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I see a lot of posts in which users give personal info like the following:

I am doing Computer course, but no Chemistry classes.

I goto this this University.

I attend night school. <-- Yes, I did saw something like that.

Then there is stuff like:

Please ignore my dumbness.

I don't know much about chemistry, so excuse me.

I think I have got a clue, but I am not confident on it. <-- and then no clue mentioned

A very big advance thankyou to everyone who answers.

Ok, this stuff might be useful sometimes to judge that at what level should the answer be given. But these are just examples from the top of my head. There are many many such cases where over-personal info is given. A complete waste of reading space. (And kinda irritating as well...)

So, when I edit those, I try to keep the striking off minimum. But, I get confused. Should it be removed or not? The OP didn't mean any bad through it. It might appear rudeness to new users...

So, should this content be completely struck off? Or, the way I edit is fine? Or, it should be left there?

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    $\begingroup$ I was just wondering this myself. I see no problem with someone saying thank you at the end of their question. I also see no problem with someone giving their background (very shortly) so that people have a general idea on what level the question should be answered yet (as you mentioned). Is their a policy against that? $\endgroup$
    – canadianer
    May 28, 2014 at 6:30
  • $\begingroup$ @canadianer I don't know of any policy against that. But, why on Earth would someone mention his University name or that he visits Night school? And that he takes Computer classes. I think the description of user is where all this is to be done, if needed. $\endgroup$
    – user3459110
    May 28, 2014 at 6:40
  • $\begingroup$ I agree with you there, but something like "I'm not a chemist" or "I haven't take chemistry classes in a while" may be relevant. If they also add that they're a computer scientist, does it really matter? That said, I wrote "I'm not a physicist" in a question on physics SE once and someone edited it out. $\endgroup$
    – canadianer
    May 28, 2014 at 6:45
  • $\begingroup$ @canadianer apparently, in that revision of your question, DavidZ (a mod there) also stripped off Thanking stuff. I am not saying he did any wrong. I would have done the same. And I am not saying that you did any wrong, you were just giving a "thank you"... And, the problem is, new users, if notice this, might infer from this that on the SE network, we should not thank anyone in advance at least! So it seems, maybe we should leave a comment that they can upvote stuff, add a comment as to why exactly the post helped them, or accept the answer of course. $\endgroup$
    – user3459110
    May 28, 2014 at 7:56

1 Answer 1

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Sometimes the degree/etc is relevant to establish a context.

Remove lines like "please excuse my dumbness", "thanks in advance", etc, however.

See also: Should 'Hi', 'thanks', taglines, and salutations be removed from posts?

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  • $\begingroup$ And what about the personal info that I don't feel like important? $\endgroup$
    – user3459110
    May 28, 2014 at 8:42
  • $\begingroup$ @AwalGarg up to you $\endgroup$
    – ManishEarth
    May 28, 2014 at 10:56

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