1

I was wondering if screenshots are useful or not when posting answers.

The reason of my question is that I usually post screenshots in my answers in order to show more details graphically (which I find really useful) but I was told by a user that I should not post screenshots.

Please don't post screenshot images that cannot be copied and pasted.

You can find below the link to the question so you can see what is my answer related to this question: Extract an HTML tag name from a string

I don't want to post answers that don't follow the rules but couldn't find if posting screenshots is wrong.

A user has commented that I must not post screenshots. All my comments were removed and they weren't offensive at all. So, another doubt I have is how to face this kind of behaviours.

17
  • 9
    Considering you had the regex in text, a link to a working demo, and a screenshot... I'd consider it just fine.
    – J. Steen
    Commented Mar 11, 2015 at 15:16
  • What makes you think that the downvotes were because of the screenshot?
    – Servy
    Commented Mar 11, 2015 at 15:19
  • @Servy because the user Borodin commented that twice, and he event deleted all my comments to that question.
    – Federico Piazza
    Commented Mar 11, 2015 at 15:20
  • 5
    The downvotes were likely for the reason stated in the massively emphasised comment under the question itself; don't use regex to parse HTML, not because you used a screenshot.
    – J. Steen
    Commented Mar 11, 2015 at 15:22
  • 1
    Please do not speculate as to who downvoted what - especially in a question's text. Downvotes are anonymous and you cannot know who did it.
    – J. Steen
    Commented Mar 11, 2015 at 15:24
  • 1
    @Fede I deleted the comments because they were not constructive, but I edited the text of the comment you were referencing into your question here.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Commented Mar 11, 2015 at 15:27
  • @J.Steen I know borodin downvoted because he pointed that in the comment and then deleted that. Besides that, my answer answers that question without issues, I know about what I am answering OP should be free to receive answers no matter the opinion of different users. So, I don't understand why people use downvote like that
    – Federico Piazza
    Commented Mar 11, 2015 at 15:29
  • 1
    @animuson Can you quote the comment here? I find it unusual that someone would oppose having a screenshot at all, but having him say, for example, that the the information in that post should be in plain text and not a screenshot would make perfect sense. Having the example provided as input/output would be far more helpful than a screenshot of someone running the program on some given input/output.
    – Servy
    Commented Mar 11, 2015 at 15:30
  • @Fede And people are entirely free to downvote as they please. This is a basic rule. If they think you're wrong for posting regex, they're allowed to think that. You are, however, garnering enough upvotes to balance that, I'd say.
    – J. Steen
    Commented Mar 11, 2015 at 15:30
  • 1
    @Servy What I edited into the question is the exact text of the comment.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Commented Mar 11, 2015 at 15:31
  • @animuson Sorry, I was looking at the wrong edit in the revisions.
    – Servy
    Commented Mar 11, 2015 at 15:32
  • 2
    @Fede Borodin wasn't saying that screenshots shouldn't be used in general, he's saying that this specific information shouldn't be presented in a screenshot, and that in this case you should have posted the content as text, not as an image.
    – Servy
    Commented Mar 11, 2015 at 15:33
  • @Servy the comment is quite clear "don't post images that can't be copied". But my question is not related to the comment, but question is related about if I can or not post screenshots as I put in that answer. I don't like being downvoted because few people don't like it
    – Federico Piazza
    Commented Mar 11, 2015 at 15:36
  • 1
    @Fede The comment was speaking specifically to your case. He's was telling you that you shouldn't have used a screenshot in your case, and that posting it as text, and thus allowing the examples to be copied/pasted, would improve it. The comment also does nothing to indicate that he downvoted, and if he did, why he may have. He was merely telling you how you could have improved your question.
    – Servy
    Commented Mar 11, 2015 at 15:40
  • 1
    It was meant as a joke but it worked quite well. Do keep in mind that people only ever google questions, never answers.
    – Hans Passant
    Commented Mar 11, 2015 at 16:00

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
9

There is nothing wrong with posting a screenshot to show users how something works, so long as the screenshot is accompanied by textual information that explains the same thing in words for those users who aren't able to load the images.

Your answer there looks perfectly fine to me. You explained it in text, provided a link to a demo where a user could try it themselves, and provided a screenshot that showed it too.

6

I don't believe the person who wrote that comment was correct in this situation, I fully do understand where they are coming from. Wrote a rant about it like to read it here it goes...

When you ask someone to help you with your software problem, one of the things answerers might do is copy and paste some of your code, logs and/or exception details into a search engine.

Providing pictures of these things is incredibly rude to people who are trying to help because you now force them to transcribe your image, which takes time and can result in bad transcriptions that don't find good results.

In addition, images are not indexed! So whatever details that normally would be indexed from your code (types, method calls, properties, exception types and messages) that could be used by others with the same issue as you to find your question are now obfuscated from the search engine! You've just screwed not just those who are trying to help you, but the entirety of the human race.

Why are you such a mean person?

Let's try an example. Look at this mess:

"My application always throws an exception when Run. Here it is:

enter image description here"

Now, how the hell am I going to research that via a search engine? I'm going to have to read it, transcribe it, and type it into some other webpage. Even worse, it lacks crucial information that may help diagnose the issue, such as inner exceptions and stack traces.

Now, let's see the correct way:

"My application always throws an exception when Run. Here is the exception details:

OMFG.IAmAnAssException was unhandled by user code
  HResult=-2146233088
  Message=Only idiots do this
  Source=OMFG
  StackTrace:
       at OMFG.MainWindow..ctor() in d:\TEST_PROJECTS\OMFG\OMFG\MainWindow.xaml.cs:line 27
  InnerException: 
    Yadda yadda was froobed by the tibble
    StackTrace:
    [snip]"

See, now you can copy and paste and search and research without having to make exacting transcriptions from an image. Exception details are searchable. Your question gets answered, and you get a cookie.

Obfuscating your questions with images of text helps no one. Don't do it.

1
  • @AndréDaniel First line: "I don't believe the person who wrote that comment was correct in this situation"
    – user1228
    Commented Mar 11, 2015 at 19:27

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .