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Is there something wrong with this question ...

Emulation of SE's text input control for tags

... that might make it difficult or unpleasant to answer?

Can you suggest what I should do to improve it, or explain why it's not a good fit for this site?

Should I just add a Bounty to draw attention, and see what happens, without trying to improve it?

Is it normal now (I haven't visited this site in a long while) that questions go unanswered?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ It has 2 upvotes, 0 downvotes, no close votes, it's been up for 4 days with 18 views. What makes you think it's a bad question? Maybe because you posted it on a Tuesday at ~10AM meant that no-one saw it because all the Americans are sound asleep and all the Europeans are at work? \$\endgroup\$
    – Peilonrayz Mod
    Commented Jul 14, 2019 at 9:13
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    \$\begingroup\$ What makes you think it's a bad question? It has been posted for nearly a week now with no replies. My guess was that if a question is going to be answered at all, then it will be answered in the first few days, while it's on the "Active" list. I don't know that it is a bad question but I thought I might ask, before just putting a bounty on it, in case there's reason why it's not being answered. It's been about five years since I was last active on this site, so I don't know what the various norms and standards are -- what users expect of questions, and what replies if any I could hope for. \$\endgroup\$
    – ChrisW
    Commented Jul 14, 2019 at 9:33
  • \$\begingroup\$ I guess "18 views" doesn't sound like many. Perhaps the tags could be improved somehow? Or maybe it's just normal that questions may be unanswered -- or that least that Questions tagged react.js are unanswered -- in the past most questions were answered, and with multiple answers. Anyway I thought it might be good to ask for any improvement before I just add a bounty because what else can I do. \$\endgroup\$
    – ChrisW
    Commented Jul 14, 2019 at 9:55
  • \$\begingroup\$ Strongly related: codereview.meta.stackexchange.com/a/6823/31562 \$\endgroup\$
    – Simon Forsberg Mod
    Commented Jul 14, 2019 at 14:22
  • \$\begingroup\$ @SimonForsberg The message I get from the downvotes to this meta-question that there's nothing wrong with the question, so all I could do is add a bounty. Also the meta-answer you just linked to says "we have plenty of unanswered questions" so I guess that's just normal (i.e. to be expected) these days, unlike a while ago when the site was graduating. \$\endgroup\$
    – ChrisW
    Commented Jul 14, 2019 at 14:29

2 Answers 2

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Looking at the timechart of the percentage of answered questions on Code Review, there is indeed a declining trend, meaning that it's harder these days than it used to be.

line chart for percentage of answered questions, mostly declining trend

This data is gathered from what my chatbot @Duga is gathering every day. Unfortunately this chart only stretches back to ~December 2017, but through chat search you can find more.

Looking at React.js specifically we can see that there are at the time of this writing 144 unanswered questions out of a total of 326. This is an astounding 44% of questions with no answers with a positive score. So, we need more reviewers for this particular tag. As I stated in How can I make my question get more attention? one way to get more attention for your question is to actually help answering other questions. So if you know React, please help out in the React.js tag.

So let's take a look at your specific question and see if that can be improved. I will do this through the eyes of my guide for how to post a good question.

Overall, it's looking good.

It's pretty clear what your code does, but not very clear why you have written it - and if other pre-made components for this exists already. You also list quite many specific concerns that you would like reviews to focus on, which might indicate that it will take a bit of effort to review your code.

I think you can include a few screenshots of the component in action.

I would prefer reordering the parts of your question a bit to make it more natural (in my opinion at least). Introduction - Description - Code - Questions. Right now it is Introduction - Questions - Code - Description.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Does it matter why I wrote it? And I didn't understand what "other pre-made components" means. I think there are at least a couple of dozen SE clones written over the years, (which I haven't looked into), though none using React for all I know. \$\endgroup\$
    – ChrisW
    Commented Jul 14, 2019 at 16:25
  • \$\begingroup\$ I'm not really happy with how the site displays code, by the way. I think it's OK for small code fragments, but barely usable/readable for larger chunks (e.g. this source file is 1000 lines x 120 characters). Do users copy-and-paste such code, from the question into their own text editor, to read it with less scrolling? Should code be reformatted before it's posted to make it narrower -- narrow enough to avoid horizontal scroll? Is it -- I guess it is -- wrong to offer users the GitHub URL so they can review it there (where it's IMO easier to read, 120 columns wide and the full screen height)? \$\endgroup\$
    – ChrisW
    Commented Jul 14, 2019 at 16:33
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    \$\begingroup\$ @ChrisW The motivation behind why the code exists can help to make the question itself more interesting, and therefore more likely that someone will post a review once they read it. "other pre-made components" means "another existing library that can be used instead", like for example this component (for Vue.js instead of React) which supports parts of what you are doing. \$\endgroup\$
    – Simon Forsberg Mod
    Commented Jul 14, 2019 at 18:55
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    \$\begingroup\$ @ChrisW It's perfectly fine to include the GitHub URL. The code should be posted as-is, it shouldn't be changed before being posted to Code Review. If you have wide lines when coding, then that's how it's should be posted here. I agree that the site could show code better, but that's another topic and nothing you and I can solve easily. If anyone wants to read the code in a better way, they will copy it to their favorite editor anyway (which might also help them in experimenting with the code, refactoring themselves, etc) \$\endgroup\$
    – Simon Forsberg Mod
    Commented Jul 14, 2019 at 18:58
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    \$\begingroup\$ "Do users copy-and-paste such code, from the question into their own text editor, to read it with less scrolling?" Some, including me, yes. \$\endgroup\$
    – Mast Mod
    Commented Jul 15, 2019 at 8:35
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Every 1 in 10 on-topic questions is left unanswered. That's a rough statistic that has been so for a long time now and it's slowly getting worse (as indicated by Simon's answer).

Some questions are simply not interesting enough, too hard to answer or slipped through the net for another reason. We can't catch/answer them all.

A bounty might work, but not necessarily so. I'd start with trying to improve it to the best of your ability so at least it won't be caused by that. Eliminate all negative factors, so to speak.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I would include in your list that some questions just don't require an answer, because the code is just fine as-is. \$\endgroup\$
    – dfhwze
    Commented Jul 19, 2019 at 14:17
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    \$\begingroup\$ @dfhwze There's always something to find. And if not, pointing out it has been done well (and pointing out what especially has been done well) can be a review too. \$\endgroup\$
    – Mast Mod
    Commented Jul 19, 2019 at 15:27

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