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This is a question about What gases are made by a live, crackling, exposed electrical wire?

It asks about the

Effects of world elements, including technology on specific aspects of that world's environment

It looks absolutely on-topic to.

But it looks like it is still on hold.

I've been to the help center a couple of times now, but I don't see the problem.

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  • $\begingroup$ Regarding meta questions about WB questions > Please link to the question you're talking about! | Regarding tags on the meta: if you click on a tag you get to the tag wiki, there you find a description for each tag (same applies to WB as well as any other stackexchange site) $\endgroup$ – dot_Sp0T Sep 22 '17 at 7:18
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for adding the link. I've amended as Secespitus suggested. Perhaps it will be put off hold now. $\endgroup$ – DPT Sep 22 '17 at 15:17
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In your edit which introduced Meta questions into your post you said (emphasis yours):

Second edit: It's fine with me if this is kept on hold but the help center says on topic world building topics include:

"Effects of events or world elements, including biology, technology and magic, on specific aspects of that world's societies, cultures, and environment."

This can be abbreviated to:

"Effects of world elements, including technology , on specific aspects of that world's environment."

The important part in this is not what you emphasised, but "that world's environment". You are not creating a new world, you are asking about our world. And you are not introducing any changes that would change the outcome in your world compared to our world. That's why it was put on hold for being off-topic.

When asking only about the real world other sites who focus on these things would get you better results. After all they focus on answering how the behaviour really is. When asking on WorldBuilding you should state what you are doing with this that would be off-topic as hypothetical (or something similar) on other sites.

What is your goal? What are you trying to create? Do you need to create certain gases for a scenario in your world and want to know what would need to be changed about our atmosphere, the behaviour of electricity, ...?

You state that it's an important aspect of WorldBuilding because it impacts technological advancement, but you are only looking at the impacts on our society and give no information about the world you are currently building.

If you intended to make this a general question about possible configurations you should try to ask something like "What are the major influences when thinking about which gases are created by a live, crackling, exposed wire?" That would mean answerers would have to say something about the general influence, not about our worlds special case.

Disclaimer: I don't know much about the topic and didn't bother to google it, so I am not sure if that example makes a lot of sense. If you need help with phrasing questions for the site you should have a look at our Sandbox.

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  • $\begingroup$ Plenty of other questions are earth-limited e.g. the top q right now: worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/9582/… as one example. $\endgroup$ – DPT Sep 22 '17 at 14:33
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    $\begingroup$ @DPT Thanks for pointing that out. That question should be closed as off topic for not being about worldbuilding. In the future when you see questions that are off topic you can flag them and they will be put in the review queue. $\endgroup$ – sphennings Sep 22 '17 at 14:53
  • $\begingroup$ LOL it has 37 up votes and 40K views. Yeah, I'm definitely gonna flag that for you. #notmyjob $\endgroup$ – DPT Sep 22 '17 at 15:16
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    $\begingroup$ @DPT if a question is not on-topic it is not on-topic , no matter how many upvotes it may garner. People like silly things and jokes for example, still they will be closed even if they get dozens of upvotes before that. $\endgroup$ – dot_Sp0T Sep 22 '17 at 15:21
  • $\begingroup$ I realize that but I would be a total douchebag to flag something so popular. The larger point is that that post is also off topic. Hopefully mine will be returned to active status, or rules will be applied more uniformly. $\endgroup$ – DPT Sep 22 '17 at 15:22
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    $\begingroup$ @DPT The privilege to flag posts is granted at only 15 rep. It is expected (though unenforceable) that you as a member of this community take part in it's moderation. The elected moderators are supposed to handle exceptions that to the normal process. If you want to know more you can read about the Stack Exchange Theory of Moderation. $\endgroup$ – sphennings Sep 22 '17 at 15:59
  • $\begingroup$ I won't be flagging posts. But, please explain why the gas question is still on hold? I've amended as requested. I'll also ask a second time, as this comment route does not seem to be going anywhere useful. $\endgroup$ – DPT Sep 22 '17 at 16:02
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    $\begingroup$ Your question is still on hold because it has received 3 of the 5 votes necessary for it to be reopened. Any user who has earned at least 3000 reputation can vote to open and close questions. $\endgroup$ – sphennings Sep 22 '17 at 16:11
  • $\begingroup$ Your point is that the question is on topic here but you prefer to get it migrated. Yet nobody is migrating it. $\endgroup$ – Vincent Sep 22 '17 at 18:46
  • $\begingroup$ @DPT If you want your question migrated to chemistry.se flag the question and ask the mods to migrate it for you. $\endgroup$ – sphennings Sep 22 '17 at 19:41
  • $\begingroup$ I never suggested migrating it. Not even sure what that means. I did talk about whooping cranes with someone else earlier. They migrate. $\endgroup$ – DPT Sep 22 '17 at 19:48
  • $\begingroup$ @DPT Migrating is when a question is moved to another site on the stack exchange network. In the case of your question Chemistry is a much better fit than Worldbuilding $\endgroup$ – sphennings Sep 22 '17 at 19:53
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    $\begingroup$ @DPT Flags are anonymous, except to diamond moderators and Stack Exchange employees. About the only time who flags a post really matters is usually in the case of suggestions to migrate a question to a different site; in that case, if the user making the suggestion has a decent amount of rep on the suggested target site, the flag is more likely to be acted upon immediately because there is an assumed familiarity with the target site's scope. Beyond that, I can assure you that at least I don't handle flags any differently depending on who raised the flag; all are looked at and acted upon.(..) $\endgroup$ – user Sep 27 '17 at 8:05
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    $\begingroup$ (..) (In some cases, acting upon the flag may simply be to let the community act on the flag through review.) Of course if you leave a comment indicating that you are flagging a post for review, then you are no longer anonymous to the larger user base, but the act of commenting is completely detached from the act of flagging, and there is no requirement by the system to do one when you do the other. See also flag posts privilege in the help center for a more thorough discussion on flags and when flagging is appropriate. $\endgroup$ – user Sep 27 '17 at 8:05
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Questions about the real world are on-topic, except for historical events of or historical facts about the real world. That would go to History SE.

So chemistry question are on-topic. Sometimes people think it is off-topic but this is not true as long as the question is about worldbuilding. These kind of questions can normally be asked here or on Chemistry SE. Questions about hypothetical chemistry might get closed there, I don't know what guidelines they follow:

Questions not about worldbuilding are off-topic

You don't want to know the impact of the technology on your world or how people could use it. You just want to know if it is possible. You make it clear that this is not a worldbuilding question.

My sole question is whether the gaseous makeup of air is changed by electricity running along a wire.

2 possible solutions

  1. Migration to Chemistry SE
  2. Pretend this is about worldbuilding and that you are building a world even if you don't care. If there is a stronger link to worldbuilding, people will be more favourable to reopen the question. But if it isn't sincere, it might not work.
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  • $\begingroup$ It is world building. I am 98000 words into the book and need to find the final point, which is how the damn electric fence can be circumvented. $\endgroup$ – DPT Sep 22 '17 at 19:27
  • $\begingroup$ See Is a “real world” question off topic? $\endgroup$ – user Sep 22 '17 at 22:39

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