I Think I Need To Clarify My Question

Should you request a clarification of a question if you don't intend on answering it?

tl;dr: Absolutely. Not in a way that you have to do that, but if you are willing to help, then go ahead and do it (and thank you for that!).That's the spirit of community, which works beautifully on Quora. Helping not only yourself, but others as well. And being the receiver of other people's help at the same time. And a little more in-depth explanation:Some questions clearly lack crucial details, or are too ambiguous, and in many cases this is obvious even for someone who wouldn't be able to answer. People might ask for clarifications because they're not sure whether they want to follow or re-ask the question. Or they might ask for clarifications to improve the question, to make it easier to understand, and thus easier to be answered by someone. Even if someone else would answer, and even if only others would be interested in the answers. Additionally a clarification may prevent the question from receiving bad answers.I may be browsing Quora one day when I have lots of free time. I see a question that maybe I could answer. But it's not clear enough. I may just skip it, and find some other things I could answer, or I may ask for clarifications myself. But clarifications are rarely received quickly. I may get them in two days when I am extremely busy and I'll mark the question to answer later or I might just ignore it. Or maybe the clarifications won't come as an answer to my comment, but as an edit to the question. An edit of which I won't be notified. So I'll still end up not answering it.But if someone else had asked for those clarifications before me, maybe I would have answered on that first day. And that's it's great when we help each other.

Has anyone else stopped asking questions because of annoying Quora need more clarification notification?

Yes.Recently I edited an answer at least 8 separate times in response to a clarification request. Each edit was deleted by the mod, who also suggested that I needed to correct my spelling and grammar.The edits did not have any spelling or grammatical errors. Neither did the original answer.I've heard from one new Quoran that his question has been been labeled as needing clarification also, and his attempts to clarify have been similarly and arbitrarily deleted.He wants to leave now. I've asked him to report the situation to Quora moderation.Since insincere clarification requests prevent readers from seeing the affected questions and answers, they are a covert method of silencing certain Quorans. This really needs to stop.Downvote questions and answers if you will, but this other stuff abusing the moderation system is absurd.

Why did Quora say my question needs improvement, then when I edited it, they reverted it?

This is a frustrating feature of flawed automation.Frequently the original writer poses a question that is incomplete, or grammatically incorrect, or has some other flaw.Then someone comes along and answers it anyway.Then the original writer comes along and fixes it up.Then the bot detects the change, checks whether there have been any answers, takes a wild (and incorrect) guess about whether the question edit “changes the meaning”, and reverts it to the original (and faulty) version prior to when any questions were added.Sometimes the only solution is for the original writer to start with a new, fresh question, and try to get it right from the start.Unfortunately, sometimes the bots then add insult to injury by merging the new question back into the faulty old question. So if you do rewrite a question like this, it’s best to change the wording, phrase order, etc. to prevent the bot (or human readers) from undertaking the merge.

Why do I always feel the need to clarify what I've drawn?

I feel the same. When I used to post my art online, I always want to put an enigmatic, concise description, but that never happens.Instead, I write heaps of descriptions on what led to this picture, what it indicates, afterthoughts, etc. because I put so much thoughts and work into it. I don’t want anybody to think I just popped it out of my arse, or that it’s just a mesh of colors and lines on a paper. My work not only means a lot to me, but reflects a lot about me, so I also don’t want them to get the wrong idea. That would mean they get a wrong idea about me. [Frankly, I feel a lot wouldn’t think that far about it as we think they do]I end up explaining my artwork in person too. Sometimes I think this is like ruining a joke. You aren’t letting the viewers figure it out themselves because you want them to see all the good stuff, but I can’t help it!

I'm reluctant to ask questions or answers questions I think I know the answer to during class. How can I lose this fear?

“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life” - ConfuciusLet me tell you a short story about a short story.Back when I was a kid studying in class 4, I used to be shy and reserved. This ofcourse reflected in my behaviour in class wherein I would not get my doubts cleared fearing if the teacher would tag me as a dumb kid or if it might not be the appropriate moment for asking this question.One morning, my dad was asking me something about the concept of evaporation (I remember it like it happened yesterday) and somehow it came to the fore that there was a doubt that had not been cleared in class. Dad wasn't furious, he wasn't even curious to know why I wasn't asking my doubts in class. All he told me was a short story, which was engraved in my mind forever.“We do not know anything except how to breathe and how to cry when we are born. We learn everything by asking or by people telling us about things. Now let us suppose there was a guy who does not know which colour is called Blue. He has reached as far as class 4 ignoring this doubt that he had since kindergarten.But, he thankfully asks this ‘dumb’ question in class 4. Of course the entire class including the sweeper outside laughed on hearing his doubt.But another guy asked this doubt in class 12. Not only did the entire class laugh at him, it went on social media and the entire country laughed at him. His name went into the record books. He gave interviews on Aaj Tak. And to top it off, the teacher refused to answer his question thinking it was a joke.So, it’s always better to ask a dumb question NOW; because if you don’t, fearing embarrassment, you'll be embarrassed all the more when you ask it LATER.tl;dr- And that was how I started asking all my doubts. Fearing the much larger embarrassment that I'll face if I ask my doubt any later.So go on! Ask that doubt in today’s class itself!