Questions tagged [discussion]

Questions that may not necessarily have a clear-cut right or wrong answer and are often subjective. If your question isn't a bug report, feature request, or request for assistance, or question with a concrete answer, it's probably a discussion.

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123
votes
16answers
21k views

Should I not answer my own questions? [duplicate]

I asked a question recently, looking for examples of an online tool. Per the FAQ, I answered my own question with a few examples that I had already found. I did this so that these examples would be ...
45
votes
7answers
955 views

When you accept an answer should you also vote it up? [duplicate]

By accepting an answer you're obviously already saying that it was useful. Should an additional up-vote be reserved for answers that are particularly useful, or do people always tend to use the two in ...
15
votes
6answers
625 views

Best-Practices versus Subjective

What does it take for something to go from being merely subjective to a "best practice"? Is a "best practice" no longer subjective? It seems like something becomes a best practice when a lot of ...
42
votes
11answers
824 views

How can we make good answers to old questions float to the top?

Occasionally, a great answer is added to an old question. Too often, simply because of the age of the question and the lack of public visibility, that answer will not get any votes. Thus as it stands, ...
53
votes
7answers
6k views

When or should you delete your incorrect answer?

I just deleted an answer I had left to a question because it had been proven to be wrong. It seems that this would be the proper thing to do, since the purpose of the site is to provide correct ...
28
votes
14answers
1k views

Is humor allowed in answers?

Sometimes I see a question and a humorous answer to it. Sometimes it makes me laugh, and I'm tempted to up-vote it, even if it doesn't really solve the problem stated by the question. But, I have ...
3
votes
9answers
306 views

How can I network with other developers on Stack Overflow?

So let's say I get an answer from someone who seems like a nice guy to have around and is open to contact after answering a question. How can I start networking with other developers who use Stack ...
48
votes
25answers
3k views

What does reputation really mean and do you pay attention to anyone's but your own?

I haven't been here very long, but it seems to me that I frequently see people with lots of badges and hundreds, if not thousands, of reputation points asking pretty simple questions. I don't want to ...
255
votes
56answers
10k views

What are the hidden features of Stack Exchange?

What features of Stack Exchange sites do you consider "hidden"?
11
votes
7answers
160 views

How long should I keep trying to solve my own problem before asking?

I'm just wondering what an appropriate period is for looking for an answer to a particular problem (both here and elsewhere) before asking on an SO site? Usually the questions I've asked have been ...
18
votes
1answer
367 views

What is proper etiquette when someone posts copyrighted material?

I just ran into an answer in which the author included a link to a PDF book that was licensed only to them. I'm pretty sure this is copyrighted material and the author does not want copies of the book ...
19
votes
3answers
2k views

StackOverflow User Statistics [closed]

A few days ago I had a post that provided data scraped from the profile pages of over 23,000 StackOverflow users with the intention of having the community mine the database and produce interesting ...
16
votes
3answers
146 views

Is simply upvoting the best answers to old questions the best way to get them off the unanswered list?

While the answers might not be the best or the question really doesn't have an answer, if none are upvoted or the person doesn't accept an answer, they sit and sit in the unanswered page. In cases ...
330
votes
17answers
13k views

Why do you lose reputation for downvoting answers?

It is incredibly rare that I downvote on this or any other community site. I would rather just ignore the item. However, occasionally some very bad advice is given that is worthy of a downvote. Why ...
15
votes
9answers
1k views

When should you edit tags?

Tag editing appears to be fairly random. It seems to me that the point of tags is to help me find stuff. For instance, I use the [c#] tag to find questions on C# - one of my specialities. Why do ...
24
votes
10answers
322 views

Should I upvote “bad” questions?

Sorry, I haven't been paying much attention to the meta-discussions here lately, so I'm not sure if this is appropriate or not, but I just had something on my mind I wanted to share with you. Anyway, ...
88
votes
18answers
432 views

Does my inability to answer questions reflect badly upon me?

I really enjoy browsing Stack Overflow. I've learned quite a few things just from perusing the questions. But, I have to admit, it's really bruising my confidence when I realize how much I don't know. ...
17
votes
6answers
235 views

How can we ask something specific to a region on Stackoverflow?

There are some topics that are specific to certain regions. For instance; in Brazil there is a specific technology called "Nota Fiscal Eletrônica NFe" (something like electronic invoice), which is ...
12
votes
5answers
201 views

How do I request further information on an answer?

I have asked a question and received a good response. But I want more information about it. How am I supposed to go about asking it? Just a create a new question?
21
votes
13answers
567 views

What do I do when my joke non-answer is accepted?

It appears my joke non-answer was accepted by the questioner for some reason. Obviously, this does a disservice to anyone who might run across the question later on. Obviously, I voted up the other, ...
8
votes
8answers
109 views

Should I remove tags which don't seem appropriate?

For example, I was just reading a question on "What's the best WTF you've seen?" and it was tagged as "assembler c c++ c#". Similarly you often see questions about a particular algorithm where the ...
15
votes
7answers
169 views

Is it useful to post questions I already know the answer to on Stack Overflow? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Should I ask a question I know the answer to? I have a log of problems I've encountered over the years with the solution at the particular time. What's the etiquette for ...
13
votes
12answers
317 views

What answer to accept?

There are so many good answers to my questions that it's sometimes hard to decide what answer to designate as accepted. I really feel that more than one is "accepted." What should one do in this ...
7
votes
7answers
85 views

What is the best way to find questions to old answers?

