This answer* is a picture of some text. Now I thought about this for a moment. This text could be considered an answer. After all, it attempts to provide a solution. I didn't read the question to see if it's a right solution, but nonetheless a solution is provided.

In reference to all the questions here about posting only a link as an answer, I thought "well this image is only a link, after all." But an answer is provided inside the image. So maybe I could just type out the text that's inside the image, and just delete the image from the answer?

New dilemma: where did this picture come from? Honestly, with the font and the way it's formatted, it really looks to me like it is a picture of some text from a textbook. Just typing out what is in the image could violate some copyrights somewhere since we have no idea where this solution came from. Did the user even come up with it or did they just find it somewhere else?

Final question: should these types of posts just be deleted without any question? Investigated?

* In case moderators delete that answer, here is a link to the image in question.

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If nothing else, I'd imagine that the answer should be deleted on grounds of plagiarism (nice catch @Bart!). –  Chris Frederick Dec 14 '11 at 22:29
 
@Chris, agree. It's nice that is has been converted to text now, but it's still a word for word copy. I say remove it. –  Bart Dec 14 '11 at 22:31
 
Relevant. –  Maxpm Mar 19 '12 at 23:45
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3 Answers

up vote 20 down vote accepted

Another problem with this kind of post is that it is entirely unsearchable.

As you say, it appears to be a crop from an image/screen grab, and as such not been attributed to the source either.

I say delete with extreme prejudice.

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Yeah. There is no good reason to do this at all. –  Pëkka Dec 14 '11 at 22:22
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Kill it with fire

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Nice use of only an image as an answer. ;) –  animuson Dec 14 '11 at 22:19
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Damn. What should I do now? Downvote? Upvote? I feel like "Joshua" when told to play tic-tac-toe with 0 players :( –  Oded Dec 14 '11 at 22:22
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No alt, no vote! –  Arjan Dec 14 '11 at 22:31
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Another disadvantage of using images only is that it makes it very difficult for visually impaired people (not me), and for people wanting to use Google Translate (all too often the case for me when encountering Japanese text! [using Google Translate that is - I don't encounter text in images too often]).

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