What sort of content does SuperUser want? What is a "useful" contribution?

Question

I tried to contribute on Super User, by:

1. Answering "yes" (with an explanation as to why) to a yes/no question
2. Commenting on an UNSOLVED issue, that has been idle and open for about 2 years now.

Every "contribution" I made was deleted, detailing, that what I wrote was useless.

Do I need to wait for 100% resync?

Please do not submit commentary as an answer. It doesn’t appear this answer is an actual solution to the author’s problem – Ramhound 13 hours ago

It is about a RAID setup that will never stop resyncing, a widespread problem among Windows setups. I posted one actual reason for it, so this MIGHT BE an answer to some users having this problem. it was explicitly not for Windows 10, but for a big number of other Windows versions (so maybe related? the VSS subsystem exists in Windows 10, too!)

This post is hidden. It was deleted 12 hours ago by Ramhound, DavidPostill♦.

... Asked 1 year, 8 months ago Active 3 months ago Viewed 3k times

still no answer to this issue.

same problem here (windows10). resyncing was triggered out of thin air and it will never finish. I noticed a lot of disk activity in task manager for no apparent reason. The System so busy resyncing my game-framerate drops.

...trying to put one device "offline" using the disk manager and putting it online again but for 8TB RAID1 every step takes forever.

i found this about "volsnap.sys": Applies to: Win7 Ent, Pro, Ult,Windows Server 2008 R2(...) https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/2913050/mirrored-raid-volumes-report-resynching-status-after-you-restart-windo

I have tried using the comment section in order to narrow down the problem and actively find a solution.

My Question is: What does this site want, content-wise? having answers does imply finding solutions to a problem. Do you really want to strip questions and answers from the process of finding a solution?

Answer 1

I hope you’re serious about wanting guidance.

• The question is about a resync that the OP predicts will take 11 hours.  The OP asks “Can I safely shut down my computer and will it continue the process after next boot?”

  You say that the question is about a RAID setup that will never stop resyncing.  (Where do you see that?)  You answer says it will "resync" forever and NEVER finish.  That’s just a restatement of your misunderstanding of the question!  What question do you believe that you are answering?

• Imagine that you go into a library and say “I have a question about potato waffles.”  The librarian gets out a piece of paper, scribbles something on it, hands it to you and says “Here’s the address of somebody who can help you.”  You say “I thought the library was supposed to have all the information.”  The librarian says “I knew the address, didn’t I?”

  Similarly, some of us believe that Super User should have information.  Some of us believe that posts that say “Here’s the address of a site that has the answer” are not useful.  You should copy the information, and include the link for reference and attribution.  So that’s what Ramhound meant when they said that a link to a solution does not qualify as an answer.

  Oh, but first check the site that contains the solution for their copying policy.  If they don’t allow copying of their information, you probably shouldn’t do it.  Post the link in a comment.

• Your first answer said “i [sic] am going to try this procedure here and report back once its [sic] done.”  How do you believe that to be useful?  If you have discovered a procedure that might work, try it first and then post an answer.
  ^{[OK, I see that Ramhound already said some of the above.]}

• Ramhound said “You also resubmitted the same answer, after it was originally deleted by a moderator, that isn't allowed.”  I’ll admit that that might not be obvious to a new user.  For future reference, here’s what to do if your answer gets deleted.

  1. Try very hard to figure out why it was deleted.  Often somebody will leave a comment.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to have happened in this case.

     • If you can’t figure it out, you can post a question here on Meta.  But, if you do this more than twice per decade, people will regard you as a pest and somebody might delete your account (or at least suspend it).

     When you understand why the answer was deleted,

  2. Edit it to fix the problem(s), and

  3. Flag it, and ask for it to be undeleted.

• Copying the “Asked <when> ago  Active <when> ago   Viewed <how many> times” header into an answer is something people frequently do by accident (when they’re going on a wild copy&paste spree, which they probably shouldn’t be doing).  Please don’t do that — especially not on purpose.

Answer 2

It is about a RAID setup that will never stop resyncing, a widespread problem among Windows setups. I posted one actual reason for it, so this MIGHT BE an answer to some users having this problem. it was explicitly not for Windows 10, but for a big number of other Windows versions (so maybe related? the VSS subsystem exists in Windows 10, too!)

While it certainly can be appropriate for answers to be possible solutions, they must also contain that possible solution, answers that are not written in a way that makes the solution clear will be mistaken for commentary.

In this case, your answer was written in a way, that confirmed the issue still existed. We already knew that was the case, a working solution to the question had yet not been submitted. Indicating the problem still exists, in an answer, is necessary and was treated as commentary.

Your answer only had two possible solutions contained within it. The first indicated that putting the drive offline and online took forever. You don't indicate if this actually resolves the resyncing problem, when I voted to delete your answer, I took that as commentary.

...trying to put one device "offline" using the disk manager and putting it online again but for 8TB RAID1, every step takes forever.

The only other part of your answer that could be taken as a solution reference an external link. I read the external link and didn't actually see a solution there. If there was a solution that existed on the page it certainly wasn't clear.

i found this about "volsnap.sys": Applies to: Win7 Ent, Pro, Ult, Windows Server 2008 R2(...) https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/2913050/mirrored-raid-volumes-report-resynching-status-after-you-restart-windo

You didn't quote the relevant information from this link, you just reference a link, which I again took as commentary. So in the end you indicate the problem still exists (commentary), you indicated that taking the drive offline and putting it online again takes forever (commentary), and you make reference to a link that doesn't contain a solution to the problem.

Answers are supposed to indicate what the solution to the problem is. We are not a forum, having a discussion about a problem is not allowed, it certainly isn't allowed when you submit answers to have that discussion. As for your other answer, it also was deleted, since it was commentary.

I am going to try this procedure here and report back once it's done. https://christitus.com/windows-software-raid/

If you have a possible solution, wait until you have tried the solution, then submit a detailed answer on how to solve the problem using that solution. Indicating you have a possible solution and are going to try it, is not helpful to the community. I have had my share of problems that I have had to solve, nothing is more frustrating to find a discussion about a problem, only to run into a comment like "I will report back once it's done" only to realize it's from years ago.

Answer 3

What does this site want, content-wise?

See What topics can I ask about here?.

Do you really want to strip questions and answers from the process of finding a solution?

The answer to your second question is likely to be opinion-based, I believe. To the best of my understanding, this is fine for the meta section of a site, such as this https://meta.superuser.com.

I strive at writing answers in a way that makes the reader understand the solution to the question as quickly as possible. In 99 cases out of 100, this will most likely mean "to strip questions and answers from the process of finding a solution".

Thus, my answer to your second question is: Yes!

References:
https://superuser.com/help/dont-ask
https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/64069/625553