-24

I do understand the need for this when the questions are unrelated. But why does it have to be even when the questions are related?

Perhaps, I've asked a few questions on one of the sites, and it was closed due to multiple questions in a single post, even though an answer to both the questions was needed to understand the answer to either of the questions.

Improve this question
12
  • 1
    Because if you ask more than one question, someone could answer one and someone else the other. As you can accept only one answer, how do you decide who to accept and award the 15 points for that acceptance, and which one do you punish by not accepting it? The entire premise of the SE model is based on the one question, one answer standard. If you have more than one question, ask them separately. You can link from one post to the other to provide background or context.
    – Ken White
    Commented Jul 23, 2023 at 6:12
  • 1
    @KenWhite on a similar note though, "partial answers" are actually allowed. See How to Answer.
    – starball
    Commented Jul 23, 2023 at 6:36
  • @KenWhite What are you talking about? Not accepting an answer isnt punishing it, and people are always free to upvote helpful answers regardless of them being accepted. And if multiple questions are closely related enough that they dont merit their own questions, they have always been asked together in a single post in the SE forums
    – user13267
    Commented Jul 23, 2023 at 6:38
  • 3
    How should I vote when one answer post has a great answer to one of the questions, and a bad answer to the other?
    – Thomas Markov
    Commented Jul 23, 2023 at 6:54
  • 4
    "I do understand the need for this.." Just curious. Have you searched for previous discussions about this? Surely there some on such a fundamental aspect of this platform. They may have helped you understanding the need for this. If not, you could still have asked about that specific thing then.
    – NoDataDumpNoContribution
    Commented Jul 23, 2023 at 7:21
  • 4
    Because these questions are always too broad. Really. The starting point is inability (or unwillingness) to pinpoint the actual problem. In my experience, answering such questions is a prelude to a frustrating succession of moving targets.
    – Gert Arnold
    Commented Jul 23, 2023 at 8:31
  • 4
    @ThomasMarkovisonStrike I routinely downvote such answers without even considering their contents, because an answer to a question that should be closed is inherently damaging. The best case scenario is that the content should be somewhere else; the common case is that it interferes with cleaning up a question that won't get improved.
    – Karl Knechtel
    Commented Jul 23, 2023 at 9:12
  • " even though answer to both the question was needed to understand the answer to either of the question." - which would seem to indicate that the premise of one quetion among the many may well be flawed or uninformed . If the primary question is answered, the second question in its own thread can then be posted being informed by the answer in the first thus making the second question better - and more useful to the general readership.
    – W.O.
    Commented Jul 23, 2023 at 10:50
  • @user13267: It is a punishment when you choose one answer over another when each have done an equally good job of answering two different questions and you can only choose one of them to award the bonus 15 points for accepting their question. The one who you did not choose is being punished by only getting an upvote (10 rep). If they're answering the same exact single question, it's a straightforward choice - if they're answering separate questions, it's unfair and one is being punished. That's why we require a single question per post - so that you accept and reward a single best ansswer.
    – Ken White
    Commented Jul 24, 2023 at 4:06
  • @KenWhite sounds more like a limitation of the SE forums interface than punishment
    – user13267
    Commented Jul 24, 2023 at 10:26
  • 1
    If you have multiple questions, is there some specific reason you can't post multiple questions?
    – EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
    Commented Jul 24, 2023 at 15:50
  • @user13267: No, it's a violation of the SE guidelines by the user who asked multiple questions in the same post, which results in the punishment of a user who could not receive the acceptance of their answer which they could have obtained if the asker had used the site properly in the first place. If there are multiple questions to be asked, they should be asked in separate posts, as the site is designed to be used. You can always link from the second question post back to the first to provide context or background. That way, everyone who is deserving of having an answer accepted can.
    – Ken White
    Commented Jul 25, 2023 at 1:35

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
7

Even when multiple questions within a question are related, I think it is your job as the asker to tease them apart into separate questions so that the site benefits from the clear questions with one or more clear answers that our focused Q&A format seeks to generate.

I think seeking that level of granularity has benefits both to the asker to help them clarify their question(s) and to future viewers of the question who are hoping that a quick search will lead to a quick answer.

Improve this answer

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .