13 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: Announcement: New Rules, Guidelines and Flair System
Is there any reason the flairs don't distinguish between someone who got a PhD and then has spent their next twenty years salmon fishing in the Yemen, vs. someone who got a PhD and then has spent their next twenty years reading, writing, teaching, and thinking about philosophy every day? I mean, I love people with philosophy PhDs as much as the next person - they're basically the highest form of human being - but it's not like your expertise stops developing once you get your degree. People who stay in the profession get much more sophisticated as time goes on!
Comment by ADefiniteDescription at 05/11/2018 at 15:52 UTC
4 upvotes, 1 direct replies
These changes to the flair system were developed in large part due to problems we had categorizing various users applying for flair. We haven't had any trouble with users like the ones you suggest. So there's a simple causal explanation for why that distinction isn't reflected in the flair.
There are other reasons. One is that we are concerned with privacy, and don't want to pressure folks into telling us who they are, where they work, etc.
Another is that this line of reasoning strikes me as similar to - although not the same as - different flairs for different levels of quality of expertise even given the same background objective facts (e.g. degrees). We don't want to start flairing people at PGR ranked schools higher than others, and we don't want to pass (too much) judgment on people who get a PhD and go elsewhere to work.
That said, I acknowledge the concern. Our general policy would be to grant the person the PhD flair, and monitor their behavior (like we do all users). If their answers were consistently subpar, out of date, etc., we would engage in a conversation with them and determine a next step, including a switch of flair, or the removal of flair altogether.
Does that speak to your concern?