44
votes
What would Clippy say?
No code in the question
Very easy to test for. If there is not a single formatted full line of code in a question:
Code Review questions must include the code to be reviewed in the body of the ...
- 8,810
44
votes
Must the code be "clean"?
Make the code as clean as you can before submitting it for review.
The more work you put into your code, the more you're likely to get out of review.
That's because reviewers (especially the ...
- 49.6k
37
votes
Checklist for how to write a good Code Review question
Simon's Guide for posting a good question
There are a lot of questions that appear on Code Review, and all questions are fighting for reviewer attention. This is a non-exhaustive list of items that I ...
- 59.1k
33
votes
Accepted
Should I leave in documentation in code for review?
Is it a best practice to include things like function documentation and inline comments when posting code for review?
If you normally document your code, then include the documentation when posting ...
- 59.1k
32
votes
Accepted
Must the code be "clean"?
No it doesn't have to be clean.
It can get reviewed, but people will point those problems out. If you know they are bad you should probably clean them, that way we won't badger on about them, and ...
PeilonrayzMod
- 42.7k
28
votes
What would Clippy say?
Machine Learning
There's way too many cases to consider here, we should apply Machine Learning to this to make a machine learn what makes a question likely to be a bad question.
I have recently ...
- 59.1k
27
votes
Found a serious bug in my question after posting it
If the question has been answered, you must not edit it in a way that would invalidate the answers; that is not permitted on Code Review.
If the question is still unanswered, and the bug is easily ...
- 72k
26
votes
Accepted
Should I include my testing code?
Yes, if you have automated tests, please include them.
Some folks will take the posted code and paste it into a dev environment/IDE and make changes there (so they can ensure that their answer has ...
- 4,727
25
votes
Is code ever clean enough? - Can there be too many follow-up questions?
The problem is not the number of follow-up questions. The problem is the rate of posting them. If you post a follow-up once a week, probably nobody will even notice. As long as it's well done, for ...
- 111k
25
votes
What would Clippy say?
Title contains "this * code" or "do* this"
Every single question with "this code" or "this [language] code" in the title has been retitled, closed, and/or downvoted; some have comments asking for ...
- 144k
23
votes
Hide the "describe what you've tried" bullet (new askers' modal)
Yes.
This statement implies that if you've tried and failed, then you can post your non-working attempt on CR.
We should remove that instruction.
- 72k
22
votes
What would Clippy say?
Title that looks like a question
The following patterns in a question title predict a problematic post:
How …?
Can …?
Should …?
Would …?
…? (i.e., a title that ends with a question mark)
The tip ...
- 144k
22
votes
Is asking for a review of boiler plate for a minimal repro okay?
The line between real and hypothetical code is sometimes blurry, but I would consider this code sample to be on the wrong side of the line for Code Review. Code that contains ...
- 144k
22
votes
Code Review Clippy
Yay! Thanks!
Just one note, if I would see this as an entirely new user:
Titles that contain a specific question are generally inappropriate for Code Review.
I would be very confused. If I would ...
- 59.1k
21
votes
Does preventing exact duplicate titles makes sense here?
I personally quite like that "warning", it inspires you to create titles that are more imaginative than "FizzBuzz from a file" - how about "IFSFB - Input File Specified FizzBuzz"
Do something ...
- 97.3k
20
votes
Accepted
Policy regarding "flooding" Code Review with questions
To be completely clear:
homework[1] [2] and coding challenges are on-topic.
Issues with tags should be edited, it's rare to get questions with perfect tags - I get them wrong all the time too.
This ...
PeilonrayzMod
- 42.7k
20
votes
Accepted
Small portion of reviewable code isn't mine, but credited
Not a problem
If it would be a problem, you wouldn't be allowed to use someone else's libraries either.
That rule is there to prevent people from dumping code that they don't understand and/or 80% ...
MastMod
- 13.1k
19
votes
Accepted
Clarifying Code Review Scope
It really depends on your intention writing your question!
Are you looking to make your code work on other browsers? If so, you're looking for someone to write a new feature/fix bugs for you, in this ...
- 12.4k
18
votes
What would Clippy say?
Title or body contains the word "wrong" or "incorrect"
These words almost always indicate that the code is broken.
The tip could say:
Please note that questions containing code that produces ...
- 144k
18
votes
What would Clippy say?
Body contains only code, or only a few, short, non-code parts
This could indicate that the user is not explaining what their code doing and it, more or less, providing a code dump.
The message could ...
- 13.3k
18
votes
Should I leave in documentation in code for review?
Going purely from subjective impressions and without actually checking them, quite a lot of my answers specifically point out parts of the code which I think are underdocumented. There are at least ...
- 24.1k
17
votes
Accepted
Posting the same program in three different languages in three different sections
Posting three separate questions and having them link to each other is a perfectly alright thing to do.
The removing of your links was either an error, a case of two edits being done at the same time,...
- 59.1k
17
votes
Accepted
Is this question popularity normal?
The algorithm that makes a question hit the Hot Network Questions (HNQ) list isn't public AFAIK, but it definitely involves views, votes, answers, and a time factor is documented here.
Your question ...
- 75k
16
votes
Accepted
Please reconsider the rule: Pseudocode, hypothetical code, or stub code should be replaced by a concrete example?
We've all been there one time or another, so we understand what your problem is.
However, we simply can not throw this rule out of the window. It makes it unnecessarily hard on the reviewers and it ...
MastMod
- 13.1k
16
votes
Accepted
If in doubt, post the question on Meta first?
The best thing to do is to read the Help Center, and specifically, in your case, where your questions are not off-topic, but not that well received:
How do I ask a good question?
That said, Meta is ...
- 20.4k
16
votes
Accepted
Are you allowed to post incomplete programs that you still want reviewed?
The help center helps out:
I'm confused! What questions are on-topic for this site?
Simply ask yourself the following questions. To be on-topic the answer must be "yes" to all questions:
...
MastMod
- 13.1k
15
votes
Accepted
Rehash “How secure is my X” cryptography questions
With so many Stack Exchange sites, there is bound to be some overlap of scopes. And that's OK. The important principle to note is that a question being a better fit elsewhere is not a sufficient ...
- 144k
15
votes
Is code ever clean enough? - Can there be too many follow-up questions?
On the same day? Depends on the substance of the question and of the answers received, but as a general rule of thumb I'd say... one... but that can't be carved in stone: it depends™.
There simply ...
- 75k
15
votes
Is code ever clean enough? - Can there be too many follow-up questions?
The only logical point at which a follow-on process becomes too much, is when the code becomes a duplicate of previously posted code.
Follow-On questions are important on this site, they add a lot of ...
- 97.3k
15
votes
Code Review Clippy
That's awesome!!
Thanks a million! This will certainly help improve question quality on the site in a major way.
The only tiny little quibble I have is that it seems the forecolor for the x button and ...
- 75k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible