Etiquette for answering your own question

Question

Often you have a question, you can't find the answer on Stack Overflow so you search for it (or think a bit more). Having found the answer you'd like to keep a record so you can find it again later.

Before Stack Overflow I would write a blog post so I could search for it later. Jeff and Joel, I think, specifically said SO is a good place to replace these blog posts. So what is the best etiquette for adding your answer?

1. Just ask the question, then post your answer immediately and let voting sort the answers out. This is okay, but it looks like you are just trying to generate reputation, and other people often don't vote or answer, and a lot of the SO information is lost.

2. Provide the answer in the question and ask the question phrased as "is there a better answer". This allows others to gain reputation, and doesn't look so greedy but makes your answer harder to vote on.

3. Post your question, let others answer it. If no-one puts the answer you already found, then add it an hour or so later. If someone else gets it then accept their answer (or the best one). This is more selfless with reputation, but makes other people do work you have already done which feels a bit lazy and a waste of everyone's time.

Or maybe there is another way?

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Answer 1

Just post your answer immediately after you post the question. Like you say, phrase it as a request for comments to improve your solution. Your intentions are clear --- I wouldn't think you were trying to generate reputation. Besides, it's my prerogative to reward or punish your efforts. Alternatively, you could mark your answer as a community wiki if you are feeling charitable.

You can now do this automatically by ticking the “Answer your own question” checkbox when posting the question, provided you have more than 15 reputation.

Answer 2

The community benefits from having a growing store of useful question/answer articles on this site. This is true regardless of whether the question and answer are provided by two different people or the same person. Also, a person who writes a clear, easy to find question and then an easy to follow answer has done some unpaid work to help other people, so they deserve reputation points as much as anyone does.

This is presumably why the FAQ says:

It's also perfectly fine to ask and answer your own programming question

The aim of the site is gather lots of useful questions and answers. It does this by rewarding those who take the time to contribute with a simple points system with a scoreboard, the points being rewarded by the other users.

If the users habitually award points based on anything apart from the usefulness of the questions and answers, the site will end up as a respository of... what? Depends what weird criteria people are using to award points.

It can be difficult to keep that in mind, as we are not totally rational animals, and all incentive systems produce a certain amount of irrational complaint as a by-product, but it's worth a try.

Maybe one day, when SO has taken over the world, and is the Walmart of programming tips, someone will start a 100% "organic" programming Q&A site, where all the questions and answers are certified to be based on genuine incidents involving exactly one programmer lost in a puzzle they can't answer and one or more enlightened heroes who come to their rescue. And maybe it will feel better that way!

Answer 3

I got marked down and slated for answering my own question.... If you look at the badges there is one awarded for answering your own question and getting > 4 votes. This means this is surely approved, and what's more the only method where you will get a badge for it!

Answer 4

I think #2 is a strong answer, respectful of the SO community.

Asking a question you know the answer to (especially if you answer int he same breath) is of dubious value and intent, but if you approach this with the mindset that what you think you "know" might not really be the best answer, I think you'll be illuminated most of the time.

Nine times out of ten when I go to answer a post, I'm still going to see something which augments, challenges (and therefore causes me to research and reinforce or change my opinion), or completely surprises me. You don't knwo what you don't know after all, and us programmers do tend to lack a certain humility. :P

Answer 5

According to this link on Stack Overflow, it would follow that #1 would be the right etiquette.

https://stackoverflow.com/help/self-answer

As mentioned above by @Zach Scrivena, there is even functionality to submit the answer at the same time.

To address the etiquette (as in the title of the question), given that answering your own question is "explicity encouraged" by Stack Exchange...

Yes! Stack Exchange has always explicitly encouraged users to answer their own questions. If you have a question that you already know the answer to, and you would like to document that knowledge in public so that others (including yourself) can find it later, it's perfectly okay to ask and answer your own question on a Stack Exchange site.

...the question of etiquette might be redirected to the users reading the self-answered question. If you are down-voted, slated or given abuse by users BECAUSE you answered your own question, I believe you should have the right to report that user or flag the behaviour (not sure of the protocol/lingo as I have never reported anyone).