Dealing with a question with no answer

Question

The Help page suggest that if a question has received no answer, the poster should:

• Edit the question to provide status and progress updates
• Document continued efforts to answer the question
• Offering a bounty

I opened this question, which I think has all the qualities of a good question:

• It's on topic, since is a working code that needs review
• It has a specific question (review of the structure and data flow)
• It's relevant to others (I think at least), since it about general Python program structure and program design

I've edited it several times, got some upvotes in the process, but still no answer. I don't have permission to put a bounty on it, and I don't know any other thing that I can edit on it to 'bump it'.

I know I could reformat without changing its content in order to bump it, but that seems like exploiting the system.

What should I do with that question? Let it rot and wait for a review? Close it and reopen?

Answer 1

If there's nothing left for you to do, then you may just have to wait. Even excellent questions can slip by for a while, but that doesn't always have to do with the question's quality. The upvotes do indicate that others have seen it and expressed satisfaction, but not every upvoter is a potential reviewer. It's very possible to identify a good question for the site while knowing nothing about the code itself.

Other than that, there is another option: bring it up in chat. However, don't just link to the question and ask someone to review it, as that may sound demanding. Instead, mention that it hasn't gotten very much attention and are wondering what others think about it. This may attract a reviewer, or possibly criticism about the question itself if there's any to make. Fortunately, this room is filled with friendly people (and can be considered one of the friendliest chatrooms on SE), so hostility would not be too likely as long as you're not being demanding.

Overall, don't feel bad if your question doesn't receive timely answers, especially if it has already received some kind of attention. SE does not guarantee fast answers, and reviews can take time, especially if it's a lengthy one. It mostly depends on the number of reviewers around associated with the question's programming language(s). Also be aware that certain times of the year, such as Christmas, may be slow as fewer people are around to review questions.

Answer 2

It's unfortunate, but zombies (unanswered questions) happen. Two days is fairly young to call it a zombified question though; it barely makes it eligible for a bounty.

Patience, my friend: reviewing code isn't like answering a Stack Overflow question. There is no fastest gun in the west answerers on this site as of yet, and our community doesn't have millions of users yet - sure 2 days is starting to be a little while, but your code is already working, right?

I have over 80 questions asked here. Some were answered within an hour. Others were still unanswered after a month, and ended up self-answered... and I don't see a problem with that!

Shortly put: sit back, relax - review other people's code, come to [chat] and paste a link to your question (see Jamal's answer for how to do that without making it look like "hi! Please review this!"), in the end, zombies shall be exterminated - your question will be answered eventually ;)