Edit - Meta Stack Exchange

You are not logged in. Your edit will be placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed.

We welcome edits that make the post easier to understand and more valuable for readers. Because community members review edits, please try to make the post substantially better than how you found it, for example, by fixing grammar or adding additional resources and hyperlinks.

29

@KonradRudolph Eh, on the other hand, I'm not interested in SO as a tool for moral judgment. If people ask a question, I'll answer if I have time and find the question interesting. What they "deserve" doesn't really come into it, and I'd be suspicious of anyone who withholds information on that basis.
– jalf
Commented Jan 23, 2013 at 10:00
58

@jalf I don’t withhold anything, I just don’t see why I should expend effort for somebody who clearly doesn’t.
– Konrad Rudolph
Commented Jan 23, 2013 at 10:03
41

@KonradRudolph Because the excellent help you provide might help out far more users than this single OP asking the question.
– Bart
Commented Jan 23, 2013 at 10:07
9

@KonradRudolph then don't. Expend effort for your own sake: is it a fun, interesting question or not? Who cares about the OP? ;)
– jalf
Commented Jan 23, 2013 at 10:07
3

I like this, though I'd like to know one thing: aside from the prompt a user gets after upvoting an answer, is there any in-built prompt asking users to accept more answers if they have a low accept rate?
– Manishearth
Commented Jan 23, 2013 at 14:22
2

@Bart They already were at certain points, which is why the comments were noise in the first place.
– casperOne
Commented Jan 23, 2013 at 14:32
3

@jalf Agreed. Like most actions on Stack Overflow, you should focus on the content, not the user.
– casperOne
Commented Jan 23, 2013 at 14:32
2

@SethJ If that help was in the best interest of the company I work for, yes, I would help that colleague. Likewise I would answer a good question from a user who doesn't accept all that much because the community might be well-served by it (and in turn repay me handsomely).
– Bart
Commented Jan 23, 2013 at 14:40
7

Choosing an answer is not analogous to a "Thank You". If the answer does not help it should not be chosen. "Thank You's" are superfluous and distracting.
– user7116
Commented Jan 23, 2013 at 18:26
3

(Re the above comments. (Ping @SethJ, for one.)) The SE site on which I'm most active is Mi Yodeya and I confess to having a fairly low accept rate (generally hovering around 50%). This is partially because, on that site, many a question has a plurality of answers that are deserving of being accepted. (And it's partially because I was incompletely satisfied with the answers I got to some questions.) Any time I was completely satisfied with one and only one answer, I accepted it. (Just one user's data point.)
– msh210
Commented Jan 24, 2013 at 7:16
2

@msh210: You should still pick an answer to be accepted. If there are multiple candidates with equal weight, draw straws.
– Lightness Races in Orbit
Commented Jan 26, 2013 at 20:08
2

@LightnessRacesinOrbit, why? Or, if you can only appeal to authority and not cite a reason, then: says who?
– msh210
Commented Jan 27, 2013 at 2:42
4

@LightnessRacesinOrbit, right. Implication: if you haven't so decided, then don't "draw straws".
– msh210
Commented Jan 27, 2013 at 7:20
2

Focus on content? The information if an answer was helpful is a very important detail of the content(if it is not so, why not simply remove the option to accept an answer). Users which do not find it necessary to decide if their question has been answered, don't worry about the "content". Don't focus on users? Let's remove reputation, badges, custom user-names, aboutme.
– Dr.Molle
Commented Feb 2, 2013 at 3:28
6

For those who prefer not to answer questions of those users with low accept rates, I think one thing to consider is that you are not only punishing them, but other users who could have benefited from your answer. If it was a good question, that means there are others, possible good members of the SO community, who have the same question, who could have benefited from your knowledge.
– Brett McCann
Commented Feb 12, 2013 at 21:29

| Show 18 more comments

Correct minor typos or mistakes
Clarify meaning without changing it
Add related resources or links
Always respect the author’s intent
Don’t use edits to reply to the author

create code fences with backticks ` or tildes ~
```
like so
```
add language identifier to highlight code
```python
def function(foo):
print(foo)
```
put returns between paragraphs
for linebreak add 2 spaces at end
_italic_ or **bold**
indent code by 4 spaces
backtick escapes `like _so_`
quote by placing > at start of line
to make links (use https whenever possible)
<https://example.com>
[example](https://example.com)
<a href="https://example.com">example</a>

formatting help »
answering help »