Remove unnecessary code details in edit

Question

I want to know if we can remove unnecessary details from the code or, better said, details that everybody already knows from a question.

Everybody already knows that as a default in a winform app there will be :

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows.Forms;

The adding of all this to the code makes the code cumbersome and might even discourage some people (like me) from reading the question.

Now my question is: Can I edit the question and remove all those unnecessary details?

Answer 1

Using/Import Statements

Courtesy to those answering the question
While using/import statements aren't 100% necessary for a good question, I consider them a courtesy to people prepared to look at my question and help me, and I always include them as part of an SSCCE in my questions. It takes me zero extra seconds to copy and paste them into my question, but everyone who looks at my question must take the time to write them in or select them to be put in with an IDE (managing conflicts as they go).

Clarification of ambiguous functions/classes
Additionally, a using or import statement can clarify which of several identically named functions/classes you really mean, avoiding confusion when people have to guess the using or import. I have myself got 90% of the way to telling someone the methods they were using didn't exist, because I guessed the wrong import.

Questions are for future viewers too
Of course, all the people who are capable of answering the question will know which using or import statements are obvious, but a question isn't just between the OP and the answers. It is also supposed to be a resource for people with the same problem, and we cannot guess at their knowledge. As such, removing imports is to increase the amount of 'assumed knowledge' that the question has. Clearly some assumed knowledge is inevitable, but it's never a good thing to increase it.

Truly Unnecessary Code

Of course truly unnecessary code can go, but if it's necessary for people to be able to copy, paste, run, see problem then it’s not unnecessary, even if "everybody" knows it should go in.

It's worth noting that as a <2k editor even code edits that do just remove truly unnecessary code are likely to be rejected because the reviewers don't have the knowledge and time to check that; that’s a separate issue however.

Answer 2

Yes, you can remove unnecessary details from a question, but you should take care to ensure that the details you remove are actually unnecessary. Removing relevant details by accident can be a very bad thing to do.

In my experiences, using statements in a code block are very, very rarely relevant to the question and can generally be removed, although there are occasional exceptions, so be sure you've read through the post entirely to be sure the information really can be removed. (A good example of an exception is if a Timer is used, it's often unclear which timer it is without looking at the using statements being used.)

The good thing here is that whatever you remove will still be in the revision history, so it can still be restored or looked at in the event you made a mistake; it's not information that's permanently lost.