You're absolutely right! There are potentially a great many readers with exactly the same question, and any response should bear that in mind.
At the same time, Stackoverflow and similar public fora are doubly dangerous for the issue I've described. Instead of the possibility of one person mishandling information they're not equipped to contextualize, you have potentially tens of thousands who will stop reading once they get the answer you have helpfully provided first.
Again, you're completely correct. Any response should bear in mind the possibly sizable audience. I think it might be the case that there could be scenarios where answering the question as asked first is actually the least helpful thing one could do for this audience. I have personally fallen into this trap, reading the first few sentences of something helpful and getting the dangerous information I was looking for, coming back for the rest only when it blew up in my face.
At the same time, Stackoverflow and similar public fora are doubly dangerous for the issue I've described. Instead of the possibility of one person mishandling information they're not equipped to contextualize, you have potentially tens of thousands who will stop reading once they get the answer you have helpfully provided first.
Again, you're completely correct. Any response should bear in mind the possibly sizable audience. I think it might be the case that there could be scenarios where answering the question as asked first is actually the least helpful thing one could do for this audience. I have personally fallen into this trap, reading the first few sentences of something helpful and getting the dangerous information I was looking for, coming back for the rest only when it blew up in my face.