When you ask a question on one of the SE sites, adding a lot of (useful) information, could it be true that more people go tl;dr on it, and just move on to a simpler and shorter question? And is there a way to encourage answering longer questions, where the asker added more useful info?
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I personally find that I'm more likely to go back and read if I scroll down and find that the author added a "td;dr" section at the end (usually with the section header in bold to draw attention) with a brief but interesting problem statement. (Sort of a middle-ground between the question title and the context-rich body.)– DavidJan 19, 2012 at 20:58
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6At the risk of over-generalizing, I find that a hugely long question is normally the sign of something that is more than just one question, or is so entirely localized to the user that it will help nobody else in the future, or is just including way too much code / text than needed to reproduce the issue and nobody wants to wade through all of the irrelevant cruft. The more the user can do to refine the question and really boil it down to the core issue, the better we are at providing generally valuable answers.– Anthony PegramJan 19, 2012 at 21:00
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8Welcome to the internet, where the bar for TL;DR lowers every day....– casperOneJan 19, 2012 at 21:04
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@AnthonyPegram That's one of the things that I sometimes find hard. The latest question I asked is quite long, and I don't know if the thing that will eventually be found to be the problem, will be applicatble in many cases and therefor benefit many people. I just know that it's a problem I'm having with the youtube oauth api, that I can't find a sollution to. I add as much information as possible, which might localize the question a lot, because it's literally about the app that I'm building, but i hope it might help to give info about what's wrong.– bigblindJan 19, 2012 at 21:22
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3@casper I lost interest at "where". Can you be a bit more concise please?– PekkaJan 19, 2012 at 21:23
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@Pekka'sOrganicRepFarm tl;dr– bigblindJan 19, 2012 at 21:24
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3@Pekka'sOrganic– casperOneJan 19, 2012 at 21:24
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1@Pek– BoltClock's a UnicornJan 19, 2012 at 22:51
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4 Answers
On average no not really
I constructed this data.se query and the results are really boring. Avgerage Score, answer count, view count, and comment count, barely change whether your question is a tweet or an essay.
Regardless of what people are guessing as to how people respond there doesn't seem to be evidence of a correlation between question length and how people interact with a question.
Percentile LengthStart LengthStop avgScore AvgAnswerCount AvgViewCount AvgCommentCount avgFirstAnswerInMinutes
---------- ----------- ---------- -------- -------------- ------------ --------------- -----------------------
1 4 86 2.225916 2.63823 1212.290124 2.241199 7028
2 86 110 1.893458 2.50375 973.530614 2.218899 7386
3 110 130 1.834408 2.44301 881.933026 2.200727 7486
4 130 147 1.771789 2.427383 831.174842 2.194208 6995
5 147 162 1.653165 2.403563 773.039883 2.191621 6999
6 162 177 1.585924 2.377139 741.899854 2.217719 7109
7 177 190 1.681922 2.407089 781.356225 2.248108 7303
8 190 203 1.635359 2.35346 731.504747 2.225509 7200
9 203 215 1.601564 2.373105 728.633515 2.231752 7800
10 215 227 1.601735 2.385511 713.814727 2.233343 6872
11 227 238 1.559402 2.372105 675.93653 2.241121 7700
12 238 249 1.629228 2.367514 680.161936 2.24333 7972
13 249 260 1.619139 2.367509 667.566491 2.285897 7844
14 260 271 1.639144 2.367312 681.458962 2.251196 7450
15 271 282 1.511104 2.351035 648.64728 2.302164 8115
16 282 292 1.583726 2.377079 653.467612 2.235332 7505
17 292 303 1.594602 2.374905 659.495184 2.302325 7135
18 303 313 1.581772 2.38807 665.954721 2.316328 7939
19 313 323 1.64218 2.393542 686.715057 2.335375 7548
20 323 334 1.518413 2.363652 634.241946 2.290512 7349
21 334 344 1.595197 2.37687 646.489575 2.308154 7837
