Answers

Overview

Questions offer little value until they're answered. A well-written answer helps solve problems and makes your Stack Overflow Internal site more useful for everyone.

Write a good answer

Here are some guidelines for writing a good answer.

Read the question carefully
Make sure you understand exactly what the question is asking. Your answer should address the question directly or provide a viable alternative. Any answer that gets the person who asked going in the right direction is helpful, but mention any limitations, assumptions, or simplifications in your answer. Keep your answer concise, but include enough detail to explain your solution clearly. If your answer says "don't do that," make sure you also include "try this instead."

Provide context for links
Links to internal and external resources are encouraged, but explain why they're relevant. Include the relevant information from linked resources in your answer whenever possible. This helps other users understand your answer if a link becomes unavailable.

Write to the best of your ability
Every answer won't be perfect, but correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar make an answer easier to read. You can always edit your answer later to improve or update it.

Add a partial answer
If you don't know the complete solution, contribute a partial answer. Share what you've researched and tried. Even if you don't fully solve the problem, your contribution may help other users move closer to a solution. Upvote the question as well, so it gets more attention.

Add to existing answers
If another user has already provided a good answer, you can still contribute by expanding on it or providing an alternative solution.

Answer well-written questions
Not all questions can or should be answered. Don't answer questions that:

• Are unclear or lack the specific details needed to identify the problem.
• Solicit opinions rather than facts.
• Have already been asked and answered on this site.

If a question has value but needs improvement, leave a comment suggesting how to improve it, or edit the question yourself to reduce the chances of it being closed or deleted.

Answer your own question

You can ask and answer your own question to document knowledge and make it easier for other users to find helpful solutions.

You'll see an Answer your own question checkbox at the bottom of the Ask a question page. Select this to submit both a question and its answer. If you choose not to answer your question when you add it, you can come back and answer it at any time.

Accept an answer

When you receive a good answer, you can accept it to indicate which solution worked for you. Stack Internal Enterprise marks the accepted answer with a checkmark.

Accepting an answer doesn't mean it's the only or best answer for everyone. If a better answer comes along later, you can't change your accepted answer. Instead, the community can upvote later answers to recognise their value.

You can accept your own answer, but you must wait 48 hours after posting it. This gives other users an opportunity to provide an alternative solution.

Accepting an answer affects reputation:

• If you accept another user's answer, you gain two reputation and the author gains 15 reputation.
• If you accept your own answer, no reputation is awarded.

Deleted answers

Answers may be deleted if they:

• Don't answer the question.
• Lack accuracy, substance, or relevance.
• Discuss the question or another answer instead of providing an answer.
• Ask a different or unrelated question.
• Consist only of a "thanks!" or "me too!" response.
• Duplicate another answer.
• Link to an external resource without including the answer in your post.

You can delete an answer you wrote at any time, unless the question's author has accepted it. You can also undelete your own answer after deleting it.

Moderators and admins can delete and undelete any answer immediately. Users with sufficient reputation can vote to delete answers with a negative score. If an answer receives three delete votes, Stack Internal Enterprise deletes it. Stack Internal Enterprise also automatically deletes any answer that accumulates enough offensive or spam flags.

A deleted answer is hidden from all users except the original author, admins, moderators, and users with sufficient reputation. If your answer was deleted by others, you can request undeletion by flagging it for moderator review. Users with sufficient reputation can also cast undelete votes. Once a deleted answer has three undelete votes, Stack Internal Enterprise restores it.

Answer questions with the API

You can use the Stack Overflow Internal API /questions endpoint to answer questions on your site. For more information, on the API, check out our API v3 for Stack Internal Basic and Business and API v3 for Stack Internal Enterprise articles.

If you have questions or issues, reach out to our support team for help.