Is encouragement of bad questions tolerable?

Question

While there is a lot of talk about bad questions and how the reduce SNR and what we could do about people not asking bad questions lately, I was wondering about the role of answers in this game.

Specifically the role of answers to bad questions. While in a lot of cases it is understandably borderline and someone might have correctly guessed what its all about, I often see answers that are merely extended comments and guess. Or that answer the question more or less properly, but the question is clearly offtopic. Often already in the process of being closed. Heavily downvoted etc.

I think these answers actually encourage people to ask more bad questions. It seems that in a lot of cases the thought process is "Oh, there are these hardcore people that are yelling at me, but that one nice guy helped me, let me post another question again, maybe he helps again or some other nice guy".

Or does it not?

If it does, what should be the consequence for such answers? Downvoting, even though technically they are a good answer to that question, just as offtopic as the question? Add a delete flag reason for answering offtopic questions?

I find these answers especially annoying because in times where there is a new flood of crappy questions, and you try your best to explain to people why the community does not want this question in that way, someone with much higher rep jumps in and answers it and everyone will wonder "well, when you don't want it, then why answer it?" Also it seems that questions without answers get easier deleted when closed than questions with answer, keeping crappy content available for search.

So in the end -- under the light of building up a database of good ontopic Q&A -- do we want to get rid of offtopic answers as well, or are we more lenient if the answer is offtopic than when a question is offtopic ?

Answer 1

Personally, I often answer questions that are a bit vague, or possibly would be 'more on-topic' on another SE site, provided that:

• I feel I have an accurate view of what the OP meant to ask
• The question is at least relatively close to being 'on topic' (i.e. isn't a blatantly useless question, and has some EE aspect to it)
• The question gives me the impression that the OP is at least attempting to understand what they're working with & ask an intelligent question.

With that said, I also try to be sure to always edit the question to improve it as much as I can, and leave a comment for the OP, giving them guidance for improving that question, and (hopefully) any future questions they ask.

Answer 2

I believe my comment actually answers the question, so I'll post it as such. The truth is, StackOverflow rules encourage people to answer bad questions, and requests to change this situation are ignored. Here are the options users have when they spot a bad question, with outcomes:

1. Post a quick answer and gain some rep. The risk of losing rep is minimal, because (a) downvoting answers also costs rep and (b) it doesn't feel right to downvote an answer which isn't outright wrong. You'll also look nice and smart.

2. In case it's a duplicate, take a existing answer and post it (or a slightly modified version) under a new question. This can both gain and cost you some rep, but (a) 1 upvote is still worth 5 downvotes, and (b) you can do this even if you have zero knowledge, so this path is open to many more users.

3. Skip the question, or downvote and move on.

4. Vote or flag to close. This requires to spend some time to identify what is wrong (and perhaps leave a comment to the OP), gives you zero rep and makes you look like an ass.

5. In case of a duplicate, flag or vote to close as such. This gives zero rep, and you'll need to spend time searching for the best dupe target, then spend more time arguing with the OP because his question is about capacitors, not resistors, so it's not a duplicate. Oh, and you'll look like an ass again.

Which option do you think people prefer?

Answer 3

I personally feel like I have a "higher" tolerance for "bad" questions, in the sense that I am willing to forgive some grammatical / spelling errors when it is very clear that it's someone asking who has English as a second language. I hate to jump down someone's throat just because they're not 100% fluent in the language.

I don't necessarily feel that is encouraging bad questions, but certainly it could be viewed as a tacit approval that poor grammar / etc is tolerated. In those instances though, I generally do not mind also editing the original question to fix those mistakes and make it more clear as to what is being asked.

However, if it's purposefully written like a 14-year old texting or is a completely absurd question asking about silly, dangerous shit then I'd argue that it's probably a bad question.

Answer 4

How about a message, once there has been a vote to close, when you try to submit an answer, to the effect of "At least one participant has voted to close this question". I'm not sure what the appropriate action would be at that point. Maybe it would force a vote to leave open, or something.

I suppose this leads down a path that gives us three categories of questions -- open, closed, and "jury is out", instead of just the obvious two.