What's the general way of dealing with questions, that do not and cannot have a valid answer, because of for example the issue in focus is an unresolved bug (possible example here). Should one still accept an answer ("It is a bug.") or just wait for an indefinite time until Wolfram Research fixes it? I understand that there might be a concern here (on SE) as unanswered questions hinder the site's statistics. So it might not be a good idea at all to post assumed bugs. Opinions?
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1The bug tag is for SE system bugs.– rcollyerCommented Feb 1, 2012 at 1:43
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Relevant chat discussion.– rcollyerCommented Feb 1, 2012 at 2:14
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Another relevant chat discussion. (Missed it the first time.)– rcollyerCommented Feb 1, 2012 at 3:16
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1 Answer
I think the answer "it is a bug" (when coming from a trustworthy source, e.g. WRI employee) should be accepted in cases when a given function and / or its specific use is the main focus of the question, and work-arounds aren't what the asker wants.
The reason I think so is that this will be more useful for new users. Once they are directed to the question, they have a concrete answer, so that they can move on, decide what work-arounds are acceptable to them, possibly ask further questions etc. Seeing a long-standing question without an answer is quite frustrating.
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I agree with the usefulness of such posts. My only problem here is that usually no one cares to write such a simple answer (I guess they find it too unrewarding), and even if that happens, it is not obvious (at least for me) who is a trustworthy WRI source. Commented Feb 1, 2012 at 9:27
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@Istvan I think any WRI person who definitely states that "this is a bug" is a trustworthy source. Commented Feb 1, 2012 at 9:41
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I meant to say I do not know who are WRI people around. Commented Feb 1, 2012 at 9:43
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@Istvan They usually write this in their profile. Some (incpomplete) list: Arnoud, Andy, Andrew Moylan, Brett, Daniel Lichtblau, Oliver (ruebenko), Sasha ( I used surnames when the first name alone might have been ambiguous). Commented Feb 1, 2012 at 9:51
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Thanks Leonid. I shall look profiles more often in the future. Commented Feb 1, 2012 at 11:01
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Just to be sure, does that mean, that in an attempt to answer answered-in-a-comment questions, one should post an answer with summary of the comments and expect gratitude from doing that? Still relevant in 2018.– JohuCommented Sep 17, 2018 at 23:23
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@Johu Yes, I think that whoever takes the time to post a normal full-fledged answer, for a question that so far has only been answered in comments, can expect gratitude from the community (votes etc.), even if the answer is based on comments written by others. Commented Sep 18, 2018 at 12:30