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An answer I noticed was a long rambling story of the responder's experience with the question and what they did about it. More an essay than an answer. Though it did answer the question (in several ways), it was a long wall of text and was heavily downvoted.

I couldn't find a good reference to give advice on how to make a good answer. There is plenty of advice on making good questions, but the only advice on answers I could find was: "How do I write a good answer?" the from Help section. Unfortunately it is not good enough; regarding the length of the answer it says: "Brevity is acceptable, but fuller explanations are better." which is of course completely wrong in this case.

Is there a good tutorial on making answers for the StackExchange network somewhere?

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There are some good pointers here on how to write a good answer. The general points taken from TheTXI's answer should apply to every site on the network.

  • Be clear.

  • Provide examples.

  • Link to more information and further reading.

  • Quote relevant material to keep the user from having to click on every link given to get basic information.

  • Revise your answer to include more information as it comes along.

  • Be sure to monitor your answer for comments so that you can reply with explanation if questions come around about your answer.

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  • I'm curious about this because some of my recent answers have required original research and testing. Is it worth bolding the 'final conclusion' as it were so that there is an easy way to get a succinct answer but other users can still see the more detailed answer if they want to?
    – Shoddy Weather
    Commented Aug 17, 2016 at 18:58
  • @Venoda I personally don't like bolding. A TL:DR at the top might be fine though. Or something like Short Answer: X, Long Answer: XYZ
    – Dragonrage Mod
    Commented Aug 17, 2016 at 19:01
  • I think I'll amend them to that. That would be better since users would see the answer before the detail. Thanks.
    – Shoddy Weather
    Commented Aug 17, 2016 at 19:02
  • Thanks, that helped a bit. Oddly, even the referenced answer lacked the point about sticking to the point, which was the problem my respondent had.
    – 00prometheus
    Commented Aug 18, 2016 at 12:59

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