I wasn't gonna answer this, but Sterno's answer is fixated on closing... which I think is sorta like answering a question about dietary health with a reference to the still-not-dead guy who eats nothing but Big Macs. Yeah, ok, leaving out details might not kill your question, but that doesn't make it an awesome idea if you actually care about solving your problem...

...And that's where you need to focus: on solving a real problem. Doesn't necessarily need to be your problem, but it damn well better be a problem you understand as well as if it was your own. Hypothetical problems and problems for which you can't actually test any of the proposed solutions are notoriously problematic, so much so that the help center explicitly states,

You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face.

Since you used the example of asking a question for a member of the opposite sex, let me use this question an example of what not to do:

• Neglect to mention that you're asking for someone else, sparking questions that you can't easily answer.
• Skim over the details of what you're actually trying to accomplish, leaving folks to make their own (perhaps comically inaccurate) assumptions.
• Don't mention any of the research you've done, leading to folks wasting their time with suggestions you've already tried or which aren't practical for your scenario.
• Mention what you've tried, but don't explain why or how it didn't work for you.

Note that not mentioning what was tried isn't among the errors there! This is why "what have you tried" makes for a lousy criteria - without knowing why the things you've tried didn't work, there's little value to this information; for all we know, you just did it wrong and we should explain how to do it right.

Asking a good question involves communicating well enough to put potential answerers in a position similar to your own, one in which they can then use their own experience to find an answer. Don't assume that there's a vast library of applicable solutions floating around which you'll be able to cherry-pick for your specific scenario, and by the same token don't assume that you can throw up someone else's problem without knowing anything about it, and be able to accurately identify a workable solution on their behalf.

I wasn't gonna answer this, but Sterno's answer is fixated on closing... which I think is sorta like answering a question about dietary health with a reference to the still-not-dead guy who eats nothing but Big Macs. Yeah, ok, leaving out details might not kill your question, but that doesn't make it an awesome idea if you actually care about solving your problem...

...And that's where you need to focus: on solving a real problem. Doesn't necessarily need to be your problem, but it damn well better be a problem you understand as well as if it was your own. Hypothetical problems and problems for which you can't actually test any of the proposed solutions are notoriously problematic, so much so that the help center explicitly states,

You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face.

Since you used the example of asking a question for a member of the opposite sex, let me use this question an example of what not to do:

• Neglect to mention that you're asking for someone else, sparking questions that you can't easily answer.
• Skim over the details of what you're actually trying to accomplish, leaving folks to make their own (perhaps comically inaccurate) assumptions.
• Don't mention any of the research you've done, leading to folks wasting their time with suggestions you've already tried or which aren't practical for your scenario.
• Mention what you've tried, but don't explain why or how it didn't work for you.

Note that not mentioning what was tried isn't among the errors there! This is why "what have you tried" makes for a lousy criteria - without knowing why the things you've tried didn't work, there's little value to this information; for all we know, you just did it wrong and we should explain how to do it right.

Asking a good question involves communicating well enough to put potential answerers in a position similar to your own, one in which they can then use their own experience to find an answer. Don't assume that there's a vast library of applicable solutions floating around which you'll be able to cherry-pick for your specific scenario, and by the same token don't assume that you can throw up someone else's problem without knowing anything about it, and be able to accurately identify a workable solution on their behalf.

I wasn't gonna answer this, but Sterno's answer is fixated on closing... which I think is sorta like answering a question about dietary health with a reference to the still-not-dead guy who eats nothing but Big Macs. Yeah, ok, leaving out details might not kill your question, but that doesn't make it an awesome idea if you actually care about solving your problem...

...And that's where you need to focus: on solving a real problem. Doesn't necessarily need to be your problem, but it damn well better be a problem you understand as well as if it was your own. Hypothetical problems and problems for which you can't actually test any of the proposed solutions are notoriously problematic, so much so that the help center explicitly states,

You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face.

Since you used the example of asking a question for a member of the opposite sex, let me use this question an example of what not to do:

• Neglect to mention that you're asking for someone else, sparking questions that you can't easily answer.
• Skim over the details of what you're actually trying to accomplish, leaving folks to make their own (perhaps comically inaccurate) assumptions.
• Don't mention any of the research you've done, leading to folks wasting their time with suggestions you've already tried or which aren't practical for your scenario.
• Mention what you've tried, but don't explain why or how it didn't work for you.

Note that not mentioning what was tried isn't among the errors there! This is why "what have you tried" makes for a lousy criteria - without knowing why the things you've tried didn't work, there's little value to this information; for all we know, you just did it wrong and we should explain how to do it right.

Asking a good question involves communicating well enough to put potential answerers in a position similar to your own, one in which they can then use their own experience to find an answer. Don't assume that there's a vast library of applicable solutions floating around which you'll be able to cherry-pick for your specific scenario, and by the same token don't assume that you can throw up someone else's problem without knowing anything about it, and be able to accurately identify a workable solution on their behalf.

I wasn't gonna answer this, but Sterno's answer is fixated on closing... which I think is sorta like answering a question about dietary health with a reference to the still-not-dead guy who eats nothing but Big Macs. Yeah, ok, leaving out details might not kill your question, but that doesn't make it an awesome idea if you actually care about solving your problem...

...And that's where you need to focus: on solving a real problem. Doesn't necessarily need to be your problem, but it damn well better be a problem you understand as well as if it was your own. Hypothetical problems and problems for which you can't actually test any of the proposed solutions are notoriously problematic, so much so that the help center explicitly states,

You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face.

Since you used the example of asking a question for a member of the opposite sex, let me use this question an example of what not to do:

• Neglect to mention that you're asking for someone else, sparking questions that you can't easily answer.
• Skim over the details of what you're actually trying to accomplish, leaving folks to make their own (perhaps comically inaccurate) assumptions.
• Don't mention any of the research you've done, leading to folks wasting their time with suggestions you've already tried or which aren't practical for your scenario.
• Mention what you've tried, but don't explain why or how it didn't work for you.

Note that not mentioning what was tried isn't among the errors there! This is why "what have you tried" makes for a lousy criteria - without knowing why the things you've tried didn't work, there's little value to this information; for all we know, you just did it wrong and we should explain how to do it right.

Asking a good question involves communicating well enough to put potential answerers in a position similar to your own, one in which they can then use their own experience to find an answer. Don't assume that there's a vast library of applicable solutions floating around which you'll be able to cherry-pick for your specific scenario, and by the same token don't assume that you can throw up someone else's problem without knowing anything about it, and be able to accurately identify a workable solution on their behalf.