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What should I keep out of my posts and titles?

Many questions state that the OP is new or unfamiliar with a particular topic.

Is this kind of information useful? Should it be edited out of the question?

Update labels while checking network connection to hosts using thread is an example of this.

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marked as duplicate by Martijn Pieters, Bo Persson, George Stocker Jan 16 '13 at 15:12


2 Answers

That kind of information is not useful, and detracts from the question.

It is a disguised apology, a way of saying "sorry for the dumb question". There really are no dumb questions, only low-quality or high-quality questions. We all started somewhere, and if I were to ask questions about home maintenance or french cuisine, they'd be pretty newbie-ish. That doesn't make such questions useless to other newcomers to the same subject.

I usually remove such statements.

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It is important to know the proficiency of the OP on a subject when you write an answer to a question. If you provide an answer that assumes the OP has some implicit knowledge that he/she doesn't, for being new to the subject, the doubts won't be solved

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Considering the questions - and answers - are for everyone, and any future visitor, and not just the OP, should we then assume the lowest possible level of proficiency on all questions? I disagree. Questions should be answered with enough information to solve the issue at hand. Nothing more, or less. –  J. Steen Jan 16 '13 at 15:02
I see, you have quite a point here, you convinced me. (I still consider important to know the level of proficiency of the OP, but in a broader sense of the question/answer being able to help other visitors within the same level of the OP; and the proficience level being infered because of the question itself and not some sort of written excuse) –  That Brazilian Guy Jan 16 '13 at 15:14
I agree with that last point, as well. I was thinking about including something about being able to infer the proficiency level from the question, but decided not to. =) –  J. Steen Jan 16 '13 at 15:25
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