33
votes
Accepted
Is it OK to ask question about etymology of command names?
I hesitate to post this as an answer, but since this is a discussion, here goes. I can see some value in gathering historic information at U&L, if there are people who know (or know people who ...
- 63k
26
votes
Helping a user break local rules?
There are two reasons why you shouldn't worry about “breaking rules”.
One reason is that the assertion that the user wants to “break local rule” is an assumption on your part. You have no way to know ...
25
votes
Editing other people's posts to remove "thanks"
The most important thing for a new user asking a question is to get answers.
When someone's first contact with the site is to ask a question, that's usually because they have a problem to solve, not ...
22
votes
Accepted
How to deal with solutions edited into the question itself?
Yes, what you describe (comment asking the OP to post an answer and post one yourself if they don't) is the best thing to do.
No, mods cannot post under another user's name, so there's no point in ...
terdonMod
- 215k
17
votes
Accepted
Windows installer using GRUB - is on topic?
My first instinct is that it wouldn't really be on topic, no. GRUB isn't a *nix thing, as such, it acts before the operating system so isn't really a part of any OS. Yes, it is a tool more commonly ...
terdonMod
- 215k
16
votes
Accepted
When a computing problem becomes moot what should you do about the question?
There's a specific close reason for this:
Questions describing a problem that can't be reproduced and seemingly went away on its own (or went away when a typo was fixed) are off-topic as they are ...
terdonMod
- 215k
13
votes
Voting on questions. When should you give a upvote
Upvote button hover text:
This question shows research effort; it is helpful and clear
The fact that someone answers a question does not, de facto, make it a good question. Questions may have ...
- 67.6k
13
votes
4-space indentation never works
Did you leave an empty line before the code? For example:
Test line
line 1 indented by four spaces
line 2 indented by four spaces
Test line 2
line 3 indented by four spaces
line 4 ...
- 4,466
13
votes
Accepted
Gone user, answer accepted by the community
Unfortunately, many people misconstrue the meaning of the accepted answer and think it is some sort of indication of quality. It isn't. The accepted answer is just and only the answer that the OP ...
terdonMod
- 215k
12
votes
Accepted
Closing unanswered questions for (now) outdated software
I guess we may as well close them. Closed questions don't count as unanswered so there's no real reason to delete and, anyway, closed questions with no answers get deleted automatically after a while.
...
terdonMod
- 215k
12
votes
Accepted
Answer with alternative solution not addressing the question directly
The premise is that Stack's goal is to build a library of high-quality answers,
thus in general I think alternative answers are welcome, as long as they fit the site's scope — here, they should employ ...
- 17.3k
11
votes
asking a related question to a question you asked
If you've found an answer to your original question then I'd encourage you to provide an answer to it yourself. It's perfectly acceptable to answer ones own questions, even after you've continued to ...
slmMod
- 344k
10
votes
Accepted
Encourage asking more questions on this site?
I sympathize with what you're saying, but if you look at those graphs that Braiam posted one thing you should be noticing is that they're all trending up. This IMO, is a good thing and will continue ...
slmMod
- 344k
10
votes
Should we try and educate our users not to ask "Does anyone ..." or "Who can.." questions?
Questions like:
Does anyone know how to install xyz` under Labamba X.Y?
are about the capabilities of certain people and are off-topic on this site. So are questions, asking for names of people ...
- 75.1k
10
votes
Why are so many people not posting questions?
There was a time years ago when Stack Exchange was on a big kick about phrasing titles as questions, but I think it mostly died out. Personally I couldn't care less, "Centos cannot ping default ...
- 86.5k
9
votes
Encourage asking more questions on this site?
Popularity is not an end in itself, it should be a by-product of a high quality reference site maintained by a knowledgeable and approachable community.
Personally, I don't think that there is a "...
- 67.6k
8
votes
Best practice: add and harmonize missing input filenames for Qs & As?
If harmonized file names are really useful to follow the question and answers, then please do harmonize them. Pick a sensible set, preferably the one in the question, failing that one used in an ...
7
votes
Accepted
Not getting reply to questions as earlier
There is no shadowban-like state in which you can post questions but they aren't displayed to other users. It is possible to be blocked from posting questions entirely, but you would get an error ...
- 86.5k
7
votes
Accepted
bumped to the homepage
To quote the relevant points of the ever-useful FAQ (useful to me, at least, as it contains explanations for many of Stack Exchange’s workings) regarding the community user:
Randomly poke old ...
- 63k
7
votes
4-space indentation never works
There's another syntax for code blocks which is mentioned in the advanced formatting help. Surround the code by three backticks on a line of their own. The backticks have to be on their own line but ...
7
votes
Editing other people's posts to remove "thanks"
I agree more with position 1.
It is extremely surprising for a user, to learn that some readers consider "thanks" harmful enough, that they will edit purely to remove it.
I saw a similar edit on a ...
- 44.3k
6
votes
Accepted
Helping a user break local rules?
This is an interesting question. I believe the key to the situation is that Stack Exchange is not geared to handle individuals, but individuals' questions, with a preference for questions applicable ...
- 33.5k
6
votes
Is there some way to bump my question?
Technically any activity on the question will get it back on the front page, but bounties are the real way to get your question more visibility. See this main meta question for more information
- 86.5k
6
votes
Why do old questions pop up from time to time?
The community user also pushes old posts back to the front page. See its profile:
Hi, I'm not really a person.
I'm a background process that helps keep this site clean!
I do things like:
* ...
- 67.6k
6
votes
Accepted
What to do when user says they meant different question after you have answered
My opinion for this situation:
Leave a comment on the question to the effect of "please open a new/separate Question with your actual question".
Flag (or, if you have the Close Privilege, Vote to ...
- 63k
6
votes
Accepted
Should we display a user's question/answer ratio?
If you search thru meta for "ratio" you'll find various Q&A and proposals around all kinds of ratios. The consensus is that they all kind of don't do what ppl want and just become a distraction.
...
slmMod
- 344k
6
votes
Answer with alternative solution not addressing the question directly
Stackexchange has the problem that it tries, at the same time, to be a platform for
compiling useful information in one place, so that it's useful if found by others later, possibly through a search ...
- 114k
5
votes
Accepted
Assembly language question
That sounds like you want Stack Overflow. Generally, programming questions belong there.
The only exception I can think of is if you're really asking questions about how your boot loader should start ...
- 102k
5
votes
Accepted
What to do if the question itself is wrong?
Yes, it appears you've misunderstood the concepts involved. You've at minimum confused two meanings of a port being "open". (Being open in a firewall like iptables means something different than what ...
- 102k
5
votes
why is my question downvoted?
The downvote is from me. While reviewing your post, and applying the bare minimum of markup for code to get things somewhat more readable, I found that your question is still not clear to me (and ...
- 75.1k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible