This tag is for questions about answers: how to answer, whether specific answers are appropriate, and so forth.
5
votes
1answer
78 views
How should we deal with OPs that edit in answer to question [duplicate]
It was discussed at Putting found answer in OP that you should answer the question with the solution, not edit that information into the question. But that discussion failed to cover what to do when ...
4
votes
0answers
75 views
Cannot delete anything questions/answers/comments in SO/MSO/SE
Whenever I click on the delete button for a question/answer/comment that I made (these were not accepted answers/questions with answers) the usual "Delete this post? OK Cancel" Dialog appears.
But ...
-1
votes
0answers
28 views
Set answer when user forgot to accept for long time and voteup [duplicate]
I have seen a lot of questions on StackOverflow when some users create questions and forgot (or does not care about it) to check what is the right answer even when he see the post and thanks for it. I ...
-3
votes
1answer
57 views
Answering “ambiguous” questions [duplicate]
For questions like this one where code works perfectly fine and there does not seem to be an issue, is is ok to answer the question with a different form of the question just because:
The question ...
3
votes
3answers
83 views
How do I deal with code with obvious issues?
I know that it's wrong to edit code in a question/answer, as discussed in "When is it appropriate to edit someone else's code?" and "How far can I refactor someone else's code?". Instead of editing ...
5
votes
3answers
143 views
Should incredibly low quality answers be blocked
Recently this "answer" was posted. The entire text was this (for when it is deleted):
dwaadwadadadawdwadsadsadsa dsa asldo as safd afik fa oidfawe fdaudf a aewuf aeiu
It is obviously completely ...
5
votes
1answer
45 views
How to handle corrections to answers?
What is the correct action when reviewing this suggested edit?
I approved the edit based on:
It's an answer, not a question
The original answer was given 18 months ago
The original answerer has not ...
2
votes
1answer
38 views
Answering a question with suggestions from other multiple answers
Is it OK to answer a question (your own or someone else's) if it already has answers, but the full answer requires the suggestions from multiple answers (with credit being given to the authors of the ...
8
votes
1answer
66 views
Editing answers
If I've answered a question, then from seeing another users answer, I realise, my answer is wrong. Is it ok to edit my answer, based on this new awareness from another answer, that my answer is wrong?
...
2
votes
1answer
107 views
What should we do in the event that an answer is absolutely incorrect?
Today, I received this comment about an answered I flagged:
declined - flags should not be used to indicate technical inaccuracies, or an altogether wrong answer
Now, it doesn't matter what the ...
2
votes
1answer
51 views
What is UserAnswer?
Today, I came across this site which has an exact duplicate of an answer I posted some time ago on StackOverflow.com:
Answer on UserAnswer.com (Note that a full citation of who answered the question ...
0
votes
0answers
59 views
DIdn't get the lost reputation when the downvoted answer is deleted
Today I saw this Error converting NSString to UTF8String question on Stack Overflow. There were some incorrect answers. I down-voted them all. I lost some points too (I know down-voting answer will ...
1
vote
2answers
44 views
Casting undelete vote for my own answer [duplicate]
Currently I met with an issue in Stack Overflow.
I gave answer to this question: enable Assertions in objective c . As a quick answer I only added some-links and I was editing my answer, at that time ...
7
votes
0answers
62 views
Can I request a mod to delete an answer?
Just wondering. I answered a question earlier today that had 2 incorrect answers on it, which both interestingly had up-votes despite being incorrect.
Then a 4th person answered the question ...
4
votes
0answers
54 views
A better “insufficient explanation” post notice
While answering this, I realized that the "insufficient explanation" post notice had potential to be quite useful on sites like MO, Physics, Chem (possibly Math, Bio, CogSci, and the other science ...
-1
votes
1answer
112 views
Downvoted on an answer to my own question! [closed]
I'd really like to know, after posting the answer to my own question (after much searching, and no help from the community) with the actual answer? I'd still have 2 reputation points if I didn't post ...
