Is this kind of answer acceptable by this site?

Question

https://interpersonal.stackexchange.com/a/6609/49

So, what I ended up saying was:

Oh, [person]? Sometimes when you pee, there's a little bit left on the floor in front of the toilet. Could you wipe it up next time?

I should have told him it was hard for me to clean up, but I neglected to add that part because I was so nervous. He did not really seem surprised by my request, but was apologetic and said he would wipe it up in the future.

This should be an edit to the question. – John♦ yesterday

I argue that this worth as an answer, and not as an edit to the question.

We've discussed before about not wanting to receive update on what the OP has done and the outcome (I can't find the link). Is this an implementation of that discussion?

Is this answer worth undeleting, if the OP "back it up" with reasons?

Note: I'm aware that in current form, the answer is lacking reasoning (although the answerer is the OP). I want to know if this kind of answer is acceptable or not: sharing an approach that works by the OP.

Answer 1

Hmmm, interesting.

When I came here, after a while I wanted to give an update to my first question.

I asked this meta Should I update my question or add an answer?

It was pointed out that one was a duplicate of How should a question asker explain the results of using specific advice?

It has this answer by @Catija, pointing out 3 'rules' for updates:

• Don't add a 'what I did' section to the question. It's not part of the question, a solution should be in an answer.
• If you successfully tried advice offered in an answer, accept that answer and leave a comment.
• If your solution was completely different, write a self-answer.

Even John himself stated things were better written as an answer

I agree this is not worth its own answer, but it definitely should not become part of the 'question'. I think it may be a better to post a comment underneath this answer.

That answer suggests directly telling the culprit there is pee left and to ask them to clean it up. It also suggests mentioning the difficulties of cleaning it up themselves, which the OP states they forgot to mention due to nervousness. I think this answer shows the OP tried to follow the solution offered here, and that the 'solution' that was eventually used by the OP wasn't significantly different because of them forgetting to execute part of it through nervousness.

If the policies have changed in the meantime, I'm curious to see an updated meta :)

Answer 2

I agree with you in general @Vylix. Less than 5% of OP's even post an update, I think. It would be nice to know how their problem turned out.

Was that OP's answer deleted for lacking reasons why it worked, or because (as stated by the deleting moderator) OP should have posted it as an update under the question?

This should be an edit to the question. – John♦

The answers on this previous meta actually seem to agree that OP should post their solution an answer rather than a question-update.

Notable quotes:

I'm really not a fan of adding "what I did" to the question. It's not part of the question. It's a solution and belongs in the answers [...] If you went with a completely different solution or a combination of them, I'd go with option two, I'd write a self-answer and explain what you did and what the result was. This is what I always encourage on Cooking – Catija♦ (see full answer here)

It's best to add it as an answer. Real world experiences to a given situation (or something similar) are valuable information for all both now and in the future. [...] This is true in particular to the asker of the original question. If they have more and newer information to contribute then, by all means, please write it up as an answer -- just like anyone else. The intrinsic voting process will allow the most helpful information to float to the top. None of these advantages built into the site would work for commenting and/or editing a question. – John♦ (read the full answer here.)

Note that OP simply accepting a particular answer as the best suggestion is no guarantee that it was tried out and worked. In general, real feedback about a solution from OP is valuable and all too rare. If one of the solutions already given in a member's answer was tried out by OP and actually worked, they could even possibly edit that short update into the bottom of that answer itself, and also accept it (if not earlier accepted) since it turned out to be the best solution -- if OP just leaves a comment under the answer it can possibly get deleted along with other comments and that important user feedback is lost. Disclaimer: as a proposed general practice this needs to gain community consensus before it can be recommended to any OP.

If OP tried out their own solution and it worked, as in this excellent update posted as answer by @Tinkeringbell, then it should be posted as OP's own answer and would be a credit to IPS.SE!

In order to keep the question open-ended for future answerers, and also because 'a solution belongs in the answers', I suppose we could encourage OPs to post their tried-and-worked solution as an answer rather than an update to the question, while giving them special leeway to just say what worked rather than insisting they add how or why it worked (unlike other answers which must follow the 'back it up' rule and also explain why their solution would work for OP.) Maybe OP could not even explain why it worked, but because it worked for OP it can be taken as a valid solution to their problem.

If the moderator team agrees, would they please consider undeleting that OP's answer?