Ask the Geek Way: Impacts of Using Markdown in Questions on Answers Received in Online Technical Q&A Communities

Dylan Junluo Chen; Zhewen Liang; Ben Liu

doi:10.24251/hicss.2025.310

Ask the Geek Way: Impacts of Using Markdown in Questions on Answers Received in Online Technical Q&A Communities

Department of Information Systems

Research output: Conference Papers › RGC 31A - Invited conference paper (refereed items) › Yes › peer-review

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Abstract

The answers provided in technical Question and Answer (Q&A) communities (e.g., Stack Overflow) play an important role in the knowledge acquisition of IT professionals. However, those seeking answers often encounter difficulties in obtaining timely and high-quality responses. Existing research suggests that the way questions are presented has a significant influence on the answers obtained. Our study examines how question presentation, characterized through the lens of Markdown, influences the answers received in technical Q&A communities. The results show that questions formatted with Markdown are associated with more and higher-quality answers. However, using Markdown seems to adversely affect the timeliness of the responses. Further analysis reveals that the negative impact is primarily due to specific Markdown syntax elements, such as hyperlinks. These results have important implications for both theory and practice in the field of online Q&A communities. © 2025 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

Original language	English
Pages	2553-2562
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.24251/hicss.2025.310
Publication status	Published - 7 Jan 2025
Event	58th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2025) - Hilton Waikoloa Village, Waikoloa, United States Duration: 7 Jan 2025 → 10 Jan 2025

Conference

Conference	58th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2025)
Abbreviated title	HICSS-58
Place	United States
City	Waikoloa
Period	7/01/25 → 10/01/25

Bibliographical note

Information for this record is supplemented by the author(s) concerned.

Research Keywords

question presentation
Markdown usage
online technical Q&A community
answers received

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This full text is made available under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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title = "Ask the Geek Way: Impacts of Using Markdown in Questions on Answers Received in Online Technical Q\&A Communities",

abstract = "The answers provided in technical Question and Answer (Q\&A) communities (e.g., Stack Overflow) play an important role in the knowledge acquisition of IT professionals. However, those seeking answers often encounter difficulties in obtaining timely and high-quality responses. Existing research suggests that the way questions are presented has a significant influence on the answers obtained. Our study examines how question presentation, characterized through the lens of Markdown, influences the answers received in technical Q\&A communities. The results show that questions formatted with Markdown are associated with more and higher-quality answers. However, using Markdown seems to adversely affect the timeliness of the responses. Further analysis reveals that the negative impact is primarily due to specific Markdown syntax elements, such as hyperlinks. These results have important implications for both theory and practice in the field of online Q\&A communities. {\textcopyright} 2025 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.",

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author = "Chen, \{Dylan Junluo\} and Zhewen Liang and Ben Liu",

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Ask the Geek Way: Impacts of Using Markdown in Questions on Answers Received in Online Technical Q&A Communities. / Chen, Dylan Junluo ; Liang, Zhewen ; Liu, Ben.
2025. 2553-2562 58th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2025), Waikoloa, Hawaii, United States.

Research output: Conference Papers › RGC 31A - Invited conference paper (refereed items) › Yes › peer-review

TY - CONF

T1 - Ask the Geek Way

T2 - 58th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2025)

AU - Chen, Dylan Junluo

AU - Liang, Zhewen

AU - Liu, Ben

N1 - Information for this record is supplemented by the author(s) concerned.

PY - 2025/1/7

Y1 - 2025/1/7

N2 - The answers provided in technical Question and Answer (Q&A) communities (e.g., Stack Overflow) play an important role in the knowledge acquisition of IT professionals. However, those seeking answers often encounter difficulties in obtaining timely and high-quality responses. Existing research suggests that the way questions are presented has a significant influence on the answers obtained. Our study examines how question presentation, characterized through the lens of Markdown, influences the answers received in technical Q&A communities. The results show that questions formatted with Markdown are associated with more and higher-quality answers. However, using Markdown seems to adversely affect the timeliness of the responses. Further analysis reveals that the negative impact is primarily due to specific Markdown syntax elements, such as hyperlinks. These results have important implications for both theory and practice in the field of online Q&A communities. © 2025 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

AB - The answers provided in technical Question and Answer (Q&A) communities (e.g., Stack Overflow) play an important role in the knowledge acquisition of IT professionals. However, those seeking answers often encounter difficulties in obtaining timely and high-quality responses. Existing research suggests that the way questions are presented has a significant influence on the answers obtained. Our study examines how question presentation, characterized through the lens of Markdown, influences the answers received in technical Q&A communities. The results show that questions formatted with Markdown are associated with more and higher-quality answers. However, using Markdown seems to adversely affect the timeliness of the responses. Further analysis reveals that the negative impact is primarily due to specific Markdown syntax elements, such as hyperlinks. These results have important implications for both theory and practice in the field of online Q&A communities. © 2025 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

KW - question presentation

KW - Markdown usage

KW - online technical Q&A community

KW - answers received

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U2 - 10.24251/hicss.2025.310

DO - 10.24251/hicss.2025.310

M3 - RGC 31A - Invited conference paper (refereed items)

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Y2 - 7 January 2025 through 10 January 2025

ER -

Ask the Geek Way: Impacts of Using Markdown in Questions on Answers Received in Online Technical Q&A Communities

Abstract

Conference

Bibliographical note

Research Keywords

Publisher's Copyright Statement

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