22 344 354 1.5235 2.355598 623.247791 2.322594 7429
23 354 365 1.569987 2.380776 643.931834 2.336349 6925
24 365 375 1.543809 2.357038 644.05887 2.345627 7475
25 375 386 1.609663 2.378891 611.170919 2.35754 7956
26 386 396 1.577247 2.357631 636.192919 2.345824 7039
27 396 406 1.574501 2.352638 629.7396 2.396333 7639
28 406 417 1.579639 2.362307 631.053196 2.362261 7749
29 417 427 1.563667 2.358527 620.635425 2.327705 7287
30 427 438 1.603978 2.381055 626.203561 2.341902 7295
31 438 449 1.573674 2.354366 625.699336 2.367694 7622
32 449 460 1.547651 2.364672 641.194243 2.360354 8257
33 460 471 1.636456 2.371677 625.305627 2.384337 7268
34 471 482 1.548774 2.360304 599.059739 2.365054 8139
35 482 493 1.576991 2.365884 610.390973 2.437391 6889
36 493 504 1.550435 2.393624 606.667377 2.416563 7767
37 504 515 1.576681 2.356427 602.742491 2.373817 7592
38 515 527 1.523839 2.342786 587.158232 2.417114 7177
39 527 538 1.574313 2.368491 585.992421 2.422718 7311
40 538 550 1.492719 2.337133 576.127176 2.410027 7615
41 550 562 1.554694 2.346457 600.684145 2.431957 7435
42 562 574 1.581108 2.365264 604.341893 2.499642 6844
43 574 586 1.541829 2.353573 574.45777 2.478575 7406
44 586 599 1.543794 2.328 583.666444 2.471931 7626
45 599 612 1.544863 2.354227 574.976922 2.474955 8176
46 612 625 1.563473 2.355859 592.065359 2.450543 7952
47 625 638 1.543229 2.353402 607.021603 2.47833 7399
48 638 652 1.537042 2.351984 574.395004 2.483232 7658
49 652 666 1.611433 2.356411 621.432119 2.501348 7007
50 666 680 1.620698 2.357396 640.827687 2.51411 7382
51 680 694 1.574777 2.334249 601.672752 2.488007 7529
52 694 709 1.542705 2.330976 559.629585 2.54165 7656
53 709 724 1.613247 2.33797 604.488081 2.508417 6683
54 724 739 1.582479 2.335506 620.09776 2.502904 7811
55 739 755 1.511606 2.322849 571.065562 2.511759 7584
56 755 771 1.553078 2.319978 589.029892 2.567171 8142
57 771 788 1.581132 2.32951 621.929003 2.546881 8170
58 788 805 1.512944 2.333496 566.010898 2.575056 7018
59 805 822 1.487733 2.309408 564.484527 2.574915 7904
60 822 840 1.616032 2.32643 583.357871 2.590945 7261
61 840 859 1.537411 2.335437 594.370026 2.600256 7268
62 859 878 1.488538 2.323327 571.187912 2.591733 8180
63 878 898 1.547791 2.317499 561.643816 2.618707 7551
64 898 918 1.550952 2.329242 568.963225 2.652548 7818
65 918 939 1.53378 2.283613 572.348065 2.59533 7646
66 939 961 1.592756 2.329136 613.375149 2.622105 6974
67 961 983 1.518406 2.303948 584.695293 2.634406 7884
68 983 1007 1.524676 2.298954 574.013024 2.682218 7253
69 1007 1031 1.618728 2.323274 624.320741 2.699237 7398
70 1031 1057 1.556557 2.32113 601.100719 2.676215 7655
71 1057 1083 1.597125 2.297561 565.487008 2.675704 7282
72 1083 1111 1.579567 2.291694 598.566546 2.688016 8161
73 1111 1140 1.623701 2.282923 586.122458 2.698843 7562
74 1140 1170 1.604496 2.291451 601.00893 2.714204 8427
75 1170 1202 1.539771 2.279889 579.471274 2.757027 7947
76 1202 1235 1.611232 2.264162 615.540296 2.690038 7895
77 1235 1271 1.595257 2.240616 582.978069 2.758834 8119
78 1271 1308 1.574962 2.263971 599.625813 2.75669 8446
79 1308 1347 1.508401 2.255809 583.196192 2.771313 7710
80 1347 1389 1.532381 2.25504 566.320383 2.808598 7788
81 1389 1434 1.484991 2.242763 566.408188 2.833926 8169
82 1434 1483 1.495935 2.219939 579.261211 2.852034 7770
83 1483 1534 1.548961 2.217905 596.538021 2.863134 8396
84 1534 1590 1.602513 2.222227 607.719219 2.847405 8635
85 1590 1651 1.566483 2.212324 583.137175 2.859488 8052
86 1651 1717 1.60488 2.21432 615.48335 2.928322 8936
87 1717 1791 1.60485 2.186346 599.907792 2.963157 9301
88 1791 1871 1.557256 2.187906 612.585895 2.954292 8925
89 1871 1963 1.556361 2.177258 627.769895 2.943296 8384
90 1963 2064 1.529216 2.141818 607.198994 2.973176 8963
91 2064 2181 1.558827 2.145301 617.844657 2.950239 7970
92 2181 2318 1.59862 2.151717 620.807175 3.014999 8811
93 2318 2482 1.560182 2.109852 607.982179 3.068161 8776
94 2482 2681 1.589725 2.095863 613.347256 3.125955 8718
95 2681 2930 1.54579 2.101239 634.571031 3.143553 8405
96 2930 3259 1.64917 2.088658 653.237324 3.227019 9246
97 3259 3732 1.57611 2.035071 640.041452 3.232136 9250
98 3732 4492 1.555921 2.012184 662.238139 3.265179 9793
99 4492 6118 1.4919 1.963026 635.836748 3.37423 10279
100 6118 48258 1.563623 1.922323 705.313718 3.566424 10431
Note the questions are grouped into percentile by length.
