Am I allowed to copy/paste content online to paste to answer Q/A

Question

Am I allowed to copy/paste content online to paste to answer Q/A?
Sometimes I do this because I’m trying to help people, but I always give them credit. Do I still have to give the website credit or am I not allowed to copy and paste at all? thank you

Answer 1

If one is found to have copy-pasted answers elsewhere into the Q&A, without providing credit to the original source, in attempts to misguide others into thinking that they wrote those answers themselves, we treat those similarly as how we treat other plagiarized content.

If you are copying directly, remember to quote your sources, or provide the link to the target article.

Answer 2

Quoting or summarizing some content shouldn't be a problem, but do include source of information in honour to the original author.

The character limits applied for a thread's answer would not allow a detailed answer written anyways. Unless they are splitted into multiple answers - which is more hassle than not.

Besides, why rewrite a full-blown explanation when someone somewhere already did, in a better structure, grammar and examples? e.g. a web page can embed images or videos apart from theoretical concept and code example, which helps the viewer understand better.

Such additiinal resources are not normally possible in forum answers, even though links work.

Did anyone tell you it was forbidden?