Another answer that mis-reads the question or interprets it too liberally - is this not a problem?

Question

I’ve asked a question recently which got completely mis-interpreted by everyone, despite my repeated attempts to clarify.

This is the second time I’m seeing a highly upvoted answer which answers a different question but at the same time confuses others into thinking that the question is being addressed.

The first time was discussed here.

Something needs to be done about this. This is damaging to the site’s reputation as a place of reason and logic. This kind of fallacy is to be expected from Yahoo Answers; it cannot be acceptable here. Worst of all, I am powerless to do anything about it. The answer about cigarettes is still out there, and is a top-10 hit for "smoke single cigarette" on Google. I did do the one thing I can and am supposed to do, but this didn’t fix the problem.

What are everyone’s thoughts about this?

One possible solution is to change the question so that it matches the answer. I do think that’s rather disrespectful of the asker, however. Another possibility is to "close" off-topic answers like we close off-topic questions. Lastly, we could just delete the whole thread; I’m certainly considering doing that to my misinterpreted question about Coca-Cola. One thing we can’t do, in my opinion, is leave them as-is.

List of examples:

• Does smoking a single cigarette measurably harm your body? (measurable health impact vs measurable levels of toxins — closed, answer deleted)
• Is the exact composition of Coke Coca-Cola a secret? (list of steps vs chemical composition — question rewritten to match answer)
• Is physical beauty correlated with health? (actual health vs perceived health)

Answer 1

Since Oddthinking addressed the problem with the question you cite as example, I'll keep my own answer to what to do when the community has mistakenly upvoted an answer that does not answer the question.

Flag the offending answer.

Stack Exchange moderators are, before anything else, exception handlers. We are there for cases like this. If you see a question with grave problems that cannot be fixed easily by non-moderators, the solution is either to flag it so we can intervene.

Answer 2

This is not an example of a growing trend that needs to be addressed, for the sake of the site's ongoing reputation.

This is simply a poor question - which is hovering confusingly close to a good one.

You are right, it shouldn't be left as is. So, I have closed it. I want to edit it to make it the good question that it almost is, but it's not worth it if that is going to trigger a huge meta-discussion. I'd rather just leave it closed and move on to other questions.

I've explained the problem twice in the comments. Alas, I haven't succeeded in communicating the issue. I will try one last time.

You do NOT cite any references to show notability of the question. This is causing problems.

• Is the recipe of Coca-Cola a carefully guarded trade-secret?

This isn't the question you asked, but... it is a sensible question, and it is a widely-known claim. I didn't challenge the original question for lack of notability precisely because it was so well-known, and I assumed (like the answerer and probably the people who voted up the question) that this is what you were referring to.

• Has anyone ever chemically-analysed Coca-Cola to find its chemical composition, without the recipe?

This is the question you tried to ask, but... it isn't notable. I know of no-one claiming that they have done it and of no-one who is claiming that it is impossible.

Note: Given the apparent ambiguity in the common understanding of the terms, I would like to see any such claims, if they are cited, are clearly referring to the chemical composition and not simply the recipe (a trade-secret) or the ingredients (which are listed on the can; at least in some jurisdictions).

Without those claims, this is just a question of idle curiosity. It is out-of-scope, and should be closed.

If we had a mission statement, it would be something like: To find where people are making false claims and correcting them to help others find the truth (or showing that surprisingly claims are actually true - that's fun too!)

The question you want to ask doesn't fit that mission. The question you almost asked does.

I'd love to edit the question back to the recipe one. It is an urban legend that turns out to be surprisingly true. It would make a good question for posterity. However, it seems you won't be satisfied with that, so I haven't made the edit. I've just closed an out-of-scope question.

Answer 3

Down-voting an answer the OP thinks does not addressing his/her question is not the only thing he/she can do and should never be the only thing anyway. You should definitely comment on the answer and state clearly why it doesn't address the question. In some causes it should be appropriate to ask the poster to delete his/her answer.

One thing which can be done to avoid this situation is of course to write clear questions in the first place. Clearly state what the question is about, at best more than once, e.g. add a summary at the end, and avoid any ambiguity. If you fear it can be misunderstood with something similar, then explicitly state so and say what the question is not about as well. If there is a similar existing question, link to it and state why it is not a duplicate.