Talk:Spectator ion

Merge to counterion
This article has had no supporting references for a decade. It is not very clear what is even being discussed aside from the vague notion that in high dielectric solvents, some metal cations are not associated with some anions. Many of these ideas seem obsolete as increasing chemistry is conducted in low dielectric media. As for precipitation reactions, they can be very sensitive to counterions, so the article is misleading.--Smokefoot (talk) 13:42, 21 December 2019 (UTC)

But all introductory chemistry courses and general chemistry courses introduce the idea of "spectator ions" in order to explain the difference between chemical equations that are written using complete chemicals (e.g. NaCl(aq) ) and net ionic equations. For students in these courses, it would be helpful to have an article about spectator ions. I wouldn't say that what is being discussed in the article is not clear, though it could be expressed a little more clearly. The main point of the article is NOT "the vague notion that in high dielectric solvents, some metal cations are not associated with some anions." And besides, after teaching many chemistry courses I've gotten to like the idea of spectator ions. When I see a bunch of people getting on BART all dressed up in Oakland A's or SF Giants uniforms because they're going to see a game, I think they must be spectator ions too. Sign my post by typing four tildes? OK (2601:648:8200:CCF0:FD81:4341:188D:897E (talk) 06:21, 3 January 2020 (UTC)).
 * Closing with no merge, given the uncontested objection and no support. Klbrain (talk) 15:16, 5 August 2020 (UTC)