<p>I agree with Frans: #3 is the only constructive way imo.</p>

<p>I'm almost a newbie here and on both sides of the line: I sometimes ask, sometimes answer. I'm sometimes frustrated or puzzled at questions I feel as absurd. I sometimes feel angry at people considering my questions as "wrong" without a second look. If what I wanted to know was easy for me to find out by browsing the net, well usually, I would have found it somewhere else and wouldn't ask. Even if I am actually blinded by a common misunderstanding, don't know the keywords to use in Google, don't understand some articles I read, I am definitely in a situation where I can't clear it up by myself.</p>

<p>Unless the question is unclear, poorly formatted, unrelated to stats/ML, there is no wrong question. Saying that the point of view of the person who asks misses something is naive, a dead end or whatever IS definitely an answer to the question.</p>

<p>Like any answer it is worth explaining what we mean as clearly as possible, possibly providing references as usual. Also, we might be wrong, miss some knowledge or misunderstand what the person asks, or assume things that do not match the real situation where the question appears.</p>

<p>Writing clear and thoughtful answers allows (nice) confrontation in the community. Answers can be commented, improved, clarified, voted up/down... efficiently while it's messy with comments. Also some comments can be felt as aggressive sometimes. When you take time to write an answer, this aggressiveness disappears: since it's not so easy to explain, I guess it's not easy to understand either. </p>

<p>I think if a person makes the effort to write, update, improve... a clear question, then taking time to answer is not a waste of time (generally speaking).</p>
