Singe Google search-results are not a permanent resource, and strange as it may sound the same keyword set may return different answers in 5 years, we frown on answers that boil down to "use different keywords in google, it'll be staring you in the face." We also frown on answers of the "just follow this link, it's all spelled out there," sort since link-rot is a fact of the internet; we've already had some perfectly good accepted answers die this way.

In general, we really like answers to include how to answer the question, not just how to find the answer to the question. How to find answers to questions is a a very top-priority skill for sysadmins, and it rankles when people obviously haven't done that yet. As a group, we don't like spoon-feeding answers ("give me a complete checklist to follow for upgrading SVN from 1.3 to 1.5, in small words"), so the urge to snark is strong when we come across it.

Answers need to have content, not pointers to content.

Since Google search-results are not a permanent resource, and strange as it may sound the same keyword set may return different answers in 5 years, we frown on answers that boil down to "use different keywords in google, it'll be staring you in the face." We also frown on answers of the "just follow this link, it's all spelled out there," sort since link-rot is a fact of the internet; we've already had some perfectly good accepted answers die this way.

In general, we really like answers to include how to answer the question, not just how to find the answer to the question. How to find answers to questions is a a very top-priority skill for sysadmins, and it rankles when people obviously haven't done that yet. As a group, we don't like spoon-feeding answers ("give me a complete checklist to follow for upgrading SVN from 1.3 to 1.5, in small words"), so the urge to snark is strong when we come across it.

Answers need to have content, not pointers to content.