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A Question is composed of three distinct parts:
body
title
tags
Body
By far the most important is the body of your question because this is where you pose the all important single question that you would like answered. It is the quality of your question body that engages or loses the attention of potential answerers.
You are provided with plenty of ...
23
I too have noticed an increase in low quality questions as the ranks of our site's users rapidly swell.
There has been Meta SE discussion on LMGTFY, and I don't think using that site is a good strategy.
I think a simpler deterrent to posting of unresearched questions is downvoting (as that button tip encourages - see below), preferably but not ...
21
I agree that the most interesting questions are the ones where analytical problems are posed, rather than error messages. However, I think you are seeing trends in the field. Another issue specific to this site is that open-ended questions are discouraged when, in fact, they are often really interesting questions--yet, people are hesitant to ask them ...
17
The upvote guidance on questions is:
This question shows research effort; it is useful and clear
It does not suggest that an upvote should, in any way, be related to whether the question receives any answers i.e. it is purely about how the question presents itself.
I am one of the most frequent upvoters on this site, and I am about 1.25 times as likely ...
16
I believe most users do not care about statements of urgency. We are all volunteers here, hence, we are free to follow our own schedule.
If the question is very new it is ok to remove the urgency statement. However, if it is an old thread, I'd say that the edit should be more substantial.
Time sensitive questions is a Meta SE Q&A which supports your ...
16
A code snippet that is included in a question here should not be just a copy/paste from a larger script that you are working on, and it should not be that larger script in its entirety. It should be something concise that a potential answerer can copy/paste and be ready (or at least near ready) to run a test on.
I'll describe what I think a code snippet ...
15
Only if the Edits to the question are going to change the questions entirely, should you close the question and make a new one.
If you edit is expanding on the question by providing more information, clarifying unclear language, or updating obvious Typos or mistake you should edit it. That's the purpose of the editing functionality.
13
I added my re-open vote to the others that were already on your question so it is now ready for you to self-answer.
I agreed with its original closure as too broad, but I am almost always happy to re-open a question when someone says that they have an answer ready.
12
Before anything else, the number one priority of your question should be that it is understandable to the reader. It should convey all the required information to the reader. Don't just leave vague information, and don't assume that the reader will know about your situation and problem. The Way I think about it, is that if someone comes across the question ...
12
I believe such a question is on topic. If you cannot provide details you can expect to get only general answers, most of which are already available on this site. Details would enable interested readers to provide specific suggestions for your particular situation.
11
I thoroughly agree, and would go even further: when the O.P. has been asked explicitly for clarification and has not provided it within a day (not counting weekends), I think it's fair to close the thread.
All rules have exceptions: sometimes a perceptive reader offers a helpful answer in the meantime and it is marked as accepted. That can (and probably ...
10
The way I like to think of it is to just put yourself in the shoes of someone trying to answer your question. What information would someone need to even begin to have a chance of answering your question? That is what is so often missing.
For example, we often get questions about some kind of data manipulation. We need to know about the data. What is it, ...
10
An item of highly recommended viewing that may help to answer this Question is a one hour Google+ Hangout video for Agile India entitled Good Stack Overflow Citizen by Jeff Atwood where he talks mostly about what makes a great Question.
A quick list by Agile India of Jeff's points, which go beyond just what makes a great Question, and apply to Stack ...
10
Is flagging the question with "in need of moderator intervention" the right course of action in theses cases?
Before flagging please consider other community options available to you. Use the Down-vote, Comment, and/or Vote to close options to raise the problem to the attention of the community, that way if the community agrees then further votes will ...
9
Jon Skeet has posted an excellent checklist on the main meta site, which is worth reading. Let me quote the relevant points from the checklist here:
Have you done some research before asking the question?
Have you explained what you've already tried to solve your problem?
Have you specified which language and platform you're using, including version number ...
9
Post another question about the new problem, referencing the old one to avoid duplication of effort and narrowing the problem space down. So in the general good question style: "I've had problems with A and /this/ fixed it, but now I have an additional constraint B and need help with adapting the model. I've tried C and D, but ...".
9
It depends. A question does not necessarily have to be about one specific software to be considered not broad, as long as it is specific enough in details to avoid five users casting a close vote as 'too broad' (or even 'unclear'). So that is, questions about software can also be closed as 'too broad', or 'unclear'.
Asking about means of accomplishing a ...
9
This is part of the Stack Exchange mechanism for posting
"Drafts are stored in redis for 7 days, with each site having storage
for one draft question and one draft answer per user."
for a clearer answer
Allow questions to be saved as drafts prior to posting
8
The best way to obtain quick and comprehensive answers here is by making your question as clear and easy to understand as you can. You have an edit button beneath it which you can use to keep improving your question as potential answerers ask you for clarifications via comments. Be aware that comments do not form part of your question so if you say ...
7
The Tour is now updated
https://gis.stackexchange.com/tour
Thanks for the feedback and improving the GIS-SE site content
7
In my case, upvoting a question is also because of how the system is presenting the upvote. If you look at the question upvote, it says :
the question 1) shows research effort, 2) it is clear and 3) it is
useful
now if you look at answers, it says :
the answer is useful
So there are 3 conditions to upvote a question, and only one to upvote an ...
7
If you go back through and look at some of the older questions with high vote, view and favorite counts you will find many "canonical" GIS conceptual/analytical/cartographic questions. Many of the kinds of questions that you are talking about have already been answered here and so new questions on some of those topics tend to be closed as duplicates.
Here ...
7
My reaction is no, for two reasons:
(1) Localization in space and time.
(2) Such questions aren't really about GIS, but about the business of GIS.
I'm sympathetic about the overlap with GIS per se in #2, and have been glad to see some good threads here that are related to GIS business development, but I think that the appearance of transient threads ...
7
A couple of points:
Some people really aren't that great at googling. They don't think of the right synonym, or aren't specific enough, or just can't even think of what it is they need to know specifically. In those cases, it might be reasonable to just answer, "googling your search terms gave this link: ...".
Even if the answer is readily answerable by ...
7
If we don't flag them then the next person who asks a software question points to it as precedent. I closed a similar java question yesterday - just because your file is a shapefile doesn't make it geographic.
7
I suspect that the reviewer (not me) on this one must have hit the wrong button because to me it looks like your flag falls well within what Robert Harvey says in his answer to Not An Answer Flag Declined - Don't See Why:
For "Not an Answer" flags, we're looking for questions posted as
answers, comments posted as answers, "thanks," things like that.
...
7
I think that what you have done is exactly what is best for the site, and for future visitors to either of those questions.
Imagine a future visitor coming to look for the answer to just one of those questions. They can now find the question more easily because each is titled differently, and once found they have the answer "instant-like" without having to ...
7
Succinct questions are encouraged at Stack Exchange. I appreciate how you point out that Stack Exchange can be seen as a repository for questions for the benefit of future users. With this said, all questions are expected to follow site guidelines. Our help center has a page on that topic:
How do I ask a good question?
We’d love to help you. To ...
6
Another option would be to ask the types of questions that you like to see more of. Sometimes, you just have to do it and hope that others will follow.
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
