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I recently posted an answer to a challenge. I included a rather lengthy "how it's done" guide with the answer. I want to make the explanation available because I find it interesting and I hope a few others do, too. I don't really want to include the guide with the answer though because 1) it's really long, and 2) I kind of like the mystery without the "how to" staring you directly in the face. Is there another good place on codegolf to put it?

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    \$\begingroup\$ The second part can be solved by a spoiler tag. \$\endgroup\$
    – John Dvorak
    Feb 24, 2014 at 7:30
  • \$\begingroup\$ @JanDvorak I know, except it's reallly long \$\endgroup\$
    – Jason C
    Feb 24, 2014 at 7:32
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    \$\begingroup\$ If you put it in a code block, a scrollbar appears, limiting the length. \$\endgroup\$
    – Justin
    Feb 24, 2014 at 16:59
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    \$\begingroup\$ I personally like answers with explanations if they're appropriate. The length of the answer doesn't really concern me, I don't waste that much extra energy using my finger to scroll a bit further. :-) \$\endgroup\$
    – Gareth
    Feb 25, 2014 at 18:50

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You could post it to an online fiddle site (Ideone, jsfiddle, etc.) with explanatory comments in the version there.

Then people are free to follow the link if they want to see how the sausage is made, but it's not in their face as they are reading the answer.

Or just blog about it and link to your blog. Past posts on meta.SO have established that is Ok if you're not being blatantly self-promotional or a huckster/shill.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I forgot we can make blog entries here. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jason C
    Feb 28, 2014 at 23:12
  • \$\begingroup\$ @JasonC We can make blog entries within SE? How? Or are you just talking about including a link to an external blog? \$\endgroup\$
    – Digital Trauma
    Mar 3, 2014 at 18:29
  • \$\begingroup\$ @DigitalTrauma Wait, no, we can't. Sorry, I totally confused SE with another forum that I just recently found out I could make blog posts on. Duh... \$\endgroup\$
    – Jason C
    Mar 3, 2014 at 21:14
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You should keep it there, but make it code, so it will have it's own scroll bar (except on mobile). I wouldn't prefer external resources, as they can be down / lost / deleted, making the explanation unreachable.

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    \$\begingroup\$ I disagree strongly. Fixed width with proportional font is not fun for prose on desktop, and hideous on mobile. \$\endgroup\$
    – Peter Taylor
    Mar 1, 2014 at 19:47
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    \$\begingroup\$ @PeterTaylor dead links are even worse \$\endgroup\$
    – SztupY
    Mar 1, 2014 at 20:11
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    \$\begingroup\$ Dead links are bad, but they are bad when they harm the substance of an answer. In this case the linked information is not the answer, nor even essential to the answer. It's commentary. Just as JSFiddle or IDEOne could close down or change URLs and break a bunch of links on the site without actually invalidating any of the answers, the same goes for commentary on a personal site. But as long as the meat of the answer is here on the site, we can let people put footnotes, demonstrations, and such where they like. \$\endgroup\$
    – Jonathan Van Matre
    Mar 2, 2014 at 0:51

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