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I came across this question today and I knew the answer right away. It was in fact a question on a very basic SQL query (full joins) that most people should pick up in their first few lessons on SQL. The OP just stated his requirement with some sample data but showed no research on his part. Rather than answering the question straight away and waiting for my 15 reputation points to come, I dropped a comment asking the OP to show what he had tried and waited for an update on his question. I already had a mental draft of the answer and even looked up for a tutorial link to provide additional information.

However, before the OP could respond, along came another user who just flat out gave the answer needed by the OP. Thus, I lost an opportunity to educate the asker, the OP went on his way with his solution without being told that his question was not of the expected SO standard, the answerer went away with his 15 rep points and another two specks of dirt fell over the SO policy.

I know I can downvote the question to reflect my disdain at the OP's lack of effort. But downvoting a correct answer does not serve the intended purpose. (I don't yet have enough rep to downvote, but that's beside the point.)

How should I, as a responsible user, deal with a situation like this as I strive to adhere to the SO policy when asking or answering questions?

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    This is a poor question that will almost certainly not help anyone else. But still: didn't the other user educate the OP? Also, the answer requires basic knowledge, but it is not simple. The answer is good, it contains working code, and talks about edge cases. It also came 50 minutes after the question. This isn't a quick answer like you describe, and isn't fair to the other user.
    – Kobi
    Commented Aug 19, 2014 at 11:04
  • 8
    First off, IMO your comment comes across as not really being helpful. We've blocked the "What have you tried?" comments because they are not considerably constructive and you went around that but adding "I have a solution..." To me, that is not constructive and doesn't make it seem like you are trying to help the user.
    – Taryn
    Commented Aug 19, 2014 at 11:04
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    @bluefeet: Is it bad practice to expect to be shown some effort from the OP before providing an answer? While it might not have seemed apparent, but I was keen on helping, albeit the user show what attempts he has made to solve the problem himself.
    – CodeNewbie
    Commented Aug 19, 2014 at 11:08
  • At least there are some Karma, answerer will probably never help the OP to modify its query according to his comment.
    – Clément Malet
    Commented Aug 19, 2014 at 11:09
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    @CodeNewbie I'm not saying that. I'm saying there are more constructive ways to ask this same question. IMO, it's unhelpful and if I were that user, I'd not be inclined to respond to you.
    – Taryn
    Commented Aug 19, 2014 at 11:09
  • 3
    @bluefeet: Can you enlighten me please on how I should ask that question in more constructive ways? (My SO account was activated 10 months ago, but I've been regularly active for less than a month now. I would love to get some guidance.)
    – CodeNewbie
    Commented Aug 19, 2014 at 11:11
  • 4
    @CodeNewbie - I'd say something like: "This looks like a simple outer join. Can you please describe what you did try, and why it didn't work for you? Also, it is grate that you include sample data and expected result, but it would be much more useful as text instead of a screenshot."
    – Kobi
    Commented Aug 19, 2014 at 11:15
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    @Kobi: I didn't refute the quality of the answer. It was a splendid, to-the-point answer that worked perfectly. Thank you for that alternate comment, will remember it in future situations.
    – CodeNewbie
    Commented Aug 19, 2014 at 11:18
  • @CodeNewbie - Well, you did start the question with "being beaten by rep scores". The best you can do is downvote the answer, explain why it is bad, and hope the user reads your comment. It is OK to do that and answer the question.
    – Kobi
    Commented Aug 19, 2014 at 11:24
  • 2
    @Kobi: Yes, in retrospect, that wasn't the right term to use. I realized it seemed judgemental on my part, and edited it myself. Would downvoting the answer be right, considering that there was no flaw with the quality of the answer?
    – CodeNewbie
    Commented Aug 19, 2014 at 11:29
  • 2
    see Stack Overflow technology makes me write bad answers
    – gnat
    Commented Aug 19, 2014 at 11:33
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    I wouldn't bother really. I've seen the same, to the extent of >10k rep users answering questions marked as duplicated. Just move on...
    – emerson.marini
    Commented Aug 19, 2014 at 14:41
  • In the case of the specific question, it Needs More Focus: it's clearly a work order without any attempt at analyzing the underlying problem - it's not asking about the necessary technique, even if solving the problem happens to be (per the answers) as simple as applying that technique twice. However, I've opted to answer this meta post more generally.
    – Karl Knechtel
    Commented Apr 24 at 4:39

