How to ask a question when you cannot say why you are asking it

Asking directly, because I could not find a straight answer: How to ask a question when you cannot say why you are asking it

Question in the title. Context below, and I have tried to include the things people here always have to ask for.

What I have already read: the relevant maintained document, the two topics it links to, and the tag page. What I could not find is the specific case I am in, which may simply mean it is uncommon.

I am happy to be told this is answered elsewhere if someone can point at where.

Asking a follow-up: new topic or reply in the old one? If the answer depends on the previous post, reply. If it is a question that makes sense without the previous post, new topic. The second gets faster answers.

The interesting part of this is the exception, and I do not understand the exception.

The opening post describes the usual case. This is about the unusual one.

Speaking as somebody who asked badly last month and got a polite request for four missing details: writing the question properly the first time takes ten minutes and saves two days. Learn from me.

Building on post #2 rather than restating it.

Timeline questions need the timeline. Dates, in order, with what happened on each. "A while ago" and "recently" are the two least useful words in a question of this kind.

Post #4 put the caveat in the right place and I want to underline it.

If your question has a deadline — a parcel in transit, a delivery you have to accept or refuse — say so. People answer differently when there is a clock on it.

That is a description of practice, not a recommendation of it.

Questions you cannot explain: "I cannot say why I am asking this, but is this compound stable at room temperature?" is more productive than no question at all. People here know that some questions cannot be asked in public and they will work with that constraint.

It is one reading of the data and not the only reasonable one.

Units. Everything needs units. This is why we ask every single time. I have seen the same arithmetic done three different ways depending on whether the person was thinking mg/mL or mg/dose or something else entirely. Stating the units makes that impossible.

Say what you want out of the answer. "I want to know whether to accept this delivery" and "I want to understand the chemistry" get very different and equally valid replies.

Saving this. It is the version I will quote when the question comes round again.

When you quote a figure from somewhere else, say where from. Not as a formality — the answer frequently depends on whether the number came from a certificate, an independent report or a forum post.

Adding the measurement that post #11 says would settle it.

It is fine to say you cannot explain why you are asking. Nobody will press, and the technical part of the question can usually be answered without the context.

Adding it because I spent an afternoon working it out and nobody should have to twice.

Where I part company with post #11, and it is a narrow parting.

A question about somebody else's post should be a reply to that post, not a new topic. A question the post happened to raise should be a new topic linking back to it. The difference is whether the answer is useful without the original.

I would not lead a decision with this, but I would not ignore it either.

Disagreeing with an answer you got: cite what you disagree with, say what contradicts it, and ask which one holds. Do not open with "I think you are wrong". Lead with the evidence.

Adding it in case it saves somebody the afternoon it cost me.