Questions tagged [answers]
Anything related to posting answers, e.g. about improving their content, voting on answers, editing others' answers, etc.
149 questions
82
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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 ...
- 26.5k
33
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7
answers
965
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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 ...
- 57.9k
32
votes
2
answers
575
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Old questions - system discourages answering them?
I've been a member on other SE sites for a while now, but only recently joined SU. I found a few things a bit different here, and there are a couple of things I think could use some discussion.
1. ...
- 1,275
29
votes
6
answers
592
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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 Some of them are so old and outdated that today they are just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 ...
- 1
26
votes
4
answers
520
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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 BeckMod
- 111k
26
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2
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301
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Should answers suggesting a tool that is no longer available be flagged?
While reviewing a different answer to the same question, I noticed this answer:
The answerer is providing a solution using a software they wrote themselves, but the link to that software has gone ...
- 4,788
22
votes
1
answer
485
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Two long answers disagreeing with each other - how to canonicalize?
Someone posted a new answer to a rather old question of mine, Disadvantages of partitioning an SSD?.
The answer I accepted has 13 upvotes at this time, and I have accepted the information therein as ...
- 1,622
21
votes
5
answers
859
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User tries to do something forbidden by license. Is explaining why it's illegal an answer?
Specifically, I'm speaking about this question: Windows 10 License in UEFI.
Long story short, OP currently uses Windows with a license provided by his university through DreamSpark. He's going to move ...
- 57.9k
21
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5
answers
1k
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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 ...
- 8,553
20
votes
2
answers
266
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Question in close queue is marked as duplicate, but the duplicate is terrible!
Recently I was looking through the close votes review queue when I came across this question, and it was flagged as a duplicate of this question. These two questions really are exact duplicates of ...
- 14k
19
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3
answers
456
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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 ...
- 57.7k
18
votes
4
answers
473
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 ...
user201262
18
votes
1
answer
283
views
Promotional text in answer
On this answer, there is a text and link that seems like promoting a service from the user. The answer itself seems good. It does not disclose its affiliation, though, although can be inferred from ...
- 1,766
18
votes
2
answers
438
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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 ...
- 46.4k
18
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4
answers
309
views
Show your Excel results
I see a lot of Excel questions, but also ones involving command lines, batch files, and other similar scripts, that entail some mental challenge. I'm not referring to ones where a novice needs some ...
- 27.8k
17
votes
2
answers
906
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Bad answer repeat offender
There is a certain user I've seen answering some questions on SU that are... well, just bad. Most of his answers consist of a few more questions to the poster (that should be in the comments) and then ...
17
votes
2
answers
384
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Can someone write another answer for our canonical malware question?
Our canonical malware question is a gem. At the time it was written, though, the various malware that encrypts your files weren't even a thing. We periodically get questions on how to recover from ...
- 27.8k
17
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0
answers
362
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Let's do something about all the old link-only answers
We do a pretty good job removing or repairing link-only answers nowadays, but there are boatloads of old link-only answers sitting ignored or at a slight negative score, written largely by users that ...
- 41.7k
16
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2
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309
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Are link-only answers fine if they link to Super User questions?
Let's say someone asks a question: How do I upgrade a widget for defrobulator?. There are many possible answers, each one correct and the question isn't too broad. (And defrobulator in this case is a ...
- 57.9k
16
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9
answers
780
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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 ...
- 20.8k
16
votes
2
answers
539
views
How to make people do their civic duty?
Voting is important, right? And yet less than 400 people have earned the civic duty badge. Out of how many thousand? Uncool!
- 2,834
16
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4
answers
592
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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, ...
- 62.3k
16
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2
answers
292
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Should we encourage SO and SF users to answer on SU?
I find the quality and quantity of answers on SO/SF to be substantially better than on SU.
Troubleshooting questions on SU often get boxed answers from the first few Google hits. Same goes with How-...
Ben S
16
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2
answers
1k
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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 ...
- 26.5k
14
votes
1
answer
320
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, ...
user33758
14
votes
2
answers
303
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. ...
- 74.1k
14
votes
1
answer
105
views
Is it ok to go back and "cleanup" questions and answers that I've asked/answered?
I've been looking though some of my questions and answers and realized that some of them are the highest quality that I want them to be at. Is it bad protocol to go back and cleanup questions and ...
- 26.5k
13
votes
6
answers
757
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 ...
- 17.5k
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 ♦ moderator attention ?
Flag as offensive ?
Flag ...
- 62.1k
13
votes
1
answer
188
views
Are there optimal days/hours to post questions in order to get visibility and answers?