Dyslexic I am not. I just want to know the best way to find previous questions that may answer mine (on SO). I try to search but I tend to get too many irrelevant results. What's your best method ...
4
votes
6answers
574 views

Can I answer a question multiple times? [duplicate]

If I have two separate answers to a question, should I put both in the same post or should I post first one and then the other? For instance: Q: Can I eat honey and locusts? A: Both are ...
3
votes
13answers
142 views

Aren't questions about “best” going to end up having answers reflecting only popularity?

Which is not the same thing at all. E.g. "what's the best book?" - people will vote up the books they've read. This might be useful but won't answer the (possibly unanswerable) question "what's the ...
57
votes
20answers
10k views

SEO in Stack Overflow

We've been out of private beta for only two days, and stackoverflow.com is already ranking high in Google Search. Are there any specific techniques applied in the site? I've been researching the ...
20
votes
10answers
263 views

Wat gebeurt er met een vraag die niet in het engels wordt gesteld? / What happens to questions that aren't in English?

I will translate: What will happen to questions that aren't in english? What are the consequences for questions that aren't in English? Eventually there could be a storm of people that populate ...
16
votes
8answers
4k views

Is it okay to answer a Stack Overflow question with a link? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Are answers that just contain links elsewhere really “good answers”? Just wondering what the etiquette for posting links should be. Let’s say you find a post or ...
1807
votes
50answers
43k views

Could we please be a bit nicer to new users?

There is a distinct decline in the level of civility on all the sites here. Some of this is due to new users coming in and posting spam and other nonsense, but the off-topic and downvote buttons are ...
7
votes
4answers
75 views

How do I move extra-informative answer to a different question?

A question I asked (link) has an answer that's important, but answers a different question (link). How can I move the answer to a proper question without copy-pasting it? It is important to me that ...
115
votes
8answers
38k views

Is stackoverflow.com written in Ruby on Rails? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Which tools and technologies build the Stack Exchange Network? I know this is kind of off-topic, but just curious.
4
votes
5answers
156 views

Co-petition with PerlMonks?

What is the ideal stance to take with regard to other similar resources, such as PerlMonks?
52
votes
7answers
668 views

Editing versus answering?

If you want to expand on someone's existing answer (add more detail, provide an example or code snippet, etc.) and have the ability to edit other folks' answers, is it better to add your own answer, ...
35
votes
13answers
581 views

I keep getting lame answers on SO

I was under the impression that SO was for those that have already tried Google and have not found a suitable answer. However, about 90% of the time, I just get people giving me links from Google ...
15
votes
13answers
455 views

How to ask great questions

As programmers we are daily faced with having to get requirements, test things out, etc. It's practically half our job to know what questions to ask, and how to ask them to get the most concise, ...
1449
votes
51answers
54k views

Fastest Gun in the West Problem

I feel like there's a problem with Stack Overflow, as the number of people prowling it increases. Each question's answers are sorted by descending score and then by descending time of posting. This ...
15
votes
7answers
461 views

Where should I post follow-up questions?

I recently posted a question that quite promptly got a number of decent answers. One of those answers led me to a closely related but slightly different question. What's the best way to bring up that ...
30
votes
14answers
372 views

Will reputation spiral out of all control? [duplicate]

Since reputation is relatively 'cheap' to gain, it can be awarded to others 'for free', and can only seldom be lowered, does this mean overall reputation scores will get higher and higher and, ...
25
votes
15answers
312 views

Is reputation important?

I'm wondering how much a reputation score would make people trust an answer or not? Does my current (167) make it more likely that you believe me or distrust me?
34
votes
13answers
8k views

What is the policy here on homework?

I am not a student, but I know other avenues have had problems in the past with students trying to get others to do their work for them. I am sure most of the people on this site right now would not ...
29
votes
8answers
2k views

Etiquette for selecting answers

I'm kind of curious what kinds of criteria other people go through when selecting the correct answer to their questions. Here's what I consider when selecting the answer to my question: Is the ...
78
votes
12answers
5k views

Do you delete your own answer when it's a duplicate?

When I post an answer to a brand new question I usually find that someone else has submitted that same answer just moments before. (Matt Hamilton, usually ;-) ) What I've started to do lately is (I ...
95
votes
18answers
1k views

Is it acceptable to edit broken English?

I've seen (and written) plenty of posts which have been edited by others to correct typos, broken URLs and so on. I think everyone can agree this is a good thing. How about editing for poor/broken ...
204
votes
32answers
26k views

What formula should be used to determine “hot” questions?

Right now the front page Popular tab is fairly broken -- it's a simple descending sort by views. As Joel said in podcast #18, it is "a self-fulfilling prophecy." But this is not intentional, ...
13
votes
6answers
188 views

Are “pingback” answers to Stack Overflow questions OK?

After playing around with the site for a few days I already see many topics I may write about on my blog in the future. Some are directly related to questions here while others may only use the ...
33
votes
14answers
483 views

What's the best way to contribute to Stack Overflow if you don't have a ton of technical knowledge? [closed]

So far I love what I see from Stack Overflow, and I find myself visiting quite often during my work day. My areas of expertise are J2EE and Spring Framework, and I'm starting to get a little ...
59
votes
15answers
896 views

Is accepting an answer discouraging more answers?

Sometimes I read a question that has an accepted answer, and I feel I won't add any value if I answer. Should one wait to accept an answer in order not to discourage a potentially better answer?
87
votes
16answers
1k views

Do you ever not upvote a question that you answer?

Whenever I submit an answer (a real answer, not some @someone comment) I upvote the question. I generally do this because if the question is good enough to take time to answer it, it's good enough to ...
55
votes
12answers
3k views

Would it be a problem if all Amazon links were converted to affiliate links? [duplicate]

I'm thinking that one way Jeff and the Stack Overflow team could squeeze some extra money out of this site would be to automatically convert all Amazon links posted here into affiliate links, e.g. ...

 
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