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.
The question in the title: Second pass at: Asking a follow-up: new topic or new reply? I will give what I have already checked below so nobody repeats it.
Posting a small dataset on Asking a follow-up. It is mine, it is uncontrolled, and the method is stated so it can be discounted appropriately.
What I would like is not agreement but a second dataset collected by someone with no stake in mine. If one exists I would rather read it than argue for this one.
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.
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.
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.
Someone will know this better than I do and I hope they say so.
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Revisiting: Five questions in one post gets you one answer — how to split them
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+2 | 6 | 13k | 20mo |
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How to disagree with an answer you were given, well
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+9 | 13 | 1.6k | 1mo |
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Revisiting: What to include when your question involves arithmetic
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+21 | 25 | 384 | 12mo |
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Five questions in one post gets you one answer — how to split them
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+85 | 90 | 1k | 2mo |
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The anatomy of a question that gets answered within an hour — the long version
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+129 | 142 | 49k | 8mo |
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A friction point in the promotion workflow
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+4 | 8 | 491 | 11mo |
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Measurement error in home scales, with a worked standard deviation — the long version
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+96 | 105 | 2k | 2mo |
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About the Introductions category
Say hello. No question required. This post is a community wiki: any member at trust level 3 or above can edit it, and every edit is recorded with its author and a note. If the scope described here has drifted…
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4 | 2.3k | 23mo | |
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How to disagree with an answer you were given, well
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+9 | 13 | 1.6k | 1mo |
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Why the timeline is on the right and not the left — what changed since
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+77 | 81 | 4k | 2d |