I know that maybe that's a a silly and weird question, if it's not appropriate please forgive me and feel free to close it.
Given the large amount of questions that the site gets daily, it may happen ...
- 9,736
12
votes
4
answers
271
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 ...
- 3,428
12
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2
answers
224
views
Undelete an answer on a closed post that was deleted before it was closed
My Question
If you delete an answer on a question that is opened and then that question is closed, can you undelete that answer after the question is closed?
The Story
I noticed in some comments on ...
12
votes
1
answer
299
views
Answer copied and filled up with spam
The content of one of my answers was copied and a new answer was created (with some spam added). This was then "corrected" by a user with a score over 2000. Since he was only shown the "...
- 11.3k
12
votes
2
answers
227
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Link-only answer - but already self-explanatory
links to a zip containing drivers for Windows running in Bootcamp. I think the answer is pretty self-explanatory, but somehow I don't feel right to just leave them at is. I don't know what to comment ...
- 1,766
12
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1
answer
98
views
My answer keeps getting suggested edits from spambots
I have been noticing a trend that my this answer, always gets edited by some spammer (may be a bot). It's only that answer and no other answer in any of the other SE network.
Finding subdirectories ...
- 352
12
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0
answers
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Are answers duplicate if they use different aliases of the same command?
This answer came up in the First Posts queue. It uses the Windows rd command to accomplish the task in the question. The accepted answer (from 2010), however, uses rmdir with the same parameters. rd ...
- 41.7k
11
votes
1
answer
107
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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 (...
- 26.5k
11
votes
1
answer
219
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Can an answer be backed up only by personal experience?
https://superuser.com/a/1275976/456385
This answer is only backed up by the answerer personal experience, with no explanation provided.
if it was my customer i would dismantle the screen on the ...
- 1,766
11
votes
2
answers
274
views
Should I answer my own question? Was I wrong to post it?
Here's my question (oh boy, the meta effect is about to descend upon it):
Suppress Google Chrome's "Your Connection is Not Private" for specific Address?
Am I wrong to be asking the ...
- 731
11
votes
1
answer
259
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What to do with questions that can't be solved.....except by re-install?
Taking a look at this question:
Problems with sound and flash in Ubuntu 12
The OP asks a questions and then answers it with "Oh! Fixed it by re-installing linux!" I've noticed as I've browsed ...
- 26.5k
9
votes
2
answers
523
views
How should trusted users deal with non-answers?
Shortly after earning 20k reputation, I've encountered a couple of non-answers and – out of habit – flagged both posts as not an answer.
Then, I've remembered my newly gained super powers,...
- 50.3k
9
votes
1
answer
336
views
Has the possibility of having a "Vote to Answer" been discussed?
I've run across a number of different questions that may have entirely acceptable answers yet an answer is not selected either due to a user not returning to complete it, forgetting, or not thinking ...
- 3,421
9
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2
answers
221
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How should I handle ranting in answers?
I removed a rant from this answer. Is this the right thing to do or should I take some other action?
- 46.4k
9
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2
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873
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What is the proper way to cite an answer from another StackExchange site?
What is the proper way to cite an answer from another StackExchange site? It is not uncommon to find an answer to a question for SuperUser on ServerFault or StackOverflow. But there doesnt seem to ...
- 74.1k
9
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1
answer
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Same answer from different users on different questions
There are almost duplicate questions, and not very surprisingly they have similar answers. But one answer is an exact copy, though posted from a different account. The newer version is slightly more ...
- 4,620
9
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1
answer
140
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What are some good, general guidelines to follow when answering questions?
I thought it might be wise to have us come up with a list of good, general guidelines to follow when posting answers to various questions. Obviously, everyone has their own opinion about how to go ...
- 34.7k
8
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1
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180
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What is the proper procedure for us laypeople to edit an answer?
How do I get rid of adware from Search Conduit/White Smoke?
A few days ago, I had this question answered with the assistance of another user. His answer did not entirely solve my problem, however. ...
7
votes
3
answers
292
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How should we handle joke or satirical answers?
I ran into this answer to the question "What lasts longer: Data stored on non-volatile flash RAM, optical media, or magnetic disk?":
I vote for stone tablets. They survive thousands of ...
- 46.4k
7
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4
answers
570
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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 ...
- 1,492
7
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1
answer
59
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Posting question & answer, why must I wait two days to accept it?
When posting a question and an answer together (like explained here) why must I wait two days to accept the answer?
If I have understood correctly, the Q&A-together format is meant to provide ...
- 9,736