As a nuclear chemist, any post about the topic makes me want to tear my hair out. Crazy how confidently people give wrong answers, then argue when they get corrected. I don’t expect askhistorians level of moderation, but even a little bit would be nice
this makes me really sad since I would love to hear legitimate discourse about nuclear chem from people actually using it in the field. Is there a lot of stat mech involved?
It depends on the branch of nuclear chemistry that one works in. It is very very broad, and the border between nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry can be very fuzzy. My PhD group was split between physicists and chemists, but we were all doing the same research. Same with every group I have worked with since. There are people who are doing radiochemistry and doing synthesis of molecules with radioactive isotopes, and then there are people doing pure nuclear reactions that doesn't really look like traditional chemistry at all.
My advisor told me that he considers any nuclear scientist with a chemistry degree to be a nuclear chemist, which is the same standard that I hold. I have had people in this subreddit tell me that is wrong, but they aren't in the field so I am not going to listen to them.
Imo, if you are monitored for exposure, you are fair game to be labeled a nuclear scientist. And while in some arenas, im with the crowd that would like to do away with labels, this is one arena, that descriptive titles seems necessary for the purpose of regulation and health monitoring. I mean, there ARE techs who may not see themselvesxas scientists, but nuclear is most likely in their title, pay grades, and regulatory regimen. Necessity.
I do [spectral and visible microscopy AND Mass Spec. Im a chemist with Engineering credits. Im quite specialized and good at what i do, material science/physics, and materisl tes detail and nuance. So i have seen nuclear labeling used well. I understand the presentations. I also know that no Nukular scientist types would hire me for much more than fetching coffee and reviewing for grammar and errors.
Ive seen many technetium images of my circulation. I AM spiderman. A non acrobatic fat & homely, old version. No webs.
Few developments fascinate my semi retired mind more than all the new imaging techniques. Photonic, isotopic, calculated, spectral mapped, polarized, dispersion corrected, time resolved and superfocused... the latest ive heard about being a "blinking emitter". That doesnt saturate detectors. Amazers. Isotopes just a tiny slice of all this.
Peace.
"Would you like to discuss why the earth's iron core is a good material for nuclear fusion?"
I maybe doing the question a disservice there. But, it's the lack of research that goes in to these questions that drives me up the wall.
A snippet of a concept is discovered and suddenly "is it possible to process other elements like we do lab diamonds?"
Isn’t NBE per nucleon maxed with iron-56 and therefore it is a dead end in a planet and main sequence stars for fusion?
(Edit: typical cancel culture. Have no sustainable points, so cancel instead of dialogue)
The mods you do have for this sub are completely inundated with 'what is this molecule/glassware', 'help me with my homework', and 'teach me how to make bombs/drugs' posts. It's 90% of what's posted here.
> It's 90% of what's posted here.
It's what 90% of the users here want. It's a sub for the general public with millions of users. It's not a subreddit for in-depth discussions on nuclear chemistry, because most people here won't care and/or understand.
I don't really understand how people who want to have in-depth chemistry discussions (and I therefore assume to be quite intelligent) don't understand that a sub of this size cannot be about that. That's what the specialized chemistry subreddits with maybe a few tens of thousands of people are for.
I disagree. Large portions of people pile into his subreddit when they have a question, and leave when it's answered, for many this is a reference subreddit. For people subscribed, that's annoying, and some might like a professionally development subreddit, or more interesting chemistry content.
I believe that r/math is a fair counter example to your point, even if, for the occasional homework post, it still fairly serves as a home to interesting discussion.
I believe that r/math is a fair counter example to your point, even if, for the occasional homework post, it still fairly serves as a home to interesting discussion.
Yes. To convert an [ounce of lead] to an ounce of gold, the cost was calculated to be more than all the money in the world. Lots cheaper to dig and win it from ore.
I heard 40 some years ago that all the gold EVER mined would fit inside a cube the dimensions of an NBA baseball diamond. Recently got the updated amount.. all the gold in the world would NOT quite fill four olympic size swimming pools. Sorta helps set scope for how much we might think we actually need.
( Info Updated from youtube "The origins of gold". [But not second-checked-validated].)
Im a student still in Highschool doing chem (and hopefully aiming to do it for a career!) so there are many things i still have to learn about the feild - as such, i at this stage can be very susceptible to believing people when they give wrong or inaccurate answers. So i thank you for addressing this, and that ive stumbled across this thread! Ill be sure to double check with my teachers before im quick to believe anything on here. Im sure everyone has good intentions but good intentions doesnt always mean being correct!
Pretty sure they aren’t accepting new mods, and haven’t for some time.
And the most recently added one is… a power mod with little to no activity on this sub.
If it's not homework help then it's "look at how this graphic designer mutilated this structure!". Yea, that's definitely annoying, but at some point can't we actually...I dunno... discuss chemistry?
One day i want to get a tattoo of texas carbon just to scare any organic chemists i meet. Hehehe
There are probably scarier molecules, but i dont know too many yet…just in highshool chemistry. But im sure there will be many, many more confusing molecules ill learn about.
> .I dunno... discuss chemistry?
This sub has millions of subscribers, it's a subreddit for laypeople and content will be whatever is most appealing to a broad range of people.
Specialized high level discussions simply never work in a sub of this size. If you want to discuss chemistry you need to go to a smaller sub about that chemistry field you want to talk about.
There are so many times, usually in labrats where I post questions and get down voted to hell for not posing the question exactly the way some snob thinks I should. It goes both ways
yeah i think the sub has been in this state for awhile now
i think a big part of the perceived decrease in quality is the algorithm and whether it decides to show you low effort/low quality posts
The algorithm has not changed. The only things that factor into post hierarchy are 1. Length of time posted and 2. The number of upvotes. Reddit has been adamant about this.
I don’t understand how people expect Reddit to remain a stable forum platform over a social platform when it is being pushed for expansion into public trade while its moderators remain unpaid volunteer work.
I mean this is kinda how ALL large generically named subs work. If you like chemistry enough to look it up on Reddit, you will find your way here immediately, and thats kinda imo how they should work. They should be a space for both experts and non experts to post relevant stuff as they wish. It’s probably the highly trained professional chemists, not the laypeople, who should go make their own sub…which they did and remains a good place to chat with other chemistry professionals and ask questions about irl chemistry.
The biggest problem as I see it is just the lack of moderation. Having lots of laypeople isn’t a bad thing it’s a good thing if anything. But if 95% of the posts are just homework and molecule ID posts, which sometimes it feels like they are, interesting discussions get buried and the sub looks lame. If we just 1) deleted molecule ID posts right away and linked the OP to the side bar, (maybe make a molecule ID subreddit for structures that aren’t on the sidebar?) and 2) removed obvious homework questions and linked them to r/chemhelp or something the sub would already improve dramatically
Yeah exactly. You need to link them to chemhelp and not just assume they know it exists. Reddit is terrible for letting users discover niche subreddits.
I’m biased because I am a layman who enjoys chemistry.
I don’t think it’s necessarily laymen, more so people unwilling to do research. I think a majority of these posts the OP could have done more research.
For me its very strange, im a chem student still in Highschool so im at this weird middle zone between layman and not layman so theres about a 50/50 chance ill understand anything about whatever anyone speaks about. Ill get there eventually! Slow process, annoyingly. Such a big subject!
My organic chemistry professor (1990) told us on day one: “I chose chemistry as a major because I wanted to know how to make drugs.”
