Answer questions from low reputation users

Question

I have been spending a lot of time Serverfault lately trying to first educate myself, second see if i can be helpful and thirdly bring up my own reputation.

I notice 2 things:

1. When a user with a low reputation asks a question there seems to be a good amount of views however no answers. I kind of see a couple of these questions as low hanging fruit being some are basic question that even I can answer.

2. Even though my answer is the only answer and i had been talking with the user through comments and im pretty sure I have answered the question they do not mark it as correct.

Really feels like a waste of my time, and Im thinking that a lot of people have already learned this being that my 1 answer is the only one there. Not even comments.

Is there an unspoken rule i am missing or maybe its time for the moderators to think of a system of maybe forcing people to get to X reputation before even being able to ask a question.

I know this sounds harsh however it might keep the people who really don't want to learn and are looking for free help off the site and let the professionals keep learning.

Without rambling on too much more, I know not really a question here but it kind of grinds my gears.

Just my thoughts. Any feedback or thoughts would be appreciated.

Answer 1

There's a few things at work here:

1. You're right that some people avoid answering questions from low-rep users because there's a good chance that the asker won't give any sort of feedback. Personally, I long ago let go of my craving for UIP ("Useless Internet Points") and I've been happier ever since, but I know it's a concern that some people have.
2. Plenty of "old hands" have given up answering "n00b" questions because they're boring and repetitious. That's pretty much the boat I'm in these days -- I'm just not that interested in explaining some basic concept yet again. I might point to a canonical question if I'm feeling generous, but usually the expectation I'll end up arguing over why the canonical question does have the answer, if the asker will just engage their thinking organ for a little while, usually dissuades me.
3. A lot of questions from new users are poorly thought out, incomplete, muddle-headed, or otherwise deficient in some way that can make it frustrating to answer, so for people who are already jaded and cynical, dealing with another round of "what are you really asking?" can seem like too much effort.

There's an upside to all this for you, the eager newcomer to our fine corner of the Internet: there's lots of questions that are just crying out for your care and attention. As long as you can avoid falling into the trap of thinking you "deserve" upvotes and accepted ticks (and the bitterness that results), answering questions can be very rewarding. You learn all sorts of things about how to ask good questions, think through a problem logically, communicate ideas clearly, and personally, I've found I need a much better understanding of a topic to explain it than I would if I were just "doing" it.

As for the suggestion that people get a certain rep before they can ask a question... it's been suggested before. At one time or another, I may even have made such a suggestion (or supported it) myself. The problem with it is that a Q&A site needs both questions and answers. While it's certainly true that ServerFault, at least, currently has a problem with the endless September of bad questions seemingly driving away all the people capable of providing answers, I'm pretty sure that if we made people jump through rep-gaining hoops (which basically means "answer questions") before asking, it would drive away an equal proportion of "good" questions as it does "OMFG srs?" questions. I don't think it would have the desired effect, unfortunately.

Answer 2

In addition to what womble said, another factor is that on most "mature" SE sites - and certainly on ServerFault - there isn't that much voting. So even though your answers are fine, you'll find that accumulating votes is slow.

But don't lose hope, you will get votes trickling in.

Answer 3

My answer rate (the amount of accepted answers) is rather important to me. Low rep users, especially the ones who come from stackoverflow, generally don't accept answers. This is my primary reason for ignoring questions from low rep users.

My second reason is that the questions just flat suck. I'm pretty knowledgeable in Powershell and Automation so I gravitate towards those kinds of questions. Most are lazy people wanting someone else to write a script for them. Others lack sufficient knowledge to understand the difference between a technical question and the need for troubleshooting. I've tried in the past to explain in depth how or why something works the way it does so the person might understand their question is unanswerable. Those attempts generally end unfavorably. Even when a high rep user get's an in-depth answer you're not guaranteed to find out whether your time was even worth it.

The last reason is those UIP's which Womble references. I'd like to assist the community more but my rep level isn't high enough. I asses each new question (and by extension its asker) to determine if it's something that can be answered, doesn't need a ton of troubleshooting effort to get to the real problem, and whether or not the asker accepts answers. Programmatic questions generally require deep effort on my part as I need to parse code, write new code, and test it before posting. All the while not knowing whether or not someone else is also answering.

Answer 4

This discussion leaves out at least one extremely important point.

Stack Exchange is not only basically useless for New User’s questions, it actively drives New Users away

Here’s why ...

That those who have low reputation on Stack Exchange:

• Who have diligently searched for an answer
• Found none,
• Then asked a detailed question,

… get no answers at all. No answers even after months of the questions being opened.

This leads to New User giving up on the whole Stack Exchange concept.

So, I’m agreeing with Anthony Fornito’s root thought of something needs to be done on Stack Exchange as it seems great for answering a question that was asked years ago, but it is not only basically useless for New User’s questions, it actively drives New Users away.

My 2 cents,

Michael

PS: “You must have 50 reputation points to comment”

Since I can’t actually post a comment I had to add an “Answer.” Which should be it’s own discussion

PS2:

Yes, this is my personal experience, and yes I do want my 2 questions answered.

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