For questions regarding the nature of a "question" on Stack Exchange sites; e.g. how to ask, whether specific questions are appropriate, etc.
What is a question?
A question is something that needs or want to be answered. A question is a someone trying to acquire knowledge about something.
From Wikipedia we can read that:
Questions are normally put forward or asked using interrogative sentences. However they can also be formed by imperative sentences, which normally express commands.
What guidelines can a user follow to properly present a question at any SE site?
Man has made some machines that can answer questions provided the facts are profusely stored in them, but we will never be able to make a machine that will ask questions. The ability to ask the right question is more than half the battle of finding the answer.
Thomas J. Watson (1874-1956)
So, how can a user present the right question to the problem at hand? From the FAQ for Stack Exchange sites, there are some good clarifications on the subject:
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A good title helps your question get the attention it deserves.
Should questions include “tags” in their titles?
Stack Overflow has an extensive tag system which allows users to identify what technology is involved in a question, watch or ignore certain subjects, narrow their searches to a specific area, and even learn about the tag's subject via its wiki.
Something on my web site doesn't work. Can I just paste a link to it?
No.
The primary goal of Stack Overflow is to build an archive of questions and answers that are useful to people and situations beyond that of the original asker.
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The XY problem is asking about your attempted solution rather than your actual problem.
What can I do when getting “It does not meet our quality standards”?
All new questions are subjected to a "minimum quality" filter that checks for characteristics of extremely poor questions. Your question has been caught by the filter.
How can I improve my changes of success?
Other useful topics can be found on the mentioned FAQ, as to help you improve your changes of success:
- How can I get answers fast?
- Is there a limit on how many questions I can ask?
- How should we deal with Google questions?
- Should I send students to Stack Overflow?
- How to ask and answer homework questions?
- How do I get attention for old, unanswered questions?
- What can I do when getting "Sorry, we are no longer accepting questions/answers from this account"? (the answer is here, in this post)
- Is cross-posting a question on multiple Stack Exchange sites permitted if the question is on-topic for each site?
Before placing a question
Before placing a question, please look around to see if your question has been asked before.
You have a vast number of options available, to perform a quick search and find out if your question has been asked before.
Take note that questions may be related with one another, even if the particulars of the problem aren't the same, the solution may work for both scenarios.