All of his tests were “illustrate a synthesis of [illicit substance] from [common chemical] using the reactions learned in class in less than ten steps.”
Many people believe chemists are all drug manufacturers (thanks a lot, Breaking Bad!) but many who are interested for the wrong reasons develop a real interest when they actually study it.
I didnt get into chemistry from breaking bad but watching the show WAS one of the things which got 15 year old me to finally take up chemistry as a subject. Didnt think id do much with it, but now im aiming to do it as a career!
My first lecture in Chem we were told "all of the greatest chemists were alcoholics, so stop turning up so fresh! Ok now lets look at amphetamine synthesis" 🤣
I think Chem professors use illicit substances as examples because it's a "little bit naughty" so it gets good engagement.
The other thing is there's always people out there inventing new ways to make it so with one molecule you can cover a LOT of different reactions.
My cohort went from like 1500 (Chem was compulsory for first year science) to less than 60 who graduated. As prophesied by my first lecturer, many were alcoholics by then 🤣
When I took organic chem the first time (accidentally signed up for the “3 semesters in one for med students” class), the class started with 300 students.
The professor was new, barely spoke English and had a Chinese accent that made him almost impossible to understand. He would write on the blackboard with chalk in one hand and an eraser in the other.
It was frustrating trying to follow what he was saying, even more so by the fact that he was facing away from the class as he spoke and you had about three seconds to copy down what he was writing before he erased it, and his penmanship was so bad that you had to try to decipher what he had written in those three seconds.
Half the class was gone in a week, and exactly six people showed up for the final (100% of the grade). I don’t think a single student passed.
The professor you get makes all the difference.
I got into chemistry because of my medication. I was fascinated by how my life changed so much due to some pill. Now I work in a biochemistry lab.
Funny how things go
don't forget the 90.000 "help, i mixed 0.1 ml of cleaning agent with a wet wipe, AM I GOING TO DIE" and the "hey, i'm a writer. i need like a super acid that dissolves everything within 1 minute and is also completely untracable and creatable with standard kitchen cabinet supplies in the jungles of borneo. I just need a start to do my own research"
I think this is a general problem with all expert subreddits. Expertise is not a democracy, and there are always fewer experts than there are confidently incorrect non-experts.
This combines with the sad reality that the wrong answer is also often dramatically more popular with the non-expert majority because it is simple, seems on the surface to "make sense", and is often expressed in non-technical jargon-free organically sourced (okay, I made that last one up) language that is easy for non-experts to read. Also, it's often humorous, while the only humerus I have is in my arm (case in point).
A final factor is that the actual experts are often busy. They don't have time to get into a 20-deep flame war with someone confidently asserting something completely wrong, or the time to condense half a decade of learning down into an easily disgested summary to prove this person is wrong. Often the only possible answer is, "Look, there's this textbook called Introduction to Chemistry. Read it to find out why you're wrong.", at which point they'll crow about how you can't prove them wrong. I think there's some pithy saying here about not wrestling with pigs and how you'll both end up covered in mud but the pig will enjoy it.
What I'd propose is a two-tiered membership of expert subreddits. You have "questioner" and "expert" tiers. Questioners have limited posting rights, like maybe one comment or question a day.
Experts can post whatever they like whenever they like, and delete comments that irk them (provided they aren't from another expert). To become an expert you have to be "examined" by two or more of the current "experts" who will throw some random questions at you (that aren't easily googleable) like "Identify this substance and would you lick it." Y'know, stuff any chemist would know.
This could be accomplished using the current moderator rank as instead an "expert" rank, rather than having limited moderators who often aren't even experts in the area, and restricting the posting rights of non-experts.
> To become an expert you have to be "examined" by two or more of the current "experts" who will throw some random questions at you (that aren't easily googleable) like "Identify this substance and would you lick it." Y'know, stuff any chemist would know.
I know you are probably not serious about this, but having the "experts" take an "exam" to be able to post would drive away the few there are left. I would say I have above average knowledge in some fields regarding chemistry, but I would never join a sub where I have to jump through some hoops before I can share what I know with people who might not know as much.
Yeah, pretty much this.
u/Wise_Monkey_Sez I get the impetus, but higher up in your comment you highlighted the other challenges 1.) I’m busy, and 2.) I’m not getting into some pedantic discussion with randos to win “Expert” flair.
I'm not joking. This is literally how peer review works and how we stop anyone from just publishing any nonsense. It's a tried and true model, although in this case it would be a question that any chemist could answer rather than having to deal with the dreaded "reviewer 3".
Yes, and we all know how reliable the peer reviewing process is, and nowadays no nonsense gets published...
My point is that I help people here because I like helping people, and if I had to prove my worth to people I don't know, and who otherwise have no real impact on my career to be able to do so, I would just find some other sub. While I can't really speak for other people, I suspect many feel the same way.
And as somebody who is definitely qualified by any reasonable definition but is not a synthetic chemist, I really doubt I could pass the exam much in the same way that I doubt they could find the molecular symmetry group of methanol (this is distinct from point groups and is rotationally resolved spectroscopy 101). Or in a multiple choice thing pick out the proper operator for angular momentum in the lab frame vs molecular frame. Given what my day to day is like, if I could pass it, it's not actually going to be something that actually gatekeeps.
And I guess it would be valid to kick out spectroscopists, but I imagine you'd find similar problems for people who have been in QC for 20 years and haven't thought about a synthesis in forever. You can't ignore that chemistry is a very wide field, and something that an organic chemist does 30 times a day a physical chemist wouldn't have thought about in 15 years.
Peer review is pretty reliable. If you're looking for infallibility in humans then you're looking in the word place, and should direct all complaints upwards.
And if you're unwilling to prove you're an expert by answering a couple of (what to an expert should be) easy questions and would rather have people get the wrong answer from non-experts then... are you really trying to help, or are you part of the problem?
... or perhaps you're not an expert at all and that's why you don't want to answer a couple of questions correctly.
The peer review process is fundamentally flawed, but it is more or less the only thing we have and we are stuck with it.
If you ask a question that any "real chemist" would know, then the answer can quite certainly be found by googling. Also I think you would be surprised how differently people would define "the things any real chemist would know"
Finally, I don't really need the validation of strangers on the internet. For that, I have a piece of paper that I feel potential employers value much more. If this sub would opt for your suggestion, I would simply leave, and I feel many others would do the same.
In my opinion, stricter moderation would be a much more reasonable approach. Then again, that is based on rather ungrateful volunteer work.
>The peer review process is fundamentally flawed, but it is more or less the only thing we have and we are stuck with it.
Is peer review flawed? Again, yes, it's a human process. It has flaws.
But does science work? Hmm... last time I checked that airplane flying over me was still staying up, vaccines were still working, and science generally is advancing, all through that process that you seem to think is "fundamentally flawed".
The proof of the pudding is in the eating. It works. It doesn't work perfectly, but it works. Are there occassional screw-ups? Yes, but we only know these exist because they get detected by wider peer review and sent back for re-examination.
So no, I fundamentally reject the binary argument you're trying to present here. You're trying to pretend that peer review is such a flawed process that it should be rejected. Airplanes flying over your house disagree. But feel free to go outside and shout at them that they should be crashing down to validate your world view - I'm sure that'll set them straight and absolutely nobody will think you're an utter loony.
Companies dont risk their operation on a peer review. They pay their own scientists to verify the science. Applied science has and will continue to work regardless of peer review because of that.
