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I asked this question and received an excellent answer from DavidPostill, for which I am grateful.

However DavidPostill always answers questions by repeating the relevant part of the question in the answer. This might make sense in lengthy and multipart questions such as this, this, and this; but I would imagine it to be completely unnecesary in a short and simple question like mine, or like this and this -- the question shouldn't need repeating in the answer.

What is the community's feeling on this?

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It certainly doesn't hurt anything.

There's no need to cite the source of the question since it's on the very same page as the answer. So, the only issue at hand is a matter of personal preference of the answerer.

In the best case, it disambiguates exactly which question is being answered. In the worst case, it's merely redundant.

I don't think it makes sense to have an official policy about this. Let people do whatever they prefer in this sense, as either way it's fine.

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  • And yet there seems to be a fairly firm, if not 100% official, policy that "Thanks in advance." takes up too much space.
    – Scott - Слава Україні
    Commented Aug 27, 2015 at 6:47
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    @Scott Repeating the question (in a concise form) helps/can help clarify what is being addressed directly in the answer, and helps clarify the answerer's POV on the question. "Thanks in advance" does nothing to help - so it's not about the 'space' it takes up, it's about usefulness. :)
    – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007
    Commented Aug 27, 2015 at 18:46
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    There is also the case where a user wishes to employ a specific posting methodology to all of their posts (e.g. DragonLord).
    – I say Reinstate Monica
    Commented Aug 28, 2015 at 3:04
  • I see it more like answering in whole sentances , or answering with full sentances. Some teachers in schools and colleges pushed thier students for that a lot, probably because "yes" frustrated the teachers, especially in the essay questions :-)
    – Psycogeek
    Commented Aug 30, 2015 at 13:44

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