Questions tagged [answers]

Anything related to posting answers, e.g. about improving their content, voting on answers, editing others' answers, etc.

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82 votes
4 answers
24k views

How do I recommend software in my answers?

I have a piece of software that I would like to recommend as a solution to problems. I'm trying to avoid answering with "link only" answers, and so I need help on how I can answer valid ...
James Mertz's user avatar
  • 26.3k
19 votes
3 answers
454 views

When is an answer eligible to be flagged as "not an answer"? What to do?

When I am flagging answers I read This was posted as an answer, but it does not answer the question. It should possibly be an edit, a comment, another question, or deleted altogether. This is very ...
Tamara Wijsman's user avatar
21 votes
5 answers
1k views

Are purely non-technical answers to technical problems on-topic?

I edited this question yesterday as part of a cleanup spree. It had already gotten a fair bit of activity, but someone tweeted a link to it after I edited it, and things really took off. The topic of ...
Pops's user avatar
  • 8,473
19 votes
4 answers
463 views

Is it rude to answer a question that has been solved in comments?

In this question Make system sounds louder than device A couple different people helped the OP discover the solution to his problem in comments. In cases like this, is it best to just suggest to ...
user avatar
16 votes
4 answers
589 views

Is there a policy for or against providing executables and other self hosted downloads?

My specific case is on my answer here. Is there any policy (on SuperUser or StackExchange) in either direction concerning providing an executable I uploaded myself for others to download? Of course, ...
Bob's user avatar
  • 61.6k
16 votes
9 answers
757 views

Is downvoting link only answers acceptable?

Related: Ban lmgtfy (le me google that for you) links Based on the Why is linking bad? question as well as Are answers that contain only links really good answers? question, is it acceptable ...
BinaryMisfit's user avatar
  • 20.7k
13 votes
6 answers
713 views

Why "Please only post one answer to a question"?

What should I do when I know multiple different ways of doing something asked in question? Should I add them as separate answers or as one comprehensive answer? I think they should be separated, but ...
Vi.'s user avatar
  • 17.2k
7 votes
2 answers
159 views

Retagging questions with the answer

This is a bit related to this topic on MSO. In a recently suggested and approved edit a tag was added to the topic, but it only became applicable through the answer. The user didn't know the tag was ...
Daniel Beck's user avatar
  • 110k
6 votes
1 answer
179 views

Target audience of answer on SU

You have to remember this site is called "superuser" not "idiotuser". You said "it's useful to have such a warning". I don't think it's useful to you at all. It's useful to somebody that perhaps doesn'...
soandos's user avatar
  • 24.4k
33 votes
7 answers
929 views

Is "It's impossible" a valid answer, or is it a comment?

Sometimes you can see a question like How to do <something> in <some program>, asking for advice how to replicate a feature of competitive program or how to do something that OP expects to ...
gronostaj's user avatar
  • 57k
26 votes
4 answers
517 views

Recommending own products

What's our stance on relevant product recommendations? The paragraph in the FAQ is clearly not enough in this case. As a recent example, a developer of an Outlook plug-in/addon started answering ...
Daniel Beck's user avatar
  • 110k
12 votes
4 answers
267 views

What to do with answers to abandoned questions?

This problem has been discussed in several ways by now, but I did not find the problem I am facing with it. I often face the problem that I answer a question and the user who made the question just ...
Michael K's user avatar
  • 3,428
11 votes
1 answer
107 views

Should we edit link only answers?

There's lots of them around, and most times I comment asking the OP to edit the answer and add more detail. However there are some cases where the OP isn't around, but the answer is still valid (...
James Mertz's user avatar
  • 26.3k
7 votes
4 answers
562 views

Comments to a question that should be answers

Problem: A trend of questions being answered purely in the comment field of the question. There is no formal migration of this into the answer format to the question. As a result, questions that ...
Will's user avatar
  • 1,482
1 vote
1 answer
176 views

What's the policy on using the same answer to multiple questions about the same thing?

I just found a new method to do a certain thing ... And excitedly wrote/pasted it to all the questions for which this is an exact fit. Then I started worrying if it wasn't the right thing to do... ...
Milind R's user avatar
  • 897
29 votes
6 answers
569 views

Old posts and answers need protection?

As member of SU for more than 5 years, I have quite a number of old answers lying around. Some of them are so old and outdated that today they are just ridiculous, such as recommending the ...
harrymc's user avatar
  • 479k
18 votes
2 answers
432 views

What should we do with answers that are low quality but otherwise legitimate attempts to answer the question?

