How should we handle questions made worse by the asker rather than the content of the Q&A?

Question

I voted to close this question.

I think the core of the question is good: "How do I discuss money before investing my time in pursuing a potential job?"

The issue is that the asker is commenting on every answer saying, "But this doesn't work."

On one hand I think this question will be useful to future readers who may be in the same situation. On the other hand I don't like the constant commenting as it is turning in to a discussion rather than a Q&A. The question as-asked is good and useful, but the asker's comments indicate that it isn't useful to the asker.

I see three possible ways to handle the question:

Edit and Reopen

Right now the questions reads as "How do I discuss money before investing my time in pursuing a potential job?" What he is actually asking is "How can I negotiate a salary well above the expected/advertised range of the opening prior to proving that I have the skills that merit such exceptional treatment?"

If we do the edit, then at least the asker's question matches what he is trying to convey in the comments. And while the second question is of infinitely less use to future visitors, at least it is still a 'practical answerable question based on actual problems you face'.

Recommission the Question

Since the question as-is is actually useful and seems like it will have lasting use, we could co-opt the question as-is to preserve that useful information. This would require purging comments, potentially making the original question a community wiki, and otherwise letting the asker know that the question has more use as-is, though he is free to ask an alternate question if the good answers we've provided don't solve the one he is facing now.

Leave it Closed

Since this poster may have issues with editing his posts or co-opting them, we could just leave it closed as-is. As-is, the question is unclear what is being asked as the comments, questions, and answers are not all on the same page.

---

Personally I think the best choice is to leave it as-is and re-open since that makes the best resource for us moving forward. But I'd like to hear from the community what the best choice is for us. I don't want to lose good content if I don't have to, but at the same time I don't think it's an ideal choice either. Is there anything else you can think of that can help fix this situation?

Answer 1

In this specific case I have declined the reopen vote and suggest recommissioning.

1. The original question is 'How to get budget information in an early stage?'
2. The top ranked answer is simply 'bring it up ASAP' and questions the assumption that the information is hard to get
3. The OP keeps writing 'yes, but' comments that make it a mess. E.g. he wants a definitive answer instead of doing the work himself, e.g. not addressing "the least common denominator there is you and your words, so maybe take a closer look at what you're saying and how you're saying it" in the top ranked answer. One answer from 'doing the work' could be that he fires an email question back to a technical contact, instead of trying another route (look up and contact HR).
4. In the comments the focus seems to change as you notice.

1 and 2 make a good Q&A. Annoying as 3 might be, it does not distract from 1. 4 makes for a new question

So, ask the user to post a new question as you suggest, and remove all the comments not pertaining to the original question.

Note: I have not yet made a comment regarding 3 since I feel that adding yet another comment does not make it more readable; may do so after the question has been cleaned up.

Answer 2

I vote no. The op wants to have a discussion about the topic not ask a question. We have tried to explain that this is a QA site but the op does not seem to care. I do not have a problem with the question so much as the endless comment discussion that we can not get stopped.

Ideally we would have an active mod that would step in as this is an obvious exceptional case. But since we do not have that option, out only recourse is to use the tools we do have and close the question until the OP wants to play nice.

Answer 3

Ha! I first thought this was complaining about my Q: https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/18712/why-are-html-resumes-not-accepted :-)

I think the best attitude is to treat a Q at face value and judge the Q independently. Do not judge the combination of the Q, your assumptions about it, the answers and the comments.

If there are problems with any answers or comments, whoever makes them, then those should be dealt with. Problem answers or comments can be flagged and edited or removed, can't they?