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There are already good questions and answers here on the subject When is it appropriate to answer your own question?, Should I answer my own questions immediately? but my question here is slightly different. If I'm specifically just trying to get some information out there it makes perfect sense to me to answer my own question immediately Can I test my oven temperature without an oven thermometer?. The question and answer are going to be right at the top of the new questions list, maximizing the number of people who will read the answer. Other times, I might not know my answer when I write the question Can you make a French Buttercream in a food processor? (Experiment Results).

Here's where I am seeing a gray area. What general rules should I follow to ensure that my measurements are accurate? The answers and comments that people have contributed are great and will without a doubt contribute to the usefulness of the question to the reader. For that reason, I'm glad that I'm waiting. On the other hand, I'm putting together a pretty involved essay with lots of examples and pictures. I'm really hoping that it will be of significant use to novice cooks. I want it to be seen. By adding my answer days after the question, the answer that is going to take considerable effort is going to be buried. I guess I'm showing my newbieness to a point, three years from now it's not going to make much of a difference, but is there a way to get the best of both worlds? Perhaps a way to "bump" a question with a new answer?

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  • Questions are automatically "bumped" whenever a new answer is posted (or when any changes whatsoever happen to the question or any of its answers).
    – Aaronut
    Oct 14, 2013 at 22:16
  • Your answer won't go unseen, no matter when you post it. It'll bump the post and plenty of us look at what's new when that happens.
    – Cascabel Mod
    Oct 14, 2013 at 22:16
  • I guess if you use "active" is that the default for most people? I always use "new".
    – Jolenealaska Mod
    Oct 14, 2013 at 22:17
  • Hmm...I just switched to "active", MUCH BETTER!
    – Jolenealaska Mod
    Oct 14, 2013 at 22:40
  • There is a blog associated with this site that you may find more to your liking in terms of an outlet for less structured and deeper information. In truth, this question is already bordering on "too broad".
    – SAJ14SAJ
    Oct 14, 2013 at 23:14
  • Where can I find it?
    – Jolenealaska Mod
    Oct 14, 2013 at 23:16
  • Yes, the default is "active".
    – Aaronut
    Oct 14, 2013 at 23:17
  • About the blog: Technically it's at cooking.blogoverflow.com, although I don't think it's been active for some time... if you're interested in posting something (and if it's very broad/lengthy then don't be shy), they can definitely help you with that in Seasoned Advice Chat.
    – Aaronut
    Oct 14, 2013 at 23:20

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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I think the previous question here on meta you linked to makes it pretty clear you should feel free to go ahead and post immediately. The main case I gave for waiting was if you aren't sure you'll be able to give good attention to your question and answer. It's bad if you post yours then abandon it, not upvoting others when they deserve it or amending your answer. It's bad if you post a convincing but actually incomplete, misleading, or even wrong answer. But you're not doing that here. Post away.

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  • In this case I wanted to encourage other answers. My answer isn't going to be the be all and end all. As a matter of fact I'm going to incorporate at least one point brought out in an answer that might not have occurred if I had answered my own question immediately.
    – Jolenealaska Mod
    Oct 14, 2013 at 22:22
  • @Jolenealaska If you post immediately, people are still going to comment on your answer and if anything hold it to a higher standard. Discouraging answers is a concern, yes, but as I mentioned in my answer on the question you found, there are ways to mitigate that, and posting later can be discouraging too.
    – Cascabel Mod
    Oct 14, 2013 at 23:16

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