3

I know we discourage questions that are primarily personal experience, but what about answers? I see them pretty frequently (like the bottom answer here), and to my mind they rarely contribute to the discussion on the level that we're looking for, but I thought I'd ask about a policy. Is there a specific strategy we're aiming for? Should they be downvoted or commented upon or what?

0

1 Answer 1

5

Regarding referring to personal experience in answers: I've seen answers which incorporate personal experience along with stronger scientific sources, resulting in a stronger, more palpable answer overall. However, I have yet to encounter a valid answer which solely refers to personal experience. In essence, this would also contradict the Q&A format, since questions which elicit highly subjective answers are not a good fit for it. Personal experience does just that: report on one specific personal experience. Especially on a more scientific Q&A site as CogSCi, this does not warrant an answer.

Regarding the specific post you are referring to, ... I just commented on it since it was a new user obviously not aware about SE's Q&A format, and deleted the answer after it got flagged. The Q&A format mandates an answer should answer the question. The post you were referring to did not answer the question at all.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .