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If an answer is quite long how should we handle them to please the eye (improve readability)?

For reference my answer: https://gaming.stackexchange.com/a/147281/20751 which includes many solutions for the problem with different benefits.

I am not pleased with the length of it but I think it is quite complete (which is more important to me).

Should I split those solutions and make four answers instead of one or should this be the way it is?

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2 Answers 2

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Long Version

You're kind of asking about two different things here. Long answers are fine. Long answers are often, in fact, pretty awesome. There's no one-size-fits-all solution about how to best format them to improve readability. I think what you've done by using header text is good.

You have kind of a secondary question that is independent of the "long answer" piece, though, and that's what to do if you essentially have 4 different answers wrapped up into one. Again, there is no hard and fast rule for this... as the answerer, you can do it in whatever way you think makes the most sense. One upside to breaking them apart is that people can vote separately on what they find most useful (or downvote if they think 1/4th of your answer is bad or wrong). In doing so, the "best" of the 4 methods will rise to the top and be the first one people try. However, the flip side to this is that if you have enough information to understand 4 different approaches to something, you probably know what you're talking about and already have a good idea what's best. By putting them all in one answer, you can personally prioritize what you think is best (by listing it first) and adding in some related commentary about why a user might choose one solution over the other.

TLDR Version

There is no rule. There should be no rule. Do what you think makes the most sense in a case by case basis. If you're basically saying "I did what I think was best, but do you agree?" then I'll say "Sure, looks good to me!"

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  • The problem with long answers is that people that come from outside via a google search result will be deterred by a wall of text and prefer short answers (that's the only reason why I included the "Full Code" part). Other then that I think your answer covers my needs. Thanks
    – Wandang
    May 29, 2014 at 17:35
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If an answer is quite long how should we handle them to please the eye (improve readability)?

I think the format of your answer is fine. Making proper use of headers, font size, quote boxes, et cetera, are the kind of things you should do to make any answer readable, and you've done that.

I am not pleased with the length of it but I think it is quite complete (which is more important to me).

There's nothing wrong with a long answer. In fact long answers are often viewed as better than short answers because they (usually) provide a more in-depth solution to the problem than a shorter answer would. Making sure your answer is concise is important, but that's a problem that can be found with an answer no matter how long it is.

Should I split those solutions and make four answers instead of one or should this be the way it is?

If you have four separate and complete solutions to a problem than you're welcome to post them as separate answers. This actually has the added benefit of allowing users to vote on the individual solutions your propose, allowing users to see which solution is preferred. However don't post an answer into separate questions just because it's too long, and you want to improve readability. This would be the wrong way to go about making an answer more readability. Just make sure that every answer is a separate and complete solution to the problem if you plan to post multiple answers.

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