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I have a question that has been asked before by another member (see here). There is an answer, which has been accepted as well and I think it would probably help me to solve my problem as well, but sadly I don't understand the answer completely.

I commented the answer, but haven't got a reply on that comment.

So what should I do now?

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2 Answers 2

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The way to get clarification is to do exactly what you did: leave a comment. Users who are active† will likely respond, but you have to have some patience. If they are active and don't respond, consider leaving another message, perhaps explaining the problem differently.

You can also try to get the question more attention otherwise, by linking to it in chat and asking people there to help you understand the answer.

If you have enough reputation, you can add a bounty to the question to see if that will attract better answers or prompt the original answers' owners to update their answers. A bounty bumps a question back to the top of the front page, where it will get noticed just as much as a new question would.

Without the reputation to add a bounty though, you have to fall back on asking in a comment or a chat, and patience.

† You can see when a user was “Last Seen” by the site on their user profile; aramis was last here 17 hours ago — not long at all. They may have missed your comment, or may not want to update their answer.

In this case, because you were given bad advice (duplicates are always marked as duplicates, no matter why they were posted), I have added the bounty myself.

However, patience is still necessary — there is no way to ensure that clarification comes instantly, whether leaving a comment, adding a bounty, or even asking a new question.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Thank you very much for your advice and the bounty! \$\endgroup\$
    – Elsi
    Sep 15, 2015 at 17:39
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    \$\begingroup\$ This advice seems impractical. The questioner never receives an answer, and the unclear portions of the original answer are never improved. It would seem that this policy would be a loss for everyone. What good do you see it serving? \$\endgroup\$
    – AceCalhoon
    Sep 15, 2015 at 18:15
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    \$\begingroup\$ @AceCalhoon The usual good? We don't do duplicates, because fragmenting the site's information and making it harder to find is considered far more harmful. There's a lot about the SE process that is deliberately impractical, to prevent certain behaviours from being practical. \$\endgroup\$
    – SevenSidedDie
    Sep 15, 2015 at 18:32
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Ask a (new) question, and include your confusion about the answer to the old one. For example:

What is an appropriate encounter in Deathwatch?

(description of what you want to know)

I've read Aramis's answer to a similar question, which says:

Now, it has to be shifted to positives; move both up the same amount so the lower is +1. In this case, PCs 1, NPC's 2. Now multiply by the numbers. I had 7 PC's, and used 4 NPC's... for 7 and 8. Then multiply by average skill as a percentage... PC average was 45, NPC was 33, for 7*0.45=3.15 and 8*0.33= 2.64. It's clear the PC's have an advantage, but a very weak one... and since in the initial stage, both were negatives, it's going to involve a lot of armor staging.

But I don't understand why he's multiplied the PCs' WS with the NPC damage. Can anyone explain this more clearly?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Brilliant, thank you very much \$\endgroup\$
    – Elsi
    Sep 15, 2015 at 16:42
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Elsi For the sake of completeness: Posting a bounty is another tool for this situation, but it is one you have not unlocked yet. \$\endgroup\$
    – AceCalhoon
    Sep 15, 2015 at 16:51
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    \$\begingroup\$ Uh, no. Asking a duplicate because one lacks the privilege level necessary to leave a bounty is not kosher. \$\endgroup\$
    – SevenSidedDie
    Sep 15, 2015 at 17:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ @SevenSidedDie Questions about other answers (clarifications, tangents, expansions) are not uncommon on this stack. They are rarely marked as duplicates by the community. \$\endgroup\$
    – AceCalhoon
    Sep 15, 2015 at 18:14
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    \$\begingroup\$ @AceCalhoon Normally, yes. However, you have given the advice to ask an exact duplicate, not advice to ask a related but different question. \$\endgroup\$
    – SevenSidedDie
    Sep 15, 2015 at 18:32
  • \$\begingroup\$ @SevenSidedDie I do not believe it to be an exact duplicate. The thrust of it is new content ("I don't understand what this paragraph means?") \$\endgroup\$
    – AceCalhoon
    Sep 15, 2015 at 18:35
  • \$\begingroup\$ We have lots of questions that are about “this other answer mentions/assumes/relies on X. Does X actually work that way?”, but that's a different kettle of fish. This question is “someone has asked my question, but I don't understand the answer, so please someone answer my question in a way I understand.” That's an exact duplicate. \$\endgroup\$
    – SevenSidedDie
    Sep 15, 2015 at 18:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ @SevenSidedDie -shrug- you're the boss. \$\endgroup\$
    – AceCalhoon
    Sep 15, 2015 at 19:12
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    \$\begingroup\$ Duplicates are never OK. \$\endgroup\$
    – mxyzplk
    Sep 15, 2015 at 19:39
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    \$\begingroup\$ @mxyzplk "duplication is not necessarily bad... some duplication is desirable." "there's often benefit to having multiple subtle variants of a question around." "While you could argue that the duplicate questions could all be merged into one question with a 'master' set of answers, this is kind of irritating from the perspective of the user looking for an answer."-Jeff Atwood \$\endgroup\$
    – AceCalhoon
    Sep 15, 2015 at 19:51
  • \$\begingroup\$ None of which applies to asking the exact same question. \$\endgroup\$
    – mxyzplk
    Sep 15, 2015 at 20:48
  • \$\begingroup\$ @mxyzplk It does apply to the statement "duplicates are never OK." I'd bowed out of the other conversation twenty minutes prior to your comment, so I'm assuming you're starting a tangent. \$\endgroup\$
    – AceCalhoon
    Sep 15, 2015 at 21:28
  • \$\begingroup\$ Ah yes because this is a realtime communication medium, I forgot. \$\endgroup\$
    – mxyzplk
    Sep 15, 2015 at 21:36
  • \$\begingroup\$ @mxyzplk It's not realtime, but it is linear. My statement exiting the conversation was within millimeters of the "add comment" button you clicked to add your comment. \$\endgroup\$
    – AceCalhoon
    Sep 15, 2015 at 21:40
  • \$\begingroup\$ It's not all about you. I'm adding a comment in the context of this question and your answer, it's pretty basic really. \$\endgroup\$
    – mxyzplk
    Sep 15, 2015 at 21:43

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