Do you think questions on Stack Overflow get a higher response when prefaced with:
I'm a little stuck...
or
I'm really shaky on this concept...
or
I'm a rails noob"
or similar upfront qualification?
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8If anything, the experts shy away from such questions. These are just noise - they add nothing to the actual issue.– OdedJul 24, 2014 at 14:05
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7Quite similar to adding "please don't downvote" to a post (either a question or an answer) which usually result in flurry of downvotes just because of that.– Shadow Wizard Love ZeldaJul 24, 2014 at 14:16
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Stuff like this pretty frequently just gets edited out because, as Oded mentioned, it's noise. Because it's usually just removed, it doesn't tend to have a huge effect on the question other than annoying the person that had to remove it.– ServyJul 24, 2014 at 14:23
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1Closely related: Should 'Hi', 'thanks,' taglines, and salutations be removed from posts?– Martijn PietersJul 24, 2014 at 14:23
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1I NEED AN ANSWER URGENTLY! Try that and see what happens– juergen dJul 24, 2014 at 14:40
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Questions that begin with "Do you think" aren't very well received.– SheamusMar 29, 2016 at 2:42
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2 Answers
No.
I would tend to differentiate between a 'higher response' vs a 'better quality response', as SO is ultimately a Q and A site with questioners seeking answers, the latter is more important. Getting one good response beats getting a hundred mediocre / wrong ones every time.
As such, is is important to create a question which closely fits within the recommended parameters for SO, namely one which is concise (and avoids flowery language / 'noise'), displays minimal knowledge of the subject matter, shows what has been attempted and includes the relevant code (but not all the code).
The simple rule of thumb is to follow the question guidelines, and avoid the close question reasons. Crucially SO is not a first port of call for when you run into an issue, it is a place to go when you have exhausted your knowledge of the subject having conducted a reasonable degree of research (both on SO and elsewhere).
As such, the question prefixes listed- because they add no value of worth, are likely to be viewed as surplus...and thus not have positive connotations.
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"I'm a noob" I hate seeing that. It really does not help the original poster at all. It's almost as if it's used as an excuse to post crappy questions with no research effort.– user163250Jul 24, 2014 at 16:35
I think it doesn't.
It helps more if the question:
- is well written.
- has reproducible example.
- shows effort in accomplishing the goal (so the question can be narrowed down).
- state very clear what the desired output is.
- the OP provides feedback when he/she is asked to.
As stated by Oded, these opening messages are usually noise.
answered Jul 24, 2014 at 14:23
