Questions tagged [link-only-answers]
Link only answers are answers that are barely more than a link to another page.
172 questions
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Should Very Low Quality flag be used on Answers that are link-only where link(s) lead to content that could answer question (i.e. are not SPAM)?
On 15 Aug 2020 I edited an answer by @TimPost to The limits to a Very Low Quality answer.
That answer, after my edit, stated:
If you use the 'Very Low Quality' flag, you're sending a signal to
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Appropriate way to refer to your own Feature Request from a related post?
I recently made the feature request Support browser "reader views" to allow user-controlled formatting
This is a standalone FR, but it is also a relevant as a potential solution (and at ...
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Forcing a code block when there is a JSFiddle link in a post
Right now, when there's a link from JSFiddle.net in a post you are required to have a code-block, otherwise you'll get an error which won't let you submit your post/edit:
Links to jsfiddle.net must ...
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Do the criteria for a link-only answer differ on Meta than on main sites?
Just now someone asked a question about Markdown syntax for chat messages, and an employee answered with the following response:
For chat markdown, click on the help button located at the bottom of ...
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Are link based answers ok if they link to other Stack Exchange Answers?
Is it ever ok to provide an answer to a question that's essentially a link only answer to another Stack Exchange question or answer?
Often I do this when
The answers of the other question could be ...
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Is it ok to answer a contest post with a list of links to others' content?
I am not sure if my potential post passes muster.
I have a fun answer to Time for some more swag! I would like to post the Top 10 Songs of All Time list.
This is a top 10 list, so the songs ...
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Should copy-pasted answers be deleted?
Answer with a link only is bad, but if it's copy-pasted from that link, should it be deleted? I think its value isn't lost and it should be kept.
The question What to do when plagiarism is discovered ...
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Answers which are considered too short to be a good answer shouldn't be used for review audits [duplicate]
I have had review audits several times in the review queues which are mostly fine. They usually included a short (non comprehensive) description of the solution and a link to a howto with the full ...
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How should I handle link-only answers pointing to another Stack Exchange site?
On Super User, I saw an answer that points to an answer on Stack Overflow:
brew install wkhtmltopdf fails.
I documented on StackOverflow the correct way to install wkhtmltopdf
using Homebrew ...
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What comment should I leave on link-only answers? [duplicate]
When downvoting a post, reviewers are encouraged to leave a comment explaining how the author can improve their post.
What type of comment should I leave on link-only answers? Is there a comment ...
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Is a link-only answer on a per-site meta with a link to the same question on Meta Stack Exchange acceptable?
I came across this answer on Meta Super User which is a link-only answer to this question on Meta Stack Exchange. The question on MSE is asking exactly the same thing as the question on MSU, so both ...
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What to do what the best and only possible answer is a plain offsite link?
Recently I came across a question that in order to answer accurately would have required using a substantial amount of technical information which is copyrighted. There is an official website for such ...
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Should I flag link only answers to tool request questions?
I know that, on most sites throughout Stack Exchange (except Software Recs), tool / resource requests are off topic.
I know what to do with these questions, flag / vote to close them on that ...
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Link to "your answer is in another castle" in the link-only comment
Currently, the auto-text for a review comment for a link-only answer reads
While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the ...
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Is an answer that only decomposes a problem and provides links good?
I have recently written this answer:
Your problem has two distinct parts:
How do I update user session attributes whenever I want to?
How do I do something every 20 minutes?
For ...
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Found a user posting Amazon affiliate links everwhere
https://stackexchange.com/users/5074398/venus-house?tab=activity
I've raised flags on the sites I'm already a user of, but as they're acting elsewhere thought it easiest to write here. None of their ...
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How to handle link-only bug-report-answers, that are perhaps the only correct answers?
Note: The answer in question has been deleted by reviewers while I have been writing this question.
When reviewing low quality posts, I came about the following link-only-answer, that was recommended ...
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Convert link only answers into comment instead of deleting them
While reviewing "Low Quality Posts", often I used to see answers in 2 categories
Answers referring to a 3rd party site or other questions in Stack Exchange.
Answers referring some sort of suggestions ...
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Why were my flags on accepted link-only answers declined? [closed]
I've just had flags on this and this post declined, and I'm unsure why.
Maybe these links help you :
1- Augmented Reality on Android: Prepping the Camera and Compass
2- An AR Kit
3- Image Processing ...
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Your answer is in another castle: when is an answer not an answer?
I think we can all agree, this sucks:
If you've been around a little while, you've probably encountered hundreds of answers like this in various forums, some of them even marked as "The Answer&...
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Back up JSFiddle links in questions
The concept of adding JSFiddle integration has been discussed in: Custom jsFiddle for Stack Overflow
While adding it sounds like a lot of work, at any moment JSFiddle could change its terms of ...
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Flags reviewing - link-only answer dilemma
First off, I am not here to argue nor to complain. I know this issue has been discussed many times. I am posting this seeking advice/clarification/guidance in order to help keeping SO tidy, rather ...
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Why can I recommend deleting an answer as link-only when reviewing, but I'm not allowed to flag as link-only?
When reviewing (LQ and AFAIR FP) I can recommend deleting an answer as link-only. It's a suggestion that link-only answers are bad and should dissapear from the system.
However, there's no option to ...
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Should all link-only answers be considered very low quality? [duplicate]
My "very low quality" flag of this answer has been declined, with a note that
The correct procedure here is to comment, down-vote or even edit.
I don't think there is much to comment on an answer ...
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Why was this "not an answer" flag declined when the answer is obviously a comment? [duplicate]
I recently asked this question: How to enable more than 2 finger support in Chrome?
