Why we ask for units every single time, with three examples of what goes wrong posts 91–120
This is a continuation of a long topic, addressed by post number rather than by page. Start at post 1.
Speaking as somebody who asked badly last month and got a polite request for four missing details: writing the question properly the first time takes ten minutes and saves two days. Learn from me.
This is the sort of thing that ought to be settled and apparently is not.
Post #93 answers the question as asked. The question underneath it is different.
A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either.
Post #93 and I disagree about the size of the effect, not about the direction.
If you are asking about a document, quote the exact wording of the line you are asking about. Paraphrasing a specification is how a discussion ends up about a document nobody has read.
That is the distinction I keep failing to hold on to. Written down now.
Lab result questions: state the result, the reference interval, and what else is on the same panel. A single flag on a single draw is usually uninformative without context.
Second-hand, so weight it accordingly.
Units. Everything needs units. This is why we ask every single time. I have seen the same arithmetic done three different ways depending on whether the person was thinking mg/mL or mg/dose or something else entirely. Stating the units makes that impossible.
Scoping that to what I have actually seen rather than what I have read.
A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either.
The answer changed when I changed how I was measuring, which was informative.
Adding the measurement that post #97 says would settle it.
Staff note on titles, since it comes up. We retitle topics fairly often, always leaving the original in the first post and always logging it. It is not a criticism of the wording — it is that a title is how somebody finds this in eighteen months.
Post #101 answers the question as asked. The question underneath it is different.
What you have already read matters. Saying "I read the maintained page on this and I still have a gap" tells people they do not need to point you at the same resource you have already found. That is a genuine time saver.
Five questions in one post gets you one answer: the easiest one, usually not the one you needed most. Post them separately or pick the one that depends on the others least and ask that one first.
I would put the burden of proof on the interesting explanation, not the dull one.
A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either.
The disagreement above is smaller than it looks once the terms are fixed.
Everything in post #101 holds. The case it does not cover is the one I have.
Arithmetic questions: write out the steps. "I have a 10 mg vial, I added 2 mL, I want a 0.25 mg dose, and I get this number for the syringe mark" is answerable. "How many units" is not.
Narrowing post #105, because the general version has more than one answer.
A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either.
Quietly grateful for the plain phrasing. Not every thread gets that.
Answering the question post #105 raises rather than the one it answers.
A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either.
The literature is thinner on this than the confidence in the thread implies.
Units. Everything needs units. This is why we ask every single time. I have seen the same arithmetic done three different ways depending on whether the person was thinking mg/mL or mg/dose or something else entirely. Stating the units makes that impossible.
I have kept the units in throughout, for the obvious reason.
Five questions in one post gets you one answer: the easiest one, usually not the one you needed most. Post them separately or pick the one that depends on the others least and ask that one first.
Asking a follow-up: new topic or reply in the old one? If the answer depends on the previous post, reply. If it is a question that makes sense without the previous post, new topic. The second gets faster answers.
A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either.
If it helps: the failure mode here is usually boring rather than dramatic.
I read post #114 twice before replying, because I had assumed the opposite.
Arithmetic questions: write out the steps. "I have a 10 mg vial, I added 2 mL, I want a 0.25 mg dose, and I get this number for the syringe mark" is answerable. "How many units" is not.
I looked this up rather than remembered it, which is the right order.
Post the arithmetic you already did. Half the questions here are answered by someone spotting which line of your working is wrong, and that is impossible if you only give the answer you got.
That is clearer than the version I had in my head. Thank you.
Everything in post #118 holds. The case it does not cover is the one I have.
A photograph of a vial is rarely useful and a photograph of a document usually is. Redact the identifiers before you post either.