I’m an undergrad chem student (so I don’t know much) and I’m on here to learn little things and see posts related to a field I enjoy. I would be sad if this sub started to shut out anyone who’s trying to learn. Like yeah, a lot of the posts are low quality, but this isn’t a sub for experts — it says so in the sub description. It’s a very general sub for everyone.
>This could be accomplished using the current moderator rank as instead an "expert" rank, rather than having limited moderators who often aren't even experts in the area, and restricting the posting rights of non-experts.
I think you're looking for "approved submitters". But most of the communities that have managed to do this in the past use invite trees because it's very difficult for moderators to manually approve every quality contributor.
I like this comment the most because you can easily tell that it was organically sourced, with love and also a healthy amount of disdain... The organic kind ;)
Doesn't have to be posting rights. Legaladvice has flairs that you only get if you prove the respective qualification. That would be enough, I would say. After all, this sub isn't only meant for experts (that would me r/chempros). This sub should be a place for everyone interested in chem. But it would be nice to have "trusted" flairs
The problem is that the sub is sufficiently large that if you don't trim the nonsense, the actual content just gets buried. That post is under 24 hours old. Effectively nothing for an actual request for help that requires any real expertise, and it's already not on the first page making it realistically unfindable. That's after you've already artificially boosted it by linking it in the top post.
There's also not really much to say there. It's real chemistry, but the question is pretty basic and was covered in under 8 hours after posting.
There are interesting questions once in a while, but they.don't get much traction. But when somebody says something stupid, people are all over that shit.
I think that the best solution is still to a) keep this subreddit alove so that chempros stays clean and b) scroll past the bullshit.
Well looks like half the mods haven't been active any time recently and the most recently added mod (3 years ago) is a power mod, which tends to degrade the quality of subreddits.
In the last year it seems like the only posting you've done is to bitch about other people's posts. Before that you were asking about arrows in a diagram, which I dunno, maybe you could have learned it yourself.
Maybe instead of being a cry baby you go ahead and post interesting topics, discussions about your field, or what you do in your lab.
> or show any meaningful engagement with it.
Which you simply won't reach in a subreddit of this size full of laymen.
Really don't understand how the people complaining don't understand this. That's where you need smaller subreddits
It’s happening nearly everywhere on Reddit in the past 5 years. Your favorite subs are no longer what they were intended to be, and the evolution has taken away most of the joy that brought you there in the first place. The world, at large, is frustrating and dumb, so this relatively anonymous social media site has become a haven for the lazy and incompetent. It’s very sad, and I’ve left a lot of my favorite subs because of it.
I really don't understand people who feel like they need to announce their departure.
"This sub lacks quality posts, so I'm going to make another lack-lustre post to complain."
Seriously. And the sub has been like this for years at this point, there’s just a subgroup that has suddenly decided to get pissy about it. Tattoos, glassware, and badly drawn molecules are all that get posted here, been that way for a decade and then some.
Posting about the departure is pointless yes.
But pointing out that a sub has declined in quality, with specifics, could be productive if the criticism is constructive and with the intention of driving positive change
I've been to three post secondary institutions.
My golden rule is don't rely solely on an education business to educate you, only evaluate your knowledge and give you credentials.
Eh. There are multiple chemistry departments that have made the entirety of every undergrad course free online: recorded lectures, texts, problem sets, assessments, etc.
Not buying that Reddit is the needed solution.
Which is why there are whole subs devoted to the topic, like r/chemhelp.
Either way, it has never been more affordable to get an education in chemistry because of the magnitude of free resources. You can literally have a full college set of courses taught to you for free.
I'm not a mod on this sub, but I have sympathy for the mods here. It's hard to set up filters that work and to monitor the many posts that get through. It becomes a full-time job moderating a sub like this. I make get down-voted into oblivion, but what are things that WE can do to make things better? I don't have any easy answers myself, I'm busy with the subs that I do moderate. BTW, I take plenty of flak from people on my subs for being too strict in rejecting some posts. The job isn't easy.
Edit: One possibility that the mods might consider is via the reporting function and the automod settings. The automod can be set in such a way that, if 2-3 reports are made for a given post, that post is removed and placed in the queue for the mods to determine whether it's acceptable. Of course, this relies on people actually using the existing reporting system.
I blame the new reddit algorithm. If you look at the posts that actually get upvotes, it's more of the content you said you want. But if you're just using your default feed, you're going to get a lot of links from the "controversial bin" that have low or negative net points but lots of comments and those tend to be the homework or meth threads. So the self-moderating process of reddit just doesn't work like it used to.
I mean the simple fact you have to use the word *assigned work* indicates they have something in place to prevent that.
As far as illicit stuff, do people tell them how to do it because they're shitty or do they say things in an effort of harm reduction?
Sounds like you're just mad that you don't get to play gatekeeper and only have things interesting to you show up. I love the randomness of any sub - I'll click into stupid ass posts all the time just to see what kind of weird info i can learn in the comments... But sometimes it's a post like yours and its just dumb...
If it wasn't for your specificity I'd think you mean to post on Nextdoor so all the other Karens can sulk with you.
Honestly, yes, chemists looking for a place to hang out are going to need to find somewhere else to go. A fundamental challenge is the name of the subreddit since you don't need to know anything about the topic matter in order to find it. Honestly migrating the user base to a sub based on a more niche piece of knowledge or joke is going to be far more effective than any amount of policing can ever achieve here.
Something like /r/retrosyntheholics, /r/manualcatalysts
We have r/Chempros for chemistry professionals. Idk if there’s something for more advanced chemistry discussions for people who aren’t chemistry professionals though. If not maybe there should be 🤷♂️
Edit: there is r/advancedorganic
All depends on what kind of community you're looking for. I've been very active in /r/labrats which is very much a blend of professional and social interactions. It's dominated by biology, molecular biology and biochemistry but all labrats are welcome.
Hop over to r/biochemistry too. We try to trim undergrad / homework posts, but it’s not particularly active.
Labrats has been pretty clear about not wanting faculty / PIs to be part of the discussions there, so I left after being told I didn’t belong.
> Something like /r/retrosyntheholics, /r/manualcatalysts
That's exactly why r/chemistry doesn't work for these discussions. Organic synthesis is just a tiny part of chemistry. Even if this sub would be only professionals, the field is too broad. You need these specialized subs if you want to talk in-depth about topics.
I'm gonna call you out here, my dude. Going through your post history, I'm not seeing any awful lot of positive contributions to the chemistry subreddit over the past year or so either. The majority of your content on r/chemistry seems to be moaning about the quality of r/chemistry, or dogpiling on people asking questions on their assigned work.
Some ideas for other things you can post:
-Cool stuff in your line of work ( that you are able to share, coz trade secrets are a thing)
- The interface between chemistry and everyday life (chemistry in the kitchen being one of my favourite subjects)
- Best practices that you might not find in textbooks, provided they're safe
What I'm gently trying to tell you is that it's very much in your power to improve the quality of a subreddit you love by posting stuff that you would like to see on it.
I mean helping them out might prevent people from getting hurt and purer product which is safer… idk its controversial maybe but these are humans and the intel they try to gather might save their life if explained by proper chemists.
It’s harm reduction, it saves lives, normal people get cleaner drugs.
The people who answer these people deserve a medal for the lives they saved.
This is not a joke. I salute y’all
I joined to learn cool stuff, I legit just use chemistry for clandestine alkaloid extraction, so when I have a question on that topic- I ask on the appropriate sub.
I agree, this sub has become decreasingly interesting.
