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Cross Validated

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Nick Cox
Nick Cox
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Can anybody help me?

The kind of question here often starts "I am an X working on Y" with perhaps a little more detail, and then ends with an open request for help.

Why is this a bad question? Isn't the point of CV to offer help to those who ask?

What's usually bad about this is that it confuses the site with a helpline. A helpline I'll define in the following way. It's someone's job on a helpline to be available, perhaps in a designated room, or at the end of a phone, or at an email address. If you ask for help, it's then their job to listen, very likely to ask further questions and get information from you, and provide what help they can. It's also their duty to be respectful, even deferential. Their role is always to try to help to the maximum extent (subject to various simple rules such as your being a customer or more generally entitled to help). This applies whether the person asking is (say) a customer, a student or an employee.

The helpline analogy really doesn't apply to Cross-Validated. It's no-one's job to answer your question, or even to signal their willingness to do so. That follows from the principle that no one need answer any questions at all.

The way the site works is more like this. It's your job to work hard at a good specific question. Then if you did that well, it's likely that someone will want to answer. But"I am working on Y" doesn't qualify. What do you want to know, concretely and precisely? Then if you did that well, it's likely that someone will want to answer. So the answer to "Can anybody help me?" is in essence that someone is likely to try, but only if you ask a good question.

Can anybody help me?

The kind of question here often starts "I am an X working on Y" with perhaps a little more detail, and then ends with an open request for help.

Why is this a bad question? Isn't the point of CV to offer help to those who ask?

What's usually bad about this is that it confuses the site with a helpline. A helpline I'll define in the following way. It's someone's job on a helpline to be available, perhaps in a designated room, or at the end of a phone, or at an email address. If you ask for help, it's then their job to listen, very likely to ask further questions and get information from you, and provide what help they can. It's also their duty to be respectful, even deferential. Their role is always to try to help to the maximum extent (subject to various simple rules such as your being a customer or more generally entitled to help). This applies whether the person asking is (say) a customer, a student or an employee.

The helpline analogy really doesn't apply to Cross-Validated. It's no-one's job to answer your question, or even to signal their willingness to do so. That follows from the principle that no one need answer any questions at all.

The way the site works is more like this. It's your job to work hard at a good specific question. Then if you did that well, it's likely that someone will want to answer. But the answer to "Can anybody help me?" is in essence that someone is likely to try, but only if you ask a good question.

Can anybody help me?

The kind of question here often starts "I am an X working on Y" with perhaps a little more detail, and then ends with an open request for help.

Why is this a bad question? Isn't the point of CV to offer help to those who ask?

What's usually bad about this is that it confuses the site with a helpline. A helpline I'll define in the following way. It's someone's job on a helpline to be available, perhaps in a designated room, or at the end of a phone, or at an email address. If you ask for help, it's then their job to listen, very likely to ask further questions and get information from you, and provide what help they can. It's also their duty to be respectful, even deferential. Their role is always to try to help to the maximum extent (subject to various simple rules such as your being a customer or more generally entitled to help). This applies whether the person asking is (say) a customer, a student or an employee.

The helpline analogy really doesn't apply to Cross-Validated. It's no-one's job to answer your question, or even to signal their willingness to do so. That follows from the principle that no one need answer any questions at all.

The way the site works is more like this. It's your job to work hard at a good specific question. "I am working on Y" doesn't qualify. What do you want to know, concretely and precisely? Then if you did that well, it's likely that someone will want to answer. So the answer to "Can anybody help me?" is in essence that someone is likely to try, but only if you ask a good question.

Source Link
Nick Cox
Nick Cox
  • 59.5k
  • 1
  • 30
  • 58

Can anybody help me?

The kind of question here often starts "I am an X working on Y" with perhaps a little more detail, and then ends with an open request for help.

Why is this a bad question? Isn't the point of CV to offer help to those who ask?

What's usually bad about this is that it confuses the site with a helpline. A helpline I'll define in the following way. It's someone's job on a helpline to be available, perhaps in a designated room, or at the end of a phone, or at an email address. If you ask for help, it's then their job to listen, very likely to ask further questions and get information from you, and provide what help they can. It's also their duty to be respectful, even deferential. Their role is always to try to help to the maximum extent (subject to various simple rules such as your being a customer or more generally entitled to help). This applies whether the person asking is (say) a customer, a student or an employee.

The helpline analogy really doesn't apply to Cross-Validated. It's no-one's job to answer your question, or even to signal their willingness to do so. That follows from the principle that no one need answer any questions at all.

The way the site works is more like this. It's your job to work hard at a good specific question. Then if you did that well, it's likely that someone will want to answer. But the answer to "Can anybody help me?" is in essence that someone is likely to try, but only if you ask a good question.