Area 51 » Mike Sherov

Apr 3	awarded	● Nice Question
Mar 24	awarded	● Nice Question
Sep 30	awarded	● Nice Question
Aug 15	awarded	● Nice Question
Aug 2	awarded	● Upholder
Aug 2	awarded	● Grassroots
Jul 10	awarded	● Radical
Jun 17	comment	Personal Finance and Money: How do Swiss Bank Accounts work? Can I open one? It's off topic because "how do Swiss bank accounts work?" is worded in a way where it's obvious the asker is trying to hide money. If it was worded "I live in Switzerland. how do bank accounts work? How can I open one?", that would be different. As worded, it's a question about how to cheat on your taxes.
Jun 17	comment	Personal Finance and Money: It's hard pay the rent with gold. Gold doesn't yield income. So why does gold have value? Why do people sell dollars or euros and buy gold? Great offtopic example, because it shows the fine line between personal finance and economics.
Jun 16	awarded	● Editor
Jun 10	comment	Gaming: The Chess game that came with my Mac is too hard! How can I beat it? Strategies, anyone? @Jeff, yeah, I guess I'm marking this as not a good example. Haven't quite figured out the purpose of "meh" just yet.
Jun 9	comment	Gaming: The Chess game that came with my Mac is too hard! How can I beat it? Strategies, anyone? Wait a minute, though. The chess game that comes with a mac employs a specific algorithm, possibly one you wouldnt encounter in a live opponent. Kasporov had a whole set of strategies specifically for computer opponents. Maybe it's the devil's advocate in me, but I'd say this is on-topic.
Jun 9	comment	Gaming: Do I have to pay to play [Aeon] or do “free/private servers” exist? Answers that violate a game's TOS are obviously OT.
Jun 9	comment	Gaming: Should I be worried about eye-strain? Seems like health advice to me, and OT.
Jun 9	comment	Gaming: What are the current game deals (in digital distribution)? (CW) Off topic because it would quickly become outdated. Most proposals are marking timely answers as OT.
Jun 8	comment	Web Applications: Why do some audio files play at the wrong speed in Google Reader? @Nick, but the product is a web app.
Jun 8	comment	Web Applications: Would you find a web application to send articles to all social bookmarking services at once useful? I voted OT. Questions seeking public opinion about non-existence software quickly devolve into "hey guys, I'm making a web app that does XYZ, care to test it out?"
Jun 7	comment	Physics This proposal's participants seem to think every question is off topic. How about posting an on-topic example question?
Jun 5	awarded	● Filibuster
Jun 4	comment	Personal Finance and Money: How can I make money on eBay? I usually don't consider entrepreneurship to be on-topic to personal finance.
Jun 4	comment	Food and Cooking: What are the benefits of maintaining your own herb garden? @Robert, close, although I suppose I'm splitting hairs now. Perhaps a broader question would be "What are the benefits of cultivating my own herb garden?"
Jun 4	comment	Personal Finance and Money: Should I buy a car? @Rich, upon look back at it, I suppose you're right.
Jun 3	awarded	● Centrist
Jun 3	awarded	● Caucus
Jun 3	comment	Writers: What is the most attention-grabbing first line of fiction you've ever read and what technique made it so? subjective, but appropriate for community wiki. Answers would be filled with some of the greatest story openings ever, something I would consider to be constructive to an aspiring writer.
Jun 3	awarded	● Commentator
Jun 3	comment	Food and Cooking: What are the benefits of maintaining your own herb garden? A less subjective form of this question would be: "How does freshness effect the flavor of herbs? Enough that I should grow my own herb garden?" Or "if I plan on cooking X nights/week for X/people, does it make sense to grow my own herb garden". As is, this question seems off topic to me.
Jun 3	comment	Food and Cooking: How can I get a flavor that that tastes like <some food>? I'm not sure why this needs more detail? Is it not enough to ask "what foods taste similar to?" sure, it's more interesting to say "I'm vegan... What vegan food tastes like X?", but it's not more on topic, is it?
Jun 3	comment	Personal Finance and Money: What's the biggest mistake you have made in trading stock? This question runs the danger of "I bought XYZ stock... What a dud!" also, due to the personal nature of the question, even as a CW, the answers would probably be too subjective.
Jun 3	comment	Personal Finance and Money: What percent of salary do you invest and/or forward to your savings account? "do you" questions usually lead to CW type answers. If the OP wants personal advice, it should be adked as "should you... and why"