Return to Answer

I notice that the question quotes the FAQ selectively. Here's the full paragraph:

What kind of questions should I not ask here?

You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page.

Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much.

If your motivation for asking the question is “I would like to participate in a discussion about ______”, then you should not be asking here. However, if your motivation is “I would like others to explain ______ to me”, then you are probably OK. (Discussions are of course welcome in our real time web chat.)

As soon as too is interpolated as has been done by OP, one is obviously extending something beyond what was intended.

Then, there's OP's choice of radical. I'd prefer conservative :)

OP writes:

Both are focused on specific technologies shipped with Ubuntu. All 10 apt commands available are pulled by the installation of ONE software package, for example.

That's neither here or there.

Even taking the view that all that is being requested is an explanation of only 10 apt commands, what about the various switches that accompany each command?

As for the reference to an entire book in the FAQ, let's not rely on the literal length of a typical book. That won't get anyone anywhere. War and Peace versus The Little Prince?

Let's now turn to the tooltip that appears when the mouse cursor hovers over the upvote area:

This question shows research effort; it is useful and clear

One answer has this

What is apt and what are its uses? is misleadingly named. It's actually asking "What are the uses for all the apt- commands?"

and this

We have plenty of questions that are lazy in the sense that they ask for information that is extensively provided elsewhere, such that no answer is likely to describe anything that was not previously presented elsewhere on the Internet or in documentation.

If the existence of misleadingly phrased questions and lazy questions is justified by precedence, the tooltip should be rewritten to just "This question is useful"; drop the research effort and clear criteria. The quoted part of the FAQ may benefit as well from a rewrite.

One more point: while the number of up and downvotes is absolutely material, let's not attribute too much to numbers. (I too used too.)

I notice that the question quotes the FAQ selectively. Here's the full paragraph:

What kind of questions should I not ask here?

You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page.

Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much.

If your motivation for asking the question is “I would like to participate in a discussion about ______”, then you should not be asking here. However, if your motivation is “I would like others to explain ______ to me”, then you are probably OK. (Discussions are of course welcome in our real time web chat.)

As soon as too is interpolated as has been done by OP, one is obviously extending something beyond what was intended.

Then, there's OP's choice of radical. I'd prefer conservative :)

OP writes:

Both are focused on specific technologies shipped with Ubuntu. All 10 apt commands available are pulled by the installation of ONE software package, for example.

That's neither here or there.

Even taking the view that all that is being requested is an explanation of only 10 apt commands, what about the various switches that accompany each command?

As for the reference to an entire book in the FAQ, let's not rely on the literal length of a typical book. That won't get anyone anywhere. War and Peace versus The Little Prince?

Let's now turn to the tooltip that appears when the mouse cursor hovers over the upvote area:

This question shows research effort; it is useful and clear

One answer has this

What is apt and what are its uses? is misleadingly named. It's actually asking "What are the uses for all the apt- commands?"

and this

We have plenty of questions that are lazy in the sense that they ask for information that is extensively provided elsewhere, such that no answer is likely to describe anything that was not previously presented elsewhere on the Internet or in documentation.

If the existence of misleadingly phrased questions and lazy questions is justified by precedence, the tooltip should be rewritten to just "This question is useful"; drop the research effort and clear criteria. The quoted part of the FAQ may benefit as well from a rewrite.

One more point: while the number of up and downvotes is absolutely material, let's not attribute too much to numbers. (I too used too.)

I notice that the question quotes the FAQ selectively. Here's the full paragraph:

What kind of questions should I not ask here?

You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page.

Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much.

If your motivation for asking the question is “I would like to participate in a discussion about ______”, then you should not be asking here. However, if your motivation is “I would like others to explain ______ to me”, then you are probably OK. (Discussions are of course welcome in our real time web chat.)

As soon as too is interpolated as has been done by OP, one is obviously extending something beyond what was intended.

Then, there's OP's choice of radical. I'd prefer conservative :)

OP writes:

Both are focused on specific technologies shipped with Ubuntu. All 10 apt commands available are pulled by the installation of ONE software package, for example.

That's neither here or there.

Even taking the view that all that is being requested is an explanation of only 10 apt commands, what about the various switches that accompany each command?

As for the reference to an entire book in the FAQ, let's not rely on the literal length of a typical book. That won't get anyone anywhere. War and Peace versus The Little Prince?

Let's now turn to the tooltip that appears when the mouse cursor hovers over the upvote area:

This question shows research effort; it is useful and clear

One answer has this

What is apt and what are its uses? is misleadingly named. It's actually asking "What are the uses for all the apt- commands?"

and this

We have plenty of questions that are lazy in the sense that they ask for information that is extensively provided elsewhere, such that no answer is likely to describe anything that was not previously presented elsewhere on the Internet or in documentation.

If the existence of misleadingly phrased questions and lazy questions is justified by precedence, the tooltip should be rewritten to just "This question is useful"; drop the research effort and clear criteria. The quoted part of FAQ may benefit as well from a rewrite.

One more point: while the number of up and downvotes is absolutely material, let's not attribute too much to numbers. (I too used too.)