Update There is however a pretty significant increase in the amount of time it takes to get your first answer.
answered Jan 19, 2012 at 21:41
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Add
WHERE tags LIKE '%javascript%'to your query (or another busy tag). You will see a more clearer correlation: Smaller questions get more answers (just like your one), views (just like your one, probably caused by refreshing to see an updated question, or being an easy one-liner question) and votes. Bigger questions tend to get more comments (probably because of:EDIT:..., UPDATE: .... Note that it's hard to find a correlation between length and view count, because you can't see the full body of the question, beforehand.– Rob WJan 19, 2012 at 21:56 -
@RobW I checked and there is a starker difference between the tweets and the essays in javascript (which represents 6.5% of questions asked). Answer count goes from almost 3 to just under 2. But I'm still not convinced that length alone is enough to affect an question from being answered. Jan 19, 2012 at 22:41
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Would it be possible to encorporate how long it took before the question got answered? For example see the results in the first 2 hours after the question got asked?– bigblindJan 19, 2012 at 22:59
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@FrederikCreemers so I added avgFirstAnswerInMinutes and on average there does seem to be a steady rise once you hit 3K in how long it takes to answer a question from about 5 day to about 7 days. Jan 19, 2012 at 23:18
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1Wow; it never ceases to amaze me when hard data contradicts what seems perfectly logical and reasonable. (insert positive statement concerning voting behavior in relation to this answer) Jan 19, 2012 at 23:28
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thx, and btw, you're an SQL master :p. I've never worked with Windows Sequal Server, the only thing I've used is MySQL and GQL on google appengine :p. I'll probably look into the SQL dialect sequal server uses, just to be able to play with SE's data service.– bigblindJan 19, 2012 at 23:34
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@Frederik Creemers glad I was able to help. BTW most of what was written was ANSI SQL (window functions and Common table expressions), so you don't have to use SQL Server to learn that type of syntax. A similar query would have worked on DB2, Oracle or PostgreSQL. Jan 20, 2012 at 15:40
When I see a question, my attention is usually drawn away when:
- I see a big wall of text (without any paragraphs).
- The previous point is even stronger when I don't see capitalisation and/or punctuation.
- The question is only one block of code.
When constructing questions, I keep the following in mind:
- What do I want to ask?
- What answers do I expect?
- Would I fancy answering this question, if it was posted by someone else?
- Did I link to the proper documentation when mentioning non-common features?
- Similarly to the previous point: Did I add any other useful tools / hints which could lead to the right answer?
- Title: Does it cover the core of my question?
- Title: Reading the first few words, would it invite someone to open the question?
After finishing my draft, I re-read my question, and shorten sentences where possible.
Yes
Always try to reduce your question to the least amount of code needed to reproduce your problem.
The more text you throw up on the question, the more likely potential answerers will tl;dr and move on.
answered Jan 19, 2012 at 21:10
I think that the question should be brief and concise but without omitting importants details.
When I read a question...
- Sometimes code would help.
- Other time users post all code and make me think that they want we do their homework.
In conclusion the merit of a question is write only the necesary.
