We all know how important are datasheets in EE design so we appreciate users when they link to datasheets.
However, sometimes an otherwise good question is posted which lacks datasheets links, so the usual practice is to ask the OP in a comment to provide the links. Alas, I've collected some experience in doing this and I discovered than many newbies, especially hobbyists, have some trouble finding the right datasheet or they don't even know what a datasheet is. Moreover, new users don't know what are our policies regarding datasheet links, so they may link to some vendor's product page instead of direct-linking to the PDF on a manufacturer's server.
The fact is that sometimes I grow tired of this janitorial work of writing a comment like "please provide a link to. ... blah, blah" and then reply to "datasheet? what is that?" or "I can't find it on SuperCoolGoods, Inc. website" and simply edit-in the question (or answer, sometimes) to provide the links myself. Ok, it is less educative for the OP, but sometimes I have little time and I deem it is better spent on making the post better, instead of trying inducing the OP to learn how to do it himself.
In editing the post I try to be the less intrusive as possible (if no other editing is needed), so if the OP mentions, say, an LM317, I simply add a link around the part number without modifying the wording.
Sometimes, however, the post is so conceived that this cannot be done (part numbers only referred to in the schematic, for example), so I usually restrain myself from editing, although I feel an itch to add something like a BOM at the end of the post like:
Links to relevant datasheets:
So my question boils down to this: is it acceptable to directly append such a list of datasheet links to questions when it would be impossible or very difficult to edit the post in a less intrusive way?
