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Comments on Questions easily answered by studying a beginner-level book
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Questions easily answered by studying a beginner-level book
This scenario is not yet a problem for this site, but we will get there, since it's a huge problem for Stack Overflow:
Someone just picks up a well-known programming language for the first time. Then they almost immediately post a question on an online programming forum, which they could have easily answered themselves by reading the first chapters of a beginner-level book or by doing a minimum amount of research with a search engine.
That is, they did absolutely zero research effort and treats the community as an interactive beginner tutorial, expecting instant gratification by having their FAQ answered.
Should such questions that can easily be answered by a beginner-level book on the topic be closed? If so, what note should we add to https://software.codidact.com/help/on-topic?
What if a question is beginner level? I would say: Someone should answer it. Some of the beginner level questions on …
11mo ago
There's still time > This scenario is not yet a problem for this site, but we will get there, since it's a huge probl …
9mo ago
Downvote them for now. If it becomes a common problem, then create a close reason of no-research, and close them. Su …
2y ago
I would have a separation between what is on-topic / offtopic and what is worth upvoting or downvoting. Thus for the …
2y ago
How to ask says: > Do some research > > Before asking a new question, first take a look around. Has your question …
2y ago
Beginner questions are not a "huge problem" for StackOverflow. They are the main reason SO got big at all. During what I …
11mo ago
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What if a question is beginner level? I would say: Someone should answer it.
Some of the beginner level questions on stackoverflow have received answers that explain things in wonderful ways.
Beginner level questions are formulated in the way beginners ask questions. Experienced people forgot how beginners think.
Is it really important if a question is beginner level? Where is the boundary? I think it is more relevant whether the person has shown initiative. You can read a text book and still don't get it, until someone else explains it to you in a different way.
Maybe it should first be clear, what the problem is, before searching for a solution... If the problem with beginner level questions is:
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Answerers get angry at people who show no initiative and expect others to do their job: This is not a question about beginner level or not. But, maybe this kind of behavior is worth a special handling, such that there is a quick way for eliminating such questions, like, a button "No initiative" or something, only shown to users with higher privileges.
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Experienced people lose interest if they are always confronted with beginner-level questions. Then, why not ask people for putting labels on the questions like "beginner", "intermediate", "expert", and allow for filtering for these categories? Yes, some people might (possibly intentionally) choose a wrong rating, but then someone with privileges might override that rating...
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Q&A database filling up with garbage? Maybe there should be some means to rate the long-term value of a question and its answers, maybe there should be some clean-up days, expiration days after which a question and the answers disappear, ...
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Duplicates and very similar questions polluting the database? Why not offer the possibility to merge entries in some way, maybe having aliases for questions, so people can do a web search using different formulations?
Most likely there are other problems, and even more likely there are even better ideas to solve the problems...
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