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Is there a way to add information to a question without it being viewable. I. E. Is it possible to have text that will only show when you go to edit a question? So essentially it functions like the % in latex where the output is suppressed but you can read it in the actual .tex file.

I want to post a question but I don't want people to change the syntax or anything and hence I want to leave a little note in the editor view.

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  • I'll tell you why. With online exams coming I've thought of a brilliant false question to put in my exam so I want to catch students googling answers. The answer will be correct for stackexchange but wrong for the exam but I want the syntax and question to remain intact so students who Google the question will definitely find it. Commented May 18, 2020 at 15:18
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    @KennyB Uhm.. I'm not sure that's a very clever idea. SO is aimed at a global audience and not everyone who finds your "question" is going to be one of your students. Commented May 18, 2020 at 15:23
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    You can't prevent people from editing the question (though code edits in questions should be very rare). An "invisible" comment probably won't help much. Commented May 18, 2020 at 15:26
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    @ivarni The question is valid, it is correct and it actually covers content that is interesting and informative for the whole community. I'm not going to post the wrong answer on Stackexchange. Commented May 18, 2020 at 15:28
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    @KennyB I guess as long as the Q&A is relevant, correct and not a duplicate that's fine. It's a strange practice to give students access to online resources and then punishing them for using them but I guess that's also not our problem. Commented May 18, 2020 at 15:47
  • @ivarni The issue is policing these online exams we now have to give. It's almost impossible to stop cheating. There is a popular story of a professor who put up a hard question with a bogus answer on the Internet to catch cheaters. My issue with that is genuine people wanting to learn and then learning incorrect results/conclusions or methods. I came up with a question that has a good solution and is easy to follow. It just differs from the exam and students who are cheating probably don't understand enough to identify the differences. Commented May 18, 2020 at 15:51
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    We're not in the business of policing academic infidelity. We're a Q&A site. If people cheat, that sucks; we hope your institution deals with them appropriately. Otherwise, we're just volunteers, and despite the idea of you putting in a dummy answer to a question, the reality is that someone may actually answer it appropriately and get upvotes, so this probably isn't the platform to accomplish what your aims are. Commented May 18, 2020 at 15:53
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    Side note: trolling your students will only lead to more trolling and cheating. Please think twice before posting question with sole reason of trolling. Commented May 18, 2020 at 19:36

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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You can insert HTML comments: <!-- -->, as shown in Markdown help (in the "Syntax highlighting for code" section).

The comment will be hidden from normal view, but anyone can click the "edit" link to see the HTML comment. (From @rene comment)

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  • Thank you. Will read the section now Commented May 18, 2020 at 15:24
  • I thought users had to have x amount of reputation before they can edit questions. Commented May 18, 2020 at 15:45
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    @KennyB No, everyone can, the edit just goes to review if the person doing it is under 2k Commented May 18, 2020 at 15:46
  • Oh. Well there goes that idea. Still good to know for future referencing if I ever need it. Commented May 18, 2020 at 15:52
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The problem you're trying to solve is one in which someone might come along and "change the syntax". I'm not sure what this means.

  • Is it the case that a change to the actual semantics of the code will break the actual code or question?
  • Do you not want anyone to change the variable names?
  • Do you just not want anyone to come along and format it?

Bullets 1 and 2 can be dealt with by rolling back the edit. Edits that change the semantics of a question or change variable names add nothing to the question (and may actually wind up harming it), so rolling those back is part and parcel of what we do.

Bullet 3 is...well, that's fine. If formatting of your question makes it easier for others to read, that's something to be welcomed, not rejected.

Stack Overflow encourages the editing of questions and answers in an effort to make their presentation cleaner. If the question suddenly becomes a different question we can deal with that, but by and large, edits to questions are innocuous and more beneficial to the OP and overall question.

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