Thread: Preferred answer length? Answer reuse value?

As you probably know, my answers tend to be long. I call them verbose, others call them unending walls of text.

I'm not keen on answering to just the person who asked the original question. I write my answers in the hope that others, either interested in the subject, or encountering the same or similar problem, find it useful. This is a major factor making my answers long.

Do you have an opinion as to what a preferred length of an answer is, in practice? Is a long wall of text a hindrance, even if it contains useful information?

Certain questions seem to pop up at regular intervals, which might indicate that the Search option on this site is not used as often as it might; perhaps old threads are not read that often.

(Moderators/webmaster: any statistics on search? Or on how often older threads are read -- especially those not visible by default thread view settings?)

A devil's advocate might say that this indicates short and to the point answers would be optimal, because longer answers do not reach a wide enough audience to warrant any extended answers; limiting ourselves to the minimal domain defined by the original question would be preferable.
Opinions?

Originally Posted by Mario F.

I also tend to think they are 15 years old and Justin Bieber fans, regardless.

Pft, we all know you're a secret Belieber.

Originally Posted by Mario F.

Good thing is that at the age of 46 I won't be around for much longer to burn with it.

Mario, when is that great post you promised coming?

Originally Posted by Mario F.

This world is going to end on fire. Good thing is that at the age of 46 I won't be around for much longer to burn with it.

I'm 39. I'd rather not see the world burn, but there is not much we can do about it. Those that see the implications of current and past actions, are a minuscule minority, and their voices are drowned in the sea of eusocial baying of the hordes.

I really do not want to live on this planet anymore.

Originally Posted by Yarin

Pft, we all know you're a secret Belieber.

That made me threw up a little in my mouth.

Originally Posted by Yarin

Mario, when is that great post you promised coming?

Seconded! This is like waiting for snoofle to post another story at thedailywtf.com.

Nominal Animal, are you being bullied again?

I try to write what I know. If I know a lot, then I write a lot. In my writing I do value conciseness, but not to the extent that I've seen some people go. I would say that if my answers go on for more than a few paragraphs, then I start to wonder if my writing is "tight" enough, and if I'm not just mentally wandering around. Oddly enough, some of my longest posts on here aren't on technical subjects. Maybe I picked the wrong field. I did want to be an author as a kid.

I think the most useless answers on a board like this is posting code that's hard to understand, especially for the person that's trying to be helped.

Sometimes, Nominal, when I do read your answers and I'm reading them for understanding, the side details sometimes veer me off track but the good thing about that is that I have to stop and ask, "Wait, is this relevant to me directly?" and I guess that might be a good thing because it forces me to *gasp* stop and think about what you said.

But by that same token, I could see other people just become discouraged and confused. There's probably a happy medium.

And what's wrong with Justin Bieber?

Also,

I'd rather not see the world burn, but there is not much we can do about it. Those that see the implications of current and past actions, are a minuscule minority, and their voices are drowned in the sea of eusocial baying of the hordes.

I really do not want to live on this planet anymore.

Yeesh, dramatic enough? This is also a vague statement. You're implying an end-of-the-world scenario but that has different interpretations to different people.

Originally Posted by whiteflags

Nominal Animal, are you being bullied again?

No, it's just a subject I keep coming back to.

Originally Posted by MutantJohn

the side details sometimes veer me off track

I know exactly what you mean. It's a difficult trade-off: keeping to the issues at hand would focus the discussion better, but including the side details may help avoid common mistakes, or even open up ideas on new solution paths. At least that's why I tend to keep most of them. (Not all, though! I do do quite a bit of trimming, usually.)

Originally Posted by MutantJohn

Yeesh, dramatic enough?

Universe 25.

(It has nothing to do with comics, games, art, or literature. It's actual scientific research. Go look it up for yourself.)

Originally Posted by laserlight

I gather that the forum software prefers answers to be at least 4 characters in length...

Hmm, that means "No." is not a suitable answer.

Originally Posted by laserlight

or in the case of beginners they might simply not be cut out for programming

It's hard to see when the person in question is just trying to exploit others for their own gain, or whether they are really just not cut out for programming. I tend to favour the first option, and suggest they go for a business career or politics instead.

I like your detailed responses, and if the subject interests me I will read the whole post. I just hope your effort is not wasted on the I-do-not-need-to-understand-I-have-google type people. That said, I would expect that (surely) some people don't mind reading detailed responses; maybe not those still using TurboC but they're not the only ones reading the forum