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Let's say I managed to realize something interesting, tricky and not foundable with a simple web search.

Should I post it on Ask Ubuntu, with me asking a question and answering it myself right after?

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2 Answers 2

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Absolutely!

I do that all the time ;-) Somebody's bound to get some use out of it.

  • If you have a good question, ask it.
  • If you know an answer to a question, answer it.
  • Ergo: if you have a good question and you know the answer, ask and answer it. :-)

If I type a question into google and I find the answer on AU, I don't really mind who wrote it. And that's what the site is for. So, out of habit, I nearly always "+2" these self-documentation questions.

Furthermore, if your question is even slightly interesting, there's a good chance you'll get additional answers on it, which means more information available to everyone.

In fact, on the Stackoverflow Blog it is stated that

To be crystal clear, it is not merely OK to ask and answer your own question, it is explicitly encouraged.

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  • Thank you very much Stefano! I was really concerned about being flagged as somebody who just wants to increase his own Reputation points.
    – Agmenor
    Jan 19, 2012 at 19:02
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    @Agmenor While people do get accused of that, thats mostly by the poor sports who don't really understand how the site works. :)
    – jrg
    Jan 22, 2012 at 20:02
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Just a follow up since this won't fit in a comment, but I've been using AU as a sort of "personal documentation system" for when I am trying to do something and the information on the net is bad and I want to make sure that it's available to people and in a place where it can be peer reviewed:

Pre-write your answer ahead of time so that you can post it right away after you post your question. I've posted a question and then started writing my answer and I find that people start trying to answer the question right away! So then I feel bad that people were going off trying to find an answer that I already knew, so what I do is post the question and answer right away as soon as I can so that I don't waste someone else's time trying to fix something I already know but haven't written up yet.

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