Question

Why isn't there a subject on Socratic for "other" educational questions?

To be clear, I am talking about more obscure school subjects (for example, Human Geography). In other words, academic subjects not given a specific category.

Answer 1

Here's why.

Explanation:

Socratic does not have a special subject for miscellaneous subjects because that would reduce the visibility of the questions that students ask and of the answers that contributors post.

We want students who land on Socratic to have easy access to the subjects and topics that they're interested in.

For example, if a student wants to learn about the quadratic formula, he can find answers on this topic by going

Algebra `->` Quadratic Equations and Functions `->` Quadratic Formula

So creating a special subject, subtopic, and topic for quadratic formula answers will give students easier access to the content posted here.

By comparison, creating a special subject for questions on various subjects would make the answer posted there very difficult to find.

In this case, we would probably have to create subtopics and topics just to be able to have some sort of organization in there. With time, the volume of questions would probably increase to the point that we would have to move some of these "obscure" subjects as separate subjects just to make it easier for students to actually find what they're looking for.

For example, we could start with something like this

Miscellaneous subjects `->` Human Geography

and eventually, end up with something like this

Miscellaneous subjects `->` Human Geography `->` Population geography

Miscellaneous subjects `->` Human Geography `->` Urban geography

and so on. At this point, we would simply move Human Geography as a separate subject, which would bring us to where we are now.

Long story short, we want the content available on Socratic to be as organized as possible in order to make it easier for students to find and use it. This is why Socratic has separate subjects.

Moreover, we don't want to have subjects on the site just for the sake of having subjects on the site. In order for Socratic to have a real impact, we need to ensure that we develop and organize each subject to the point that it becomes a serious resource for students.