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user105
user105

Please bear in mind how completely saturated the Internet is with information about pets. Also keep in mind that pets create a booming economy and quite a bit of that information is coming from someone that wants to sell you something. I don't know if pets is the most competitive topic we've taken on since Stack Overflow, but it's got to be close.

Over the last few weeks, I've been planning my first real attempt at aquarium. I had to decide if I wanted to go with salt or fresh water, how much coral I was hoping to grow, the kinds of fish that would make a beautiful display and get along together and nuts-and-bolts research on pumps and filtration systems.

I found:

  • A lot of people arguing with one another without any clear consensus, Aquariums are a lot like Javascript in the early days when it comes to that

  • A lot of really spammy looking content on sites that wanted me to buy the stuff I was hoping to learn about from them

  • YetAnotherWiki that basically just summarized all the crap that I had found to sell advertisement inventory

  • A lot of Google image searches you should never run.

From our /about page, to our help center and right to the user interface, we have an implied contract with every user that asks a question on the site:

Ask here, and you'll get a human that writes an answer for you, then other humans that know about this stuff will show you how sound the information is through votes

When you're in a sea of pure junk, it's really tempting to just ask your question after clicking through your first few results. We want this site to be an oasis in a desert full of junk.

With that said, we do need to be able to find out where the question author needs the most guidance, and the best way to determine that is by knowing what they've tried, where they looked, or what they searched for. There is a reason this information is useful beyond 'proof of work'. Sometimes it's really hard to just figure out what to search for.

To that end, I suggest this comment:

Welcome to Pets Stack Exchange! Would you mind providing us with some resources you searched before asking your question here, or the search phrases you used? We'd like to have a look to make sure our answers provide more depth and information. Your question is very common, we'd appreciate knowing what you found so far so we can do a better job.

If you get a reply, you've got an engaged user, and you'll have all you need to help them write a better question through editing. If you don't get a reply, then what you probably have is a stub - something you could turn into a better question if it makes sense to do so.

If it's pure junk, and covered in other questions or answers on the site, vote to close appropriately if you have the privilege and/or let one of the moderators know. And, of course, always use your votes as you see fit.

Please bear in mind how completely saturated the Internet is with information about pets. Also keep in mind that pets create a booming economy and quite a bit of that information is coming from someone that wants to sell you something. I don't know if pets is the most competitive topic we've taken on since Stack Overflow, but it's got to be close.

Over the last few weeks, I've been planning my first real attempt at aquarium. I had to decide if I wanted to go with salt or fresh water, how much coral I was hoping to grow, the kinds of fish that would make a beautiful display and get along together and nuts-and-bolts research on pumps and filtration systems.

I found:

  • A lot of people arguing with one another without any clear consensus, Aquariums are a lot like Javascript in the early days when it comes to that

  • A lot of really spammy looking content on sites that wanted me to buy the stuff I was hoping to learn about from them

  • YetAnotherWiki that basically just summarized all the crap that I had found to sell advertisement inventory

  • A lot of Google image searches you should never run.

From our /about page, to our help center and right to the user interface, we have an implied contract with every user that asks a question on the site:

Ask here, and you'll get a human that writes an answer for you, then other humans that know about this stuff will show you how sound the information is through votes

When you're in a sea of pure junk, it's really tempting to just ask your question after clicking through your first few results. We want this site to be an oasis in a desert full of junk.

With that said, we do need to be able to find out where the question author needs the most guidance, and the best way to determine that is by knowing what they've tried, where they looked, or what they searched for. Sometimes it's really hard to just figure out what to search for.

To that end, I suggest this comment:

Welcome to Pets Stack Exchange! Would you mind providing us with some resources you searched before asking your question here, or the search phrases you used? We'd like to have a look to make sure our answers provide more depth and information. Your question is very common, we'd appreciate knowing what you found so far so we can do a better job.

If you get a reply, you've got an engaged user, and you'll have all you need to help them write a better question through editing. If you don't get a reply, then what you probably have is a stub - something you could turn into a better question if it makes sense to do so.

If it's pure junk, and covered in other questions or answers on the site, let one of the moderators know. And, of course, always use your votes as you see fit.

