46
votes
Why do users give answers using alternative method when I'm asking what went wrong with my solution?
Many aspects to this. I agree to a great extent with the points raised in the other answers. Yes, there are XY problems. Yes, the question is not here just for the benefit of the asker, and this shows ...
- 130k
31
votes
Is it a good thing to erase wrong answer?
Regarding your question about keeping flawed answers: there are several reasons people delete their answers once a fundamental flaw has been pointed out:
the question will not appear in the ...
- 48.6k
29
votes
Accepted
User defacing their question
Next time just flag the post for moderator attention.
Site moderators can "lock" the post, which will prevent any and all further edits by normal users. It has already been temporarily locked once, ...
- 51.6k
28
votes
Accepted
How can I make this question title less clickbaity? "Weird geometry problem with very elegant result"
Titles are supposed to be objective and informative, among other things. Your problem is about approximately finding the value of a parameter for a line to be tangent to three circles, which is a bit ...
PedroMod
- 120k
27
votes
Accepted
How can I avoid immediate down-voting and how should I go about requesting feedback?
Disclaimer: I hadn't seen your question before following the link in this meta question. I'm basing this answer on the first revision of the question.
The title is the title, not the first sentence ...
- 13.3k
26
votes
Accepted
Is there anything to improve in this post which is about ambiguity in question about field axioms?
Is there anything to improve in this post?
Yes. A lot.
Remove your commentary about the downvotes.
Remove your commentary about the close votes.
Move your comment about the cross-posting to a ...
- 732
25
votes
Is a question about "Best books/papers on X" appropriate?
I'd avoid the word 'best;' it just causes the problem of subjectivity and does not bring much precision in return.
You search for references in a relatively specific subject. Explain in a bit more ...
quidMod
- 41.8k
22
votes
Guerilla reposting of a question that no one answered
This is an unacceptable abuse of the site, as it is more-or-less equivalent to reposting the exact same question multiple times due to impatience.
The course of action I would take in this event is ...
- 17.6k
22
votes
How could this question be improved?
"Missing context" is a bit of a catch-all term, but basically it's a request for you to motivate the question (why do you want to solve this? Why is it interesting for you, and for people who might ...
- 6,230
22
votes
A question quickly closed and deleted
There is a very simple reason why we should not encourage posting about open problems by plain amateurs. If we allow just one, to be consistent we would need to allow a hundred. With the recent ...
- 56k
21
votes
Accepted
Why was this question automatically deleted by the Community Bot on 08/13/2022?
As you know, some questions are automatically deleted. Indeed, this also happened in this case.
Specifically it seems to fall under 10 in that thread How does deleting work? What can cause a post to ...
quidMod
- 41.8k
19
votes
What to do with two old questions that are clear duplicates but not marked so?
There are so many questions; plenty of things just fall through the cracks.
When you come across clear-cut old duplicates flag/vote one of them as such. (Click "flag" select "a duplicate" etc.)
...
quidMod
- 41.8k
19
votes
I don't understand the deletion of a recent question
From my experience on Math Help Boards as an admin, I'd say that such behavior is often indicative of cheating. They get help real quick, then delete the post so that their professor doesn't catch ...
- 10k
19
votes
Why do users give answers using alternative method when I'm asking what went wrong with my solution?
Not the exact answer to your situation, but it might give some idea, so in that sense, this answer is also an alternative answer to the question that you are asking.
We are not your tutor in here, ...
- 7,225
18
votes
Accepted
What to do with a question that is no longer relevant?
You should just delete it. There is no reason to clog up the site with questions that don't need to be answered. The localized nature of your mistake also makes it unlikely that the question will be ...
- 26.5k
17
votes
Should I remove a link if given an external request?
Well, since your question has multiple answers (and upvoted answers, and even an accepted answer) you cannot delete it yourself. Since it is closed 10K+ users can vote to delete it, although presently ...
- 51.6k
17
votes
Accepted
What was wrong with my post?
You shouldn't take single downvotes too serious. If you receive many more downvotes than upvotes, something is probably wrong with your question, but I had many questions starting with $1$ or several ...
- 82.2k
16
votes
What should I do if I think I have an answer to an on-hold question?
You ask:
What should I do when I think that I understand and/or have an answer to an on-hold or closed - and, more specifically, "unclear" - question?
You should help to make the question more ...
quidMod
- 41.8k
15
votes
Accepted
Down voting and close voting for missing context
The question you asked originally was this:
Does the unit vectors carry any unit information?
Does the unit vectors carry any unit information ?
Was this really your best effort to articulate your ...
quidMod
- 41.8k
15
votes
Accepted
Is my question too hard?
In absolute terms, I don't think your question is too difficult. However the focus of this site seems to be drifting ever further towards questions from elementary/introductory courses, so a question ...
- 51.6k
15
votes
What if the duplicate has a better answer than the original?
What would happen to these answers (I assume they will be deleted)?
Typically, nothing would happen to these answers. By default, duplicate questions aren't deleted, and unless the question is ...
- 204k
15
votes
Accepted
How can I make this question better.
Actually, apart from the fact that you don't make the question clear in the title, it's well phrased and I disagree with the commentor. According to the question's edit history the context has been ...
- 6,230
15
votes
Accepted
Questions from elementary beginners
First of all, thank you very much for attempting to educate your student about the guidelines and how to ask a question here. I sincerely hope we can help you and them grow as contributors.
On ...
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible