Questions tagged [answers]
The answers tag has no usage guidance.
29 questions
12
votes
1
answer
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How should I cite an answer elsewhere?
Sometimes a Web page off-site — or a passage in a book, for that matter — answers a question perfectly. How should I refer to or quote that external source as my answer?
- 5,293
15
votes
5
answers
456
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Better to post an answer with no source, or not to post at all?
Sometimes I read a new question, and I want to provide an answer, but I don't have the time at that moment to find the appropriate source citations.
Then, I will receive comments in my answer asking ...
user1095
7
votes
2
answers
454
views
Is Mi Yodeya a Judaism Stack Exchange, or a Rabbinic Judaism Stack Exchange?
Before I really began to understand the profound nature of Orthodoxy, I was thinking to leave the forum because I tend to approach Scripture from a different perspective than Orthodox Jews do. I do ...
user2411
8
votes
2
answers
210
views
Dealing with incorrect answers
Suppose an answer is blatantly incorrect. (E.g. it quotes a Talmudic passage to answer the question, but the passage in question actually says the exact opposite.)
I would assume that normally the ...
- 50.3k
8
votes
2
answers
163
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How should we handle Hebrew-only answers?
The language of Stack Exchange is English. On this site, many answers (and questions) will also involve Hebrew, and we don't want to discourage that.
This answer contains a citation in English and ...
- 57k
5
votes
4
answers
327
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What's the point of posting an answer based on something that's already online?
If I find an English-language article online that directly addresses a question on Mi Yodeya, why should I bother going to all the trouble suggested in our citation guideline - citing, summarizing, ...
Isaac MosesMod
- 48.6k
1
vote
0
answers
47
views
Why no answer tags?
More often than not, the key information related to a topic of discussion is in the answers, not in the question. So why is there no option to tag based on the answers, or even separate tagging for ...
- 17.9k
7
votes
1
answer
160
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How do we deal with Kabbalah mysteries as answers?
After recently asking for an explanation on a certain custom, I was given an answer that was garbed in kabbalistic language. Not being a kabbalist myself (nor would I suspect most readers), I asked ...
- 11.9k
6
votes
1
answer
137
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What to do when you only have a partial answer
Many times I find myself with relevant, sourced information when I look at a question, but won't have a complete answer. For example, in this recent question, the question asked for when large-scale ...
- 19.3k
6
votes
3
answers
159
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Criterion for Voting
This community deals with questions that are subject to "eilu va'eilu divrei Elokim Chaim -- these and those are the words of the 'Living' G-d / G-d of Life." Such questions have a range of valid ...
- 9,971
6
votes
1
answer
161
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Answers that say "I asked my Rabbi and he said..."
Given that this website is not intended for issuing halachic decisions, are answers that offer no source other than "I asked my Rabbi and he said..." valid answers? What your personal rabbi tells you,...
- 59.1k
5
votes
1
answer
132
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What to do with now irrelevant answers?
I asked a question and wasn't sufficiently clear as to what kind of answers I was looking for. This resulted in several answers that didn't really address what I wanted at all. I edited my question to ...
- 21.2k
4
votes
1
answer
87
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Is a link-only answer to within MY acceptable?
@Scimonster I thought we decided that a mi.y link was OK. This is not to say, of course, that the other link shouldn't be expanded on :) – Shokhet 6 hours ago
@Shokhet, 1) 2 upvotes doesn't ...
- 23.3k
3
votes
2
answers
39
views
Duplicate answers where the higher quality answer was added after the lower quality answer
Following on this question, what should the policy be if an existing question with an existing answer gets a new answer that is higher quality (e.g. provides a source, maybe adds additional ...
- 32.3k
3
votes
3
answers
88
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Deleting duplicate answers when the lower quality duplicate was added to an existing question with a pre-existing higher quality duplicative answer
So I had an answer to this question (actually I answered it on this question before Menachem(?) found the duplicate at which point I also voted to close as duplicate) deleted because it is a duplicate ...
- 32.3k
2
votes
2
answers
87
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Are links strictly necessary when citing a source?
This came up in respect to my answer here. I hadn’t seen a meta post with an official policy on the topic, so I figured I’d ask.
In my time here I’ve almost never linked to a source unless it’s some ...
- 34.7k
-1
votes
3
answers
90
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Should we/can we have a flag/delete reason for “objectively wrong”?
Potentially a way to address Dealing with incorrect answers.
Is it possible within the constraints of the SE system to have custom flags and delete reasons, like we have custom close reasons?
If it ...
- 34.7k
11
votes
3
answers
330
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Using Christian interpretations in answers
This question as inspired by the comments to my answer here. (See also my answer here.)
Is is proper, in the context of this site, to use Christian or other non-Jewish sources (for example, secular ...
- 28.7k
7
votes
2
answers
150
views
How to avoid answering in comments
Mi Yodeya has a very high standard for answers, and I highly respect them (us) for that. This is both in strongly asking for sources, always necessary in Judaism, all the more so with the inherent and ...
- 3,560
7
votes
4
answers
142
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Why comments and not answers?
Why is it that so many people leave answers in the "comments" section, as opposed to the "answer" section? (You may leave your answer in either section 😉)
- 216
7
votes
0
answers
46
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Askers should see their answers' vote counts
Question authors should be able to see the count of upvotes and downvotes on answers to their questions in order to better evaluate the answers: an answer with 100 upvotes and 100 downvotes is ...
msh210Mod
- 73.9k
6
votes
1
answer
153
views
How much of an external article is it fair to quote?
The issue recently came up in some comments about how much of an external article it is fair to quote. I noticed some answers paste very long responses from elsewhere on the web, but this seems unfair ...
- 11.1k
6
votes
1
answer
86
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Answering a question hinted to in a comment
Is it OK to answer a question, where someone had commented on the question with information that can really be used as an answer?
I thought of this when I came across this link where Menachem ...
user9643
6
votes
2
answers
116
views
Is it OK to post extensive comments as answers?
Here and there, I see answers prefaced by "this is really just a comment that got too long" or the like (and after seeing this a few times I felt comfortable doing it myself, twice in fact). Is that ...
- 23.4k
5
votes
1
answer
58
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Do we need something in between an answer and a comment?
Take a look at this question.
I submitted an answer. Shalom then submitted an interesting, relevant, additional point, that was meant to enhance my answer.
Someone commented that his answer was not ...
user1095
4
votes
0
answers
87
views
What to do with an answer that's part-right, part-wrong?
Consider this recent answer about dealing with smoke detectors making annoying noise on Shabbat. In it, the answerer, coming from a point-of-view outside traditional Judaism but knowledgeable and ...
Isaac MosesMod
- 48.6k
3
votes
1
answer
32
views
Crediting an answer previously posted by another
How should we relate to an answer where that answer has already been given by a previous poster with the same or greater detail? I assume this happens because the poster failed to read previously ...
- 28.4k
3
votes
0
answers
76
views
Are answer posts of the form "your answer isn't..." okay?
One of the questions on Mi Yodeya is:
I remember hearing that Rachel Imeinu was buried in kever Rachel, but was only there for one night and then she went to Mearas Hamachpaila.
I can't ...
msh210Mod
- 73.9k
1
vote
1
answer
111
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Answering a question that you voted to close
When is appropriate for a user that voted to close a question to go ahead and answer the question as well?
Granted that if their closed opinion wasn't accepted by the community, they shouldn't ...
- 32.3k