Isn't the /homework
issue simply about providing the context of a question? And isn't context part of what makes a question good? And didn't we all read the FAQ or policies before first-posting? Yeah, right, sure we did.
For that reason I refrain from down-voting on poor quality in first posts (which is where I see most /homework
vampires) simply because I can't really criticise them for not reading and applying the same protocols that I didn't.
Anyway, now I've been here a while, I understand that the key elements to a good question are:
- context, how did this issue arise?
- clear expression of the problem to be addressed.
- explain what was tried (with any error messages thrown). Even "I don't know where to start" lets you know the poster will need to be led by the hand.
If these key elements were expressly requested on the posting page (or even presented as default/background text in the question box?) then there is no excuse for a poster not to be aware of them and provide them.
Down-votes or comments regarding deficiencies would be more reasonably made knowing that the poster chose to ignore what we, as a community, expect of them (and indeed of ourselves).
Given a free hand I would prefer to confine new posters to a /babypool
until the first question was well enough phrased to be released (under the review process) into the general population. If a questioner persisted in failing to correct their post after help then I would also propose to hunt them down, raze their house to the ground and plough salt into the scorched earth. But maybe that's just the way I way I was brought up.
Yours lovingly
G.Khan. Esq.
Barbecues a speciality
homework
tag added by someone else. I won't do anything if someone re-adds the tag. – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Dec 29 '10 at 21:25