Question

Answering Questions Etiquette

Answer 1

1. Be polite. Number one rule of netiquette: remember the human.

2. Do not post a direct answer. At bare minimum, your answer should include an explanation of your solution. Better yet, lead the asker to the answer rather than stating it outright.

3. Do not plagiarize from other websites. Copy-pasting from other homework help websites is not acceptable. If you need to use a snippet of information from a non-homework help website, please include the source. And no, changing a few words in a sentence does not stop it from being plagiarized.

4. Make sure you are actually answering the question being asked. Too many people just copy-paste the question into google and paste whatever comes up, regardless of whether it is actually helpful or not. Read the question carefully, and make sure that a person could reasonably get closer to the solution based on your response.

5. Asking “what do you think?” is a fine place to start, but it should not be your only contribution to a question. Provide some information that will help the asker get to a response.

6. Avoid answering questions that you don’t know how to answer. Misleading information confuses people and negatively affects their learning. It also makes a bad impression on new users if we are not a reliable source of accurate HW help.

7. Do not assume that the asker has the same academic background as you do. Something that may be obvious to you may not be obvious to somebody else.

8. Do ask other people for help if you think they may be able to answer a question. However, please be courteous and avoid spam-tagging people.

9. Read the other responses before replying. The asker does not benefit from having multiple people say the exact same thing.

10. If you agree with a response, simply medal and move on. “I agree” comments are unhelpful.

11. If you disagree with a response, be polite, and state your case.

12. Do not ask for medals. Let people decide whether they want to medal based on the quality of your work.

Answer 2

addendum: This is a *huge* pet peeve of mine. Just because you can't answer a question, does not mean that the question is unanswerable. If there is enough info that a person *could* potentially answer it if they have the appropriate background, then leave it alone.