'Yes' and 'No' answers to questions without explanations, acceptable?

Are 'Yes' and 'No' answers to questions (that ask only for a yes or no answer, even if that's a bad type of questions according to the SE model) without any explanations acceptable?

• No.${}{}{}{}{}$ – Asaf Karagila Jan 9 '15 at 13:10
• Yes, if you think this answer is helpful. – robjohn Jan 9 '15 at 13:13
• for example this one math.stackexchange.com/a/1095126/153330 – user153330 Jan 9 '15 at 13:28
• IMO the real question is whether a question that can be answered Yes/No is on-topic. And even if it is on-topic, whether it is something we want to have. In general It depends. – Jyrki Lahtonen Jan 9 '15 at 13:33
• @JyrkiLahtonen and for that example ? – user153330 Jan 9 '15 at 13:38
• @GrigoryM That just makes it a poorly worded or poor question. User may as well have received a "yes" and "no", what then? – user153330 Jan 9 '15 at 13:43
• @user153330 Sorry, I haven't noticed this part of your question; one might argue that than "yes" and "no" will have different number of upvotes etc. IMO the problem is mainly the question, not the answer(s). I'm surprised that this particular question is not only open but also is heavily upvoted. – Grigory M Jan 9 '15 at 13:45
• @GrigoryM but then You'll notice the upvotes in favor of "no" or "yes" garnered around the best explained answers, as they would on any healthy SE site, and the answers without explanations would be deleted. – user153330 Jan 9 '15 at 13:47
• The question asks "is it immature" ... to the (doubtful) extent that the question is on-topic, then the one-word opinion is an answer. – GEdgar Jan 9 '15 at 16:47
• Yes. $\ \ \ \ \$ – Mister Benjamin Dover Jan 9 '15 at 18:22
• As the on-topicness of the specific question gets questioned, while I am biased, I would still like to record that the underlying question what is up with or why is there such a noticeable switch in the notation of vectors seems quite reasonable to me. – quid Jan 10 '15 at 6:01

Whether or not something is (technically) a yes/no question is quite often nothing but a stylistic choice. This choice, when made, might not be optimal for the medium, but I still think we should try to minimize "literal" answers in such cases.

• Could you give me some references? Yes!

• Is this argument valid? No!

• Is this or something related known? Yes!

I actually do believe in educating users to make quite explicit what they expect as an answer. However, they way to do this is not via giving yes/no answers, in any case not as answer-posts.

• Those are good examples where answering just "yes" or "no" would not be good. However, "Is this argument valid? Yes!" is trickier. If there is a great argument with a request for verification, with no further specific question, it might be worth answering "yes" without saying anything else. (It would be better if the questioner would say what about their argument they're not sure of, so one could address a specific question and give reasons, but "why is this proof valid" could be "too broad".) – Jonas Meyer Jan 26 '15 at 4:07
• First I agree with your final parenthetical remark. Still, I think also a pure "yes!" is not a good answer (it might be reasonable as a quick comment). The point is the answer does in itself not add anything whatsoever. Really the only value of it seems who wrote it and the trust we might have into their judgement. Granted, this can be actually useful in some case, but it still does not really qualify as an answer. Even if the argument is correct and there is no specific question it is typically possible to say something meaningful beyond yes. And, this better should be done. – quid Jan 26 '15 at 17:43
• I agree I think. I felt compelled to mention this because the examples in the answer seemed perhaps too obviously bad, and I see the case I call "trickier" come up with mixed reactions. E.g. I have sympathy for user7530's comment on dustin's answer, but also think such answers are not very good. (And I came to this thread because I saw a "yes that's a great proof" type answer recommended for deletion in the low quality queue, which in context seemed too much to me (i.e., the recommendation of deletion), even though I would not answer in this way, and sometimes would downvote such answers.) – Jonas Meyer Jan 26 '15 at 17:49

Even if the question solicits a yes/no answer, the answerer should be able to generate something of substance to add to their response of yes/no. For instance, take the following question on a Laplace transform:

Find the laplace transform of $u(-t+a)$, u is the step function

The OP asked if they were doing it correctly. Well the answer is yes, but I was to able to add something of value. If someone is really just going to write yes/no, it might as well be a comment.

• (-1) If someone asks "is this proof correct?" and the answer is yes, I would much rather have "Yes" as an answer, than "Yes" as a comment and an "unanswered" question in the queue. – user7530 Jan 10 '15 at 20:57
• @user7530 you could say yes and present an alternate method or approach. – dustin Jan 10 '15 at 20:59