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I do NOT want to, in any way, discourage the quick and dirty answer.

I've asked questions that have received an immediate answer with enough information to get me past my block, but not served on a platter as you propose, with all the information I might need.

This is extraordinarily helpful - I know I can post something on here, day or night, and get an answer within minutes, often seconds, that will be better than searching through books, online, etc, even though it's a throw-away post that took someone 35 seconds, who may have only answered for the reputation. If it's at all helpful, I upvote it.

Later on I'll review my question again and select the answer that is what I consider the best of the bunch (I try and wait a day or so for long answers like you provide).

But I DO NOT want to 'adjust' the system to discourage short quick answers, or make long thoughtful answers that come a day late so highly valued that no one posts the short ones anymore.

Further:

Let's look at it from the perspective of what the site is supposed to be:

A long term repository of searchable, free, and freely editable information.

In the long run, it doesn't matter if the long, good answers don't get the initial rush of votes. They will ultimately go to the top because

• There are generally few answers per question, so future searchers will read the entire post and may upvote the better answer. The special case of the question with tons of answers is just that - a special case, and it will be gamed and mined for rep a dozen ways from Tuesday, so it's not worth fixing - it's less than 1% of total content - don't design the system around the special case, or else all your cases will become special.

• Once someone posts a new answer, the post gets a new chance to be on the front page, which will entice some more people to see it that haven't - they'll upvote the good, long answer at the bottom of the page if they feel it's better than what was initially offered.

• The person who initially asked the question will often come back later and review it, and if your post is truly the better answer they'll select it as the new accepted answer.

A key point, though, is that if someone is looking for the information later, they'll read all the answers unless it's obvious that the first one is good enough for their purposes.

So that completely guts your argument that it's important that the longer, complete answers should get a boost to the top, somehow. The only reason left to complain about the tradeoff between short posting and long posting, then, is because you may not get as much of the initial rep as you would otherwise.

I do NOT want to, in any way, discourage the quick and dirty answer.

I've asked questions that have received an immediate answer with enough information to get me past my block, but not served on a platter as you propose, with all the information I might need.

This is extraordinarily helpful - I know I can post something on here, day or night, and get an answer within minutes, often seconds, that will be better than searching through books, online, etc, even though it's a throw-away post that took someone 35 seconds, who may have only answered for the reputation. If it's at all helpful, I upvote it.

Later on I'll review my question again and select the answer that is what I consider the best of the bunch (I try and wait a day or so for long answers like you provide).

But I DO NOT want to 'adjust' the system to discourage short quick answers, or make long thoughtful answers that come a day late so highly valued that no one posts the short ones anymore.

Further:

Let's look at it from the perspective of what the site is supposed to be:

A long term repository of searchable, free, and freely editable information.

In the long run, it doesn't matter if the long, good answers don't get the initial rush of votes. They will ultimately go to the top because

• There are generally few answers per question, so future searchers will read the entire post and may upvote the better answer. The special case of the question with tons of answers is just that - a special case, and it will be gamed and mined for rep a dozen ways from Tuesday, so it's not worth fixing - it's less than 1% of total content - don't design the system around the special case, or else all your cases will become special.

• Once someone posts a new answer, the post gets a new chance to be on the front page, which will entice some more people to see it that haven't - they'll upvote the good, long answer at the bottom of the page if they feel it's better than what was initially offered.

• The person who initially asked the question will often come back later and review it, and if your post is truly the better answer they'll select it as the new accepted answer.

A key point, though, is that if someone is looking for the information later, they'll read all the answers unless it's obvious that the first one is good enough for their purposes.

So that completely guts your argument that it's important that the longer, complete answers should get a boost to the top, somehow. The only reason left to complain about the tradeoff between short posting and long posting, then, is because you may not get as much of the initial rep as you would otherwise.

I do NOT want to, in any way, discourage the quick and dirty answer.

I've asked questions that have received an immediate answer with enough information to get me past my block, but not served on a platter as you propose, with all the information I might need.

This is extraordinarily helpful - I know I can post something on here, day or night, and get an answer within minutes, often seconds, that will be better than searching through books, online, etc, even though it's a throw-away post that took someone 35 seconds, who may have only answered for the reputation. If it's at all helpful, I upvote it.

Later on I'll review my question again and select the answer that is what I consider the best of the bunch (I try and wait a day or so for long answers like you provide).

But I DO NOT want to 'adjust' the system to discourage short quick answers, or make long thoughtful answers that come a day late so highly valued that no one posts the short ones anymore.

Further:

Let's look at it from the perspective of what the site is supposed to be:

A long term repository of searchable, free, and freely editable information.

In the long run, it doesn't matter if the long, good answers don't get the initial rush of votes. They will ultimately go to the top because

• There are generally few answers per question, so future searchers will read the entire post and may upvote the better answer. The special case of the question with tons of answers is just that - a special case, and it will be gamed and mined for rep a dozen ways from Tuesday, so it's not worth fixing - it's less than 1% of total content - don't design the system around the special case, or else all your cases will become special.
• Once someone posts a new answer, the post gets a new chance to be on the front page, which will entice some more people to see it that haven't - they'll upvote the good, long answer at the bottom of the page if they feel it's better than what was initially offered.
• The person who initially asked the question will often come back later and review it, and if your post is truly the better answer they'll select it as the new accepted answer.

A key point, though, is that if someone is looking for the information later, they'll read all the answers unless it's obvious that the first one is good enough for their purposes.

So that completely guts your argument that it's important that the longer, complete answers should get a boost to the top, somehow. The only reason left to complain about the tradeoff between short posting and long posting, then, is because you may not get as much of the initial rep as you would otherwise.