The question asked (tl;dr version):
Is it possible to instruct Chrome to listen to more than two simultaneous ...
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Is my reasoning not clear, or am I missing something here? [closed]
I have used a custom reason while flagging this answer.
I did not ask for the answer to be removed by saying:
link-only but may answer the question, should be converted to a
comment
In ...
user221081
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Group link-only answers and veiled-as-answers answers into their own category
Alright, I have taken both this and this question into account. Both of these questions have been answered by stating that these link-only answers should be custom flagged with a clear description of ...
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Non-answer answers to non-question questions [duplicate]
I keep seeing answers like this pop up in the Review queue:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/22059731/399649
There is another source for VoIP. You should have a look at https://code.google.com/p/idoubs/...
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What to do with a question which is a "duplicate" of 2 different questions?
This question seems to have several possible answers.
One (for now) exists as an answer to this question; OP indicated that the answer is not good enough (might be good for future viewers though, so ...
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Are link-only flags moderated correctly?
I have flagged some link-only answers recently and some of them are declined with the common reason:
declined - a moderator reviewed your flag, but found no evidence to
support it
Flagged post:
...
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Why is this answer VLQ ? (audit) [closed]
I've come across an audit I failed while reviewing the VLQ queue.
The question was about a PHP hit counter that wasn't working (it was due to an incorrect filename extension).
The answer was:
...
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Should I flag an old link-only answer? or is it?
Just came across this answer, should this one be considered as link-only? and if it is should I flag it (very old)?
PS: I've read through the QA section of the 2014 SO Moderator Election and seems ...
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Should users be given a chance to correct their old answers before flagging?
Should users be given a chance to correct their old answers before flagging?
I've been having a (too meta admittedly) with another user on this answer which is a 3 years old answer by Darin Dimitrov.
...
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Answers that are purely a redirect to doctype.com
I came across this answer in the low quality review today:
I recommend you post Your question here: http://doctype.com
it's been deleted now, but it seems there are several other answers that are ...
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Can we have documentation on copyright and fair-use with regards to improving link-only answers?
On our own Meta I've just highlighted something that happens with link-only answer on Ask Ubuntu: user posts link-only comment, reviewer uses an auto-comment to tell them off and the user copies the ...
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What are the guidelines for sharing blog posts and when it becomes self promotion? [duplicate]
I'm thinking about posting some pieces of code and small tutos on a blog. I'm currently writing these for myself and thought it could be nice to share it with the community.
Then it got me thinking: ...
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Disputed link-only flag. Why? [duplicate]
Today I flagged this answer as "low-quality", since it mainly consist in a link to a blog post and a pretty neutral opinion.
The link itself is not really useful too - though interesting, it doesn't ...
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Is mentioning a well-known data structure or algorithm considered a link-only answer?
I know we don't like link-only answers.
But is just mentioning (without describing) a well-known [1] data structure or algorithm (with a link to e.g. Wikipedia) appropriate?
I'd like to break this ...
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Comment on a question without 50 reputation points [duplicate]
Yesterday I wanted to comment on a question on Stack Overflow, but I don't have 50 reputation points. The question is that I referred in my answer to another Stack Overflow question, and my ...
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Has the policy changed on link-only answers? [duplicate]
I had a flag on a link-only answer declined several minutes ago:
not an answer – dasblinkenlight 6 mins ago declined - A link only answer is an answer - just a bad answer and should be down-voted ...
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My flag on a link-only accepted answer got declined. Why?
13 days ago I flagged this answer for the "not an answer" reason. This got disputed.
I asked in the chat about it and I was told by a moderator (I can't recall who it was exactly) that it probably got ...
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Review Late Answers - Why is there no Link-only-answer?
When I do reviewing Late Answers sometimes I want mark a answer as link-only-answer but there is no such option. So I use the general "moderation attention" flag with a comment. Is there a better way ...
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Accepting comments and reviews constructively
When we do a review and mark an answer as URL only, stackoverflow pastes a message as comment. So the author hits back at reviewer in an unfair manner. Is there a way to stop it?
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Is "This should be a Comment" feature removed?
My question is different from Should there be a policy about 'One-Link-Only-Answers'?
even if you see above question comment Marc has commented "if the link is only to a SE post, it is automatically ...
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How to flag a link-only answer to make it land in Low Quality review queue?
In the review queue, I see posts flagged as link-only answer and I can recommend deletion with that reason.
But normally, I can't find the option to flag something as link-only answer. There's only '...
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Highly upvoted and accepted link only answer [duplicate]
I ran into this question today:
How to execute an SSIS package from .NET?
The accepted answer with 32 upvotes is just a link. Its a pretty old one too, which is probably why it hasn't been picked up ...
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Why was my answer, linking to my Google Code project, deleted? [duplicate]
My answer to a question was recently deleted by Andrew Barber (20K+ member) and I am wondering why. It fundamentally answers the question (although it wasn't the accepted answer) and was also up-voted ...
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Enable the VLQ flag option on upvoted posts for users with good flagging history
On posts with a positive score, the very low quality flag option isn't enabled. This is great for many instances - if a post is +7, it's most likely high quality. We don't want unexperienced users ...
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Why is this answer not considered "link only"?
I came across this answer that I flagged as "a link only answer" (flagged manually, not via low quality review task):
Maybe it's your antivirus. Are you using avast if so look at this https://...
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Answers automatically converted to comments — a few suggestions
Today I joined the long list of contributors who came here wondering why their answers had been inexplicably posted as comments. I'm not going to bother arguing that this feature belongs on the scrap ...
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