[Question] Where should I ask this particular kind of question?

[Long try]

I am pondering a hypothetical scenario that I think is fascinating but quite unrealistic and involves knowledge across a wide variety of fields, of which IMO physics gets the better part.

I’m considering some sites that I know. Reddit has a sub called r/​AskScienceDiscussion but this sub is not very warm to this type of query. Quora has degraded so much and doesn’t even have the option to expand the subject over a length of mere 150 chars or so, which is utterly ridiculous. I’m not sure about Stackexchange—should I post in their physics site? LessWrong boasts that people can ask anything and it aims to be better than the former 2, but judging from what I read, questions almost exclusively focus on rationality, and the reach (the amount of folks who can read it, or how popular the platform is within a population) is small. There’s another option of posting in fora such as physicsforum, but I don’t have an account there so my knowledge is limited about how people will respond.

Thus, my question is a bit meta: what do you think is the best place to post the question? If there’s something better than what I listed, then please kindly enlighten me. Also, I’d like to ask you guys to not be biased toward our own platform we’re standing on. Thanks!

[leggi]

I found LW a few months ago. I’ve got stuff to share and the feedback has been invaluable. A handful of people have commented, more than enough to give me the fresh perspective I needed.

The worst that can happen is a dollop of bad karma, so I’d say post your question here and see who’s out there reading.

[Pattern]

This question might be easier given the question you want to ask. That said,

what do you think is the best place to post the question?

Post it everywhere! You might even get different answers from different places! (If you’re really worried, then make throwaway accounts**. Provided they’re not deleted, banned, etc. (which would be extreme*), they’ll make it easier the next time you have a question you’re not sure about posting!)

*In the event of such a move, I’d want to hear about it.

**There might be some rules around that here(like no double voting). You also might want to lookup/​ask for some general internet information on how to make that harder to detect.

[Long try]

“Pattern”? Hm, may I ask the origin of your nickname and whether it has anything to do with tSA? :)

I tried that spamming method some times in the past. It was better than asking in just 1 place, but the margin was small. Anyway, I’ve found that asking the question here on LW is not fruitful.

[Pattern]

:)

Also my interest in math—things like fractals are cool.

Anyway, I’ve found that asking the question here on LW is not fruitful.

Hm. I’m not sure what places are dedicated to (weird*) physics thought experiments (maybe there’s subreddit* or discord like that?), aside from https://​​what-if.xkcd.com/​​. I’m aware of Stack exchange (or is it overflow?): physics, and worldbuilding.

*https://​www.reddit.com/​r/​whatif/​, https://​​www.reddit.com/​​r/​​xkcd/​​, https://​​www.reddit.com/​​r/​​AskReddit/​​. That last one might tell you another good place or subreddit to ask if they think it’s more suited to somewhere else.

[Long try]

Oh, that very last sentence is something I didn’t think about. I also discovered worldbuilding very recently, looks promising too. Thanks!

[9eB1]

Perhaps the community to ask on mostly doesn’t depend on the expertise of the denizens, but your ability to get a response. If so, it matters more whether your question is something that will “hook” the people there, which depends more on the specific topic of the question than on the knowledge required to answer it. For example, if it were about the physics of AI, you’d be likely to get an answer on LessWrong. If it’s about academic physics, reddit might be better. If you are using it to write fanfiction, just ask on a fanfiction forum.

It matters quite a bit how hypothetical the scenario is. For example, is it a situation that is actually physically impossible? Does it likely have a specific concrete answer even if you (or anyone) knows it, or will it end up being a matter of interpretation? Would a satisfying answer to the question advance the field of physics or any other field?

Anyway, another option is Twitter. Personally, I’d ask on LessWrong, PhysicsOverflow, or Reddit.

[Long try]

Yes, your 1st point makes sense. I take it that since it’s somewhat difficult to accurately predict whether the question will hook those people, an umbrella approach where I post in many media is the most rational 1?

My scenario is really hypothetical. I forgot to mention xkcd What if? as an option in my list in the OP, but yeah, it will fit very nicely and frankly I think my question belongs there. But unfortunately, it seems that xkcd has stopped answering What if queries, because his latest entry is 2017 or so.

[Shmi]

How likely is it that your question has not already been asked, answered, indexed and on the first page of google search with a reasonable query? My guess is very unlikely. So a better question might be, and it’s something you could ask here, “I’m interested in understanding X, but not sure how to find reliable information about it, what search terms should I try?” The relevant part of stack overflow could also be a good candidate for such a question. Even at their unfriendliest, they might close your question as a duplicate or off-topic, but still provide a link to the similar questions asked.

[Long try]

Your guess is spot-on. My question needs some details and can hardly be summarized into a neat google query.

OK, so it’s hard to describe what X be like; but this picture is the inspiration of my pondering: https://​​apod.nasa.gov/​​apod/​​ap160911.html

The simplest form of my inquiry would be along the line of “What happens next?”. In that case, what do you think X is?

[jmh]

APOD has a comment on the daily image section and (IIRC) a number of forums for posing questions. Why not ask there?

[Long try]

Just tried. No responds so far. I think the APOD forum is even less visited than LW, so the reach is really short.