So apparently "What have you tried" comments are now disallowed:
Comments can't contain that content.
But this comment:
And what have you tried?
is accepted by the system – and has two upvotes.
What's the proper thing to do in this situation? Should I flag as "not constructive / off-topic" or just let it go? I'm assuming this type of evasion is against the spirit of the comment ban.
Officially
What's the proper thing to do in this situation? Should I flag as "not constructive / off-topic" or just let it go?
According to the post which states that "what have you tried" is no longer proper:
… comments that consist of little more than "what have you tried" can be deleted with a single flag.
– Shog9
What have I tried
I answer a question every once in a while on StackOverflow. I would say that I am well aware of the comments including "what have you tried" or with the same intention, and the situations involved in them.
I usually ask for an edit by stating what I feel others would need to know to be able to properly answer the question, a helpful hint, a generally accepted standard or guideline, or what I feel is lacking.
In my opinion, at the heart of the "what have you tried" issue is what is known as a "help vampire". It seems to me, "what have you tried" usually stems from a reluctance of users to blatantly do the work of others. This is where it is important to provide guidance on how the OP can share more details or more requirements to narrow down what is usually a rather vague question.
Unfortunately, sometimes the OP really is trying to just get some very specific work done for them here without trying themselves, and in that case I feel a vote to close as "Too Localized" is appropriate if it is unlikely to help anyone else out (for common situations I believe it can be understandable to show a simple implementation that others can edit and re-use).
As stated in the linked material, if the question is beyond saving it can always been downvoted and closed. Ideally, it would be improved so that someone can answer it.
As a conclusion of a related question where I asked how are we expected to behave after this ban, I think that just asking variants of "What have you tried" is not constructive (and then a flag is deserved). It is not wrong to ask OP about their effort in understanding their problem, but that should be done with the intention of educating them. If one doesn't agree, the action should not be commenting but downvoting, voting to close, or taking a break.
Tim Post♦ said that (emphasis mine)
Boilerplate well worded comments can be used, but it's generally good to tailor them a little so they engage specific parts of the question. Otherwise, it looks like someone, well, left a boilerplate comment. While somewhat helpful, that's not very engaging. The more specific you are when you point out issues, the more likely the user is going to be to understand and fix them. If you want to help the user, you need to engage them, not just type at them.
Finally, you can still link to
whathaveyoutried.com, provided that you've given some additional context with the link.If you don't have the time, inclination or patience to help the person, then avoid commenting altogether (...) Remember, leaving a comment to help a new user is supposed to be just that - help, not a whitewashed way to show your dislike for the question that they asked.
And Shog9♦ added that:
If the question needs code, say that; if the asker should read the docs, say that. If you're just upset 'cause he's lazy, down-vote.
If you're just looking for some small indication that the author had done a bit of reading on XML serialization before asking, a comment such as "Have you read up on Java's support for XML serialization?" would probably get your point across.
I was not aware of the "what have you tried"-policy, and I left a comment with "so what have you tried so far", so the system accepts my answer.
I got this message: Auto change radio selection on another form to read a post on Meta regarding "what have you tried"
and it works for me :-)
