Wrote an answer while question got put on hold

Question

I started to write an answer to this question, but I while I was collecting sources and composing my answer, the question got put on hold, so I can't post my answer. I tried improving the question in the hope that it could be reopened, but the edited hasn't even been accepted (or rejected) yet, letalone the question reopened.

I believe my answer to be of at least necessary quality, and to be quite comprehensive. I would not like to see the time I invested go to waste. I believe my answer would be helpful to users, and I'd personally profit from having it posted publicly by being able to refer people to it - I've been asked it already multiple times in real times. In addition, I'd love to have a good place to look up this information myself.

For all these reasons, I'd very much find a way to post my answer. Since trying to improve the question or reopen it seems hopeless, I am unsure what to do.

Should I post my answer on another site and link to it in the comments? What should I do with my answer?

Answer 1

Should I post my answer on another site and link to it in the comments?

No. Comments are not for answering the question, and I'd hope our moderators would delete such comments. Stack Exchange strongly aims to be a definitive source for Q&As, and the last thing we want is to encourage "see some other site" type answers.

Of course, none of this is to say you shouldn't post your work on your site - just that we shouldn't be linking it from Stack Exchange (at least not the Q&A site. Dropping a note to it in chat would be appropriate).

What should I do with my answer?

In general, if a question is on hold, that's because the community believes the question isn't a good fit for Stack Exchange. One of the ways we keep the quality of Stack Exchange up is by aggressively (compared to many other discussion boards / forums) moderating content to keep it within our guidelines. We don't aim to be the only source of good content on the Internet, and that means that even if you've written some great stuff, it may be that Stack Exchange isn't the place for it. Fortunately, there are plenty of other means to publish content on the Internet should you want to.

In case of this specific question, I think there may be a way to rescue things, which I've suggested over on your related meta question.

Answer 2

Post a question and your answer, Q&A-style.

You believed the question was good enough that you wrote a good answer in good faith. So go ahead and post your re-worked version--which you believe to be on-topic and clear--with your answer. There's even a button for that!

Be fully aware, though, as you do so, that a very similar question's been asked and closed. It's probably worth, then, a few prophylactic measures:

• Start off with "Inspired by [link to closed question], I wondered about blah blah blah."
• Write your tightly-focused version of the answerable question
• Either as a footnote or below an <hr> element write a few lines about what you think the failings of the closed question were, and how this question doesn't have those failings.

Your question might get close-votes. In this case you should engage with voters in comments as you would any other question, assuming good faith on their part and looking for ways to improve the question.

Your question might prompt the earlier author to improve their post, leading to a reopen of that and closure of yours as duplicate. That's okay. You started on this process trying to answer that question anyway! You can request (by flag for "moderator attention") that your answer be moved over to the earlier question, a process called "merging" the questions.

You are a member of the community.

You think the question--at least your reading of it, if not the question-as-presented--was worth being part of this repository. Use the privileges you have--asking and answering--to make it so. But be up-front about it, so nobody suspects shenanigans.