Skip to main content
/

Site Navigation

Your Account

Choose Language

Discussion Topic

Answering old questions for completion - yay or nay, within reason?

While I have been helping flag a lot of these unfixable questions down for archival, I have noticed a few and took a quick stab at them just because I could see some potential here. As an example of what I consider answerable, see this, this (this was a challenge as I did not know the specific C, W or R 2 chassis code so a bit of a hole but not a untenable issue as I mentioned the 2 is key), this (correction to set the record straight) and this (we didn’t get the A-class until 2015 or so, I believe. Couldn’t answer 100%, but there was enough starting meat to get it done).

If the questions are reasonably answerable, would it not be a good idea to answer these, but disclose it is a “completion” answer so it’s known that I can never make it 100% correct? I feel like this may be better for some, especially if the person voting can work it. Yes, these answers will be incomplete but I’d rather take a shot at it before deeming it “unanswerable” with some of these. Even if I get no points beyond the +12, I feel like a good chunk can be salvaged.

Reply to discussion Subscribe to discussion

Is this a worthwhile discussion?

Score 3
5 Comments

@amber Thoughts? Yes, I never went into the cars and truck category much, but I see this as a chance to get to a point if I take these on there's some backing that I can handle a few of these.

Seeing as these are dud questions, mostly anything helps. Then I can see how the community responds. In an ideal world I could ask OP for the keyfob question which MY they have so I can narrow the chassis coding down based on if it's 4D (W) or 2D/4S (C), or 2D/2S (SL Roadster/R).

by

In my personal opinion, answering questions with thoughtful and through answers (which yours always are, as far as I've seen =] ) can never hurt for future folks looking at the same repair!

by

@amber I wish I had the OP to say yes or no so I'm shooing semi blind, but mine have a starting point.

Plus since these are duds, I look at it like this: I never did much in the Benz category. If the questions are dead end but I have pieces of information to pick from, then it may be doable or I'll do as much as I can.

My yay or nay standard is pretty high, tbh. You can kind of see what I need there to do it.

by

@nick I think that's a great perspective. It can be really frustrating when you don't know all of the details and you're shooting in the dark.

by

@amber I've done Toyota/Lexus before, but for a lot of these Mercedes questions it's a kind of new thing for me.

That said (I'm keeping this in Meta only, even though anyone can technically see it), once I sort out the issues in the way yes something like an E350 is on my short list with how they depreciate so that's where these come in, It gives me a chance to poke at a few which are relatively low risk (while bearing in mind people will use these) so it's still got to be within my comfort range.

I see it as a two fold thing: I'm getting some of the information now on common issues, and Answers benefits. If the questions are duds and our choice is terminate or try if you can do it, why not try first?

by

Add a comment

1 Reply

Most Helpful Answer

@nick it's a yay from me. That way anybody that may have the same or very similar issues can at least find some references. Just because it may be an old question, it may still be about a device that is being used by somebody. A great answer would be a good resource.

Was this reply helpful?

Score 2

7 Comments:

The biggest issue is disclosure. It needs to be known as a "completion" answer so if someone comes by and my "completion" answer doesn't work they know it was an attempt to clear up an old abandoned question and to ask again. Like if I was doing a completion answer for an emissions question, then you may want to ask a new question if it's a matter of passing inspection, but on the other hand if you're trying to clear a code out then the completion answer may work.

I think with some of these we should encourage an attempt to answer it before considering it "unanswerable" as long as the person deciding is comfortable with the attempt, or at least nudge them to give someone a chance to try/mention someone who may be able to.

by

@nick ,agreed. We‘ll just put a disclaimer up front. Something like „I know it‘s an old question and answered for completion sake“ or „ It’s an old question but new available information to the problem allows us to answer it“. That way readers/searchers recognize that it is more of a reference than an actual individual answer.

by

@oldturkey03 And if anyone else decides to do this as well as us, ask them to put a disclaimer as well but they can pick the style. I'm happy with mine and how I format it (and put it over everything else).

by

@oldturkey03 I feel we should do the same with a lot of leftover posts unresolved with low quality answers as well, but with a similar low quality answer disclaimer. The reason for the disclaimer is so people understand we're parroting the same "correct" info but adding information or simply replacing bad previous answers.

And we should downvote the bad answers as well.

by

@nick sorry for the late response. Been busy again :-( Anyhow, Yes Sir! I totally agree with you and let's do this. Let's continue to tidy things up and give the Czar and Czarina a hand in keeping us clean, fresh and relevant. I am in!

by

Show 2 more comments

Add a comment

Join the discussion

Nick will be eternally grateful.