StackOverflow is intended to be a repository of good questions and answers, rather than a service of helping people solve their problems. The latter is at most a secondary function - though an important one. The point is, the questions and answers must be edited and up/downvoted to serve future visitors wondering about the, more than to help out the person who originally asked the question.
StackOverflow is intended to be a repository of good questions and answers, rather than a service of helping people solve their problems.
Can you elucidate how these are not the same thing? In my mind, a good answer is one that solves a problem proposed in a user's question. A good question is one that poses a problem other users are / will also share.
Lets contrast it with a poor question as all questions that are good solve the user's problem... but not all questions that solve the users questions are good.
The answer solved the problem (see the final comment). But it isn't a good question. The text isn't searchable. The only way I found it was by trawling through the NullPointerException duplicate questions.
The question that I linked - it isn't a question that someone will find again. It is a null pointer question and the person who answered it hand held the steps to solve the problem. The person answering it was answering it as a service to the OP rather than a "lets improve the ability for people to find information."
Look also to https://stackoverflow.com/q/26566648 - the OP was helped, but was that something that is going to be found again and used to solve another problem? Or https://stackoverflow.com/q/26827621 - the answer is the duplicate and while the person who answered did help, that question isn't something that is useful or findable. Its not a good question (try to find a search query in google that brings back that question).
A good question:
* states its problem well in a way that can be replicated
* is findable by querying a search engine for the plain text error or problem
* is written (often edited by others) to be a useful technical document
Look at https://stackoverflow.com/search?tab=newest&q=is%3aq%20answe... and consider how many of those questions are useful for adding to the body of knowledge and how many are "help me with my problem". And as that's a query for closed questions - look at the duplicates and consider "is that duplicate better written?"
If a question is poorly written, difficult to understand, or is answered by too many different answers ("how can I optimize this code?" and there are 100+ answers) then the utility of that question to help other people goes down. Nonetheless, there are people who will answer it because it helps that person solve their problem.
Comments
StackOverflow is intended to be a repository of good questions and answers, rather than a service of helping people solve their problems. The latter is at most a secondary function - though an important one. The point is, the questions and answers must be edited and up/downvoted to serve future visitors wondering about the, more than to help out the person who originally asked the question.
Can you elucidate how these are not the same thing? In my mind, a good answer is one that solves a problem proposed in a user's question. A good question is one that poses a problem other users are / will also share.
Lets contrast it with a poor question as all questions that are good solve the user's problem... but not all questions that solve the users questions are good.
Consider the question: https://stackoverflow.com/q/35647663
The answer solved the problem (see the final comment). But it isn't a good question. The text isn't searchable. The only way I found it was by trawling through the NullPointerException duplicate questions.
The question that I linked - it isn't a question that someone will find again. It is a null pointer question and the person who answered it hand held the steps to solve the problem. The person answering it was answering it as a service to the OP rather than a "lets improve the ability for people to find information."
Look also to https://stackoverflow.com/q/26566648 - the OP was helped, but was that something that is going to be found again and used to solve another problem? Or https://stackoverflow.com/q/26827621 - the answer is the duplicate and while the person who answered did help, that question isn't something that is useful or findable. Its not a good question (try to find a search query in google that brings back that question).
A good question:
* states its problem well in a way that can be replicated
* is findable by querying a search engine for the plain text error or problem
* is written (often edited by others) to be a useful technical document
Look at https://stackoverflow.com/search?tab=newest&q=is%3aq%20answe... and consider how many of those questions are useful for adding to the body of knowledge and how many are "help me with my problem". And as that's a query for closed questions - look at the duplicates and consider "is that duplicate better written?"
If a question is poorly written, difficult to understand, or is answered by too many different answers ("how can I optimize this code?" and there are 100+ answers) then the utility of that question to help other people goes down. Nonetheless, there are people who will answer it because it helps that person solve their problem.
You seem to be responding to the following proposition:
"If it solves a user's problem, a Q&A is good"
which wasn't what I was saying. What I was saying was:
"If a Q&A is good, it solves users' problem(s)"