Timeline for Should "questions" be questions?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
14 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Feb 23, 2014 at 19:23 | history | edited | zzzzBov | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
updated to address OP's second update
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| Feb 23, 2014 at 19:01 | comment | added | zzzzBov | "I invite you to show some examples of (not closed!) questions that don't have one and that you think don't need improvement" you've just changed your requirements, and it sounds like you've misunderstood my answer. I'm not saying that questions without questionmarks don't need improvement. I'm saying that it should be acceptable to post a question that needs improvement because StackOverflow uses a wiki format that encourages changing, adjusting, correcting, editing, and revising. Users should be allowed to post a crappy first-draft, and then encouraged to update. | |
| Feb 23, 2014 at 17:27 | comment | added | Kerrek SB | @AndreiVolgin: Please provide some evidence of the damage you think this would do, i.e. "good questions" that don't currently have a question mark. I think the negative impact is much less that you might think. And it would be overridable anyway, just one extra click. | |
| Feb 23, 2014 at 15:30 | comment | added | Andrei Volgin | Your proposal will force people who ask good questions to start using question marks just to avoid an annoying popup, but it will not do much to reduce the number of bad questions, most of which already include a question mark. | |
| Feb 23, 2014 at 15:20 | comment | added | Kerrek SB | @AndreiVolgin: I realize that, and the user should certainly be allowed to post if they insist. What I say is that I feel that absence of a question mark is a very strong signal that the question is poor, and I invite you to show some examples of (not closed!) questions that don't have one and that you think don't need improvement. | |
| Feb 23, 2014 at 14:55 | comment | added | Andrei Volgin | @Kerrek FYI, this is proper English: "I would like to know how to fix this problem." Another example: "Please, help me find a problem in this code." The rules of English dictate no question marks in these sentences. | |
| Feb 22, 2014 at 23:05 | comment | added | Kerrek SB | That's just a typo - the OP says "Can someone explain", which is certainly a "proper question" but forgets the question mark :-S A gentle hint would probably have helped make that one even better. (The question also got closed as being inappropriate for this site.) | |
| Feb 22, 2014 at 22:50 | comment | added | zzzzBov | @KerrekSB, the community liked this one, hold on while I look for more | |
| Feb 22, 2014 at 22:43 | comment | added | Kerrek SB | OK, sure - I'm looking forward to seeing an example of a postable post that contains all the relevant information! Will you share one? And reducing friction is my goal, too -- I simply believe that we have here an very reliable signal for when an automatic system could provide early and useful user education and guidance. | |
| Feb 22, 2014 at 22:31 | comment | added | zzzzBov | @KerrekSB, also, a "question" could have all the relevant information listed as a statement. Statements like "I've been trying to use [concept] in the provided code. I do not understand [concept]. Please explain how [concept] works." are perfectly valid ways of asking for help. | |
| Feb 22, 2014 at 22:25 | history | edited | zzzzBov | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
shouldn't have implied that good questions don't use question marks
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| Feb 22, 2014 at 22:24 | comment | added | zzzzBov | @KerrekSB, actually you're right, I should rephrase my answer. I did explicitly state that "well-written" questions don't need to contain question marks, but really my intention was to say that questions shouldn't need to contain question marks to be postable. As it is there's a lot of friction for new users to get used to the system (because it's different from forums and facebook and anything else new users might be familiar with). Reducing the friction for new users helps us expand and train our new user base. It certainly makes more work for the community, but it's a sign of growth. | |
| Feb 22, 2014 at 20:55 | comment | added | Kerrek SB | Out of curiosity, could you point out some good questions that aren't questions? | |
| Feb 22, 2014 at 20:48 | history | answered | zzzzBov | CC BY-SA 3.0 |