27
Maybe a more lively tutorial can work.
Dynamic version:
Static version:
Code:
\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage{graphics}
\usepackage{ellipsis}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage{framed}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usetheme{Madrid}
\setbeamersize{text margin left=30pt,text margin right=30pt}
\title{How to ask \emph{good} questions on \...
25
Personally I think you should only ask for a MWE if the presence of an MWE would help you to answer the question.
A MWE almost always helps even if only to avoid the answerer having to write some standard article class boilerplate to make a test file.
But it doesn't always help, and unless you have contemplated producing an answer and the lack of an MWE is ...
23
Here is a collection of ideas, taken from comments and the FAQ for Stack Exchange sites:
Questions:
Search first
We typically come to a Q&A to get an answer. Immediately. However, there is a bounty of knowledge already present on this site. Search for it using the best ninja skills you have possible. Only then post a question. For not-so-new users, ...
23
I completely disagree with the proposition that we should refrain from answering questions in order to educate new users. I simply don't think it's my job to educate new users about how to ask questions. And I don't really agree with the idea that withholding useful information is a good way of educating people.
Like all of us, I don't theoretically like (...
21
I think discouraging newbies is a bad idea - we were all newbies once. If I'd faced a test before being allowed my first post I'd probably have gone away (and never known enough to regret that choice).
Perhaps showing a newbie a short sample question before they proceed to their own might help. Most people would probably dismiss it with a click (do you ...
20
The question to be asked is why you are so frustrated. Past first page you wouldn't even see new questions.
There is a tendency in the residents; a bit of "come on ask me an interesting question" urge combined with a pinch of OCD which is perfectly fine. That's why they become residents. But that should stay as such otherwise this becomes a police station....
18
It's not a problem. If there would be upvoted answers, the question would not be unanswered and would go away from the "unanswered" list.
No need to close, what would actually prevent further, possibly even better, answers.
See on the main meta site: Would it be possible to have a “community accepted” feature?
You can show your acceptance of an answer by ...
17
I would like to tell you what happened to me some time ago.
In the beginning, I answered also questions without MWE.
One day I answered telling the OP: "Next time, please add an MWE" and he promised me he would do.
Little time after that, he asked again a question without MWE, and again I answered telling him: "Next time, please add an MWE" and again he ...
15
Such etiquette has two main issues that I think render it useless before it makes it to the user's attention.
First, we don't have an access gate before the site. So there is no way that they can know about stuff before they actually do annoying things (in your point of view :P) Had we had that kind of thing then it would be meaningful to blame them for not ...
15
This is going to be difficult, since it doesn't fall within the generic realm of StackExchange - site-specific features.
Instead I propose we create a generic question that has a please-do-this-for-me flavour and answer it in a generic way, pointing to some FAQs about usages for packages, other SE sites and even third-party applications. That way one can ...
15
I don't consider this an issue, since people who see that message are already on this site. The suggestion is not "Go to TeX.SX" or "Visit TeX.SX".
As an aside: For those posting
Welcome to TeX.SX!
verbatim as a comment, they could consider changing this to
Welcome to TeX.SE!
as the .SE suffix is more commonly used to represent the Stack Exchange ...
14
The About should cover this, but for the avoidance of doubt:
TeX StackExchange (TeX-sx) is for questions about TeX, LaTeX, ConTeXt and related topics
Meta TeX-sx is for questions about TeX-sx itself
Meta StackOverflow is for questions about the StackExchange network, as well as questions specific to StackOverflow
StackOverflow is a general site focussed on ...
14
What about adding an "I'm having that problem too" button? The button could disappear as soon as an answer is accepted. In the meantime, if a question has enough "I'm having that problem" votes (more than 5, say), accepted answers could come with an bonus (and the bonus could increase with the number of votes). This would be similar to a bounty, but wouldn't ...
12
TikZ
Difference between "right of=" and "right=of" in PGF/TikZ
[Difference between "right of=" and "right=of" in PGF/TikZ](https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/9386)
Should \tikzset or \tikzstyle be used to define TikZ styles?
[Should `\tikzset` or `\tikzstyle` be used to define TikZ styles?](https://tex.stackexchange.com/...