4
votes
2answers
165 views
Unable to post any answer or comment with UNION - ALL
I've encountered issues posting comments or answers numerous times over the last month, I've narrowed it down that it only occurs when I use UNION and ALL next to each other (ie SQL). If I separate ...
-22
votes
1answer
135 views
Invisible period after posting to prevent “gimme” answers
I hate to see "gimme teh codez" questions get the code-only answers they're looking for, because it reinforces bad behavior on the part of both the asker and the answerer. The problem is that if the ...
0
votes
1answer
40 views
Can I post a similar answer on two different questions?
Yesterday the question Maximum/Minimum of all subarrays/ Windows of size k (Must Read the Accepted Answer, New Method) was asked. It turned out to be a duplicate of Finding maximum for every window ...
2
votes
1answer
43 views
What is the policy on occasionally answering questions anonymously?
I was in a situation earlier where a colleague had a problem I knew the answer to. Because of office-political reasons I couldn't help (this isn't your project etc) so I hinted that he should post the ...
3
votes
1answer
67 views
Two similar questions, surprising difference in upvotes
This keeps nagging me. The other day, this question was asked and in no time it had 10 upvotes. Same for the most upvoted answer.
I was surprised. For a first question it's a relatively good ...
1
vote
0answers
48 views
An error occurred submitting the answer
Trying to post the text in the text file located here (shortened Skydrive URL) http://sdrv.ms/16Q10JW
to this question:
Keep "Backspace" key from being held down
I've tried deleting ...
-7
votes
0answers
93 views
Making good answers more visible and rewardable [duplicate]
I have seen really good answers(Including mine) where the questioner just said "Fantastic , thank you so much!" and then left without accepting it or at least giving a up vote.
I suggest these kind ...
-6
votes
2answers
86 views
Can we clarify or remove the Not An Answer flag reason?
In light of the discussion here (verdict: NAA is not to be used for "Answers a different question") and here, the NAA flag seems a bit redundant and ambiguous to me. AFAICT, the current legitimate ...
8
votes
2answers
137 views
When an answer answers the wrong question, is it Not An Answer?
Looking at this comment and the response to it, I'm a bit confused:
Just to clarify. I shouldn't flag an off-topic answer as "Not an
Answer" right? Example: OP asks "How do I append a string to ...
-7
votes
1answer
247 views
What to do if answers to a question are incorrect and no one is listening [closed]
I am concerned about this situation.
I am attempting to maintain the integrity of the information provided on Stack Overflow.
Users are commented and making statements about PHP and pre- and ...
11
votes
5answers
156 views
Is answering a question with “Your problem does not happen in an isolated environment” acceptable?
Sometimes we get questions where the problem can't be reproduced given the information OP mentioned.
Sometimes we get questions where OP posts code and asks why the code doesn't work where in fact ...
0
votes
3answers
149 views
Is it valid to use to edit answers and remove the original under 5 mins?
Recently a 133K user answered a question here, which was totally a wrong answer (No doubt, we all make mistakes, doesn't matter), but later he edited the answer using and so on, ...
3
votes
2answers
68 views
Answers with too much code and too little explanation
I recently pointed a friend in the direction of Stack Overflow as a place she could get answers to her questions. She responded that she'd tried it but that all that happened was that people would ...
2
votes
1answer
40 views
A duplicate question. where the duplicate could have more answers
How to generate barcode in vb.net without using 3rd party tool
This question is a possible duplicate
Code 128 Barcode generation in vb.net
However, after investigating the answers to the other ...
1
vote
3answers
71 views
Should I edit my wrong answer or post a new answer?
I answered a question based on my theory, without actually trying out the solution myself. Then after a small conversation over comments, it turns out, this won't solve the said problem.
Now I have ...
-11
votes
2answers
146 views
How do we add additional gamification to answering questions?
What is the Work Queue?
This is a proposal to use the Badges! system to help provide answers to questions by adding a new review-style queue for working Questions and using the power of the ...
