39
votes
Why are poor questions still upvoted and answered?
Complementary arguments to Joseph's answer:
Couple of things maybe you might take into account about this community: It is indeed a community. This doesn't make us immune to regular moderation and ...
- 154k
28
votes
Is it better to ask in the high traffic time?
It might seem better to ask in the high time but actually it doesn't matter. Because:
You ask in the high time, more people are online (mostly CET day time). More people can look at it. You have ...
- 154k
26
votes
How can I know whether an answer is obsolete?
Typical procedures include the following sequence of elevated proposals:
Comment on the answer, requesting some feedback on your updated request/criteria.
Visit the chat room and see if one of the ...
WernerMod
- 565k
25
votes
Accepted
Questioners not responding to answers
Remember that most of the 'value' of the site is meant to come not from dealing with the original poster but rather the wider user base. As such, a good answer should gain upvotes from several (or ...
- 243k
23
votes
Accepted
Asking a seemingly duplicate question in case of not being able to find the original
Of course, it would be a lovely idea to pop by the chat room first and it's always a good idea to look to see if your question has been answered before, in order to avoid the site getting cluttered by ...
- 9,876
22
votes
Accepted
Etiquette for poorly researched questions?
Every so often this sort of question comes up, and although it gets posed usually as 'etiquette' it's often more about 'policing' or 'teaching people a lesson'. Personally I think such 'policing' ...
- 201k
22
votes
Can one use TeX.SE to "promote" ones package
If you actually find questions that are related to your package content, then you can fire an answering frenzy by mentioning you can also do this with <insert package name> and so on. Then I don'...
- 154k
21
votes
Why are poor questions still upvoted and answered?
I'll take the two factors separately and give what I understand here (I've neither voted for the question nor answered it).
Voting for questions is essentially a positive action: downvotes on TeX-sx ...
- 243k
19
votes
Can one use TeX.SE to "promote" ones package
Strange, mostly I use the site for the opposite use:
Don't use longtable
Longtable vs. supertabular: Which is right for which job?
Don't use xspace
https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/86620/1090
Don'...
- 665k
19
votes
How to handle completely rewriting questions instead of asking follow-up questions?
The StackExchange model works as answers (and thus questions) have value beyond the original asker. To make that work, we have conventions such as answers always being separate from questions, and ...
- 243k
19
votes
Accepted
Why are the bounties irreversibly spent?
Technically, a bounty may be reversed or cancelled, if it can be justified...
However, the bounty systems acts like an advertisement in the real world. You pay for something to entice visitors/...
WernerMod
- 565k
18
votes
Why are the bounties irreversibly spent?
Well, regarding point 1, if you post the bounty on your own question, then, if it is upvoted a lot, you will get a good chunk of rep from that which might well pay back some of the bounty. For example,...
- 9,876
17
votes
Accepted
Will there be an official "What's new in TeX, version 3.141592653?" question to go along with the 2021 TeX tune-up?
I think that such a question should be mandatory.*
Given that TeX aims to be as bug-free as possible, fixes are nowadays rather on the esoteric side, mostly about obscure corner cases, but who knows?
...
- 985k
16
votes
Is it ok to change an OP's question to fit an answer?
In the situation you described I should say "absolutely not".
In my opinion, the correct way to act, to not waste the answer, is that the answerer should ask a new question where to put his/her ...
- 53.8k
15
votes
Accepted
Should I add a new answer or edit a previous one
This happens occasionally, and the results have also been varied. In some cases, users provide multiple solutions in a single answer (example). In other instances, users may provide multiple answers, ...
WernerMod
- 565k
15
votes
TeX and friends FAQ posts
If you see a question that has been asked before, vote to close it as a duplicate. So it gets a link to the earlier question (choose a good one if there are several candidates).
Naturally, frequently ...
- 220k
15
votes
Accepted
Should I ask one question with many requirements instead of many questions on same topic?
You should ask only one question per question.
This helps everyone involved.
You are more likely to receive an answer if you ask one thing, because you don't discourage people who know the answer to ...
- 158k
15
votes
Accepted
Bounds on the questions/answers ratio
Is it okay for me to keep asking questions, while making minimal contributions to the answers here?
Absolutely!
A high quality contribution is a high quality contribution.
Other people may have ...
- 9,876
15
votes
Accepted
Can (or should) I post Latex examples on TeX.SE?
The Q&A format of the Stack network doesn't lend itself well to a standalone post (SO tried this with the documentation experiment; it didn't go well). In that sense, no, you should not post your ...
- 4,897
14
votes
Accepted
TeX questions on StackOverflow
By-design, the network treats each site as a separate entity, so there is no possibility of marking as a duplicate between different sites. As such, the only ways to answer such questions are to post ...
- 243k
14
votes
Fun questions (contests/social events) which require coding: Main or Meta?
They should be asked on the Main site, that's why the fun tag is for.
If you're worried because of some reputation gain which someone may deem undeserved, you could ask the mods to trasform the ...
- 53.8k
13
votes
Can TikZ/PGF experts be lenient with the existence of MWE?
If you need a drawing quickly for a current publication there is nothing wrong with making it in illustrator or whatever.
When asking a question it always helps to give a MWE (as Samcarter commented ...
- 665k
12
votes
Renaming question for better search results
I'm guided by the following ideas:
Titles are used by the community as the main gauge for suitability. This is similar in the nature with which we review search results when performing a regular ...
WernerMod
- 565k
12
votes
Accepted
Does creating a chat room for TikZ/PGFplots discussions help eliminate the do-it-for-me or bad questions?
Based on my expierence on FreeNode's LaTeX IRC channel over the last years, I don't think an extra channel dedicated to TikZ questions only would solve the problem of "lazy" new users. Additionally to ...
- 12.8k
11
votes
Updating a question, vs. asking a new question
There's no hard-and-fast rule here: it's a value judgement. If you feel that an update clarifies or enhances the question and doesn't make existing answers confusing (or plain wrong), then an edit is ...
- 243k
11
votes
Why are the bounties irreversibly spent?
They don't want to have the pranks related to putting the bounty and after having the interest pulling it back.
Rep points don't mean anyth.... anyways, that's why.
- 154k
11
votes
Questioners not responding to answers
This is the internet. Asking a question takes just a few seconds. We are a help desk, and we help free of charge.
You can end a phone call saying "Works, Thanks mate" and hang up without waiting for ...
- 23.5k
11
votes
Questioners not responding to answers
This answer is more a response to Peter's comments on Joseph's answer.
The fact that a user accepts an answer or responds to it is neither necessary nor sufficient evidence for the validity of an ...
- 201k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible