26
votes
I'm probably going to get skewered for this -- You can be rude and still provide a perfectly suitable answer to a question
I'm afraid this is something that simply isn't up for discussion. Yes, we want to build a resource of useful knowledge and technical help. However, just as importantly, we want t build a civil and ...
- 102k
23
votes
Accepted
Two answers on one question by the same user
It's an occasional practice for users to post two or more answers to the same question. It may be done for several reasons:
To split specific use-cases into separate posts, which may require specific ...
- 106k
22
votes
Accepted
What should I do when I find an answer that damages my system but I don't have enough reputation to comment on it?
In this case, I would recommend asking a new question about the troubles you've had with that answer, and include a link. This has three purposes:
It will draw the attention of more senior Ask Ubuntu ...
- 14.3k
20
votes
Accepted
Answering a question using an answer from another post
Here's how I see it. There are a few situations.
Exact Duplicate
If the questions are asking the same thing, and you see one question has a proper solution, then it would be better to use the ...
- 19.4k
20
votes
Editor wars aside, can we use sudo nano when talking to non-experts?
We should absolutely not be recommending the use of gedit as root (through gksu or worse, sudo) to any user, professional or otherwise. See my answer here for reasoning, as well as a similar thread ...
- 34.3k
20
votes
Can I reuse my own answers outside of Ask Ubuntu?
IANAL but,
Material posted on Stack Exchange sites is owned by its author (you) and made available under the CC BY-SA Creative Commons license.
As the owner of the material, you are free to do ...
ZannaMod
- 71.2k
19
votes
Should we unpin the accepted answer from the top of the list?
Accepts are a way to indicate what worked best for the OP or which answer they personally liked. Sometimes the OP's choice isn't the best one - after all, many people ask questions because they don't ...
ZannaMod
- 71.2k
18
votes
Accepted
Is it okay to ask the OP inside your answer to accept and upvote it?
No, that is not acceptable. What I would find perfectly fine and acceptable is a comment asking for acceptance if the OP said the solution works but they didn't bother to accept any answer.
That is ...
- 8,046
18
votes
Is it okay to ask the OP inside your answer to accept and upvote it?
It's not the end of the world, but it's definitely noise, so you can edit it out.
Thank you for reading my answer. Please like, rate, share, and subscribe.
- 87.4k
17
votes
What should I do if someone makes a bad edit to my post?
Functionally speaking Zanna's answer is good... Although I would beg you avoid rollback wars.
That is to say if they rollback your rollback, don't rollback again. Raise a flag for a moderators on ...
OliMod
- 296k
16
votes
Can a workaround count as an answer?
"Do workarounds qualify as answers or rather as comments?"
Answer. When nothing else works it is an answer...
But ...
"install the driver of a sibling printer "
... is not a workaround but ...
- 304k
16
votes
Accepted
Delete own answer if somebody posts a more thorough answer later?
Keep the answer there. Deleting should be done when your content is entirely wrong. If your answer provides valid content, then keep it.
Let the OP decide what is the better answer. The other ...
- 106k
16
votes
How do you ask OP to reconsider accepted answer and award yours?
Honestly? Just don't do it.
The OP gets notified about every new answer to their question, so you can assume they've either seen it already or they have no interest in checking their notifications. ...
ZannaMod
- 71.2k
16
votes
What if someone just thanked answerer instead of accepting that answer?
For the general case, accepting an answer is a privilege that is enjoyed only by the OP (original poster) of the question. If OP is a new user and presumably unaware of how accepting works, you may ...
- 69.3k
15
votes
Accepted
Save an answer as a draft
This feature already exists. Try writing an answer. Wait for about 30-45 seconds. Draft Saved will appear and a Discard button too.
A secret:
From waffles' answer on What are the details/...
- 17.9k
14
votes
Accepted
What should I do if someone makes a bad edit to my post?
You should "rollback" the edit if someone damages your post. Click on the 'edited * ago' link under the post
then find the revision you want to go back to and click 'rollback'
(By the way, this ...
ZannaMod
- 71.2k
14
votes
What to do with copy-pasted answers by a new user?
This happens quite often. If I'm not wrong, the system automatically flags identical posts, so it's likely to be looked into by mods.
In my opinion, there's no automatic conclusion to be drawn.
...
ZannaMod
- 71.2k
14
votes
Can I reuse my own answers outside of Ask Ubuntu?
Yes. Content you create is yours.
There was briefly a clause in the Terms and Conditions that —by my reading— had the inadvertent impact of demanding attribution. I also occasionally write technical ...
OliMod
- 296k
14
votes
Re-working another user's answer?
The question is a bit unclear on the specific situation, so it depends.
If an answer is undoubtedly harmful, I'd say edit! Fix, if you can without changing the concept, or include a warning if not. ...
- 84.4k
13
votes
Accepted
Is it ok to comment and see if it works before answer?
I'm a bit more relaxed about this than Jacob, mostly because I agree with the last sentence. Comment answers are a real pain because people trip over themselves in politeness to not transcribe it out ...
OliMod
- 296k
13
votes
Ask Ubuntu isn't Code Golf. . . or is it?
Every case is different but broadly speaking I tend to like and upvote answers I can understand and test or verify myself. Clarity and not brevity is what I care about, because ease of understanding ...
ZannaMod
- 71.2k
13
votes
Accepted
What should we do with answers that include contact details for relevant support services?
My own two cents is that support should never be pushed off-site by anyone, no matter if they're an official representative or a Canonical employee.
Part of the function of Ask Ubuntu is to build a ...
- 34.3k
12
votes
How do you research for answers?
I use Firefox, which has 2 features that really help with those issues, one of which most browsers have:
Reopen tabs on restart (This is what most browsers have)
Awesome Bar (i.e. where we input the ...
- 13.3k
12
votes
Should we unpin the accepted answer from the top of the list?
Obsolete Answer Flag
In many cases the answer with the most upvotes is simply the one that has been here longest. Often these high vote answers are totally obsolete and no longer work.
It was much ...
- 20k
11
votes
Accepted
When to add another answer instead of updating my current one?
It's up to you where exactly you draw the line for yourself and write a separate second answer instead of adding to your first one, but I can give you some questions that may help you to decide:
How ...
- 109k
11
votes
Re-working another user's answer?
Jacob answered what you should do, and you've given a good answer for what you should not do:
vote to delete that answer and post the edited version of the answer
I'd be incandescent if out of the ...
OliMod
- 296k
10
votes
Accepted
What should I (or we) do about answers that obviously miss the point of the question entirely?
Yes, that post should have been deleted and has been deleted now. No matter what we claim, mods are humans too and sometimes, we overlook posts (just like that answerer) and mistakenly act on flags. ...
jokerdinoMod
- 41.5k
10
votes
Accepted
What should we do with new answers to old questions of EOL versions, with an already accepted answer?
There is nothing special about newly posted answers to questions about releases that have reached end of life (or end of standard support).
The goal of the site is to build a library of answers to ...
- 119k
10
votes
I can't add an answer to indicate that I'm having the same problem as a previous poster
You should not post an answer because you have to same problem, unless you have some research which at least partially solves the problem. See the Help Center answer How do I write a good answer?:
...
- 971
10
votes
Accepted
Are new users banned from answering "highly active questions"?
The question got a lot of views quickly and then was automatically protected after three non-answers were posted by 1 rep users.
As this happened ages ago (Aug 5th), I have unprotected the question ...
- 18.7k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible