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I asked this question: How can I retrieve JSONdata from ASP.NET and send it to jQuery? (implementing FullCalendar)

The heart-breaking story is:

I'm trying to implement the FullCalendar-jQuery-plugin which I've never worked with before. But I have never really worked much with jQuery and javascript. I'm not really interested in learning everything about jQuery and javascript before learning how to tackle this issue, but I am interested in getting some insight information on which approach I should be using (best practice, more or less).

I know requesting detailed answers is a heavy burden on the answerer (so naturally I want to make it as easy and attractive as possible for them), but how do I encourage answerers to provide me with a better alternative to what I'm doing, without asking "What is the best way to..."-questions (since they will be closed)?

What I've been trying to do is to explain myself as briefly as I could, while still including enough context so skeptical people, with experience in the matter, quickly could spot that I was taking a wrong approach, but I still seem to be way off the perfect formula.

Any advice?

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  • The question seems pretty clear to me. I don't do asp though. The thing is that it's your responsibility to steer the answers in the right direction by just leaving comments. Others will look at the previous answers and your comments and likely improve on it.
    – Jack
    Commented Aug 30, 2012 at 12:24
  • @Jack Yes indeed, that's why I want to do as much work on the question as I can, to encourage people to answer the way I want them to.
    – Aske B.
    Commented Aug 30, 2012 at 12:27
  • If you don't get the detail that you want, you could look at offering a bounty on it after some time has passed and specify that you are looking for a detailed answer. Your SO rep is almost at the level where you can offer these - a few quick answers should pop you over the rep needed to do it. Asking for a detailed answer has a sugar coating when you offer a bunch of extra rep for the effort.
    – Fluffeh
    Commented Aug 30, 2012 at 12:33
  • No doubt, writing good questions is hard work, but IMHO there's only so much you can do before others get lost in a wall of text :)
    – Jack
    Commented Aug 30, 2012 at 12:35
  • @Fluffeh Using bounties is perhaps an easy approach, but considering many of my questions need this, over time I can't really afford to do this, since I'm not skilled enough at answering/asking to get the reputation flow needed to use this approach. In addition, this will make me lose all the privileges I've spent quite some time getting. So I see it as a luxury I can't yet afford. So as you might understand, I would prefer to the hard way and get advice on how to improve my asking skills instead.
    – Aske B.
    Commented Aug 30, 2012 at 12:43
  • @AskeB. I think you might get an amazing surprise when you start looking at a queue for a bit and find a lot of simple questions you can answer. I find that the best way to learn is to teach, which is a good part of why I finally joined SO a few months ago. It also gives you a great sense of accomplishment to be able to help solve someone else's problem - and believe me, the rep will come. Think of it as a great way to ponder many answers to many problems without having to do all the heavy lifting when you get the right solution.
    – Fluffeh
    Commented Aug 30, 2012 at 12:47
  • @Jack I wouldn't underestimate the powers of using the right words. Even though this might be a craft not many on SO master, I would still like to get experiences, speculations and/or even just hints on the subject.
    – Aske B.
    Commented Aug 30, 2012 at 12:49
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    @Fluffeh Yeah, I agree. I don't have too much time to spare though, but I do browse questions, trying to answer a few of them. The ones I can easily answer gets answered within seconds, and I'm never the quickest typer. What I do when there's questions on a subject I'm a bit familiar with, but I don't know the answer, I try to do research myself on how someone would approach it correctly, and I always learn that way, but someone always beats me to it, providing all the information I had, and more. This doesn't mean that I've given up; this is still my approach and I'm sure it'll work some day.
    – Aske B.
    Commented Aug 30, 2012 at 12:54
  • @AskeB. I agree that a lot of the easy questions get answered within seconds - but at the same time, if you do spend a few minutes and give a better answer bu including some extra detail, using a better answer structure and the like (Look here meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7656/…) you will get upvotes and if you spend the time and effort, you will also find yourself learning a heck of a lot. Just my insight.
    – Fluffeh
    Commented Aug 30, 2012 at 12:57
  • @Fluffeh Sure I will someday, but I haven't come across questions I had enough insight in to be able to come with a very detailed answer yet. And on the guide, I've been reading tons of those, both here and on various articles on the web. I read the one from Jon Skeet, the popular SO'er,'s Blog as well. They all state many valid points but they don't provide the most important part; practice.
    – Aske B.
    Commented Aug 30, 2012 at 13:04

1 Answer 1

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I am interested in getting some insight information on which approach I should be using. I've been trying to .. explain myself as briefly as I could, while including enough context so .. people .. could spot that I was taking a wrong approach

I think your basic approach is sound.

  1. Firstly, make sure you're asking good questions. This link provides some details specific to Stack Exchange sites.

  2. Secondly, end your post with an actual question: an english sentence that asks "How do I ... X?" or "What is the .. Y?", and ends with a question mark. It will be much easier for people to answer you if you give them a specific target. You may want to bold your question to make it easy to spot, especially if you post is very long.

In the question you link to above, I don't see any specific question being asked. As a reader that makes it much harder for me to help you.

how do I encourage answerers to provide me with a better alternative to what I'm doing, without asking "What is the best way to..."-questions (since they will be closed)?

As for questions being closed, don't get discouraged. My google search for "stack overflow what is the best way to" gives me lots of examples that ask about "the best way" and are still open and full of answers. Perhaps the 'best way' questions that remain open are the ones that ask a specific technical question? Hopefully focusing your questions around specific technical questions will help.

--

edit: I edited your question to try and make it clear what you were asking. Hopefully that helps provide an example of what I mean.

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  • The reason I didn't ask "Is there a better approach" is because I was under the impression that this was subjective and would be flagged as "non-constructive". If this is not true, then I will be using that format very much in the future. About the last "what is the best way" - I'm almost completely positive "what is the best way"-questions are instant no-nos. Just because they're still on the site, doesn't mean they're proper questions.
    – Aske B.
    Commented Aug 31, 2012 at 9:17

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