How to deal with questionable quality self-answer while being encouraging?

Question

This question was asked a week or so ago and wasn't particularly clear in my opinion. The OP suggested they were trying to provide their own answer for the purpose of sharing knowledge.

The OP has made some changes and I've been asked to remove my downvotes. I hadn't downvoted (as I didn't want to discourage a low-rep user trying to be helpful) but I certainly don't feel I can upvote it given the current state of the question/answer and tbh I'm wondering if it should be closed/deleted? I suppose I mentally impose a higher standard requirement for self-answer questions.

I'd like to know how others think this question should be handled?

Answer 1

Don't treat them much differently than you would any other question. As you pointed out, it's nice to recognize the effort and not discourage the author, but at the end of the day our success is based on the quality and accuracy of our information.

If you can

• Edit, or suggest edits to improve the question
• Edit or suggest edits to the answer, or add your own answer to the question to address the problem better
• Work with the author in comments like you would on any other question or answer

... then feel absolutely free to do so. As long as you're constructive and don't imply that the author did anything wrong purely by asking and answering their own question - you're helping. Sometimes the best thing that can be done is put the question on hold until or if it becomes something technically helpful.

Right now it's closed - which is definitely not a permanent state. If the question and answer can be better fleshed out then it would be nice information to have. If not, eventually it will fade away to make room for something more likely to help people with that particular problem.