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I was trying to answer this question on SO. After a lot of mucking around in the debugger , I isolated the problem. I investigated it further and compared browsers, finally determining that it was an issue with Chrome V8 (I also filed a bug report).

My answer there contains a concise analysis and a link to a bug report. I also suggested an alternate method, but I couldn't give details since I hadn't understood the OP's algorithm.

Since "It's a bug" doesn't really solve the problem, am I out of line for answering it?

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"It's a bug" is a perfectly valid answer.

It might not solve the problem, but that doesn't mean it's not a helpful answer, the only better answer I can think of is one that would also provide a workaround. I upvoted your answer, you did point the OP to the right direction, hopefully the bug will be fixed soon (at which point you can update your answer), or another answer will suggest a simple workaround.

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  • For the record. My "It's a bug" answer was deleted by the moderator. I also argued quoting "How do I write a good answer?", "Any answer that gets the asker going in the right direction is helpful".
    – Vladimir Botka
    May 6, 2019 at 13:31
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    I do not have access to deleted answers on Server Fault @VladimirBotka, therefore I cannot comment on this. If you feel your answer shouldn't have been deleted I suggest you make a case for it on Meta Server Fault.
    – yannis
    May 6, 2019 at 14:02
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As Yannis mentioned, "it's a bug" is a valid answer. To make it a great answer, provide details of the bug and a link to a relevant bug report (both of which you have done, so +1!).

To make an awesome answer, follow up with an updated when the bug is fixed in the upstream to provide a link to the patch and the version of the release where the patch is in place.

And to quote the comments below, to make the answer legendary, fix the bug yourself and provide details in the answer and submit the patch.

Not to blow my own trumpet, but here's are examples of how I've dealt with such a situation:

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  • Yeah, I plan on doing that. First we need it to be fixed, though :)
    – Manishearth
    May 16, 2012 at 8:22
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    And to make the answer legendary, fix the bug yourself @TimManishEarth ;P
    – yannis
    May 16, 2012 at 8:22
  • @YannisRizos: Actually, I was thinking of doing that at first (at least digging deeper and further isolating it), but the code was too confusing. And the reply on the bug report tells me that it's out of my capabilities :P
    – Manishearth
    May 16, 2012 at 8:25
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I've had this situation a couple of times with ***book questions that lead to a bug in ***book's Graph API... Just like an answer saying -

No, sorry, this can not be done using the tools you have, here are some alternatives...

An answer saying the reason you can not do this is because of a 3rd party bug is 100% acceptable. Providing that it is a real bug.

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  • Looking at the reply on the bug report(yeah, I can't understand it either), I think it's safe to say that it's a bug.
    – Manishearth
    May 16, 2012 at 8:09
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    I assumed the bug is real, having looked at the report. But for future readers of this question, I think the last sentence is very important, not everyone will go and check if the bug actually is a bug. @TimManishEarth Perhaps you should add that bit of information to your answer as well, after the "I've submitted a bug report on this." sentence.
    – yannis
    May 16, 2012 at 8:18
  • @YannisRizos: Done, added " Looking at the reply, it seems to be a valid bug. Hopefully it'll be fixed.". Good idea, thanks!
    – Manishearth
    May 16, 2012 at 8:20

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