2

This question already has an answer here:

I posted a question. After messing around on my machine for about an hour, I found a solution. Would it be more appropriate to remove the question, or to add the answer to it just to save some other poor idiot the trouble I went through?

Re: The duplicate. I was asking in a specific situation whether it is more appropriate to give an answer or delete a question to which I was able to find an answer soon after asking. I see this as being somewhat different from the situation of the other question.

marked as duplicate by Sonic the Anonymous WizHog, Glorfindel, rene discussion Jun 7 '18 at 21:42

This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.

  • "I see this as being somewhat different from the situation of the other question." - No it isn't. It doesn't matter when you found the answer, you can answer your own question. That's what the existing answer tells you. – Tom Aug 2 '17 at 19:23
  • That's what the 'answer your own question' button is for. – marcellothearcane Aug 2 '17 at 19:40
  • 1
    The only reason not to post an answer would be if the solution you found suggests that it's a bad question (say, if it was a simple typo and the answer is unlikely to be useful to others). If you decide a question you've posted is a bad one, you can always delete it for that reason. If it was this question, I see you've already posted an answer. The question and the answer have each gotten one upvote, so I presume it's useful to someone. – Keith Thompson Aug 2 '17 at 23:03
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It's preferable to provide an answer to your own question than to delete an ontopic i.e. useful question.

Self Answers are encouraged.

There's also the issue of deleting content on the site, as we agree to the Terms of Service

3. Subscriber Content

You agree that all Subscriber Content that You contribute to the Network is perpetually and irrevocably licensed to Stack Exchange under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license. .../...

So technically the content we post is not ours to delete alone.

Also - note worthy is deleting and posting too many low quality questions can lead to a Question ban.

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