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Oddthinking
Oddthinking
2:40 AM
Continuing the digression on education levels:

I would divide that into:

What reading level are we targetting? We should keep this fairly low - it helps with less-educated readers, English-as-a-second-language readers, and even proficient English readers.

What level of science education are we targetting? I think the sweet-spot level of education should be "finished high-school". Less than that, and we are going to have to give too much background information (defining terms like "atom" and "erosion"). More than that, and we lose too much of our audience.
 
 
7 hours later…
Aeronth
Aeronth
9:34 AM
Wouldn't it be relevant to take account of OP's English and skepticism levels? I know you want answers to be definitive; however, the question itself is already "tainted" with OP's grammar errors (if his English is flawed) and bias or prejudices (if we're not dealing with a true skeptic). Would adapting answers according to that make these answers any less definitive than the question itself is?
(I hope this makes sense, my own English is quite flawed :-) )
 
 
4 hours later…
Oddthinking
Oddthinking
1:50 PM
@Aeronth The OP's grammar errors can be corrected; I think most questions are edited until they are clear. (That can be a problem - if someone is searching using the same mistaken terms as the original OP, our corrections might make it impossible to find!)
But coming to your main point: I think, yes, we are influenced by the OP's biases and/or prejudices in working out how to answer at the best level. However, as surprising at it sounds, the OP is only one of many readers - getting 1000 readers of a question isn't rare - we should be aiming to please the long-tail of readers, not just the OP.
 

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