18
votes
Accepted
Should questions be written for everyone to understand?
No, this should not be required. This is an international site, and people from all over the world should be able to get answers to their Workplace questions, without the additional burden of ...
- 47.3k
10
votes
Discussion questions
Are you with me?
No.
Stack Exchange is not a forum. This is a Q&A site built around the concept of asking and answering questions and judging both. A discussion cannot be judged and is simply not ...
LilienthalMod
- 59.4k
10
votes
Accepted
How does a question get "bumped to the homepage"?
The Community user randomly bumps certain old questions -- questions that were good enough (positive score) to attract at least one answer, but no answer is upvoted. On a busy site this can mean that ...
- 52.9k
9
votes
Accepted
How should questions with obviously ridiculous premises (such as how to engage in fraud) be handled?
Flag for mod attention, downvote, and vote to close and/or delete.
Answering bad questions - troll questions for sure, and anything where the poster does not really have that problem - is not helpful. ...
- 38k
9
votes
Is a question being hypothetical a problem?
While I understand that hypothetical questions frequently suffer from lacking details necessary to make it answerable, if enough details are present, is a hypothetical question still bad just because ...
LilienthalMod
- 59.4k
8
votes
Accepted
Bounties on Questions with Close Votes
Why is this frowned upon by the Mods ( or in general )?
We frown upon any action that abuses SE systems, especially if it's done to accomplish a particular action that's not normally possible. ...
LilienthalMod
- 59.4k
7
votes
Should questions be written for everyone to understand?
We have a similar situation over on Mi Yodeya, where discussions of Jewish law can involve a lot of jargon, some of which is hard to translate into English or would require a lot of explanation. The ...
- 52.9k
6
votes
Why is the reputation of the last user to interact with a question shown on the Home page?
This has been the current situation for as long as I can remember. (But I'm here for only five years.) the site exists; see this screenshot taken on Stack Overflow over 10 years ago:
(source)
Is this ...
- 3,011
6
votes
'Bandwagon' Voting
To expound a bit on what Snow said...
We try to save questions if we can.
This particular question came up in the watercooler, and was discussed. Several users (myself included) made edits to make ...
- 160k
6
votes
Do/should people downvote out of sheer irritation about how the OP handled the situation?
Voting is completely open to the individual. They can downvote just because they stubbed their toe that morning. Or upvote because it's their birthday if they want.
The votes are of limited use anyway ...
- 224k
5
votes
Accepted
Do/should people downvote out of sheer irritation about how the OP handled the situation?
is it ever appropriate to downvote for that reason [the way that the OP handled a situation irritated/frustrated me]?
Never. You don't vote just because OP handled the situation badly. In fact, many ...
DarkCygnusMod
- 83.6k
5
votes
What is the assumed work market context for IT related questions when it is not fully specified?
You asked,
What is the assumed work market context for IT related questions when it is not fully specified?
Ideally, there is not an assumed anything if it may change the answer to the question. ...
- 43.6k
5
votes
What is the assumed work market context for IT related questions when it is not fully specified?
Usually if the information would significantly change answers, we try not make assumptions at all. Instead we add comments asking for clarification, and sometimes will close a question as unclear if ...
- 30.1k
4
votes
Why are there down votes on meta questions about a procedure or decision on stackexchange?
This looks like an example of the Obvious Answer Downvote Pattern (OADP). Questions that have a supposedly "obvious" answer tend to attract a lot of downvotes.
While users are free to vote as they ...
- 47.3k
4
votes
'Bandwagon' Voting
This may be due to the HNQ effect. Once the question makes it to the Hot Network Questions list, it instantly becomes visible to a much broader audience, of which the majority is only able to vote up. ...
- 9,265
4
votes
Accepted
Why banners appear on some questions?
That is a post notice, added by one of the mods. If a question has been flagged, or in our own browsing of the community we may see an answer that needs improving in some way. There are a couple of ...
- 46.7k
4
votes
Should my thread be moved?
I moved it because the primary focus of your question is asking about the specifics of the freelancing arrangement.
To migrate, generally you need a moderator to do that if the site is not ...
- 111k
3
votes
How should questions with obviously ridiculous premises (such as how to engage in fraud) be handled?
The criteria should not be, how stupid is the OP, or how ridiculous assumptions he made, but can the question be objectively answered, and will the answer profit future visitors.
The question can be ...
- 2,612
3
votes
Discouraging down and close votes because you don't like the question
I only agree with close votes part. Closing should be reserved to questions which can't possibly be answered well, like questions asking for opinions, rants phrased as questions or unclear questions ...
- 9,265
2
votes
Why are there down votes on meta questions about a procedure or decision on stackexchange?
In your specific case, and others I have seen, when someone uses meta to asks for an explanation for why something happened, such as a question being put on hold, people who agree with the action then ...
- 3,421
2
votes
Is a question being hypothetical a problem?
The problem with hypothetical questions is that there’s no proof that anyone is looking for an answer to it. Q&A here is only useful to the extent that future readers who actually have that ...
2
votes
Discouraging down and close votes because you don't like the question
The bottom line here is you CANNOT know the reason for a vote of any kind unless the user has the good sense to comment on the item being voted on. ( I don't always comment when I vote in the positive ...
- 85k
2
votes
How should questions with obviously ridiculous premises (such as how to engage in fraud) be handled?
As stupid and ridiculous as many questions may seem to some of us more seasoned, they may not seen as obvious to others.
My standard approach to troll posts is to look at Poe's law, and realize that ...
- 160k
1
vote
Accepted
Opinion Questions on Workplace Stack Exchange
Yes, we cannot run our answers here through a compiler and prove them correct. Just as you cannot run a pattern from Software Engineering through your compiler and expect a message how well it will ...
nvoigtMod
- 146k
1
vote
What is the assumed work market context for IT related questions when it is not fully specified?
Other assumptions that I noticed, but that are not in your list:
Workers have well defined roles in their contracts and stick to them. They are not overzealous, they don't step on other worker's ...
- 2,022
1
vote
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible