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About downvoting: the single strongest reason it's so rarely used is because of the reputation penalty involved in using it. People would use it rather more liberally if each downvote didn't mean a -1 for them, too. And yes, of course, -1 rep is very little... but it's definitely enough to abstain from mass-downvoting bad questions and only use it when a question is outrageously bad; I really don't think getting -1000 rep is a worthy reward for helping the community by pointing out 1000 bad questions.
This discussion is about close reasons. I know well enough that the actual close reason is not relevant at all, it's just abunch of text describing why you would like a question to be closed. But since we are limited in the possible close reasons we can use (unless we take time to write custom ones for each VTC), it makes sense to have one addressing the (sadly) most common reason we're VTC, i.e. "you don't have a clue about what you're doing".
@SteveBonds There is already one. "Questions seeking installation, configuration or diagnostic help must include the desired end state, the specific problem or error, sufficient information about the configuration and environment to reproduce it, and attempted solutions. Questions without a clear problem statement are not useful to other readers and are unlikely to get good answers." exists exactly for this purpose.
@HopelessN00b Agreed, the advice should probably be more explicit, along the lines of "it may be advisable for you to read some documentation, undertake additional training or hire a professional"; but it would be probably better to leave out the part about dying in a fire, even if the OP probably deserves it.
See my answer for a possible solution; I'm of course trying to be diplomatic here... feel free to use a more blunt approach if you think it's appropriate ;)
See my answer for a possible solution; I'm of course trying to be diplomatic here... feel free to use a more blunt approach if you think it's appropriate ;)
Anyway, you are of course right: too much wording is too much open to interpretations, and gives false hopes about revising or discussing a fundamentally flawed question (or, even worse, attacking people who are telling you how much your question sucks, as actually happened in my example).
