16
votes
What is required for a "there is no such program" answer to be high quality?
To give such an answer, either you must be pretty profient in that area to be sure – or the question must be a "little stupid". In both cases, an answer should not be limited to "there is no such ...
IzzyMod
- 18.4k
13
votes
Are we becoming lax about answer quality?
I think you are totally right.
I tend to downvote such answers, I will go over to flag them as well (as VLQ as suggested by Gilles).
Usually I care more about questions then answers so I didn't ...
- 3,010
11
votes
Accepted
Is suggesting built-in software acceptable?
In the past, this was done. And I don't see anything wrong with that – after all it's software "available", and in cases like that the user could even skip the download+install part.
But in your ...
IzzyMod
- 18.4k
9
votes
Accepted
Random inappropriate necro-deletion of decent, helpful, upvoted answer
What you don't see is the six other poor quality and sometimes actually spammy answers there. Granted its a video conversion question, and they attract spammers. You're not one. Awesome.
We've ...
- 8,117
9
votes
Is suggesting python libraries/solution a proper software recommendations?
Almost never ideal, but perhaps preferable to no answer at all?
As someone who does enjoy writing code I would be sad to see such answers go because I find them empowering, but that is not the ...
- 382
9
votes
Is suggesting python libraries/solution a proper software recommendations?
To me it's OK as long as the OP explicitly stated "if some coding is involved with Python, that would be acceptable" (see: Is it okay to ask for algorithms on this site?).
If no coding skills are ...
IzzyMod
- 18.4k
8
votes
Is source code an acceptable answer?
We've had a somewhat similar question in the past: Are answers which provide a complete script acceptable?
As I write, the top two answers are:
[+5] I would say that we probably shouldn't be giving ...
8
votes
It is NOT ok to copy and paste from product website
Our answer quality guidelines lead with this text:
What is expected of an answer on this site?
An answer needs to be tailored to the question. Answers that consist solely of a product name or link ...
5
votes
Providing answers to questions that will obviously be closed
Don't answer questions that you think should be closed and can't be salvaged.
Answering is wasting one's time.
For the license question, I guess that Izzy just felt generous and wanted to ...
- 18.8k
5
votes
It is NOT ok to copy and paste from product website
I think the crux of your question is in the bold-faced part:
On SW-REC SE, we add value (over a google search) to our recommendations by talking from personal experience.
Copying and pasting a ...
- 779
5
votes
Is source code an acceptable answer?
In my answer, I referred to iText, which is a PDF library. See also Free or nearly free PDF library for Java
Due to the very specific requirements of the OP, I don't think that there's a solution that ...
- 282
5
votes
Random inappropriate necro-deletion of decent, helpful, upvoted answer
While I see your point of "no warning before" – I also see the point of the mod deleting the post. I'm not a mod; if I had "pushed that button" you'd have gotten a warning in advance (and a chance to ...
IzzyMod
- 18.4k
4
votes
Why was this answer deleted?
You need to have personal experience with software that you recommend, as per the answer quality guidelines. Your answer essentially falls in the 'I Googled your query and found this' section as of ...
- 4,235
4
votes
Random inappropriate necro-deletion of decent, helpful, upvoted answer
Everyone else has already covered the pertinent points here, so I'm going to try to give a little context for this (not in strict chronological order, though):
Way back in the beginning of the site, ...
- 4,235
4
votes
Random inappropriate necro-deletion of decent, helpful, upvoted answer
This deletion was entirely appropriate. Before accusing others of being “rogue”, please take a minute to inform yourself about our site.
The fact that the answer had been around for a while changes ...
4
votes
Edit otherwise valid answer to remove "Also, look at that long list of maybe solutions"?
Good observation, Nicolas.
When I see that type of answer, I often wonder "What is wrong with the answer that they decided to also include a link to a list of apps?".
I then reread the answer at ...
- 6,136
4
votes
How to handle "it's impossible" answers?
I think that we should we allow "It's impossible" answers for the following reasons:
Such answers are useful to inform the OP and other readers of the difficulty or impossibility to provide ...
- 36.7k
3
votes
How to handle one line answers vs comments
The second category ("Try software XYZ, it will work well.") lacks the info whether it meets the requirements at all (if I ask for a boat and get told a car "works well", it doesn't help me at all) – ...
IzzyMod
- 18.4k
2
votes
How to handle "it's impossible" answers?
Such answers should be allowed and if there is an explanation why it's impossible such answer can be really useful.
So, some example for a question with an "it's not possible" answer could ...
- 268
2
votes
How to handle "it's impossible" answers?
I don't want such answers. They don't help me. And thus I downvote, because that's exactly what the downvote means: "it is not useful".
When I ask a question, I have a problem and I want to ...
- 9,497
2
votes
Edit otherwise valid answer to remove "Also, look at that long list of maybe solutions"?
I find RockPaperLizard's paragraph about "lacking answers" very true. Answers that have such links are often lacking something else. Often the answer would otherwise be a one-line answer (which ...
- 18.8k
2
votes
How we should deal with seemingly easy questions
My own answer to this question is based on Alecos Papadopoulos' answer to a similar issue on Economics SE.
Such questions:
a) Can very easily come out as "too broad", and for this matter should be ...
- 1,124
1
vote
Should I flag answers that contain multiple, independent solutions?
As we want software recommendations (instead of merely software mentions), an answerer that has multiple solutions in mind would ideally compare these solutions, and recommend when to use which.
I ...
- 7,769
1
vote
Quality guidelines for software identification questions/answers?
I think we should just close software identifications questions. Here's why:
They don't have requirements
There can only be 1 correct answer
Answers which suggest similar software will just be ...
- 6,680
1
vote
You're doing it all wrong!
Four points:
When a question gets no answers, most askers would prefer link-dropping to something they were not aware of to having no answer at all.
Requiring personal experience decreases the ...
- 2,922
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible