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Sometimes I write questions that are arguably too long, just trying to provide the context to understand what the question is.

In these cases I am then hesitant to post my attempt at answering the question because then the question would be even longer, sometimes absurdly long.

I have tried to find a nice compromise -- adding my attempt as a community wiki answer, that way I don't get additional reputation besides upvotes for the question itself.

I feel like putting the attempt in the answers improves the readability of the whole post, and making it community wiki removes possible conflicts of interest from doing so.

However, at the same time, I feel like I am misusing the features of the site as they were originally intended, and thus I am not sure if this is behavior that should be frowned upon or not.

This question seems related, but more general: RFC: Social norm about 'not an answer, just too long for a comment' and community wiki -- perhaps one could reach a more definitive answer about this more specific case than seemed to be possible for the general case.

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    $\begingroup$ If you do include your attempt as a community wiki answer, you should either indicate this in the question post or in the comments on the main post. $\endgroup$ – Joel Reyes Noche Oct 12 '16 at 14:45
  • $\begingroup$ If you browse (self-answer) tag, you can probably find some related discussions. Maybe also in (solution-verification) tag. $\endgroup$ – Martin Sleziak Oct 12 '16 at 16:52
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    $\begingroup$ Don't use the Answer box for doubtful material. I've asked Questions where I posted a CW Answer in order to summarize some foundational material about the problem being asked. It isn't necessary to provide an "absurdly long" account of your attempts in order to give context. If you tried something and it didn't work, just the outline should suffice, or if you found yourself at a point where it would be unclear how to proceed, describing that point would expedite Readers replying whether you are on the right track (and suggesting what's next) or that you have gotten off on a wrong track. $\endgroup$ – hardmath Oct 12 '16 at 18:59

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