Please bear in mind how completely saturated the Internet is with information about pets. Also keep in mind that pets create a booming economy and quite a bit of that information is coming from someone that wants to sell you something. I don't know if pets is the most competitive topic we've taken on since Stack Overflow, but it's got to be close.

Over the last few weeks, I've been planning my first real attempt at aquarium. I had to decide if I wanted to go with salt or fresh water, how much coral I was hoping to grow, the kinds of fish that would make a beautiful display and get along together and nuts-and-bolts research on pumps and filtration systems.

I found:

  • A lot of people arguing with one another without any clear consensus, Aquariums are a lot like Javascript in the early days when it comes to that

  • A lot of really spammy looking content on sites that wanted me to buy the stuff I was hoping to learn about from them

  • YetAnotherWiki that basically just summarized all the crap that I had found to sell advertisement inventory

  • A lot of Google image searches you should never run.

From our /about page, to our help center and right to the user interface, we have an implied contract with every user that asks a question on the site:

Ask here, and you'll get a human that writes an answer for you, then other humans that know about this stuff will show you how sound the information is through votes

When you're in a sea of pure junk, it's really tempting to just ask your question after clicking through your first few results. We want this site to be an oasis in a desert full of junk.

With that said, we do need to be able to find out where the question author needs the most guidance, and the best way to determine that is by knowing what they've tried, where they looked, or what they searched for. There is a reason this information is useful beyond 'proof of work'. Sometimes it's really hard to just figure out what to search for.

To that end, I suggest this comment:

Welcome to Pets Stack Exchange! Would you mind providing us with some resources you searched before asking your question here, or the search phrases you used? We'd like to have a look to make sure our answers provide more depth and information. Your question is very common, we'd appreciate knowing what you found so far so we can do a better job.

If you get a reply, you've got an engaged user, and you'll have all you need to help them write a better question through editing. If you don't get a reply, then what you probably have is a stub - something you could turn into a better question if it makes sense to do so.

If it's pure junk, and covered in other questions or answers on the site, vote to close appropriately if you have the privilege and/or let one of the moderators know. And, of course, always use your votes as you see fit.

Source Link
user105
user105

Please bear in mind how completely saturated the Internet is with information about pets. Also keep in mind that pets create a booming economy and quite a bit of that information is coming from someone that wants to sell you something. I don't know if pets is the most competitive topic we've taken on since Stack Overflow, but it's got to be close.

Over the last few weeks, I've been planning my first real attempt at aquarium. I had to decide if I wanted to go with salt or fresh water, how much coral I was hoping to grow, the kinds of fish that would make a beautiful display and get along together and nuts-and-bolts research on pumps and filtration systems.

I found:

  • A lot of people arguing with one another without any clear consensus, Aquariums are a lot like Javascript in the early days when it comes to that

  • A lot of really spammy looking content on sites that wanted me to buy the stuff I was hoping to learn about from them

  • YetAnotherWiki that basically just summarized all the crap that I had found to sell advertisement inventory

  • A lot of Google image searches you should never run.

From our /about page, to our help center and right to the user interface, we have an implied contract with every user that asks a question on the site:

Ask here, and you'll get a human that writes an answer for you, then other humans that know about this stuff will show you how sound the information is through votes

When you're in a sea of pure junk, it's really tempting to just ask your question after clicking through your first few results. We want this site to be an oasis in a desert full of junk.

With that said, we do need to be able to find out where the question author needs the most guidance, and the best way to determine that is by knowing what they've tried, where they looked, or what they searched for. Sometimes it's really hard to just figure out what to search for.

To that end, I suggest this comment:

Welcome to Pets Stack Exchange! Would you mind providing us with some resources you searched before asking your question here, or the search phrases you used? We'd like to have a look to make sure our answers provide more depth and information. Your question is very common, we'd appreciate knowing what you found so far so we can do a better job.

If you get a reply, you've got an engaged user, and you'll have all you need to help them write a better question through editing. If you don't get a reply, then what you probably have is a stub - something you could turn into a better question if it makes sense to do so.

If it's pure junk, and covered in other questions or answers on the site, let one of the moderators know. And, of course, always use your votes as you see fit.