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My answer here was recently deleted.

https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/148332/by-what-force-does-a-man-attract-earth/148336?noredirect=1#comment309273_148336

I never encountered such forceful thing on any Stack Exchange site before. It was neither spam nor offensive post (the situations in which answers are deleted).

What is it all about? Yes, I did write 800N, but the answer also had useful concept.

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I quote the comment I left on your answer:

I'm temporarily deleting this in accordance with our homework policy. Please don't post complete answers to homework-like questions.

That's why. I'm not sure what to add to that. (Maybe if you can elaborate on why you were confused by that message, I can provide something more useful.)

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    $\begingroup$ It's rude to delete answers. Was closing the question not enough? $\endgroup$
    – Earth is a Spoon
    Commented Nov 24, 2014 at 9:43
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    $\begingroup$ It's also fairly impolite to someone with a homework question to simply blast their problem apart without guiding them to the solution; this is why questions with complete answers are temporarily deleted. $\endgroup$
    – Emilio Pisanty
    Commented Nov 24, 2014 at 10:25
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    $\begingroup$ I would add that it's rude to the community here to give complete answers to homework questions, for much the same reason that it's rude to leave food sitting out in a shared house. (It attracts ants. Or lazy students.) But really, the argument "you were rude so I can be rude" is not one I want to rely on, because it doesn't apply in general. It's just that moderation, by its nature, sometimes requires doing things that other people don't like. It's for the good of the site as a whole though. $\endgroup$
    – David Z
    Commented Nov 24, 2014 at 12:54
  • $\begingroup$ This question had a one line answer, which I posted. But it was deleted for the same reason as Sachin's. I think the OP of that post found the answer rather helpful. Giving hints on one line answers will do nothing but make this site more counterproductive. $\endgroup$
    – user49111
    Commented Nov 26, 2014 at 7:01
  • $\begingroup$ @ThePragmatick actually I would argue the opposite, that giving hints makes this site productive especially when the answer is one line. It all hinges on how you define "productive". Our goal here is to help people understand physics better - to give them the tools they need to do physics on their own - not to give them answers. Giving one-line answers is counterproductive to that goal. On a site where the goal is to do physics problems for people, then sure, one-line answers are useful and long explanations are counterproductive, but this is not that site. $\endgroup$
    – David Z
    Commented Nov 26, 2014 at 7:09
  • $\begingroup$ @DavidZ I don't know what OP was trying to do in that question. He had certainly not taken his theory classes. His approach to such a simple question was rather illogical. I know giving complete answers is not appropriate, as the asker is spoon-fed with the answer, and there is no effort to be done on his part. But that should only be in the case of practical questions, involving figures. In theoretical question, involving direct definition based answer, I think not much fiddling should be done with OP. Anyways. $\endgroup$
    – user49111
    Commented Nov 26, 2014 at 7:20
  • $\begingroup$ @ThePragmatick well, if you'd like to change the policy to that effect, feel free to bring it up in a new meta post. $\endgroup$
    – David Z
    Commented Nov 26, 2014 at 7:28
  • $\begingroup$ @DavidZ I am going to do nothing such, but I have one thing to point out. This site is flooded with complete answers to homework like questions by high rep users. And nobody acts against them. To wit - this. I earlier thought the answer to this was no brainer, but refrained from answering. I was surprised when I saw the user who had answered it. $\endgroup$
    – user49111
    Commented Nov 26, 2014 at 9:16
  • $\begingroup$ @ThePragmatick That example is not a homework-like question, so the answer is fine. That being said, if you see lots of those answers and nobody acts against them, it's because the people who are empowered to act against them (i.e. moderators) haven't noticed. We need you to flag them! $\endgroup$
    – David Z
    Commented Nov 26, 2014 at 9:19

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