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From time to time there are these questions that don't follow the rules layed out in the help section, I'm talking of course about 'off-topic questions'.

Depending on the situation I request to make it on-topic. In case it's too far off-topic or it takes too long, I flag it immediately. However, in my comments I've started to add some direction for where the answer could be found or things that could help them. I'm not sure if this is within the rules of SE, or that I'm just annoying the community by trying to "semi-answer" those questions in the comment section.

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  • I don't know about the rules, but in general if it can be answered in a link or one sentence I'll throw that in the comment with my close vote.
    – DasBeasto
    Sep 29, 2015 at 20:07

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It's probably a judgement call. If it's a question where the poster has been genuinely mistaken in where to ask it, then it's probably not an issue to help them out in a comment. However, if it's a question posted out of sheer laziness on the part of the poster where they've clearly not even done a basic Google search, or haven't even bothered to check what is on-topic for this site then I would advise against helping them out. Mostly because we don't want to encourage similar behaviour "I know this is off-topic, but if I ask it anyway someone will give me the answer anyway before it gets closed" (which many StackExchange sites have similar problems with).

Help those who deserve help. Others have to figure things out for themselves.

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  • That's a good & easy rule too follow ;-) Thanks!
    – Xabre
    Sep 30, 2015 at 8:44

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