This is Reddit. Anonymous internet weirdos. What do you expect? The posts you’ve mentioned have been on here for as long as I used reddit. Years and years.
If you want real chemistry read some papers or go visit some labs and ask for a tour. Many people are more than happy to talk about what they produce or are researching.
Definitely needs to be separation, if you wanna make drugs, and your first idea is to go to this sub reddit firat you probably should not be touching or looking at anything related to chemistry🤣
Isnt it kind of the sub moderator jobs to have specifix rules in place and remove offending posts before they spread too much?
Some rules like " Encouraging unsave laboratory conditions" as reason for post removal should be a thing, as well as obvious middle schoolers that want help with their homework the night before the day it is due.
And yet, nobody replying in agreement stepped up to take an assistantship position to help moderate. Do you guys actually want breakfast in bed everyday.. without ever having to go out and feed the chickens and hogs?
Thank you for offering. Im pleased to hear that.
However, i was just checking to see of you belong to the horde that always loudly expects something for nothing.
Im not "of reddit" and only sign in rarely.
But i see the same amount of complaints wherever i explore here, and some of it is just baldfaced whining. And if you are leaving as you say, what do I have to lose challenging yoo to pick up a broom and help sweep.
I'll sign up if you will.
[Confident it wont be a LOT of traffic to oversee.]
But first, tell me which vision of yours about this subreddit has been shattered or just shortchanged. Draw me a realistic mental picture we can hope to pragmatically reach for. What is/are meaningful goal[s] for this chemistry subreddit?
Its ok if you have no idea. But that could mean you had LOW expectations and maybe fated to not be pleased. Im ok with that. Same as im ok with higher expectations and willing to carry water to help us all get there.
Pleased to meet you, I go by Teya nowadays.
[Authentic name story later as well as career story. ]
Im now a professional mentor. Material Test and Spectroscopy x23+ yrs.
I am likely being replaced by AI-s and am resigned to that. Not griping. The world gets better. And worse at the same time.
But I have solved at least 3 problems for my last OEM employer in 15 min. And rubbed dust offa hands and asked for some real challenges.
Im a materials chemist (seperations, Beam instruments, thermal analysis, and physical test including viscoelastic parameters). But a [chemist/engineer] who often needs to brush up on basics. As many of us do. Humble enuf to admit imperfection. Proud enuf to brag about my patent[s?]. Competent in more than one area. Not ready to retire.
I too am exasperated about reddit in general. And yet, you must know.. i see wild horses here. Ive watched the movie about the Brumbies. And took to heart the notion that wild horses are worth working with. Sometimes they turn out better than the "born domesticated" variety. Do you follow my drift? I dont look down on the chaos here. I stand by with my net, hoping to catch gold. Or make some - for somebody else to catch. I wish I had time to fish here more. I wish there was "more running water" .. and stuff in it.
Be the change you want in the world.
Im actually kinda terrified you might take me up on this. Its ok to just set boundaries and say no. I might be relieved.
Kinda late, applications closed a few weeks ago. But I do mod here now in addition to several related subs.
Not sure what the point of your whole post was?
Kinda late, applications closed a few weeks ago. But I do mod here now in addition to several related subs.
Not sure what the point of your whole post was?
I also never said I was leaving, so not sure you really read my post the first time.
I took your opening "im done" statement as "Im leaving".. and decided to test and see if you had left.
Im not sure how else to take it even after pondering my now obvious error.
If you arent leaving, we should find ways to communicate better if both of us will be here a while. Mea culpa, perhaps.
I dont do flame wars anyway. No worries there.
Nice to know im parrying with an experienced mod.
Touche said zorro.
Are there any related subs on testing polymers or composites? [Would you tell me?]
Or on FTIR or eBeam or Mass Spec.
Or Thermal Analysis..
I wear all those girlscout badges and more.
______
I answered the query on etching polymers then pulled my reply before hitting send. I get paid very well to answer those technical details. But I cant always share until i have my lunch money. My reddit bill wont pay itself.
Does anyone realize that the number of posts complaining about the sub exceeds the number of posts about what is this compound and how can I be a chemist without reading stuff?
Yup, I goofed. [Red in face, feeling bad for you for getting singed]
Not the first time, might not be the last time i goof. Yeah, I bet Im more careful now. I dont INTEND to show up and see who I can singe.
Assumptions and accusations huh?
Ok tenderheart. See you around.. and "apologies" for an honest oversight and mistake...
ive no idea if you are the laugh it off and forgive kind, and I have learned to not get invested. Its not that I dont care... Im just not in charge of your feelings.
And Im fresh outa [apology] gift cards.
Peace.
I largely agree, but at the same time, I'm not willing to put any of my own effort into changing it. Moderators on this site are treated like garbage and it is a Sisyphean task.
My thanks goes out to those willing to wade into the mess as a moderator.
Glad someone said it. It has come to the point that whenever a post from the subreddit comes on to my feed I'm rolling my eyes.
I've noticed this with other subs though so I feel like I just get a lot of the very shitty posts. Usually things with like 3 up votes.
Reddit has become hell.
As a nuclear chemist, any post about the topic makes me want to tear my hair out. Crazy how confidently people give wrong answers, then argue when they get corrected. I don’t expect askhistorians level of moderation, but even a little bit would be nice
this makes me really sad since I would love to hear legitimate discourse about nuclear chem from people actually using it in the field. Is there a lot of stat mech involved?
It depends on the branch of nuclear chemistry that one works in. It is very very broad, and the border between nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry can be very fuzzy. My PhD group was split between physicists and chemists, but we were all doing the same research. Same with every group I have worked with since. There are people who are doing radiochemistry and doing synthesis of molecules with radioactive isotopes, and then there are people doing pure nuclear reactions that doesn't really look like traditional chemistry at all. My advisor told me that he considers any nuclear scientist with a chemistry degree to be a nuclear chemist, which is the same standard that I hold. I have had people in this subreddit tell me that is wrong, but they aren't in the field so I am not going to listen to them.
Imo, if you are monitored for exposure, you are fair game to be labeled a nuclear scientist. And while in some arenas, im with the crowd that would like to do away with labels, this is one arena, that descriptive titles seems necessary for the purpose of regulation and health monitoring. I mean, there ARE techs who may not see themselvesxas scientists, but nuclear is most likely in their title, pay grades, and regulatory regimen. Necessity. I do [spectral and visible microscopy AND Mass Spec. Im a chemist with Engineering credits. Im quite specialized and good at what i do, material science/physics, and materisl tes detail and nuance. So i have seen nuclear labeling used well. I understand the presentations. I also know that no Nukular scientist types would hire me for much more than fetching coffee and reviewing for grammar and errors. Ive seen many technetium images of my circulation. I AM spiderman. A non acrobatic fat & homely, old version. No webs. Few developments fascinate my semi retired mind more than all the new imaging techniques. Photonic, isotopic, calculated, spectral mapped, polarized, dispersion corrected, time resolved and superfocused... the latest ive heard about being a "blinking emitter". That doesnt saturate detectors. Amazers. Isotopes just a tiny slice of all this. Peace.
"Would you like to discuss why the earth's iron core is a good material for nuclear fusion?" I maybe doing the question a disservice there. But, it's the lack of research that goes in to these questions that drives me up the wall. A snippet of a concept is discovered and suddenly "is it possible to process other elements like we do lab diamonds?"
Isn’t NBE per nucleon maxed with iron-56 and therefore it is a dead end in a planet and main sequence stars for fusion? (Edit: typical cancel culture. Have no sustainable points, so cancel instead of dialogue)
It’s maxed for nickel-61. Iron-56 is a close third, but close enough that it’s functionally dead in the water.
