We are trying our very best to remove low quality answers from our site. But there are no clear guidelines on what we, as a community, consider to be a good answer.
So let's try and make a few guidelines on how to write answers on IPS questions and what every answer should contain or discuss.
What requirements do answers have on IPS?
I suggest that each answer to this meta should contain one feature. We can then vote on whether this should be included or not.
This could be personal experience, professional training, or some kind of research such as academic studies, an on-point article by some relevant authority, or even a Wikipedia article. If an answer is based purely on "common sense" or "logic" it should be backed up in some way to take it outside the realm of an opinion.
We are a site about IPS. As such, we should at least try to offer an IPS related solution to the question. This should be accompanied by an explanation about what the expected effects of this approach would be. Potential follow-ups and/or drawbacks/backfires should also be discussed, as to give the OP the most complete insight on what the solution might entail.
Duplicate answers should be removed; however, this question about What are the rules with regard to duplicate answers? outlines that partial duplicates should not be deleted. Depending how much is copied you may decide to down vote. But if there is at least one aspect of the answer that has not been addressed already then it is technically not a duplicate and should not be deleted (for that reason).
Most answers must both address and answer the question, but there are a few cases where it is okay to post an answer that only addresses the question. The first method is the Frame Challenge. Frame Challenges address the question, but answer it in a completely different way than was asked. (i.e. they challenge the frame in which the question was asked).
The other case where it is okay for an answer to address the question but not answer it is when it rejects the question itself, for an answer like this where the author of the answer feels that the question is bad or wrong and have something useful to say; they can write an answer that goes along the lines of "Don't! because..." The meta question asking What to do with questions about “getting around” peoples' boundaries / autonomy is a good example of this. Keep in mind that the reasoning should needs to be especially well explained if you are disagreeing with OP, the first answer in this other post gives a great example for what is and is not acceptable.
With IPS issues in particular, most questions have very specific details that change the content of the answers.
Obviously, all good answers will directly address the issue the OP has given and take their specific situation into account. However, they should also add the caveats that apply it to a more general case where possible.
A good answer should both help the OP and make clear where the specifics of the OPs question are affecting the answer given. It should be clear to future readers where specific parts of the answer were due to the OPs unique situation, and what the general-case advice would have normally been instead.
Mandatory guidelines can be counterproductive if they are strictly enforced. The list of stipulations that ought to be adopted as mandatory should be very, very short. Perhaps as short as answers need to address the question at hand and clearly articulate a position.
There are a lot of suggestions here and sure to follow that are prima facie guidelines that will improve the majority of answers. But there will always be some unanticipated situations that would benefit from the latitude to present a solution in an unorthodox manner.
To that end, I suggest that the majority of guidelines adopted should be in the form best practice guidelines, strongly worded advice.. but still short of absolutely mandatory. Such guidelines can still be enforced by moderators and highly ranked users who can bridge the remaining gap while still having some discretion to allow well thought out, creative, unanticipated and valuable answers that would occasionally run afoul of rigid guidelines.
I think if we limit answers to only the questions posed by the posters, there's a missed opportunity. A lot of time people frame questions without realizing their assumptions. Answers should be based on the whole scenario given in a post, not just the question the person tries to ask. So maybe answers come from a different angle then expected, but that's the advantage of this site vs. just googling it.
There is no specific length requirement for answers, and the best course of action is not necessarily removal. Some answers may be okay, even though they are significantly shorter than others that were deleted. Ultimately length is just an indicator for the amount of content in an answer and the interpretation of that, and if it is enough is up you. But the answer to Should we be more strict about one-line answers? is a clear yes and deleting is one of the options for how to deal with them.
We also have later examples of questions deemed rightfully deleted after 13 hours because it was "literally just a list".