I do NOT want to, in any way, discourage the quick and dirty answer.

I've asked questions that have received an immediate answer with enough information to get me past my block, but not served on a platter as you propose, with all the information I might need.

This is extraordinarily helpful - I know I can post something on here, day or night, and get an answer within minutes, often seconds, that will be better than searching through books, online, etc, even though it's a throw-away post that took someone 35 seconds, who may have only answered for the reputation. If it's at all helpful, I upvote it.

Later on I'll review my question again and select the answer that is what I consider the best of the bunch (I try and wait a day or so for long answers like you provide).

But I DO NOT want to 'adjust' the system to discourage short quick answers, or make long thoughtful answers that come a day late so highly valued that no one posts the short ones anymore.

Further:

Let's look at it from the perspective of what the site is supposed to be:

A long term repository of searchable, free, and freely editable information.

In the long run, it doesn't matter if the long, good answers don't get the initial rush of votes. They will ultimately go to the top because

• There are generally few answers per question, so future searchers will read the entire post and may upvote the better answer. The special case of the question with tons of answers is just that - a special case, and it will be gamed and mined for rep a dozen ways from Tuesday, so it's not worth fixing - it's less than 1% of total content - don't design the system around the special case, or else all your cases will become special.

• Once someone posts a new answer, the post gets a new chance to be on the front page, which will entice some more people to see it that haven't - they'll upvote the good, long answer at the bottom of the page if they feel it's better than what was initially offered.

• The person who initially asked the question will often come back later and review it, and if your post is truly the better answer they'll select it as the new accepted answer.

A key point, though, is that if someone is looking for the information later, they'll read all the answers unless it's obvious that the first one is good enough for their purposes.

So that completely guts your argument that it's important that the longer, complete answers should get a boost to the top, somehow. The only reason left to complain about the tradeoff between short posting and long posting, then, is because you may not get as much of the initial rep as you would otherwise.

I do NOT want to, in any way, discourage the quick and dirty answer.

I've asked questions that have received an immediate answer with enough information to get me past my block, but not served on a platter as you propose, with all the information I might need.

This is extraordinarily helpful - I know I can post something on here, day or night, and get an answer within minutes, often seconds, that will be better than searching through books, online, etc, even though it's a throw-away post that took someone 35 seconds, who may have only answered for the reputation. If it's at all helpful, I upvote it.

Later on I'll review my question again and select the answer that is what I consider the best of the bunch (I try and wait a day or so for long answers like you provide).

But I DO NOT want to 'adjust' the system to discourage short quick answers, or make long thoughtful answers that come a day late so highly valued that no one posts the short ones anymore.

Further:

Let's look at it from the perspective of what the site is supposed to be:

A long term repository of searchable, free, and freely editable information.

In the long run, it doesn't matter if the long, good answers don't get the initial rush of votes. They will ultimately go to the top because

• There are generally few answers per question, so future searchers will read the entire post and may upvote the better answer. The special case of the question with tons of answers is just that - a special case, and it will be gamed and mined for rep a dozen ways from Tuesday, so it's not worth fixing - it's less than 1% of total content - don't design the system around the special case, or else all your cases will become special.
• Once someone posts a new answer, the post gets a new chance to be on the front page, which will entice some more people to see it that haven't - they'll upvote the good, long answer at the bottom of the page if they feel it's better than what was initially offered.
• The person who initially asked the question will often come back later and review it, and if your post is truly the better answer they'll select it as the new answer.

A key point, though, is that if someone is looking for the information later, they'll read all the answers unless it's obvious that the first one is good enough for their purposes.

So that completely guts your argument that it's important that the longer, complete answers should get a boost to the top, somehow. The only reason left to complain about the tradeoff between short posting and long posting, then, is because you may not get as much of the initial rep as you would otherwise.

I do NOT want to, in any way, discourage the quick and dirty answer.

I've asked questions that have received an immediate answer with enough information to get me past my block, but not served on a platter as you propose, with all the information I might need.

This is extraordinarily helpful - I know I can post something on here, day or night, and get an answer within minutes, often seconds, that will be better than searching through books, online, etc, even though it's a throw-away post that took someone 35 seconds, who may have only answered for the reputation. If it's at all helpful, I upvote it.

Later on I'll review my question again and select the answer that is what I consider the best of the bunch (I try and wait a day or so for long answers like you provide).

But I DO NOT want to 'adjust' the system to discourage short quick answers, or make long thoughtful answers that come a day late so highly valued that no one posts the short ones anymore.

Further:

Let's look at it from the perspective of what the site is supposed to be:

A long term repository of searchable, free, and freely editable information.

In the long run, it doesn't matter if the long, good answers don't get the initial rush of votes. They will ultimately go to the top because

• There are generally few answers per question, so future searchers will read the entire post and may upvote the better answer. The special case of the question with tons of answers is just that - a special case, and it will be gamed and mined for rep a dozen ways from Tuesday, so it's not worth fixing - it's less than 1% of total content - don't design the system around the special case, or else all your cases will become special.
• Once someone posts a new answer, the post gets a new chance to be on the front page, which will entice some more people to see it that haven't - they'll upvote the good, long answer at the bottom of the page if they feel it's better than what was initially offered.
• The person who initially asked the question will often come back later and review it, and if your post is truly the better answer they'll select it as the new accepted answer.

A key point, though, is that if someone is looking for the information later, they'll read all the answers unless it's obvious that the first one is good enough for their purposes.

So that completely guts your argument that it's important that the longer, complete answers should get a boost to the top, somehow. The only reason left to complain about the tradeoff between short posting and long posting, then, is because you may not get as much of the initial rep as you would otherwise.