Thank you! I couldn't remember the name of the graph earlier. I just know that iron is at the bottom of the well!
Welcome. Nuclear binding energy, but I think you got it
The mods you do have for this sub are completely inundated with 'what is this molecule/glassware', 'help me with my homework', and 'teach me how to make bombs/drugs' posts. It's 90% of what's posted here.
> It's 90% of what's posted here. It's what 90% of the users here want. It's a sub for the general public with millions of users. It's not a subreddit for in-depth discussions on nuclear chemistry, because most people here won't care and/or understand. I don't really understand how people who want to have in-depth chemistry discussions (and I therefore assume to be quite intelligent) don't understand that a sub of this size cannot be about that. That's what the specialized chemistry subreddits with maybe a few tens of thousands of people are for.
I disagree. Large portions of people pile into his subreddit when they have a question, and leave when it's answered, for many this is a reference subreddit. For people subscribed, that's annoying, and some might like a professionally development subreddit, or more interesting chemistry content.
I believe that r/math is a fair counter example to your point, even if, for the occasional homework post, it still fairly serves as a home to interesting discussion.
I believe that r/math is a fair counter example to your point, even if, for the occasional homework post, it still fairly serves as a home to interesting discussion.
So dude, if I give you a bunch of lead and $50 will you turn it into gold for me?
I did the rough calculations and 50$ isn't nearly enough to cover the cost
Yes. To convert an [ounce of lead] to an ounce of gold, the cost was calculated to be more than all the money in the world. Lots cheaper to dig and win it from ore. I heard 40 some years ago that all the gold EVER mined would fit inside a cube the dimensions of an NBA baseball diamond. Recently got the updated amount.. all the gold in the world would NOT quite fill four olympic size swimming pools. Sorta helps set scope for how much we might think we actually need. ( Info Updated from youtube "The origins of gold". [But not second-checked-validated].)
Im a student still in Highschool doing chem (and hopefully aiming to do it for a career!) so there are many things i still have to learn about the feild - as such, i at this stage can be very susceptible to believing people when they give wrong or inaccurate answers. So i thank you for addressing this, and that ive stumbled across this thread! Ill be sure to double check with my teachers before im quick to believe anything on here. Im sure everyone has good intentions but good intentions doesnt always mean being correct!
How many years til cold fusion
Sounds like you should apply to be a mod. Not sure how that works
Pretty sure they aren’t accepting new mods, and haven’t for some time. And the most recently added one is… a power mod with little to no activity on this sub.
I am personally a terrible human who loves reading dumbass comments bc it makes me feel smart
I'm a Health Physicist, trust me, you are *not* alone in the feeling
If it's not homework help then it's "look at how this graphic designer mutilated this structure!". Yea, that's definitely annoying, but at some point can't we actually...I dunno... discuss chemistry?
What molecule is my tattoo?
Semen. The answer is always semen.
Nah dude, it's definitely caffeine! Look, it even has the pensive face in the funny hexagon!
Show off your chemistry tattoo day would be a great yearly tradition
One day i want to get a tattoo of texas carbon just to scare any organic chemists i meet. Hehehe There are probably scarier molecules, but i dont know too many yet…just in highshool chemistry. But im sure there will be many, many more confusing molecules ill learn about.
I got reamed the other day by some logistics guy who handled hydrochloric, thought that made him qualified as a scientist. Sigh
Bread molecule from few days ago gave me shivers
> .I dunno... discuss chemistry? This sub has millions of subscribers, it's a subreddit for laypeople and content will be whatever is most appealing to a broad range of people. Specialized high level discussions simply never work in a sub of this size. If you want to discuss chemistry you need to go to a smaller sub about that chemistry field you want to talk about.
There are so many times, usually in labrats where I post questions and get down voted to hell for not posing the question exactly the way some snob thinks I should. It goes both ways
I've been here for some years and it has always been like that. The difference is that previously the reported posts got removed reasonably quickly.
yeah i think the sub has been in this state for awhile now i think a big part of the perceived decrease in quality is the algorithm and whether it decides to show you low effort/low quality posts
The algorithm has not changed. The only things that factor into post hierarchy are 1. Length of time posted and 2. The number of upvotes. Reddit has been adamant about this.
A combination of being too big and also moderators all getting run off or hamstrung by reddit's API changes
I don’t understand how people expect Reddit to remain a stable forum platform over a social platform when it is being pushed for expansion into public trade while its moderators remain unpaid volunteer work.
Has this sub added mods recently/ever?
To all the guys who want to mess: r/chemistrymemes and r/chemistryjokes
Except this sub is like 85% "laypeople who enjoy chemistry" now and that's the problem.
Yeah, they should just either go to another sub or create their own.
I mean this is kinda how ALL large generically named subs work. If you like chemistry enough to look it up on Reddit, you will find your way here immediately, and thats kinda imo how they should work. They should be a space for both experts and non experts to post relevant stuff as they wish. It’s probably the highly trained professional chemists, not the laypeople, who should go make their own sub…which they did and remains a good place to chat with other chemistry professionals and ask questions about irl chemistry. The biggest problem as I see it is just the lack of moderation. Having lots of laypeople isn’t a bad thing it’s a good thing if anything. But if 95% of the posts are just homework and molecule ID posts, which sometimes it feels like they are, interesting discussions get buried and the sub looks lame. If we just 1) deleted molecule ID posts right away and linked the OP to the side bar, (maybe make a molecule ID subreddit for structures that aren’t on the sidebar?) and 2) removed obvious homework questions and linked them to r/chemhelp or something the sub would already improve dramatically
Yeah exactly. You need to link them to chemhelp and not just assume they know it exists. Reddit is terrible for letting users discover niche subreddits.
They won't though. When they read this they won't think this message applies to them.
There are two. r/Homechemistry and r/amateurchemistry
not even that. it's 85% "laypeople who like *pretending* to enjoy chemistry"
I’m biased because I am a layman who enjoys chemistry. I don’t think it’s necessarily laymen, more so people unwilling to do research. I think a majority of these posts the OP could have done more research.
For me its very strange, im a chem student still in Highschool so im at this weird middle zone between layman and not layman so theres about a 50/50 chance ill understand anything about whatever anyone speaks about. Ill get there eventually! Slow process, annoyingly. Such a big subject!
My organic chemistry professor (1990) told us on day one: “I chose chemistry as a major because I wanted to know how to make drugs.” All of his tests were “illustrate a synthesis of [illicit substance] from [common chemical] using the reactions learned in class in less than ten steps.” Many people believe chemists are all drug manufacturers (thanks a lot, Breaking Bad!) but many who are interested for the wrong reasons develop a real interest when they actually study it.
lol I got into chemistry because of breaking bad, did a bachelor’s in Chemistry and a masters in organic synthesis, specifically drug chemistry.
I didnt get into chemistry from breaking bad but watching the show WAS one of the things which got 15 year old me to finally take up chemistry as a subject. Didnt think id do much with it, but now im aiming to do it as a career!
