7
votes
Accepted
Why Might Answers be provided as Comments?
Comments should not be used for answers.
There are two types of situations where this tends to arise:
Questions that have been closed where commentors answer in comments to express disagreement with ...
- 24.3k
6
votes
Accepted
Is it better to publish an unfinished draft or wait until the answer is absolutely complete?
A couple other things worth mentioning:
The volume isn't as heavy here as on StackOverflow. There are few cases where you benefit from posting early.
The length of answers shouldn't be so long that ...
- 5,916
6
votes
How can we promote our apparent goal of getting well-sourced answers?
We should have a policy like Skeptics.SE
Properly sourced answers are better-factored for StackExchange. An answer that "shows its work" has greater pedagogical value. It serves as a kind of minimum ...
- 9,037
4
votes
Are we allowed to express our own opinions?
Officially we're here to give objective answers, and to keep our own opinions out of it. However, I think we all know none of us do that 100% of the time. So is it possible for there to be a "right" ...
4
votes
Why Might Answers be provided as Comments?
In addition to the two cases virmaior mentioned, I personally will on occasion leave an "answer comment" for something that's an idea for an answer, but isn't fully fleshed out. Not sure if this is a ...
- 5,916
4
votes
So I figured out what makes a good question: what is likely to generate good answers. What is a good answer?
I mean you're kind of right that good questions and good answers go together, but if you want to say that good questions are good because of their answers, then that's problematic. It doesn't give ...
- 1,664
3
votes
Why was my answer downvoted?
I did not down vote your answer, but I want to point out you received two up votes and one down vote as of this writing. So you have a net positive number of votes.
It is good to ask oneself how one ...
- 18.9k
3
votes
Accepted
What does it take to answer a question?
It helps to have some familiarity with the literature, but with the resources of the internet at your fingertips, you can often construct a useful, well-supported answer even if you aren't already an ...
3
votes
What's the difference between "ask/answer philosophical questions" and "do philosophy"?
I would like to distinguish three layers here: The level of personal input, the level of knowledge and the voting/commenting/deleting behaviour how it should be vs. how it is actually (sometimes) ...
- 10.8k
3
votes
What's the difference between "ask/answer philosophical questions" and "do philosophy"?
Regarding the definition of philosophy being used here (the easier question to answer). The second answer in this meta post gives a very good definition of what "philosophy" is according to this site
...
- 1,851
3
votes
Why Might Answers be provided as Comments?
I think this is a real issue in Philosophy SE. For example, in this question the correct answer is given in the comments, which leaves us without the means to upvote and provide feedback on it, that ...
- 2,607
3
votes
How can we promote our apparent goal of getting well-sourced answers?
Providing sources obviously takes more time, but it requires .. and reflects .. additional rigor. I appreciate it when I see it, and I find I am fairly quickly motivated to return the favor.
Maybe ...
- 333
2
votes
How can we promote our apparent goal of getting well-sourced answers?
Good question!
If a good percentage of the community referenced questions and answers then it might be easier to suggest users should do so, without driving people away.
It does take some work to ...
- 45k
2
votes
Subjective answers and questions stimulating subjectiveness
Late to the game (just starting to get involved in this Stack Exchange).
From what I've seen so far on this site, I think there are some subjective questions that are someone to look to pick a fight, ...
- 5,916
2
votes
Is it better to publish an unfinished draft or wait until the answer is absolutely complete?
I'd suggest that writing a post is far from writing an essay which takes more planning and work; generally, I try to keep my answers short and to the point, so it's more like the notes that might go ...
- 45k
2
votes
What to do about answers that are just opinions?
For right now, I did just delete the answer in the interest of discouraging future similar answers, but it's a fair question whether downvoting or deleting is the appropriate goal here.
- 24.3k
1
vote
Accepted
Why do people keep deleting my answers on this question (and without notifying me)
The post author did delete their question two times, which automatically deletes the whole thread including its answers. It was reposted later, for the second time now.
Thus, you'll have to address ...
- 10.8k
1
vote
What to do about answers that are just opinions?
Some people can take a hint, others don't; unfortunately, if this happens with a new-comer, there's no track record to go on, to decide which way they might go.
The optimum, would be to remind them ...
- 45k
1
vote
Why Might Answers be provided as Comments?
As I read other Phil.SE posts, I've seen quite a few cases where learners and students are not comfortable asserting Answers outright, but use comments to provide partial feedback and ideas for ...
- 333
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