Non-answers

[atalanta]

Is there any way to discourage people from "answering" a question if they do not actually have any kind of answer to the problem ?
Replying by saying "! don't know" is worse than useless ; or by misreading the question and saying "have you tried . . . " when you have already stated in the question that this is one of the things you have tried, with no success ?

[Baldric]

I don't know.

;o)

[Psybbo]

By answering even with "I don't know" the question is kept in latest posts

[cathfromsaron]

i wouldn't think so ... !

[EDDIE51]

To do that would mean every answer being reviewed by the AB staff before it was posted, impossible !
I know of certain users who regularly seem to post useless answers and if I see a post by them I look at it myself in case it is another 'hopeless' post that is just plain wrong .

[Robinia]

I agree, the 'I don't know the answer but....' replies are a bit irritating but hopefully someone will come along who can help. Be patient. :)

[sunny-dave]

^^^ Sibbers is correct - it's a useful technique when what seems like an important question has dropped out of visibility without a substantive answer.

To be used sparingly though ...

[AB Editor]

We try to keep on top of it. Especially in "Serious" subject.

Your best bet is to report the nonsense answers. We'll remove them and hopefully people will get the message.

You should expect a small amount of silliness with your answers though.

[bibblebub]

i also agree, some people are in the habit of using this site for chatting and seem to forget that most questions outside of CB are looking for an answer not a comment