Just to address these cases:

• Marco Ceppi's explanation of why a (now deleted) user's answers were being removed

  With the exception of the third answer (which I believe we converted to comment) the first two were overboard. If you asked how you could get rid of maleria in the world, some of these answers are analogous to "Nuke the world, problem solved".

• This answer to Alternative printer driver for Fuji Xerox DocuPrint P205b?

  Similar deal here. "Ubuntu doesn't work? Install Windows on bare metal to solve all your problems." As valid a point as this might be, it's not really the answer we're looking for here. It's also implicit that it might work on Windows given that there is a driver for it. It's not a helpful post.

• This answer to Can I legally build and sell desktops with Ubuntu pre-installed?

  This one is getting trashed because the emphasis makes it look like a troll. It's also hinting something (that Ubuntu isn't free or re-distributable) which is technically incorrect.

All these share something: they're unhelpful in some way. Giving an answer which is dangerous, obvious or is just wrong is a good way to get it voted down. If it goes too far in one of those directions, the mods step in and shut it down.

That's the policy and I don't think it needs expanding. It's always going to be fairly subjective based on the nuances in English, the mood of everybody involved, etc. As soon as we start writing what can and can't be written in answers, we risk treading on what might actually be very helpful posts.

Sidebar: It's important to note that there are already helpful examples of "No, but what about this" answers. "No" is a valid answer and you can provide helpful alternatives in your answers. Here's one I gave on a networking question How to share my WiFi Internet via WiFi? where over half my answer is not to do it the way the user was planning on. I think it's helpful, you might disagree.

Another thing to note is that it doesn't matter how many policies we write, an unhelpful poster is going to post whatever they like. We don't hold seminars for new users before they can post so a lot of people learn what is acceptable on-the-job.

Just to address these cases:

• Marco Ceppi's explanation of why a (now deleted) user's answers were being removed

  With the exception of the third answer (which I believe we converted to comment) the first two were overboard. If you asked how you could get rid of maleria in the world, some of these answers are analogous to "Nuke the world, problem solved".

• This answer to Alternative printer driver for Fuji Xerox DocuPrint P205b?

  Similar deal here. "Ubuntu doesn't work? Install Windows on bare metal to solve all your problems." As valid a point as this might be, it's not really the answer we're looking for here. It's also implicit that it might work on Windows given that there is a driver for it. It's not a helpful post.

• This answer to Can I legally build and sell desktops with Ubuntu pre-installed?

  This one is getting trashed because the emphasis makes it look like a troll. It's also hinting something (that Ubuntu isn't free or re-distributable) which is technically incorrect.

All these share something: they're unhelpful in some way. Giving an answer which is dangerous, obvious or is just wrong is a good way to get it voted down. If it goes too far in one of those directions, the mods step in and shut it down.

That's the policy and I don't think it needs expanding. It's always going to be fairly subjective based on the nuances in English, the mood of everybody involved, etc. As soon as we start writing what can and can't be written in answers, we risk treading on what might actually be very helpful posts.

Sidebar: It's important to note that there are already helpful examples of "No, but what about this" answers. "No" is a valid answer and you can provide helpful alternatives in your answers. Here's one I gave on a networking question How to share my WiFi Internet via WiFi? where over half my answer is not to do it the way the user was planning on. I think it's helpful, you might disagree.

Another thing to note is that it doesn't matter how many policies we write, an unhelpful poster is going to post whatever they like. We don't hold seminars for new users before they can post so a lot of people learn what is acceptable on-the-job.

Just to address these cases:

• Marco Ceppi's explanation of why a (now deleted) user's answers were being removed

  With the exception of the third answer (which I believe we converted to comment) the first two were overboard. If you asked how you could get rid of maleria in the world, some of these answers are analogous to "Nuke the world, problem solved".

• This answer to Alternative printer driver for Fuji Xerox DocuPrint P205b?

  Similar deal here. "Ubuntu doesn't work? Install Windows on bare metal to solve all your problems." As valid a point as this might be, it's not really the answer we're looking for here. It's also implicit that it might work on Windows given that there is a driver for it. It's not a helpful post.

• This answer to Can I legally build and sell desktops with Ubuntu pre-installed?

  This one is getting trashed because the emphasis makes it look like a troll. It's also hinting something (that Ubuntu isn't free or re-distributable) which is technically incorrect.

All these share something: they're unhelpful in some way. Giving an answer which is dangerous, obvious or is just wrong is a good way to get it voted down. If it goes too far in one of those directions, the mods step in and shut it down.

That's the policy and I don't think it needs expanding. It's always going to be fairly subjective based on the nuances in English, the mood of everybody involved, etc. As soon as we start writing what can and can't be written in answers, we risk treading on what might actually be very helpful posts.

Sidebar: It's important to note that there are already helpful examples of "No, but what about this" answers. "No" is a valid answer and you can provide helpful alternatives in your answers. Here's one I gave on a networking question How to share my WiFi Internet via WiFi? where over half my answer is not to do it the way the user was planning on. I think it's helpful, you might disagree.

Another thing to note is that it doesn't matter how many policies we write, an unhelpful poster is going to post whatever they like. We don't hold seminars for new users before they can post so a lot of people learn what is acceptable on-the-job.

Just to address these cases:

• Marco Ceppi's explanation of why a (now deleted) user's answers were being removed

  With the exception of the third answer (which I believe we converted to comment) the first two were overboard. If you asked how you could get rid of maleria in the world, some of these answers are analogous to "Nuke the world, problem solved".

• This answer to Alternative printer driver for Fuji Xerox DocuPrint P205b?

  Similar deal here. "Ubuntu doesn't work? Install Windows on bare metal to solve all your problems." As valid a point as this might be, it's not really the answer we're looking for here. It's also implicit that it might work on Windows given that there is a driver for it. It's not a helpful post.

• This answer to Can I legally build and sell desktops with Ubuntu pre-installed?

  This one is getting trashed because the emphasis makes it look like a troll. It's also hinting something (that Ubuntu isn't free or re-distributable) which is technically incorrect.

All these share something: they're unhelpful in some way. Giving an answer which is dangerous, obvious or is just wrong is a good way to get it voted down. If it goes too far in one of those directions, the mods step in and shut it down.

That's the policy and I don't think it needs expanding. It's always going to be fairly subjective based on the nuances in English, the mood of everybody involved, etc. As soon as we start writing what can and can't be written in answers, we risk treading on what might actually be very helpful posts.

Sidebar: It's important to note that there are already helpful examples of "No, but what about this" answers. "No" is a valid answer and you can provide helpful alternatives in your answers. Here's one I gave on a networking question How to share my WiFi Internet via WiFi? where over half my answer is not to do it the way the user was planning on. I think it's helpful, you might disagree.

Another thing to note is that it doesn't matter how many policies we write, an unhelpful poster is going to post whatever they like. We don't hold seminars for new users before they can post so a lot of people learn what is acceptable on-the-job.