I notice that the question quotes the FAQ selectively. Here's the full paragraph:

What kind of questions should I not ask here?

You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page.

Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much.

If your motivation for asking the question is “I would like to participate in a discussion about ______”, then you should not be asking here. However, if your motivation is “I would like others to explain ______ to me”, then you are probably OK. (Discussions are of course welcome in our real time web chat.)

As soon as too is interpolated as has been done by OP, one is obviously extending something beyond what was intended.

Then, there's OP's choice of radical. I'd prefer conservative :)

OP writes:

Both are focused on specific technologies shipped with Ubuntu. All 10 apt commands available are pulled by the installation of ONE software package, for example.

That's neither here or there.

Even taking the view that all that is being requested is an explanation of only 10 apt commands, what about the various switches that accompany each command?

As for the reference to an entire book in the FAQ, let's not rely on the literal length of a typical book. That won't get anyone anywhere. War and Peace versus The Little Prince?

Let's now turn to the tooltip that appears when the mouse cursor hovers over the upvote area:

This question shows research effort; it is useful and clear

One answer has this

What is apt and what are its uses? is misleadingly named. It's actually asking "What are the uses for all the apt- commands?"

and this

We have plenty of questions that are lazy in the sense that they ask for information that is extensively provided elsewhere, such that no answer is likely to describe anything that was not previously presented elsewhere on the Internet or in documentation.

If the existence of misleadingly phrased questions and lazy questions is justified by precedence, the tooltip should be rewritten to just "This question is useful"; drop the research effort and clear criteria. The quoted part of the FAQ may benefit as well from a rewrite.

One more point: while the number of up and downvotes is absolutely material, let's not attribute too much to numbers. (I too used too.)

I notice that the question quotes the FAQ selectively. Here's the full paragraph:

What kind of questions should I not ask here?

You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page.

Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much.

If your motivation for asking the question is “I would like to participate in a discussion about ______”, then you should not be asking here. However, if your motivation is “I would like others to explain ______ to me”, then you are probably OK. (Discussions are of course welcome in our real time web chat.)

As soon as too is interpolated as has been done by OP, one is obviously extending something beyond what was intended.

Then, there's OP's choice of radical? Why not conservative? Is the purpose to color the argument?

OP writes:

Both are focused on specific technologies shipped with Ubuntu. All 10 apt commands available are pulled by the installation of ONE software package, for example.

That's neither here or there.

Even taking the view that all that is being requested is an explanation of only 10 apt commands, what about the various switches that accompany each command?

As for the reference to an entire book in the FAQ, let's not rely on the literal length of a typical book. That won't get anyone anywhere. War and Peace versus The Little Prince?

Let's now turn to the tooltip that appears when the mouse cursor hovers over the upvote area:

This question shows research effort; it is useful and clear

One answer has this

What is apt and what are its uses? is misleadingly named. It's actually asking "What are the uses for all the apt- commands?"

and this

We have plenty of questions that are lazy in the sense that they ask for information that is extensively provided elsewhere, such that no answer is likely to describe anything that was not previously presented elsewhere on the Internet or in documentation.

If the existence of misleadingly phrased questions and lazy questions is justified by precedence, the tooltip should be rewritten to just "This question is useful"; drop the research effort and clear criteria. The quoted part of FAQ may benefit as well from a rewrite.

One more point: while the number of up and downvotes is absolutely material, let's not attribute too much to numbers. (I too used too.)

I notice that the question quotes the FAQ selectively. Here's the full paragraph:

What kind of questions should I not ask here?

You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page.

Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much.

If your motivation for asking the question is “I would like to participate in a discussion about ______”, then you should not be asking here. However, if your motivation is “I would like others to explain ______ to me”, then you are probably OK. (Discussions are of course welcome in our real time web chat.)

As soon as too is interpolated as has been done by OP, one is obviously extending something beyond what was intended.

Then, there's OP's choice of radical. I'd prefer conservative :)

OP writes:

Both are focused on specific technologies shipped with Ubuntu. All 10 apt commands available are pulled by the installation of ONE software package, for example.

That's neither here or there.

Even taking the view that all that is being requested is an explanation of only 10 apt commands, what about the various switches that accompany each command?

As for the reference to an entire book in the FAQ, let's not rely on the literal length of a typical book. That won't get anyone anywhere. War and Peace versus The Little Prince?

Let's now turn to the tooltip that appears when the mouse cursor hovers over the upvote area:

This question shows research effort; it is useful and clear

One answer has this

What is apt and what are its uses? is misleadingly named. It's actually asking "What are the uses for all the apt- commands?"

and this

We have plenty of questions that are lazy in the sense that they ask for information that is extensively provided elsewhere, such that no answer is likely to describe anything that was not previously presented elsewhere on the Internet or in documentation.

If the existence of misleadingly phrased questions and lazy questions is justified by precedence, the tooltip should be rewritten to just "This question is useful"; drop the research effort and clear criteria. The quoted part of FAQ may benefit as well from a rewrite.

One more point: while the number of up and downvotes is absolutely material, let's not attribute too much to numbers. (I too used too.)