How should I handle questions I've asked that may be unanswerable

Question

I recently asked this question. One of the comments suggested something I had not thought about, that the situation is ongoing so there may not be anyone who can provide an answer.

I'm also now skeptical that I will get an answer to the first question I asked. I just don't think this site is known widely enough by the worlds pilots, aviation professionals and enthusiasts for one of the handful of pilots who fly over the specific mountain I mentioned to see, let alone answer my question.

I'm also beginning to think the same thing about this question. Again, what percentage of private airstrip owners in the United States know about Aviation.SE?

I've been a private pilot for twelve years, a power web user for twenty two and I just noticed the existance of this site a month ago. When I shared a recent post with the 100+ members of my glider club, I don't believe a single one knew of it's existence. This is from a cross section ranging from new pilots to pilots of 60+ years, instructors and students, Airline pilots, former and active military pilots, etc. Is this site just not well known enough yet to support such specific aviation related questions?

Questions:

• How long should I wait to take action on these questions, in the interest of good citizenship on this site? Is it acceptable for me to leave them out there for awhile and wait, hoping, as the site becomes more well known, that the questions will be answered eventually?
• For the case of the first question I mentioned, which may never have an answer, what should I do? Answer it myself with a note that I've concluded that it is unaswerable?

I know I've broken the cardinal rule for asking questions on the main site by asking multiple questions in one post, but I'm hoping I'll get some leeway on the Meta site.

Answer 1

I would do nothing with your questions!

It's abundantly clear that you are a responsible citizen and that your motivations are good.

If you conclude that a question is unanswerable, then the correct thing to do is to delete it. Posting an answer would not be right since answers are always expected to be answers. However, to delete in your case would probably be a mistake. It might be deleted for you if people vote to close and enough people agree but this is not happening in these cases. The stack is self-healing in this respect and it works quite well.

Which leads to your point about how many people know about this place. StackExchange itself handles the overt marketing and they have their own meta site where you could contribute to that should you wish but the most direct impact you can have is to ask and answer questions. The sites' membership continues to grow and that growth is accelerating. This is natural since it is word of mouth and links from other sites (especially search engines) which powers that growth. You can have a big influence on this simply by contributing. It doesn't matter how much SE promotes itself. If people stop by and find the content to be low quality, then Darwin will prevail. By continuing to do what you do, you are making a difference.

That might not, and probably will not, help you in time, especially with your first question. I doubt that there is anyone here who did not wish that they could help you with that one. But the ultimate goals of SE look towards the future to help people other than you.

New answers to old questions are common and whilst they might not help you, they do improve the health of the stack. There are questions on here which are 2 or 3 years old and still attract answers.

I therefore encourage you to continue as you are.

Good luck with your search. I would be very grateful if you returned afterwards and updated us with your story. By the way, I moved swiftly past that question since I have little, if anything, to contribute but have you contacted the USAF to ask for their help? I don't know how it works over there but the UK RAF has departments assigned to help quests such as this.