Asking questions where one already knows the answer?

Question

In Is the Suunto Ambit compatible with the Bontrager DuoTrap Digital Speed/Cadence Sensor? the questioner answered his question immediately after having posted his question. Beside the fact, that I find it quite inappropriate in this special case, as it has is a simple "yes" or "no" answer, I would like to bring to discussion the following topic:

Do you find it OK to ask a question where one already knows the or an answer?

From other sx.com sites (more programming-related) I know that it is considered OK as long as one is honest enough to tell already in the question that one has an answer and will give the others some time to think about an answer before posting the own one.it

On this community here I think this is rather complicated. We have normally either questions that are basically answered "yes/no" or such ones that ask more or less for the opinions of the community. An the other hand, questions that ask for a solution for a specific problem, like they are common for programming communities, are quite rare. Therefore I cannot really imagine that there could be many questions for this specific community where it could be useful to ask a question where one already knows the answer.

How do you think about this?

Answer 1

It's perfectly ok to answer your own question.

In fact, there's a little checkbox when you're posting a question that allows you to post an answer simultaneously. You can tell this question/answer used that, because the timestamps are identical down to the second. That way, nobody wastes their time working on the same answer the questioner is about to post. I'd rather somebody post their answer simultaneously with the question, not wait.

The basic idea of our site is to make the internet a better place for people with bicycling questions. Answering your own question like that puts the knowledge out there so that in the future people with the same problem/question can find an answer more easily.

With some questions, you may post an answer to your own question, but somebody else could come in later with a better answer. That's extra good.

More here: It’s OK to Ask and Answer Your Own Questions

A separate issue: is the question useful? Answering your own question doesn't change anything else. The question and answer still need to be clear, likely to be useful to somebody else someday, etc.

Answer 2

There will be situations where you've done a fair amount of research into a subject and, rather than lose the knowledge or blog it elsewhere, writing a question so that you can document your discoveries in an answer makes perfect sense.

Now you might think that it might seem more reasonable to ask the question first, then go and research, coming back later with the answer, but that might not always fit.

If you think that the topic is too specific, then vote to close, but otherwise, I think that answering your own question so that your solution is left for someone else to potentially exploit is exactly what we're here for.