How much detail do you need for a question to prompt a good discussion?

Details are very important. When you ask a question that can be interpreted in different contexts, it’s very helpful to give us a framework for the context in which you’re asking. In addition, a question that asks us to choose between this or that, with no supporting details whatsoever, can be considered a simple poll (which we don’t allow, generally speaking.)

I’m assuming this question is Fluther-specific, so I’ve moved it to the Meta Section. If you had included a little more detail, I would have known for sure. :P

A good question needs no details.

I like just enough detail to understand exactly what’s being asked (I can always ask the asker for a particular bit of detail if I need it), but detail that goes on and on in one long paragraph or several will often make me skip the question.

Well, it depends on the question, doesn’t it?

After all, this question, with zero description, could generate a fair discussion as we supply our own parameters to the answer. But if you’re asking a question about a situation that’s germane and particular to you and your family or some others that you know, and you provide none of the necessary detail for respondents to know anything that you see, then the question may be meaningless and the responses, if not nil, will be pleas for more detail so that a response can be formulated.

It’s the question and the context that determine the need for detail.

Sometimes the details give me some sense of how far the asker has gone in thinking the question through for him or herself. There have been some users who ask what seems to be a very simple question, but then you read the details and you understand that they have taken the question to a far deeper level than a casual reading would suggest. Then you know to engage this question at this more profound level, and not to fiddle around with the elementary stuff.

Depends on the question and with some posters, the details obfuscate rather than enlighten.

I don’t necessarily need details, they can be fleshed out during the discussion.

It depends. Some people write novels, especially on relationship questions and I just want to scream edit out all these unnecessary details and stick to the specifics that actually have to do with your inquiry. On the other hand, when you are asking a specific question, wanting a specific answer you need some details or the question tends to go off in 5 million directions. But not all questions are about one’s specific situation, and those are fine to have no details at all.