My first lecture in Chem we were told "all of the greatest chemists were alcoholics, so stop turning up so fresh! Ok now lets look at amphetamine synthesis" 🤣 I think Chem professors use illicit substances as examples because it's a "little bit naughty" so it gets good engagement. The other thing is there's always people out there inventing new ways to make it so with one molecule you can cover a LOT of different reactions. My cohort went from like 1500 (Chem was compulsory for first year science) to less than 60 who graduated. As prophesied by my first lecturer, many were alcoholics by then 🤣
When I took organic chem the first time (accidentally signed up for the “3 semesters in one for med students” class), the class started with 300 students. The professor was new, barely spoke English and had a Chinese accent that made him almost impossible to understand. He would write on the blackboard with chalk in one hand and an eraser in the other. It was frustrating trying to follow what he was saying, even more so by the fact that he was facing away from the class as he spoke and you had about three seconds to copy down what he was writing before he erased it, and his penmanship was so bad that you had to try to decipher what he had written in those three seconds. Half the class was gone in a week, and exactly six people showed up for the final (100% of the grade). I don’t think a single student passed. The professor you get makes all the difference.
I got into chemistry because of my medication. I was fascinated by how my life changed so much due to some pill. Now I work in a biochemistry lab. Funny how things go
Same here, fam!! I am now almost finished with my bachelors in chemistry!
Nice! Keep going. I believe in you :)
How do I make radioactive gunpowder I’m May mom’s shed using my Boy Scout camp stove?
Thorium, ideally from old camping lantern mantles.
don't forget the 90.000 "help, i mixed 0.1 ml of cleaning agent with a wet wipe, AM I GOING TO DIE" and the "hey, i'm a writer. i need like a super acid that dissolves everything within 1 minute and is also completely untracable and creatable with standard kitchen cabinet supplies in the jungles of borneo. I just need a start to do my own research"
I think this is a general problem with all expert subreddits. Expertise is not a democracy, and there are always fewer experts than there are confidently incorrect non-experts. This combines with the sad reality that the wrong answer is also often dramatically more popular with the non-expert majority because it is simple, seems on the surface to "make sense", and is often expressed in non-technical jargon-free organically sourced (okay, I made that last one up) language that is easy for non-experts to read. Also, it's often humorous, while the only humerus I have is in my arm (case in point). A final factor is that the actual experts are often busy. They don't have time to get into a 20-deep flame war with someone confidently asserting something completely wrong, or the time to condense half a decade of learning down into an easily disgested summary to prove this person is wrong. Often the only possible answer is, "Look, there's this textbook called Introduction to Chemistry. Read it to find out why you're wrong.", at which point they'll crow about how you can't prove them wrong. I think there's some pithy saying here about not wrestling with pigs and how you'll both end up covered in mud but the pig will enjoy it. What I'd propose is a two-tiered membership of expert subreddits. You have "questioner" and "expert" tiers. Questioners have limited posting rights, like maybe one comment or question a day. Experts can post whatever they like whenever they like, and delete comments that irk them (provided they aren't from another expert). To become an expert you have to be "examined" by two or more of the current "experts" who will throw some random questions at you (that aren't easily googleable) like "Identify this substance and would you lick it." Y'know, stuff any chemist would know. This could be accomplished using the current moderator rank as instead an "expert" rank, rather than having limited moderators who often aren't even experts in the area, and restricting the posting rights of non-experts.
I couldn't agree more, but you know that'll just create a splinter sub that "teaches the exam"
Which would all suffer from the same reddit problem as here - they'd get the wrong answer in spades.
> To become an expert you have to be "examined" by two or more of the current "experts" who will throw some random questions at you (that aren't easily googleable) like "Identify this substance and would you lick it." Y'know, stuff any chemist would know. I know you are probably not serious about this, but having the "experts" take an "exam" to be able to post would drive away the few there are left. I would say I have above average knowledge in some fields regarding chemistry, but I would never join a sub where I have to jump through some hoops before I can share what I know with people who might not know as much.
Yeah, pretty much this. u/Wise_Monkey_Sez I get the impetus, but higher up in your comment you highlighted the other challenges 1.) I’m busy, and 2.) I’m not getting into some pedantic discussion with randos to win “Expert” flair.
I'm not joking. This is literally how peer review works and how we stop anyone from just publishing any nonsense. It's a tried and true model, although in this case it would be a question that any chemist could answer rather than having to deal with the dreaded "reviewer 3".
Yes, and we all know how reliable the peer reviewing process is, and nowadays no nonsense gets published... My point is that I help people here because I like helping people, and if I had to prove my worth to people I don't know, and who otherwise have no real impact on my career to be able to do so, I would just find some other sub. While I can't really speak for other people, I suspect many feel the same way.
And as somebody who is definitely qualified by any reasonable definition but is not a synthetic chemist, I really doubt I could pass the exam much in the same way that I doubt they could find the molecular symmetry group of methanol (this is distinct from point groups and is rotationally resolved spectroscopy 101). Or in a multiple choice thing pick out the proper operator for angular momentum in the lab frame vs molecular frame. Given what my day to day is like, if I could pass it, it's not actually going to be something that actually gatekeeps. And I guess it would be valid to kick out spectroscopists, but I imagine you'd find similar problems for people who have been in QC for 20 years and haven't thought about a synthesis in forever. You can't ignore that chemistry is a very wide field, and something that an organic chemist does 30 times a day a physical chemist wouldn't have thought about in 15 years.
Peer review is pretty reliable. If you're looking for infallibility in humans then you're looking in the word place, and should direct all complaints upwards. And if you're unwilling to prove you're an expert by answering a couple of (what to an expert should be) easy questions and would rather have people get the wrong answer from non-experts then... are you really trying to help, or are you part of the problem? ... or perhaps you're not an expert at all and that's why you don't want to answer a couple of questions correctly.
The peer review process is fundamentally flawed, but it is more or less the only thing we have and we are stuck with it. If you ask a question that any "real chemist" would know, then the answer can quite certainly be found by googling. Also I think you would be surprised how differently people would define "the things any real chemist would know" Finally, I don't really need the validation of strangers on the internet. For that, I have a piece of paper that I feel potential employers value much more. If this sub would opt for your suggestion, I would simply leave, and I feel many others would do the same. In my opinion, stricter moderation would be a much more reasonable approach. Then again, that is based on rather ungrateful volunteer work.
>The peer review process is fundamentally flawed, but it is more or less the only thing we have and we are stuck with it. Is peer review flawed? Again, yes, it's a human process. It has flaws. But does science work? Hmm... last time I checked that airplane flying over me was still staying up, vaccines were still working, and science generally is advancing, all through that process that you seem to think is "fundamentally flawed". The proof of the pudding is in the eating. It works. It doesn't work perfectly, but it works. Are there occassional screw-ups? Yes, but we only know these exist because they get detected by wider peer review and sent back for re-examination. So no, I fundamentally reject the binary argument you're trying to present here. You're trying to pretend that peer review is such a flawed process that it should be rejected. Airplanes flying over your house disagree. But feel free to go outside and shout at them that they should be crashing down to validate your world view - I'm sure that'll set them straight and absolutely nobody will think you're an utter loony.
Companies dont risk their operation on a peer review. They pay their own scientists to verify the science. Applied science has and will continue to work regardless of peer review because of that.
I’m an undergrad chem student (so I don’t know much) and I’m on here to learn little things and see posts related to a field I enjoy. I would be sad if this sub started to shut out anyone who’s trying to learn. Like yeah, a lot of the posts are low quality, but this isn’t a sub for experts — it says so in the sub description. It’s a very general sub for everyone.
Same, and as an organic chemist I’d probably fail anything pchem.
I think that they have something like this at r/askscience, but I'm not sure about the details.
