Timeline for Should we encourage posting distinct answers separately? (Particularly for [single-word-requests])
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
19 events
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| Jan 30, 2017 at 0:01 | comment | added | Tom22 | It takes all the fun out of "playing" when people post answers with all the synonyms that make sense without any explanation, ....and especially without even dictionary links and use of each potential answer in it's most common tone in a sentence. | |
| Nov 22, 2015 at 14:09 | comment | added | bib | @ZachSaucier Truth to tell, I still don't follow my own advice. | |
| Nov 22, 2015 at 14:03 | comment | added | Zach Saucier | Is this still the practice? I still see lots of users, including very many high rep users, who post multiple answers in one post. It's true in almost every word request | |
| Aug 12, 2014 at 16:14 | comment | added | Dan Bron | I actually like reading (and giving) the reasons people choose specific words. The justifications, stemming from use "in the wild", lend to words new colors and flavors I may not even experienced before, though I "know" the word. | |
| Aug 12, 2014 at 16:13 | comment | added | bib | @JoeBlow I strongly disagree that the word alone is best practice as an answer to single word requests. Rather the word, a definition fro m a reliable source, a link to that source, and as of recently, a textual reference to the source. The definition is necessary to provide the flavor of the word and to allow a comparison to the definition in the question. As some have said on these pages, almost no two words are true synonyms, and there are subtle variations we would like to suss out. | |
| Aug 12, 2014 at 16:08 | comment | added | Fattie | @Dan - agreed, I adore & love single word requests, but (a) nothing needs to be given as an answer other than the word (it's an expert site, everyone here knows what the words mean) and (b) it's silly to worry about whether people put more than one in an answer. answers/comments etc are all the same on single-word-request challenges | |
| Aug 12, 2014 at 15:52 | comment | added | Dan Bron |
(I also think people - both those who come first to try to answer, and those who come later to find an answer - are actually pretty bad at picking out all the individual ideas from a composite post; witness the prevalence of [single-word-requests] where answers repeat suggestions embedded in earlier answers.)
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| Aug 12, 2014 at 15:50 | comment | added | Dan Bron |
@Joe, I may be in the minority here, but I actually really enjoy [single-word-requests]; I find it exciting to look for the absolutely perfect word, and thrilling when I find it. So I personally like to know which word took the day (both in terms of being right [✓], and good [👍]). I think breaking out individual ideas assists in that regard.
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| Aug 12, 2014 at 14:44 | comment | added | Fattie | It doesn't matter a stuff whether the answers are together or grouped. Who cares? Humans are incredibly good at skimming over long pages of information; there is zero difference if the formatting is different. Regarding "who deserves the points!" - who cares. The single-word-requests questions are kind of "puzzle-challenges" anyway, they are silly. the perfect answer simply states the answer. it's not like a normal question where you "get points! for explaining well, writing well, and having references. | |
| Aug 12, 2014 at 11:56 | comment | added | SrJoven | @DanBron cont'd: I'm not saying the blasting of answers means necessarily the correct answer is in there, but perhaps an editor might be gently nudged to pace himself (a day or so?) to add answer(s) to his answer if he sees that the activity on the question isn't flowing. It gives other editors a chance, and is a bit more fair to them. | |
| Aug 12, 2014 at 11:52 | comment | added | Dan Bron | Ah, thanks. I didn't get that the first time round. | |
| Aug 12, 2014 at 11:50 | comment | added | SrJoven | @DanBron A prolific editor with a thesaurus in hand may have three, four, seven, ten even synonyms each of which, for various reasons, may actually answer the question posed. On the one hand, it means (potentially) that the choices available to the Question Submitter are available faster, because if an answer is being accepted, it's likely going to be accepted quickly. On the other hand, if one editor, one answer, it may be [a long time] before that perfect response is submitted by someone. Who can wait 2 years before getting an answer? | |
| Aug 12, 2014 at 11:30 | comment | added | Dan Bron | Ok; so far the biggest pitfall we've identified is that lots of short answers might look too messy or take up too much space. I can live with that. @SrJoven , can you elaborate on your caveat about "synonyms being legion" and "waiting two years for something we can generate in a day"? | |
| Aug 12, 2014 at 2:42 | comment | added | Raestloz | I agree on this sentiment. The status of each answer could be deducted from comments or from the OP's edits (such as, "Okay, I'm going with XXXX's answer of YYYY), tho it'd place the burden on the community instead of the answerer. It's just that too many answers would just make things look messy | |
| Aug 12, 2014 at 1:09 | comment | added | Dan Bron | @bib Fair enough. | |
| Aug 12, 2014 at 1:08 | comment | added | bib | @danbron it's a fairly responsive crowd (at least the regulars). If we set up a best practices and regularly remind posters , the tendency is to cooperate by-and-large. | |
| Aug 12, 2014 at 1:05 | comment | added | Dan Bron | This is also my inclination, though I'm new as well, so I'm wondering if there's a downside I'm overlooking. In particular, this is not the way it's shaken out so far, so there's something motivating people (myself included) to consolidate answers. I'd like to identify the source of that instinct, and understand the implications of undermining it, before making any changes. (And I'm also a little vague on how we'd go about enforcing such a policy, as well.) | |
| Aug 12, 2014 at 0:49 | comment | added | SrJoven | I agree with this. I'm new and I'll admit to likely violating this, but the question of which answer was accepted is probably of more importance to the future visitor (for whom the site's rules exist, right?) than how many answers are crammed into the accepted/most voted one. Of course, the problem with being a human-edited thesaurus for most of the multi-answer questions is the fact that the synonyms are legion and the visitor may appreciate the other word(s) regardless of author. We can't wait 2 years for something that can be generated in a day or sooner. | |
| Aug 11, 2014 at 23:59 | history | answered | bib | CC BY-SA 3.0 |