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If there is question asked by a user who is not very familiar with mathematics, how far should the answer go? Is it better to have rigorous answers full of terminology and generalization of the result, or to explain in a not so mathematically rigorous but intuitive way which is easy for beginners (like me) to pick up?

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This should probably be moved to meta, since it's a question about the site. – Jonathan Christensen Jan 24 at 0:00
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That's why it is nice to have more than one answer, featuring various approaches. – André Nicolas Jan 24 at 0:34

migrated from math.stackexchange.com Jan 24 at 0:41

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Both. If you want to do one, do one. If you want to do the other, do the other. Answers are not only for the asker.

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While I agree wholeheartedly, I'd like to add the following caveat: If you're giving a non-elementary answer to an elementary question, it's not a bad idea to say so. Otherwise the OP may think that the only way to address his/her question is through advanced methods (and thus may give up hope of understanding before other answers are posted). – Brett Frankel Feb 5 at 1:40

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