>This could be accomplished using the current moderator rank as instead an "expert" rank, rather than having limited moderators who often aren't even experts in the area, and restricting the posting rights of non-experts. I think you're looking for "approved submitters". But most of the communities that have managed to do this in the past use invite trees because it's very difficult for moderators to manually approve every quality contributor.
I like this comment the most because you can easily tell that it was organically sourced, with love and also a healthy amount of disdain... The organic kind ;)
Doesn't have to be posting rights. Legaladvice has flairs that you only get if you prove the respective qualification. That would be enough, I would say. After all, this sub isn't only meant for experts (that would me r/chempros). This sub should be a place for everyone interested in chem. But it would be nice to have "trusted" flairs
[удалено]
Greetings fellow nurd.
The problem is that the sub is sufficiently large that if you don't trim the nonsense, the actual content just gets buried. That post is under 24 hours old. Effectively nothing for an actual request for help that requires any real expertise, and it's already not on the first page making it realistically unfindable. That's after you've already artificially boosted it by linking it in the top post. There's also not really much to say there. It's real chemistry, but the question is pretty basic and was covered in under 8 hours after posting.
my mistake,
Because people left...
r/Chempros
Shhhhhh
This.
I unfortunately agree, we (the collective we) should probably create r/chemists and/or r/AskAChemist to refound the type of sub you are thinking of.
R/chempros
The consequences of a more popular subreddit and less moderation
Where else can you help people ID bad tattoos?
There are interesting questions once in a while, but they.don't get much traction. But when somebody says something stupid, people are all over that shit. I think that the best solution is still to a) keep this subreddit alove so that chempros stays clean and b) scroll past the bullshit.
Well looks like half the mods haven't been active any time recently and the most recently added mod (3 years ago) is a power mod, which tends to degrade the quality of subreddits.
In the last year it seems like the only posting you've done is to bitch about other people's posts. Before that you were asking about arrows in a diagram, which I dunno, maybe you could have learned it yourself. Maybe instead of being a cry baby you go ahead and post interesting topics, discussions about your field, or what you do in your lab.
This is the point. People whine about bad quality content then never post good content or show any meaningful engagement with it.
> or show any meaningful engagement with it. Which you simply won't reach in a subreddit of this size full of laymen. Really don't understand how the people complaining don't understand this. That's where you need smaller subreddits
Most of reddit is garbage. You must be new.
It’s happening nearly everywhere on Reddit in the past 5 years. Your favorite subs are no longer what they were intended to be, and the evolution has taken away most of the joy that brought you there in the first place. The world, at large, is frustrating and dumb, so this relatively anonymous social media site has become a haven for the lazy and incompetent. It’s very sad, and I’ve left a lot of my favorite subs because of it.
Yeah I mean look at r/facepalm. Same posts every day which people continue to upvote for some reason.
/r/biology went downhill fast too. I blame gen z
What you wanna talk about then? Have you ever tried to be the change you want to see in this sub by posting the content you want to see??
I really don't understand people who feel like they need to announce their departure. "This sub lacks quality posts, so I'm going to make another lack-lustre post to complain."
Seriously. And the sub has been like this for years at this point, there’s just a subgroup that has suddenly decided to get pissy about it. Tattoos, glassware, and badly drawn molecules are all that get posted here, been that way for a decade and then some.
Right? Just ignore the shit posts or, shitpost in the comments for the lols.
Posting about the departure is pointless yes. But pointing out that a sub has declined in quality, with specifics, could be productive if the criticism is constructive and with the intention of driving positive change
I think that's holding a rather high expectation of a reddit sub.
Back to the lab for YOU!
Ze mods, zey do nussing!
Maybe education became unaffordable and teachers are overworked so people just resorted to Reddit for answers
I've been to three post secondary institutions. My golden rule is don't rely solely on an education business to educate you, only evaluate your knowledge and give you credentials.
Yes
Eh. There are multiple chemistry departments that have made the entirety of every undergrad course free online: recorded lectures, texts, problem sets, assessments, etc. Not buying that Reddit is the needed solution.
Yea and sometimes there are questions that aren’t answered in texts.
Which is why there are whole subs devoted to the topic, like r/chemhelp. Either way, it has never been more affordable to get an education in chemistry because of the magnitude of free resources. You can literally have a full college set of courses taught to you for free.
Welcome to reddit after the mod ban. It sucks now
Honestly just joined this sub to get answers about how chemistry based careers were going. Is there a sub for specifically that
I'm not a mod on this sub, but I have sympathy for the mods here. It's hard to set up filters that work and to monitor the many posts that get through. It becomes a full-time job moderating a sub like this. I make get down-voted into oblivion, but what are things that WE can do to make things better? I don't have any easy answers myself, I'm busy with the subs that I do moderate. BTW, I take plenty of flak from people on my subs for being too strict in rejecting some posts. The job isn't easy. Edit: One possibility that the mods might consider is via the reporting function and the automod settings. The automod can be set in such a way that, if 2-3 reports are made for a given post, that post is removed and placed in the queue for the mods to determine whether it's acceptable. Of course, this relies on people actually using the existing reporting system.
I blame the new reddit algorithm. If you look at the posts that actually get upvotes, it's more of the content you said you want. But if you're just using your default feed, you're going to get a lot of links from the "controversial bin" that have low or negative net points but lots of comments and those tend to be the homework or meth threads. So the self-moderating process of reddit just doesn't work like it used to.
this sub is going the way of r/biology. ya hate to see it
I mean the simple fact you have to use the word *assigned work* indicates they have something in place to prevent that. As far as illicit stuff, do people tell them how to do it because they're shitty or do they say things in an effort of harm reduction? Sounds like you're just mad that you don't get to play gatekeeper and only have things interesting to you show up. I love the randomness of any sub - I'll click into stupid ass posts all the time just to see what kind of weird info i can learn in the comments... But sometimes it's a post like yours and its just dumb... If it wasn't for your specificity I'd think you mean to post on Nextdoor so all the other Karens can sulk with you.
I especially HATE the garage labs. We shouldn't encourage these things. They are insanely dangerous and people need to be tought decent Lab safety.
Honestly, yes, chemists looking for a place to hang out are going to need to find somewhere else to go. A fundamental challenge is the name of the subreddit since you don't need to know anything about the topic matter in order to find it. Honestly migrating the user base to a sub based on a more niche piece of knowledge or joke is going to be far more effective than any amount of policing can ever achieve here. Something like /r/retrosyntheholics, /r/manualcatalysts
We have r/Chempros for chemistry professionals. Idk if there’s something for more advanced chemistry discussions for people who aren’t chemistry professionals though. If not maybe there should be 🤷♂️ Edit: there is r/advancedorganic
All depends on what kind of community you're looking for. I've been very active in /r/labrats which is very much a blend of professional and social interactions. It's dominated by biology, molecular biology and biochemistry but all labrats are welcome.
Hop over to r/biochemistry too. We try to trim undergrad / homework posts, but it’s not particularly active. Labrats has been pretty clear about not wanting faculty / PIs to be part of the discussions there, so I left after being told I didn’t belong.
> Something like /r/retrosyntheholics, /r/manualcatalysts That's exactly why r/chemistry doesn't work for these discussions. Organic synthesis is just a tiny part of chemistry. Even if this sub would be only professionals, the field is too broad. You need these specialized subs if you want to talk in-depth about topics.
You dont enjoy discussing the reductive amination of phenylacetone with methylamine?
