33
votes
Accepted
Two long answers disagreeing with each other - how to canonicalize?
Optimally, voting is how the correct answer is recognized. In practice, though, sometimes people vote up answers that are long just because they look thorough.
I notice that, in this case, neither ...
- 40.2k
30
votes
User tries to do something forbidden by license. Is explaining why it's illegal an answer?
As pointed out in a comment to this answer, a software license is a contract, as opposed to a law. The contract is, or isn't, enforceable, depending on the law(s) that apply where the user who asked ...
- 299
30
votes
Accepted
Old questions - system discourages answering them?
I skimmed through your answering history, and I noticed that many of your answers that still have zero votes are in response to questions that are either already answered or posted by very-low-rep ...
- 40.2k
20
votes
Accepted
Promotional text in answer
Some spammers are getting into the habit of posting almost useful answers in order to disguise their spam.
This is a difficult call though. 99% of the time these types of answer are spam but ...
MokubaiMod
- 89.7k
20
votes
Accepted
Should answers suggesting a tool that is no longer available be flagged?
Leave a comment under the answer
That would be enough to inform future reader who is interested in the tool that it is no longer available.
That would be enough to inform the community to downvote ...
- 1,716
18
votes
Accepted
Can someone write another answer for our canonical malware question?
The new ransomware answer
I just hammered out the above answer, which overviews how ransomware works, what to do, and how to avoid it in the future. Most importantly, I linked to this Google Doc (...
- 40.2k
14
votes
Accepted
Can an answer be backed up only by personal experience?
It depends.
If the answer is nothing but personal experience, but results in it completely solving the original problem then it is definitely an answer.
I've seen this before. When I last used ...
MokubaiMod
- 89.7k
13
votes
Accepted
Do Mods get Rep for Deleting Downvoted Answers?
No. Moderators get no reputation bonus for their actions in any way.
The only way moderators get rep is the same ways that normal users get rep, by getting upvotes on questions and answers, deleting ...
MokubaiMod
- 89.7k
12
votes
User tries to do something forbidden by license. Is explaining why it's illegal an answer?
The replies here just discuss whether to give actual information on a question if that might be illegal.
Regardless of that debate - I don't believe that saying you shouldn't do this is an answer, ...
- 456
11
votes
Should I answer my own question? Was I wrong to post it?
It's a matter of politeness more than 'is it right'. I'm encouraging ramhound to post an answer since he comments lots and answers less than he should ;p. However, it should be entirely fine, most of ...
- 128k
11
votes
Link-only answer - but already self-explanatory
If the answer is software or drivers published by a reputable source (manufacturer, OEM, etc) with an established web presence then telling people what they need and how to get them and then providing ...
- 40.6k
11
votes
Accepted
Answer copied and filled up with spam
The timeline of the answer suggests that this didn't happen in the review queue. Apart from that, it's pretty obvious that this is spam, so it shouldn't have been edited out, even if the answer weren'...
- 4,099
10
votes
Accepted
Is this kind of "non-answer" appropriate?
I think it's an excellent answer.
It is an answer because it does explain what the OP needs to know to be able to answer it for himself.
give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man ...
DavidPostillMod
- 154k
10
votes
Accepted
Undelete an answer on a closed post that was deleted before it was closed
I'm fairly confident that the ability to delete and undelete answers is independent of the question's closure status, so the strategy you describe could work. But doing this knowingly (i.e. with ...
- 40.2k
9
votes
Show your Excel results
Users who ask questions that require complex scripts/formulae should have included some example input and the desired output. I find it highly likely that a user who went to the trouble of writing a ...
- 40.2k
9
votes
Accepted
Question in close queue is marked as duplicate, but the duplicate is terrible!
As comments have noted, the criteria I would use when judging which of two otherwise duplicate questions to be marked duplicate is based on quality, not time.
If one of the questions is very recent ...
- 40.6k
8
votes
Same answer from different users on different questions
As far as I know, excerpts of already posted answers are ok as long as they respect original authorship, e.g. including a link to the original answer.
If the newer answers are blatant copies (which ...
- 5,567
8
votes
User tries to do something forbidden by license. Is explaining why it's illegal an answer?
I'm just going to put an answer in here regarding legal vs possible. Take for instance travel.stackexchange.com:
Leaving Thailand after months long overstay - not once does an answer point out that ...
- 21.6k
8
votes
Accepted
My answer keeps getting suggested edits from spambots
Spammers work in mysterious ways - I guess your answer has certain keywords their bots love and it keeps attempting to edit. Frustratingly enough - there's not much to do - just let our lovely ...
- 128k
8
votes
How can I post an answer to this question on SuperUser?
The question you're referred to has been protected due lot of drive-by "answers" which doesn't really answer the question but are some sort of "I have this too" or "this is ...
- 61.6k
7
votes
Accepted
Should every answer involving registry edits contain a warning to back up the registry?
No, I don't think this should be enforced. There are several reasons:
"The registry" isn't some mythical beast, and any changes there are really no more dangerous than changing arbitrary (system?) ...
- 61k
7
votes
Accepted
Why was my comment mod flag declined?
Your flag detail stated
This should really be converted to an answer as it solved the asker's problem.
There was a couple of reasons here.
The first is that Moderators cannot convert comments to ...
MokubaiMod
- 89.7k
7
votes
Undelete an answer on a closed post that was deleted before it was closed
There's another option. If someone is going to put in the effort to create a good answer, why associate it with a bad question? Create a new, high quality question that doesn't suffer from the ...
- 27.1k
6
votes
Old questions - system discourages answering them?
What is written in BenN's answer is completely true, just an additional aspect:
Compared to the other SE sites, it seems that people are much less likely to upvote an answer they see and find ...
- 21.4k
6
votes
Accepted
How long should we wait to flag Low-Quality on barely acceptable answer?
Immediately. Waiting makes no sense, especially when the quality of the answer isn't that great as is
Mods can always comment, delete, and undelete once the post is edited to completion.
- 128k
6
votes
How to deal with answers I cannot check anymore?
As someone who's asked a question on the site, you have a few options as to what you can do with each answer:
Upvote it and accept the answer
Upvote it but don't accept the answer
Don't vote on it ...
- 34.2k
5
votes
Accepted
Do we flag answers which offer nothing new
Yes, we do.
Flag for moderator attention with a free-text flag as "duplicate answer" or similiar. For more information, see What is the policy on duplicate answers?
- 45.8k
5
votes
Accepted
How should I deal with link-only answers where the information in the link can't be copied?
Some link only answers can be okay if they are specifically telling us what exactly is at the link and showing why it cannot be copied. While we prefer a step by step solution here there isn't really ...
MokubaiMod
- 89.7k
5
votes
Accepted
Who can technically view saved drafts for questions and answers
Only the OP. I can't view those drafts - and while devs might be able to, in theory, I'm doubtful it's a function that would be used.
- 128k
5
votes
Do Mods get Rep for Deleting Downvoted Answers?
To add to @Mokubai's answer - it's not only mods who don't get rep for this. High rep users can also cast delete votes (through the VLQ review queue at 2K reputation and directly at 20K), and do not ...
- 3,984
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible