Asking a question just to answer it

Question

What happens with questions being asked, just to provide an answer "FAQ Style"?

I have been guilty of asking a question like this, about the timezones for an in-game character's apperance. Both the question, and the answer, received upvotes.

But then I saw this question about how to break obsidian in Minecraft, and my reaction was a little less inviting. The question and answer received downvotes

What is the quota for asking a question, just so you can answer it?

EDIT: To clarify, the same user asked a similar question about the time-frame of an "Minecraft Tick". The question was downvoted (I'm assuming due to poor research effort) while my answer was upvoted, even though it was pretty much a direct cut/paste from the wiki. I also left a comment asking for a better research effort next time.

Answer 1

Asking and answering your own question is an acceptable and allowed thing. Admittedly, we assume you are doing so in good faith to share information, rather than say, rep-farming or whatever. In general, there aren't really rules or quota or guidelines, other than the usual stuff that applies to all questions and answers. Like this blog post states,

if you have a question that you already know the answer to if you’d like to document it in public so others (including yourself) can find it later it is OK to ask, and answer, your own question on a relevant Stack Exchange site.

Answer 2

Sharing information Q&A style is actually really welcomed on the SE Network as long as your intention is sharing Information and not rep-whoring.

But note: Your intention is not as important as the content of the Q&A. If the post is low quality or shows no research effort like the second question you mentioned, it will most likely get downvoted. If it's in Q&A style and it's crap it's getting downvoted even harder since it gives the impression of a bad attempt of rep-farming.

If you post a high quality Question/Answer it will obviously get upvoted because you provided useful information. A Q&A style post that's high quality will also get upvoted because it provides useful information. Maybe sometimes you'll get a downvote or two from someone who thinks "naah he's just repwhoring". But in the end, if you make a high quality Q&A post you've earned your reputation since you've added useful information to the website. If you post crap you've earned the downvotes.

A Q&A style post is perfectly fine if the content is high quality. Or as perfectly shown in this post: Ignore the user when voting and focus on the content

If you feel like someone is flooding the site with bad Q&A posts you can still flag the post for moderator attention.

Oh and also a thing to note: Q&A posts should be avoided if it's about something that's commonly known like "How do I craft a pickaxe" (Falls under poor research effort).