraged.

Why am I staying in SE anyway?

After so much criticism, I come to this legitimate question. Obviously, there are things that make me prefer this site over others I participate in:

ResearchGate

• Answerers in StackExchange are not "pure theorists" and "not technicians" as in ResearchGate, but very good practitioners. This makes me feel close to them ("soulmates"), because although I like to "philosophize", I have been a practitioner since childhood, when I was an avid electronic hobbyist (not a "radio ham").
• They are not sterile in their expression like the majority of ResearchGate forum participants.
• They are not interested in the "scientific" side of things; they do not do it for the sake of accumulating publications and a career, as is in most cases at ResearchGate.

Codidact

The emergence of this platform (its spin-off from ResearchGate) gave me high hopes and I jumped into it with great enthusiasm. I used the great opportunity to write a series of articles, something that was not available in CE. But my hopes were not fulfilled. It turned out that this site is under the authoritarian rule of one person - its creator. I did not see understanding in his face, but rather dislike. The site failed to gain popularity, and the few questions that are asked are not basic, but rather "artisan".

Circuit Idea

In this Wikibooks e-book I implement my circuit philosophy. The problem, however, is that there is no life there (as one Wikipedian of the time put it, "Wikibooks is a ghost town"). You write and no one comments... and at some point you get desperate and stop. Perhaps the problem is that the visitors do not directly benefit from the writing? It does not matter, I am not giving up and I plan to cover my answers to StackExchange questions here as well because it is calm here.

Circuit Stories

The same can be said for my Circuit Stories blog, where I also wrote this post. To begin with, this form of publishing is increasingly losing its popularity and moving away from social networks. But it is calmer here. I plan to continue to cover SE EE questions and answers here in parallel as well.

Circuit fantasia

I created this site in 2002 and it was my first appearance on the web. Its idea was great, but it is hard for me to maintain it anymore. The problem is that I then switched to Macromedia Flash, and it does not play anymore (Adobe stopped supporting the player). I also have poor readers feedback there.

Conclusions

StackExchange has many flaws, especially in a moral aspect, for which it can be criticized. But obviously there are also many positive sides that make us stay in it anyway. 

The questioners have an obvious benefit from it, while for us, the answerers of their questions, the benefit is dubious. This makes us sometimes ask ourselves, "What am I doing here?"

StackExchange EE is obviously not the best place to present my circuit ideas. It would be good if a similar platform was created (a more successful attempt than Codidact) but with less strict restrictions and requirements, in which circuit phenomena could be discussed freely and in good faith. For now, however, this is available, and I must comply with its requirements, find a compromise.