12
Some questions are straightforward duplicates and there's no point in waiting the OP to confirm it: see for example https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/149747/include-endlstlisting-inside-lstlisting-block which is a duplicate of Masking \end{lstlisting}
Other cases are not so straightforward and I endorse the idea of giving some grace time for the OP to ...
12
The feature you're requesting already exists. When closing as Off Topic, you can add a custom reason if you feel that the default ones are not appropriate.
In this case a comment is automatically posted with the reason you wrote in that box. I don't remember at the moment if other close reasons generate auto-comments (in the case of choosing Off Topic). ...
11
Sometimes questions are closed right away, which is unfortunate.
SE policy states that closing isn't closing right away, but putting the question on hold, i.e. pressing the pause button.
If an active question is closed, i think a comment is left in 90 percent of cases.
Often the cause is off-topic. Typos, missing braces are also considered off topic, ...
10
I'm against such a rule, because it doesn't bring anything significantly positive, at least not on TeX.SX.
In many cases the question is resolved in comment, as was pointed out by Joseph, and OP is completely aware that the question is getting closed as dupe or OT, understanding the reasons. In other cases, the question is simply off-topic with now doubt ...
10
For the purpose of pretty much everything where it matters, a "new user" is anyone who doesn't have the remove new user restrictions privilege.
If you have less than 10 reputation and post an answer to a question 30 days or more after it was asked, your answer is going to end up in /review. We'll dequeue it if your reputation exceeds 100 before the post is ...
10
For the conversion of a non-answer to a comment, flag the post for moderator attention and request a conversion. Note that 10K-users are able to view deleted posts and could flag them for conversion even then.
The communication privilege that allows you to comment anywhere is reached at 50 reputation. For some, perhaps most, this is considered quite minimal ...
10
Use https://tex.stackexchange.com/contact to contact the StackExchange staff: they can merge your accounts together.
10
I heartily agree that close voters should give reasons, preferably in a comment so that the questioner is engaged in the process and not just informed of the result.
Unfortunately, however, this behaviour a product of the reviewing system which allows users to click through close votes without ever interacting meaningfully with the question at all. And we ...
9
I suggest yet another addition that tries to encourage accepting an answer in case of "Thank you/problem solved"-comments to the answer. The above building blocks only deal with "Thank you"-answers
Good to hear that the answer helped you. If you are satisfied with the solution, please consider accepting it (by clicking on the checkmark ✓, see [How do you ...
9
Table formatting
My table doesn't fit; what are my options?
[My table doesn't fit; what are my options?](https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/332902)
Error with square bracket in table
[Error with square bracket in table](https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/34466)
extrarowheight vs arraystretch
[extrarowheight vs arraystretch](https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/...
9
The user in question will not see any notifications in their inbox, since their last visit to the site was more than 1 hour after the post was deleted (combination of 1 and 2 below):
The only notifications they would see is if comments were made on the deleted post by a moderator, but this was not the case.
The user can access their "recently deleted ...
8
Indexing and Glossaries
Generating External Files (Running makeindex/xindy):
Index not created in pdf output, even though idx file is present
[Index not created in pdf output, even though idx file is present](https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/36530)
List of Acronyms is not displayed
[List of Acronyms is not displayed](https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/110095)
...
8
A lot of non-answers I see are really comments by users who don't have enough rep to comment, so the text about follow-up questions is not really appropriate.
The question is what should be the correct advice? They don't really have an alternative, but it would really be an abuse of the system (and the mods) to make "some mod will move your answer to a ...
8
It might be useful to have a short comment explaining why users should not ignore error messages, I propose as first draft the following text -- please feel free to edit
Please never ever ignore error messages! Even if you get something that on first glance resembles a pdf file, there can still be issues with it. After an error, TeX only tries to recover ...
8
I once made very bad experiences with a specific user. I asked that particular one several times to post an MWE and he never did. In the end I posted a longish comment that I will never answer any questions of him again if he doesn't post a perfect MWE.
In fact I was so mad about him it took me an one hour walk to calm down after I also posted to chat about ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible