Questions with a quote/screenshot and a request to explain
There are quite many questions that consist of a screenshot-quote, possibly several, usually with an underlined part and a request to explain it.
These questions read to me as lacking effort and context. In my opinion, they would be much improved by expressing the issue in the querent's own words. This would also have the querent processing the issue themselves and maybe even solving the issue, or at least maybe getting a better handle on the subject matter.
Is it recommended to downvote these questions due to this issue? Is there something else we should do about them, or should we just let them be?
2 answers
My approach is downvote and, if it's a first infraction, comment explaining the issue with the question.
Repeat offenders get downvotes and, perhaps if this one-guy's-opinion calcifies into actual community policy, flags. I'd like us to start doing a better job of holding the line against low-effort questions, using mod tools as needed.
I'm pretty averse to using the downvote, so for me this would depend on context. If it's literally just a screenshot with "how?" written after it, yeah, downvote. But in general I think downvoting has more power to harm a community than to help, so I use it with caution.
If there's at least a little attempt to explain and articulate then I wouldn't vote one way or the other, but would either in a comment or answer, indicate that screenshots are strongly discourage (if for no other reasons, the site depends on keyword searches to help cross-reference questions and answers, so that others can benefit from the answers). Of course if a person continues violating the rule, then downvote and flag.
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