In my extensive time on the review queues and 10k tools, there's one thing that's always been bothering me: low-quality answers that consist of no more than a few sentences and often a link to ...
bwDraco's user avatar
  • 46.1k
16 votes
2 answers
1k views

What do we do with low quality answers from high rep users?

Note: if I directly point you out, please don't take it personal I've noticed for some time now that while I've been cleaning up, that there are quite a few active, higher rep users, that are posting ...
James Mertz's user avatar
  • 26.3k
14 votes
1 answer
318 views

Old "link-only answers" by a former moderator

When I report answers (new or old) that point to a link instead of answering the question on Super User, they get deleted or edited to reflect our policies. However, I've tried to report this answer, ...
user avatar
14 votes
2 answers
300 views

Should you answer a question that you know will get closed?

There are questions on SU that are sure to be closed for a variety of reasons. Should you post an answer if you have one? I would think so its OK if you know it will get migrated to another SE site. ...
Keltari's user avatar
  • 73.2k
13 votes
1 answer
168 views

How do I deal with "not an answer" type .. answers ?

So, what should be the protocol for posts in answers sections which are not answers (you know - OMGWTFBBQ I HAVE THIS PROBLEM type posts) Flag for ā™¦ moderator attention ? Flag as offensive ? Flag ...
Sathyajith Bhat's user avatar
  • 61.8k
7 votes
1 answer
128 views

Advertisement answers and company references

What is the proper way to handle Answers that specifically mention a company's products in a way that obviously is more an advertisement than a real answer Answers that refer to a (company's) weblog ...
Daniel Beck's user avatar
  • 110k
7 votes
3 answers
106 views

Should "Not an answer" include off topic answers? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: When is an answer eligible to be flagged as “not an answer”? What to do? This answer turned up flagged as not an answer. I'm not actually certain which way it goes ...
Journeyman Geek's user avatar
  • 129k
6 votes
3 answers
171 views

Why do people post their answers as comments?

Often while browsing Super User, I notice that people post their answers to questions as comments on that question. Why wouldn't they post their answers as answers, so that they can be accepted? I ...
bdr9's user avatar
  • 2,708
5 votes
1 answer
88 views

How do we handle duplicate answers?

I flagged a post for deletion that was (IMO) low quality being that it was more of a comment/question for more information than an answer. I had also posted onto the same question a duplicate answer ...
James Mertz's user avatar
  • 26.3k
5 votes
3 answers
289 views

Is it OK to downvote link only or link/copy/paste answers? [duplicate]

This is related to this question from Diago last year. I have seen a lot of answers with either a link only, or a link with a short description copy/pasted from the developer's website. Personally ...
JNK's user avatar
  • 8,306
4 votes
1 answer
67 views

What's the good way to answer "What is the analog of software X for operating system Y?"

I gave an answer today, being just a software recommendation, to a question, asking for a recommendation. If you cannot see deleted answers, there was the software name, a link to homepage and ...
Nick Volynkin's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
82 views

Should duplicate answers be posted, just to include screen shots?

I stumbled upon this question which has an answer posted (and edited) months ago. Just today, a new answer was posted with the exact same steps as the old answer, but including screen shots of the ...
xdumaine's user avatar
  • 2,299
2 votes
0 answers
64 views

How to post trivial answers when that is all that is required?

Often a problem can be solved with a trivial answer, which can be stretched to make one complete sentence. These kinds of answers are often done as a comment because they don't seem worthy of "answer"...
fixer1234's user avatar
  • 27.5k
1 vote
1 answer
61 views

Misleading wrong answer in a popular question

There is a popular question about inputting Unicode characters: How do you type Unicode characters using hexadecimal codes? And an accepted answer: https://superuser.com/a/90669/456981 The problem ...
Mikhail V's user avatar
  • 993
1 vote
2 answers
121 views

Should duplicate answers posted within a short time frame be flagged?

Lets say there are two answers with the same content on the same question. Should the second one get flagged? This has happened to me, and I sent a flag. Want to know if it was the right thing to do. ...
soandos's user avatar
  • 24.4k
1 vote
3 answers
96 views

Should every answer involving registry edits contain a warning to back up the registry?

I encountered this comment while browsing questions on Super User: "Remember to always be careful with the registry!": Such a notice should be added, because newbies can mess up! Also, instructions ...
bwDraco's user avatar
  • 46.1k