What should we do with an accepted link-only answer?

Question

Link-only answers are discouraged here, because answers should contain all the necessary information rather than being pointers to (possibly-volatile) information. Usually when we come across link-only answers we ask for an edit and, failing that, convert them to comments.

On this question, the accepted answer is a link-only answer. It's from somebody who doesn't participate any more, so the author is not going to expand the answer to summarize what's at the link. The link is an 80-minute video (or audio?) file, which is beyond what I'm personally willing to dig through. (Were it a text article I'd skim to see if I could improve the answer.) The person who asked the question was last here in September.

What should we do with this answer?

Answer 1

Wow, I've never seen an unregistered account with 18k+ rep before, a quick check shows that the owner can't recover it without our help - so that explains why they haven't been seen in quite some time.

Now, onto how to handle these, and it's never quite cut and dry. First, remember that the accepted answer is not always the best answer, it's just the one that the author of the question picked, for whatever reason. This particular question appears to have a relatively comprehensive and self-contained answer that out scored the accepted one. Therefore, if the accepted answer is deleted, then the question still has a good answer.

If the link breaks, it's got to go - or the relevant information that used to be in whatever was linked will need to move its way into the post. Otherwise, it's just a dead-end with a check mark next to it.

This brings us to a sort of flow chart:

• Does the link still work?

  • Yes: Move on to item II
  • No: Fix or delete the answer, it's a dead end with a check mark which nobody likes

• Do any other answers sufficiently answer the question?

  • Yes: The link-only answer can be converted to a comment or deleted, or left with a comment inviting anyone that cares to paraphrase the linked resource
  • No: The answer should be fixed, if possible, or a better answer written, then consider whether the link-only answer is worth keeping in light of new answers, if you went that route.

In cases where the link-only answer is highly up-voted, you can often find a copy of what it was linking to in the Wayback machine. Note, you need to find a snapshot of the linked page at the time the link was posted. You should also then move anything relevant into the answer itself, please don't just fix the link.

Just try your best to not leave a question completely unanswered if you can - but even if you do, the worst that happens is it ends up on the unanswered questions list again where it (should) get a better answer than the one you removed.

And remember, again, accepted does not mean best - don't give substandard quality preferential treatment because of the check mark.

Answer 2

I recommend commentifying the answer post and possibly, as a courtesy, adding a comment saying that it was the accepted answer and explaining why it was commentified and how it could be expanded into a real answer.

I think that the governing principle here is that the majority of the consumers of our content are not the question-asker, especially once he is satisfied that his question has been answered. The fact that the asker liked a particular answer post doesn't remove the fact that it's below our quality standards, which we try to impose on this entire repository of content on behalf of the Internet-reading public. If the post was only borderline-deletable, I could see giving it the benefit of the doubt because it had earned the checkmark, but not if it clearly doesn't count as a real answer post.

Making it into a comment preserves the link for the asker and anyone else who would find it useful, as well as for anyone who might be interested in expanding it into a full answer.

Answer 3

If the link still works, I suggest asking the person to summarize the link. If the answer is very old, then summarize the link yourself.

If the link does not work, it should be deleted.