3 Answers 3

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Your comment to the user was:

I have the solution but please tell me first, what have you tried so far? – CodeNewbie 4 hours ago

This comes across as not really being helpful. The "What have you tried" comment have been blocked because they are not considerably constructive. You got around that by also including "I have a solution..." but that doesn't make the comment any better. To me, that is not constructive and doesn't make it seem like you are trying to help the user.

If I was the user and you commented that way, I probably wouldn't have responded to you because you seem to really be passing by and, IMO, being unhelpful.

Yes, we expect that a user include any attempts at solving the problem, there are, however, much better ways to ask that in a comment. You could say something similar to "Thanks for providing the table details, sample data as a visual to get your solution. It would be extremely helpful if you also including any attempts that you made in getting the final result. It could be that you have a minor syntax issue with the FULL JOIN that needs to be adjusted."

We are always going to have users who are willing to answer questions that don't include the attempts that were made. The person who answered the question is a new user who created their account 7 days ago, and yet you basically called them a rep-whore. Yes, you edited your question to remove that but sigh this is a new user who was trying to be helpful. I've seen long-time/high-rep users post answers that are worse than that, at least they included some sort of explanation. But to answer your final question, there is no official policy on whether or not users should answer questions that don't include attempts.

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First, make sure that you actually have a valid reason why the question shouldn't be answered. Attitudes have shifted considerably since this Meta question was posted - it now seems well accepted that the purpose of research for a question is to make the question better, not to validate that the question is worth asking - and that seemingly trivial questions are often incredibly valuable (also).

If the question is merely "simple", then it should be easy to find a dupe - but if there really isn't one, there's nothing to "educate" anyone about. Except, you know, by actually answering.

Personally, I think it's more important to have a strategy for responding to the rep hunters. I got increasingly tired of this myself, so I ended up making a Meta Q&A to cover the topic and later added my own answer as well. (I was originally going to post with an immediate self answer, but I was having trouble putting my thoughts into words. It became easier, as I'd hoped, after seeing some other answers.)

For the OP, honestly I say it's best to just proceed the same way that you would if nobody answered (or threatened to answer). Getting the question closed at least prevents others from answering; and if it's a duplicate, then linking to a duplicate accomplishes all the other usual goals (like helping future visitors find the best version of the question). Similarly, any comment you might leave about question quality, the purpose of the site etc. doesn't stop being meaningful because someone answered. The answer might make OP less likely to care about what you have to say (because it doesn't seem necessary); but you can't realistically do anything about that - this time. But by educating the person who wrote the answer, at least there's a chance of avoiding the same problem in the future.

While there isn't a strong consensus for it, I personally advocate for downvoting and delete-voting answers on bad questions, if you're confident the question should be closed. While relatively few questions merit immediate deletion, it's better to ensure that closed questions qualify to be deleted automatically after 9 days if they aren't fixed

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Did you ever read Joseph Heller's "Catch 22"?

The short answer to your question is, "You can't get there from here."

Long-time hi-rep users have no qualms about answering simple questions AFTER the OP has been directed (via a comment) toward a long-standing answer that, not necessarily tailored specifically to the OP's question, provides sufficient information to answer the OP's perplexity. The question receives a few UVs, the answer the same, and the naive OP is directed to "accept" the answer. And, there's one more almost-identical Q&A version added to the 1000+ already on the site.

Just yesterday, a lowish-rep user was castigated by a hi-rep user, scolding that "SO is not a tutorial site."

There are no rules to all of this; only humans behaving as humans. It's as incomprehensible as it is frustrating to everyone involved.

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