We need canned comments

[klutt]

Link only comments to this site is not allowed at SO anymore. I can understand their decision, even though I don't agree.

However, one of the best things about this site is to be able to explain a lot with minimal effort. Therefore I think that idownvotedbecause should have canned comments. Preferably with a simple copy button. Here is an example of how it could look:

It looks like you have not made an attempt to solve the problem on your own. Please note that this is not a free coding service. Please read here about why it is important to provide your own attempt when asking.

[LindaLawton]

Do you have a link to where we cant use this anymore?

[klutt]

@LindaLawton Damn, I'm pretty sure I've read it but I cannot find it.

But irregardless of this, I think it would be a good idea.

[WillSullivan]

https://meta.stackoverflow.com/a/379603/1228 Might have something related to this issue in the works. My main problem is that I don't believe these can be autogenerated, and so maintenance would become more difficult. I just have to look into it.

[tinkertim]

https://meta.stackoverflow.com/a/379603/1228 Might have something related to this issue in the works. My main problem is that I don't believe these can be autogenerated, and so maintenance would become more difficult. I just have to look into it.

We can provide some suggested copy for how the comment could look, but I'm not sure it's entirely necessary because the people that aren't using this tool in good faith are, well, unlikely to be deterred or inspired by such guidance. The people who are using it properly are doing a pretty good job of it.

It's up to you @WillSullivan I guess, I mean we could come up with some stuff that would be broadly applicable to any site with downvotes, and I guess it wouldn't take away any value, but would it add any?

[WillSullivan]

Which is why I didn't put too much thought into this at the time it was opened.

If I can find a convenient way to generate these links, and it doesn't take much effort to add them, then I'm more than willing to put it out there. The site is here to help people, so if friendly comments with the link would be helpful, then there's no reason not to add them.

[ThomasLandauer]

Another point in favor of copy-pastable comments: The text at http://idownvotedbecau.se/noattempt/ is too long! We're addressing people who didn't spend 10 minutes to figure out how SO works. And now we're asking them to spend 10 minutes to read some text ;-)

Suggestion: Redesign the homepage http://idownvotedbecau.se/ to include such copy-paste comments for each category. The wording suggested by @klutt is a good starting point for the noattempt category.

[WillSullivan]

"If I can find a convenient way to generate these links, and it doesn't take much effort to add them, then I'm more than willing to put it out there. The site is here to help people, so if friendly comments with the link would be helpful, then there's no reason not to add them." I''m not opposed to it, it's just that someone has to do it, either me or someone else. This is low on my radar right now for free time work.

I don't want to have to hand write these and maintain them on the main page. I'd prefer to have them defined in a given page's yaml data and then display them somewhere via an automatically generated list. It's doable, I believe. I just haven't gotten around to it.

Also, if someone doesn't care and can't be arsed to read something, I can't help them.

[lionel-rowe]

I'd suggest something like this:

I downvoted because [{{ page.byline }} (view details)](https://idownvotedbecau.se/{{ page.permalink }}).

Example from https://idownvotedbecau.se/nocode/:

I downvoted because [without code, it is very hard to help you (view details)](https://idownvotedbecau.se/nocode/).

Rendered:

I downvoted because without code, it is very hard to help you (view details).