olavk

34 ms·

301.
by olavk 8y ago
Good point. If they really asked what they want (it wasn't an XY question), I don't think "don't do that because it is bad" should be accepted as an answer, since it isn't, and it doesn't help. It is the O
302.
by olavk 8y ago
Have you experienced that your answers are removed by mods because they does not live up to standards? This is only supposed to happen if the answer is outright spam or offensive or totally unhelpful. Otherwise they are just downvoted. Ca
303.
by olavk 8y ago
They only close for writing answers to the question, the question (and answers written before it was closed) is still up with a link to the duplicate. The asker can edit the question to provide more information and the question can be nomin
304.
by olavk 8y ago
Can you provide a few links to examples? I will vote to reopen if appropriate.
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by olavk 8y ago
There is no such thing a life without parole in Denmark. He will be eligible for parole after 12 years, but no guarantee he will actually get it.
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by olavk 8y ago
Probably not. The longest anyone have served is 33 years I believe. But one of the conditions for parole is that he must be deemed to not be a danger anymore.
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by olavk 8y ago
The first one. Life sentence is open-ended which means he could in principle remain in prison for the rest of his life. But usually they are pardoned before this, so the 16 years is the average sentence in reality. But this does not mean he
308.
by olavk 8y ago
Can you provide a few links? I can vote to re-open if appropriate.
309.
by olavk 8y ago
Questions are closed by voting just as they can be reopened by voting. You do need a certain level of rep to vote either way. So the closing and reopening trends for better or worse reflects the community using SO, not just some cabal of mo
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by olavk 8y ago
Oh I also love those kind of questions. Would love to read the HN thread about "worst language you have ever used". SO format is just a really bad fit for such discussions since the UI is not designed for it.
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by olavk 8y ago
It does work like that to some extent, since closing as a duplicate require a certain number of votes. But this could probably be improved as per the suggestion, as it seems many people have experienced inappropriate "closed as duplica
312.
by olavk 8y ago
I should not have used the word "wrong", of course someone would nitpick that. I mean the Y in an XY question. My point is just you should try help the person at hand with their actual problem, the X, and then clarify the question
313.
by olavk 8y ago
Exactly...that is why you ask clarifying questions. And if you post a question on SO is a great idea to include contextual information which helps clarify what you are trying to achieve. A bit of context like "I'm on an embedded p
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by olavk 8y ago
Please provide a few links to examples of this. I will vote to reopen if appropriate.
315.
by olavk 8y ago
If it happens 7/10 for you it should be easy to find and link to some blatant examples. Since I have the rep to vote for reopen, we might be able to improve the world together.
316.
by olavk 8y ago
Yeah this is common syndrome. An experienced software developer might sense something off in the question, and try to dig into what the actual problem is and find the solution for that. After all, the job of a developer is to solve proble
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by olavk 8y ago
Yes it is hard to ask good questions, especially when you are just starting with a technology and lack the proper terminology and mental model - which is the phase where you need to ask the most questions!
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by olavk 8y ago
I don't follow - are you saying you know of a better solution than the ones proposed in the thread? And you are angry that this better solution is not already posted?
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by olavk 8y ago
Perhaps - and I don't se the benefit of all decisions, like pushing system admin and database admin questions to separate sites. But I do think the overall perceived value of the site would decrease if general discussions, joke threads
320.
by olavk 8y ago
SO have a very well-defined purpose: To answer practical questions about software development - questions which have answers. The site is not a good fit for open-ended discussions - the UI is not designed for this. How would you select the
321.
by olavk 8y ago
Yes that is bad. You can vote to reopen if you have enough rep.
322.
by olavk 8y ago
I don't agree with this line of thinking. Helping the user at hand means you help at least one person, and probably others which might have the same problem. This is the purpose of the site! The OP is supposed to select one of the answ
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by olavk 8y ago
This is a really good point - people seem to get hung up about questions being closed, even though "closed as duplicate" is a win since it means somebody already answered your question. If you just called it "promoted to FA
324.
by olavk 8y ago
That is a good point and not easily solvable. I think the best approach is the OP updating the question title and text to reflect the actual problem they need a solution for, eg. <Ubuntu will not boot after doing XYZ.> I don't
325.
by olavk 8y ago
Don't get hung up about the rep, this mostly depends on how many people your answers are useful for, rather than how hard the question was to answer. I have answered some hard questions, but get 90% of my rep from a single answer which
326.
by olavk 8y ago
Can you provide some examples of duplicates where the "duplicate" is actually something entirely different? Maybe I can help improve the situation.
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by olavk 8y ago
For the first question, there are 12 answers providing pure CSS solutions. One of them is marked as accepted by the OP, which indicates it solved their problem. Then there is a single comment (not an answer) which says "you are not s
328.
by olavk 8y ago
> It's highly presumptious to assume you know better than the person asking. But SO is a QA site - you are only supposed to answer if you indeed know better than the person asking! I acknowledge there is a grey area with the so call
329.
by olavk 8y ago
Can you link to a few examples? (I sometimes moderate on SO, so would like to learn from previous mistakes.)
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by olavk 8y ago
Can you link to an example of that? (Not disputing your experience, just want to learn.)

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