Importing Selected Q&A?

Just mass-importing from elsewhere is generally bad. Look at the mess this has made of the Outdoors and Scientific Speculation sites, for example.

Bringing over your own content is a bit different. I did this in a few cases to get the EE site going. However, don't just copy the whole Q&A. Here are some guidelines:

1. Only do it if your contribution is the major content. The best case is if the source is a canonical question that you both asked and answered.
2. If you wrote an in-depth answer to someone else's question, then paraphrase the question yourself here. Since you know what parts are relevant, and what the eventual answer is, you should be able to do a better job of asking the right question than the OP.

   Don't copy the text, but re-write it on your own, using only the meaning in your head as a guide.

3. Don't just copy your answer. In this case, since you wrote it, it's OK to start with the original text. However, there is always something that can be said better. Read everything over like the original is a rough draft. Fix spellings, awkward wording, maybe re-arrange the order of thoughts to make them answer easier to follow, add headings, maybe a diagram, etc.

The point is to make the post here better than the original, not just a copy of it.

For example, I started with this SE post and created this Codadict post from it. In that case, I didn't write the original question, so I wrote it more to the point in my own words, and with a diagram. It is less obvious, but I also did a few edits on my answer before posting it here.

posted over 4 years ago

CC BY-SA 4.0

4y ago

Olin Lathrop‭

1069 reputation 1 24 90 11