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I'm trying to solve a programming problem, and have found a solution in an existing question. However, after following the suggestions in that solution, I'm still unable to solve my problem, despite further investigation & extensive searching for answers. The Stack Overflow answer I'm using is about a year old.

Would I get a better response if I created a new question and asked my specific issue separately, linking to the old question, or should I ask for additional help in the comments / answers to the original question?

I like the idea of adding more information to the original question so that it may eventually address the issues I'm running into, but worry that no-one will notice a new comment on a question that's a year old.

I didn't find any information on this in meta SO either :)

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Why not just ask a new question, reference the answer to the old one and describe - in detail - why it didn't work? See also: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/38547/… –  Shogging through the snow Mar 16 '13 at 4:36

1 Answer 1

up vote 7 down vote accepted

This is situation dependant. Usually, post a new question only if:

  • The new problem is not a problem with the code the old answer posted
  • The new problem is not a problem with the problem of the old question
  • The new question is significantly different to not be either an "Exact Duplicate" or "Too Localized"

Than leave a comment on the old question with a link to the new.

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