What is meta? ×

My post was spurred by this recent question: How to create a database for images/audio in phpmyadmin

The question has since been deleted, but for those without mod powers, here's a recreation of the important bits:

I need to create a column for storing images or audio in phpmyadmin. I know I need to use a blob column, but what else do I do?

{ a screenshot from phpmyadmin }

UPDATE: I worked it out.

That's it. No actual useful information was provided in the edit, just a statement the user had solved their own issue. It's more or less this.

I expect it's not an uncommon occurrence: user has a question, user figures out how to deal with their issue, user edits their question to say "Update: I figured it out" - and that's it. The user doesn't post what they did as an answer, or anything like that.

How should I respond to questions like these?

  • Encourage the user to post an answer in a comment?
  • Downvote it?
  • Edit the "Update: fixed it" line out of the post, letting the question continue to exist? The owner may not even be interested in an answer any longer, or may never return to the site, leaving the question without an accepted answer.
  • Flag it?
  • Sit by and let others close it?
  • Should the question get deleted? (If it's deleted, the same question can reappear later if necessary, when someone else feels the need to ask it)
share|improve this question
Close -> too localized & delete. –  Richard J. Ross III May 6 '13 at 3:46
@RichardJ.RossIII Do we do that in general, even when the question (without the "update: fixed it") would not be too localised? –  doppelgreener May 6 '13 at 4:09
@JonathanHobbs You have two real options: You can either ask the OP to post their solution, or delete it. A question with no answers and which nobody's going to bother answering is pretty much useless. –  Emrakul May 6 '13 at 4:12
I see that that particular question has been voluntarily deleted by its author...any idea if that was inspired by a comment or something? –  Kyle Strand May 6 '13 at 4:19
@Kyle It was probably deleted because it was receiving downvotes. I didn't see any comments on it before it was deleted. –  doppelgreener May 6 '13 at 4:20
Ah. Well, in that case, it sounds like the particular example isn't really worth worrying about. It's an interesting question in the general case, though. –  Kyle Strand May 6 '13 at 4:24

1 Answer 1

up vote 4 down vote accepted

Assuming it's a good question that would potentially be useful to future viewers, I would first leave a comment asking the user to answer their own question and accept their own answer. I would also edit out the part of the question saying "I fixed it," since it provides no useful information. If, after some amount of time (say, a couple of days) it appears that the question has been orphaned, I would flag it for deletion; without an answer, it's probably useless, and even if someone were to provide the answer, the OP wouldn't accept it (assuming the question is truly orphaned). Without an accepted answer, the question isn't nearly as useful as it could be if someone else re-asked it and did not abandon it.

share|improve this answer
This case is more to do with the author just saying they fixed it, and not providing any solution. This sort of thing. –  doppelgreener May 6 '13 at 4:25
Oh. In that case...yeah, it should probably be deleted. –  Kyle Strand May 6 '13 at 4:27
@JonathanHobbs edited to match what you're actually describing. –  Kyle Strand May 6 '13 at 4:34
I'd wait a bit longer before flagging it, but this is dead on correct. –  Won't May 6 '13 at 16:07
Given @Won't's response: marked as correct. –  doppelgreener May 7 '13 at 11:30

You must log in to answer this question.

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