0
votes
1answer
78 views
What to do when OP thanks but does not accept any answer? [duplicate]
If you provide a good answer for a question and the asker explicitly comment your answer with something like: "Thanks so much, now it's working!", but he does not accept your answer (maybe because ...
-2
votes
3answers
178 views
People not reading questions
Last time I feel that percentage of people quickly writing some clueless "answer" without even reading question carefully grows drastically.
Probably they are driven by this motivation: "someone can ...
1
vote
1answer
71 views
What does it mean when an answer's text is in a light color? [duplicate]
Some of the answers' text are in light grey. What does this indicate?
-2
votes
2answers
61 views
Flagged answer was not the answer I was looking for
I recently asked this question. One of the answers that is currently there, I had flagged as "Not an Answer", because as I state in comments, I wasn't looking for a solution to the problem I was ...
-2
votes
1answer
71 views
Should you denote your edits with “Edit”? [duplicate]
Generally when I want to make an edit to my question, if it is not something essential to the question itself, I add it denoting that it is an edit. Just like this:
Edit: Extra information.
I am ...
-1
votes
0answers
48 views
Newest answers list
At the moment, we have an option to list the newest questions. Why not have one to list the newest answers as well?
This feature would be beneficial for two reasons:
It would benefit users who come ...
1
vote
2answers
106 views
Can't get any answers and can't contact users who previously answered related questions
I'm trying to solve a problem which only one other person seems to have posted a question about on Stack Overflow and has answered their own question.
The problem is that their answer doesn't ...
3
votes
2answers
42 views
answering a question with additional info
I answered a question about a form being submitted on a website with php. The user stated he was new to php.
I put a lot of effort into making it a simple as possible for him, but with thorough ...
9
votes
2answers
99 views
Should we augment or improve answers using edits?
As far as I can tell, we have no consistent stance or policy on this one.
Per our proposed/staged review guidelines:
Edits that change an answer's explanation or code, with a supposedly "better" ...
-23
votes
4answers
117 views
Answer Timeout Based on User's Points [duplicate]
I'd like to request an answer timeout feature based on the number of karma points a user has.
Purpose: I've been on the site for about two years and noticed that highly experienced (10k+) users are ...
10
votes
3answers
228 views
How should we treat answers that ignore the premises of the question?
A considerable portion of the questions asked on Stack Overflow are beginner questions. Often this makes the answerers considerably prone to underestimating the asker's capacity to understand their ...
-7
votes
0answers
46 views
Answers button link to answer section
Some post are painfully long. What if for some reason I keep consulting the answer section of a question in the feed but don't want to scroll all the way through the infinite explanations in the ...
-3
votes
1answer
75 views
Allow partial answers for “too localized” questions
I'm taking this question as an example: Code after foreach is not executing
This question contains a general description of what OP thinks is the problem (foreach interrupts execution) and a dump of ...
9
votes
6answers
228 views
How should I act when I see tiny “Have you tried this..?” type of answers?
Should we flag tiny "Have you tried this..?" type of answers?
I have been always inconsistent to this type of answers about in flagging part. Based on this example;
If this answer is a question ...
-10
votes
1answer
132 views
Should this code-only answer be accepted
While I was arguing with a user for what was in my opinion a code-only answer, he told me that it is the only answer you could give since the OP didn't provide enough information.
This is the answer. ...
19
votes
3answers
569 views
Please stop linking to the “Zalgo” / anti-Cthulhu regex rant
Anyone who has stopped for more than 5 seconds in the regex tag knows of this "dubious" answer:
Every time you attempt to parse HTML with regular expressions, the unholy child weeps the blood of ...
0
votes
1answer
72 views
Showing different reputation in different places [closed]
Can anyone please explain to me what's going on here?
Someone accepted my answer and it's showing in my reputation tab but not increased my total reputation.
2
votes
1answer
118 views
Questions with 1 answer (not accepted) get ignored by people
Normally if anyone asks a question and there are no answers it usually stays up the top of the page - if its a relatively new question. Many people get to see it and the possibility of getting a good ...