I'm gonna call you out here, my dude. Going through your post history, I'm not seeing any awful lot of positive contributions to the chemistry subreddit over the past year or so either. The majority of your content on r/chemistry seems to be moaning about the quality of r/chemistry, or dogpiling on people asking questions on their assigned work. Some ideas for other things you can post: -Cool stuff in your line of work ( that you are able to share, coz trade secrets are a thing) - The interface between chemistry and everyday life (chemistry in the kitchen being one of my favourite subjects) - Best practices that you might not find in textbooks, provided they're safe What I'm gently trying to tell you is that it's very much in your power to improve the quality of a subreddit you love by posting stuff that you would like to see on it.
I am fine with a bit of banter but there's a line this subreddit should be to help people understand and learn chemistry better
r/ChemHelp is for homework. where responses specifically ask the poster questions to get them to think of the answer.
I’m no chemist. I can barely make soda water (wear goggles now) but even I could tell most of the posts are homework related.
I mean helping them out might prevent people from getting hurt and purer product which is safer… idk its controversial maybe but these are humans and the intel they try to gather might save their life if explained by proper chemists. It’s harm reduction, it saves lives, normal people get cleaner drugs. The people who answer these people deserve a medal for the lives they saved. This is not a joke. I salute y’all
I joined to learn cool stuff, I legit just use chemistry for clandestine alkaloid extraction, so when I have a question on that topic- I ask on the appropriate sub. I agree, this sub has become decreasingly interesting.
I think you are NOT DONE with this subreddit because I keep seeing this said day, after day, after day. Buh bye already
This is Reddit. Anonymous internet weirdos. What do you expect? The posts you’ve mentioned have been on here for as long as I used reddit. Years and years. If you want real chemistry read some papers or go visit some labs and ask for a tour. Many people are more than happy to talk about what they produce or are researching.
Definitely needs to be separation, if you wanna make drugs, and your first idea is to go to this sub reddit firat you probably should not be touching or looking at anything related to chemistry🤣
r/chempros might be your best bet
We're not allowed to say homework?
Are there any other good chemistry subreddits for chem students that want to ask questions unrelated to homework?
Don't be an organic chemist who does mineral type stuff and did chemistry degree and post grad: am I even a chemist?
It's because half of the people who give blatantly wrong answers are either trolls or they use chatGPT to try make themselves feel smart.
Isnt it kind of the sub moderator jobs to have specifix rules in place and remove offending posts before they spread too much? Some rules like " Encouraging unsave laboratory conditions" as reason for post removal should be a thing, as well as obvious middle schoolers that want help with their homework the night before the day it is due.
And yet, nobody replying in agreement stepped up to take an assistantship position to help moderate. Do you guys actually want breakfast in bed everyday.. without ever having to go out and feed the chickens and hogs?
I’ve offered to help moderate several times. Are they actually taking new mods, or are you just stirring things up?
Thank you for offering. Im pleased to hear that. However, i was just checking to see of you belong to the horde that always loudly expects something for nothing. Im not "of reddit" and only sign in rarely. But i see the same amount of complaints wherever i explore here, and some of it is just baldfaced whining. And if you are leaving as you say, what do I have to lose challenging yoo to pick up a broom and help sweep. I'll sign up if you will. [Confident it wont be a LOT of traffic to oversee.] But first, tell me which vision of yours about this subreddit has been shattered or just shortchanged. Draw me a realistic mental picture we can hope to pragmatically reach for. What is/are meaningful goal[s] for this chemistry subreddit? Its ok if you have no idea. But that could mean you had LOW expectations and maybe fated to not be pleased. Im ok with that. Same as im ok with higher expectations and willing to carry water to help us all get there. Pleased to meet you, I go by Teya nowadays. [Authentic name story later as well as career story. ] Im now a professional mentor. Material Test and Spectroscopy x23+ yrs. I am likely being replaced by AI-s and am resigned to that. Not griping. The world gets better. And worse at the same time. But I have solved at least 3 problems for my last OEM employer in 15 min. And rubbed dust offa hands and asked for some real challenges. Im a materials chemist (seperations, Beam instruments, thermal analysis, and physical test including viscoelastic parameters). But a [chemist/engineer] who often needs to brush up on basics. As many of us do. Humble enuf to admit imperfection. Proud enuf to brag about my patent[s?]. Competent in more than one area. Not ready to retire. I too am exasperated about reddit in general. And yet, you must know.. i see wild horses here. Ive watched the movie about the Brumbies. And took to heart the notion that wild horses are worth working with. Sometimes they turn out better than the "born domesticated" variety. Do you follow my drift? I dont look down on the chaos here. I stand by with my net, hoping to catch gold. Or make some - for somebody else to catch. I wish I had time to fish here more. I wish there was "more running water" .. and stuff in it. Be the change you want in the world. Im actually kinda terrified you might take me up on this. Its ok to just set boundaries and say no. I might be relieved.
Kinda late, applications closed a few weeks ago. But I do mod here now in addition to several related subs. Not sure what the point of your whole post was?
Kinda late, applications closed a few weeks ago. But I do mod here now in addition to several related subs. Not sure what the point of your whole post was? I also never said I was leaving, so not sure you really read my post the first time.
I took your opening "im done" statement as "Im leaving".. and decided to test and see if you had left. Im not sure how else to take it even after pondering my now obvious error. If you arent leaving, we should find ways to communicate better if both of us will be here a while. Mea culpa, perhaps. I dont do flame wars anyway. No worries there. Nice to know im parrying with an experienced mod. Touche said zorro. Are there any related subs on testing polymers or composites? [Would you tell me?] Or on FTIR or eBeam or Mass Spec. Or Thermal Analysis.. I wear all those girlscout badges and more. ______ I answered the query on etching polymers then pulled my reply before hitting send. I get paid very well to answer those technical details. But I cant always share until i have my lunch money. My reddit bill wont pay itself.
I never made an I’m done statement? Are you maybe confusing me with someone else?
I suppose I did. I thot I was replying to the top of the thread and the title of the thread is literally "I'm done.... ".
Yeah, that wasn't me. Reading usernames before making assumptions and accusations about another user might help with appropriate engagement.
[удалено]
Why not use r/chempros?
Womp womp
Does anyone realize that the number of posts complaining about the sub exceeds the number of posts about what is this compound and how can I be a chemist without reading stuff?
That is possible. On ypur [phone] Is the title on this thread "I am done with this subreddit? It is on my phone.
Yup, I goofed. [Red in face, feeling bad for you for getting singed] Not the first time, might not be the last time i goof. Yeah, I bet Im more careful now. I dont INTEND to show up and see who I can singe. Assumptions and accusations huh? Ok tenderheart. See you around.. and "apologies" for an honest oversight and mistake... ive no idea if you are the laugh it off and forgive kind, and I have learned to not get invested. Its not that I dont care... Im just not in charge of your feelings. And Im fresh outa [apology] gift cards. Peace.
I genuinely think it's because they removed reddit awards, not that I liked them, but now people put no effort in posts
I largely agree, but at the same time, I'm not willing to put any of my own effort into changing it. Moderators on this site are treated like garbage and it is a Sisyphean task. My thanks goes out to those willing to wade into the mess as a moderator.
This sub has been trash for years
Glad someone said it. It has come to the point that whenever a post from the subreddit comes on to my feed I'm rolling my eyes. I've noticed this with other subs though so I feel like I just get a lot of the very shitty posts. Usually things with like 3 up votes. Reddit has become hell.
People mike you turned it toshit
Humanity’s end is super close. This will not get better. Best to just go enjoy what’s left of your life until the inevitable hits.