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drmatt drmatt
 
January 31, 2009 07:57 PM

Would you find commenting on Questions useful?

We can make comments on Answers, but I've had some questions about the questions.  The only way to do that, currently, is by answering the question.

If MA were to add commenting on Questions, would that be useful?  How would it be useful to you?
Interesting Question?  Yes (0)   No (0)   
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easyeboy easyeboy
 
 January 31, 2009 08:06 PM
Yes, it would be useful because sometimes the questioner asks an ambiguous question and it leaves the answerer with more to answer. Although we can ask rhetorical questions in the answer, it's sometimes helpful just to ask the questioner to be more specific or to explain with an example.
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• Opinion question and ALL good answers. This one was first.


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bernices bernices
 
January 31, 2009 08:07 PM
Absolutely it would be useful! Sometimes additional information is needed to answer the question, and I have felt bad for having to answer and get points only to find after they have clarified, it went in a direction that made me unable to answer.

Fantastic suggestion!

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shakespear... shakespear...
 
January 31, 2009 08:08 PM
yes, I like that. There's plenty of times where you have to guess at an ambiguity in the question, and to do so in an answer means you could be marked unhelpful, which works against you.

However, taking the time to comment on a question also means that others will come in and answer it while you are waiting for your comment to be addressed, so if your goal was to provide a quality answer, it might be too much delay in providing that.

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drmatt drmatt
 
January 31, 2009 08:30 PM
How do you see a delay detracting from a quality answer?

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shakespear... shakespear...
 
February 01, 2009 03:58 PM
From the asker's perspective, I don't think it would. What I meant was that if you felt you couldn't give a quality answer without more information, that the delay might mean that others have already provided answers, thus meaning you no longer need to bother. Make sense? The longer a question is up, the better the chances of falling victim to "I was gonna say that, somebody beat me to it." Make sense? If you look at it from the perspective of "Whatever helps to provide the asker with a quality answer", it's a good thing. If you look at it from the "If I take the time to answer the question I'd like a reasonable shot at getting the credit/points for it", then it might work against you.

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philipy philipy
 
February 02, 2009 06:16 AM
I tend to agree with shakespearegeek on this. Sounds good in theory, but maybe not that useful in practice.

True there are many questions where my instinct is to ask for clarification or more details.

But somehow I think a lot of those askers are not the kind of people that are going to be popping back frequently to check on feedback, or refine their question in a thoughtful way.

In fact there are people on the system that keep asking very badly formulated questions despite many people having given them feedback about that, and suggested how to imrove on it.

Personally, when I see a question like that, I do one of these:

a) Decide this is not a person that has sensible expectations, and can't be satisfied by any reasonable answer, therefore don't waste my time on it

b) Make by best guess of what they meant, and then give an answer of the form: "If you meant X, the answer is Y".

c) Write an answer of the form: "If your situation is A the answer is X, if it's B the answer is Y, if it's C... " etc.

One of these approaches is usually fine without having to go back for clarification.

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