StackOverflow/StackExchange: two queries to help me improve my questions and answers
Posted by jpluimers on 2014/09/05
On the StackExchange network, I try to keep track of the questions I asked, and answers I gave in order to see if they need follow up.
For instance, questions with answers that have no accepted answer usually indicate there is room for improvement.
On my own questions, it means I could accept an answer, or give out more information on how to better answer that question.
On mu answers to questions from others, it might mean I need to improve my answer, or comment on his question to explain it better.
The first category can be queried easily by the built in search capabilities:
http://stackoverflow.com/search?q=user%3ame%20is%3aanswer%20hasaccepted%3ano
- the ‘me’ indicates it will use the account you are logged in
- replace stackoverflow with superuser, serverfault, apple.stackexchange, etc (stackexchange requires a subdomain)
The second category requires the Stack Exchange Data ExplorerĀ (SEDE) to execute some SQL:
My answers to questions that have no accepted answer – Stack Exchange Data Explorer.
- Replace the ‘me’ with your StackOverwlow user ID
(for StackOverflow.com, you can get that fromĀ http://stackoverflow.com/search?q=user%3ameĀ as it will be listed in the search box there) - replace stackoverflow with a mnemonic obtained from the main SEDE page (click on the icon you are interested in, then copy that part into the query)
Note some questions (likeĀ Wiki: Current state of the art of Delphi 3rd party TCP/IP components libraries – Stack Overflow) are not suited to have one ‘best’ answer.
Note the SEDE can be addictive. If it is starting to become that way, perform aĀ Jon Skeet comparison.
Note the SEDE data is usually at least a few days older than the live data.
--jeroen
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