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I can't see what's wrong with my answer to this question. That I linked outside and didn't copy paste? It was deleted so you can't even see it...

I would rather comment but if I don't have 50 reputation points I can't. so what can I do? Should I really copy/paste wiki next time?

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    This is a question for the meta, not the actual site. I feel you shouldn't be downvoted because of this. This is just the wrong place to ask. I flagged your question as belonging to the meta site. Commented May 11, 2017 at 14:06
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    see Why do I need 50 reputation to comment? What can I do instead? (for users with less than 10K: screen shot of deleted answer / direct 10K link) Commented May 11, 2017 at 14:07
  • Possible duplicate of Why was my answer repeatedly downvoted and deleted then? Commented May 11, 2017 at 14:12
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    I can't see your answer that you're referencing, but in general link-only answers are discouraged. If all you provided was a link to the wiki, that's a bad answer, as wiki's (and outside links) can change and the answer can become useless or lost completely. You can still link to something, but it's always better to include snippets to ensure your answer remains valid if the link you provide ever dies. Commented May 11, 2017 at 14:22
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    Possible duplicate of Are answers that just contain links elsewhere really “good answers”? on the general stackexchange meta. Commented May 11, 2017 at 14:30
  • @dckuehn screen shot of deleted answer is referred in my previous comment Commented May 11, 2017 at 14:32

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Understand that this is not a help site. This is a Q & A site. We like questions and answers that will be useful to people besides the original poster.

The question has been poorly received for exactly that reason. Sometimes an answer can redeem a poor question by addressing the question in a way that will be useful to others. That didn't happen. Your answer provided little more than a google search would.

When such questions and answers show up on the site they lower the sites quality. Removing them is how we maintain quality and define what the site is about.

You ask what you should have done. You should have either provided a stellar answer that would redeem this low quality question or just moved on to the next question. Stellar answers aren't easy to pull off. So don't get your hopes up.

What I hope you'll eventually be able to do is provide the OP feedback about why you have to skip their question. Because while we don't need poor quality questions and answers we do need informed people.

Mostly, remember, this place isn't about you. Or the OP. It's about the thousands who will come after you looking for high quality questions and answers.

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I can see your answer. I would guess that it was deleted because it was not a very good answer, it was just a link to a Wikipedia page with no additional commentary, insight, or discussion.

Posting a simple link with "read this link" is OK as a comment, but the threshold is higher if you want to post an answer. Try to add something useful to the link you post. If you're going to link to a long Wikipedia entry, at least try to point out the sections that will be useful to the Original Poster and why (although that still might get downvoted as not being very useful).

edit:

I would rather comment but if I don't have 50 reputation points I can't. so what can I do? Should I really copy/paste wiki next time?

I understand that is frustrating. I can't speak for the exact reason that you can post an answer right away when you join the community, but you need 50 rep points to post a comment, though I would guess it's to discourage people from joining and immediately posting low-quality comments.

But no, please do not copy & paste a wiki page next time. You are welcome to copy sections of text and indicate their origin on a wiki page, and then add your own comments or insights on that text to make a useful answer...

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