When I ask a question in the LQ site, my first expectation is that nobody will stuff it up.

I must explain this. I have found that many of my questions are side-tracked by the first answer and then nothing more happen.

An example is my last question concerning the use of CSS in a Frameset environment. The first and only answer was "Why do you use frames?"

Volunteers who answer a question must know that it is easy to make it worse for the asking user, rather than making it easier.

Many expert volunteers want the challenging questions and look for those that have no answer, mine has an answer although it does not have one.

Also, people who would be willing to help do not like it when a question degenerates into philosophical arguments, or into a mess when there is too much to read to find out what the question really is, or how it developed.

There is an explanation on how to put a question, I hope this will explain how to put an answer.

That is a real problem. It's one of the most frustrating things that can happen to a fairly difficult question carefully framed. It has happened to me several times. There are a few people who get a big kick of knocking questions off the "unanswered" list, and whether or not they have a clue about a correct solution is not important to them. ... and, you are right, it tends to keep the real experts away.

I believe what you're willing to say is "Don't answer if you're not sure it's correct and will help"?
I think it'll lead to a drastical reduction of answers since one can never be sure what the question really means and if his solution is really an expert and 'sure-thing' one. In example with frames someone seemed to have tried to propose a better solution, so prehaps it's you who should've stated that you don't care about any other, hovewer reasonable, options?
Of course, there is always offtopic and flame but still post can be identified as such only by stating question as precisely as possible, which wasn't the case with frames... and forum rules can be more or less strict about the thing, with perfect balance always one step further.

I actually asked "Is there any specific reason you are using frames", because there are a lot better ways then using frames. Frames often turn out to be a mess and don't work well with older browsers. I apologize if I was out of line

You'd think you'd know to post in the right place :/.

Why do you use frames?

Yeah, why would anyone want to use frames, anyway?)

Well, that's true if I can read from how the OP intro's the question. It's not true if its vague, if it contains misconceptions or doesn't consider alternatives or doesn't pay attention to certain things or wants things done in a way that's not SOP or even dangerous, and then I'd argue we *do* have a task to "guide" the OP. In some cases that warrants a reply containing only more questions, which may seem irritating to the OP if he/she expected a quick answer, but is meant to make the OP do research and think twice.


That's true if it's one of those regular questions, but even then there are questions that lend to people posting misinformation or half thruths or in other ways miss addressing things. It also depends on how a question is put. Then there are threads I find interesting because I can learn (gasp) from it as well, so it doesn't mean one reply gets no eyeballs anymore, also there's people who are dedicated and frequent only a few fora and most certainly they'll see nearly all questions that flow by.


I can only speak for myself but I don't mind reading 5 page threads, it's usually the people who only want to put in a oneliner that won't read.


Exactly! Since you shelled out cash for that level of support, you expect and deserve it! ;-p

With all due respect but how many questions did you actually answer?
Seriously, reciprosity is a way of showing gratitude and a means to keep the community alive.
So far you've shown none, but unfortunately you're not alone at that.

I've moved your thread to LQ Suggestions & Feedback as I think it fits better there.

There are questions that can be answered without further questioning, but that assumes that the OP posts a fully formed problem - the problem, the alternative solutions and reason why they can't be used and what the OP wants to get out of it. The vast majority of questions require further questioning to draw out what is really required.

Maybe we should try a template idea:
The question: post your question in brief here
The reasoning: why you want it to work in that way
Alternative solutions tried: post what they are and why they weren't appropriate
The conclusion: post what you want to get out of this - what the end result should be
Bibliography: where have you looked already and what have you tried and what was the result

Otherwise we'll all have to live with the long standing q&a/discussion format

I think the OP can control it and the matter isn't always out of hand.

For a start the thread title is crucial.

The question should be short and to the point with pertinent information provided.

An update of the situation can be posted like "OK I have tried solution A & B but my original question still has not been fixed"

The answers in themselves may be very useful too, especially from members with a lot of posts on their back.

Let me give an example here

I can ask a question "How to turn left in a dead end street?"

I could get a response "What do you want to go to the dead end street for?" That should make me think may be I am seeking something worthless.

I know the best answer for many posters is "just tell me YES or NO and the exact steps I need to take to get there". You can only get such a solution when someone has been exactly in your position before, knows the solution, happens to read your post, willing to reply and bother to structure the solution the way you want it. Fat chance I would say from a volunteer.

I answer a lot of questions and I would say many OP sold us down the river by showing a corner of his problem. When we offer the correct solution we then showed a can of worms. Many a time we don't get told the actual situation. Some are due to a lack of experience by the OP but many are stupid things committed by the OP who doesn't want us to know until the fix leads us to there.

The worst of it is when we pass on a corect fix many OP never replys back to tell us if it the sultion works. So members who know the right solution lose confidence and stop coming forward.

There are also inexperience members who put forward a half fix when the full cure has already been posted by an experienced member because he/she doe not know enough to tell the difference. The experienced member will walk off when the OP pursuing the half fix with the inexperienced member.