Very poor quality questions everywhere (like panels everywhere but without the magical feeling...)

Question

The quality of questions asked by new (and some not-so-new) users seems to have taken a dramatic downturn in the last week or so. Looking at the front page right now I've already closed about 4 of them and reckon I could easily close the same number again (except that I'm getting bored of it and starting to feel like a tyrant).

Have we any strategies for dealing with this problem? I've left comments on all of the closed questions, but I fear those are falling on deaf ears.

I suppose what I really want to know is does anyone have an objection to me being militant about closing these poor quality questions?

'Cos unchecked, I will just obliterate the whole lot ;)

Answer 1

I have no objection to you being militant about closing poor quality questions.

In fact, I've had a general feeling for a long time that the quality has been heading downwards, and it largely has made me unmotivated to answer questions. Being militant about the problem may be necessary in it self, but unfortunately I don't know if it will help. This feeling was also mirrored by others during the Münich meetup, so I know I'm not alone.

I wish I had a concrete suggestion for how to improve the quality of questions being asked, rather than just getting rid of the bad ones, but I don't.

Answer 2

Moderators are allowed to close questions that are blatantly off-topic, or blatant cases of questions for which a closing reason is valid.

Unfortunately, there isn't a way to avoid low quality questions are asked. Even if the FAQ clearly states which questions should be asked, and we have questions tagged faq that guide the users about how to write a question, there is always somebody who asks a question that the FAQ suggest not to ask.

I think the solution is educating the users, and (most importantly) the users who should close the questions, or flag them.
We should made clear that not every question asked from somebody, and which is someway related to Drupal is acceptable, and that a minimum effort is required from who asks the question. Subjective questions asking for the best module, or the best way to do something are not questions that help future reader. Questions asking how to implement a feature, but that doesn't show any code written by the OP show little effort from who asks the question; Drupal Answers is not the site to give fish to who needs it, but the site to teach users how to fish. Users should understand that closing a question doesn't mean "you are not welcome to ask questions here"; they should understand the closure means "your current question is not acceptable, but if you change it to make it acceptable, then it can be re-opened."

It is also important to explain why the question is going to be closed, to avoid the users feel like their questions are closed because somebody didn't like them. Starting from today, I will add a comment explaining why the closed question is not a good suit for Drupal Answers, even if the question didn't get a closing vote from me. I hope more users will comment about the reason for closing the question too.

As side note, in the past 2 days, 16 questions have been closed; since the beginning of the year, 68 questions have been closed.
Between January 1, and January 8, we had a peak of 15 closed questions. Previously, the peak was of 17 questions closed, which was verified between October 8, and October 16.

Answer 3

This is an issue of information architecture. Looking at the QA process in a placed I worked, I realize there must be another alternative then aggressively (or politely) closing questions.

My suggestion:

Look at the question as an issue, and change it's status back to "waiting for more details". This is a third status needed, except for the "opened" and "closed". Then when the user supplies more details, it's status would be changed back to 'open'.

The process of putting questions in the 'more details needed' status may be encouraged by the UI.

Answer 4

Another solution is purely visual:

On Theory, people may also be encouraged to improve the quality of their questions by the up-votes on the questions. But this only works for experienced users. The montivation of new users is simply to get answers. So maybe put some inforgraphics near the content entry field which guides them why investing some time on the question give them better results.

Answer 5

I completely agree with this post. Here is the situation I face which puts me off answering questions:

• A user puts very little effort into a question.
• The user is unwilling to be guided through a solution and expects working code or a drop-in module.
• Time is taken to fix/address/answer their question and improve its value.
• The question is buried without further recognition.
• Rinse and repeat.

I don't think the kind of people who are posting these questions care about F.A.Q's or participating in the rest of the site, a lot will simply never reply/upvote/accept answers.

I feel it's a nasty feedback loop where the quality contributors are being driving away which results in less participation from other quality contributors.

My suggestion for fixing this:

• Raise the threshold for what is considered "quality" dramatically.
• Anything requesting code or bug fixes without a quality explanation of the problem and previous debugging steps should be deleted.
• Anyone who is so far out of their depth they have no idea how to express their question and are clearly misguided should be directed to "getting started with X" guides and have their questions deleted.
• Any posts with terrible code from developers who are looking for quick fixes to be deleted.
• Additional moderators be put in place to deal with the sheer volume of posts.

I feel that this site really needs a benevolent dictator. The number of questions may drop, however it might become a more quality resource.