It's a complex problem, but with a "training/welcome period" (explained below) for new users, these specific issues can be addressed:
- experts (users having rep above EXPERT_THRESHOLD, say 5000) want "interesting" questions
- most new questions are not interesting
- "new users" (having rep below some REGULAR_THRESHOLD, say 100) are not educated and have unrealistic expectations
- it is expensive for the community to manually educate new users
- asking questions is inexpensive for the asker, but answering questions is costly to the community (to research, comment, close, find dupes)
- it's hard for new users to gain rep by answering questions because rep-whores are more experienced with the site. thus new users are instead encouraged to gain rep by asking questions.
Some ideas mentioned on SE would help:
- require rep for asking questions
- give rep for finding duplicates (discouraging repwhores from answering dupes, encouraging dupe linking)
- give rep for taking a quiz about the 2-Minute Tour or other FAQs
Additionally, a training/welcome period for new users (during which they interact a slightly more among themselves than directly with experts) would go a long way toward fixing a lot of deeper issues. New user questions (which tend to be uninteresting dupes) would be hidden from experts for some period of time NEW_Q_DUR (say 1 day). During that time, only other new users or regular users can answer the question. Experts can un-hide them with a Setting but can only comment, not answer. Benefits:
- new/regular users (that care about the site) are incentivized to answer questions, find dupes, work with others at their rep-level and do some of the (educational) activities that experts see as menial, rather than just ask questions
- experts get a higher signal/noise ratio of interesting questions, as bad questions can be cleaned up by new/regular users and interesting questions will likely remain unanswered after NEW_Q_DUR (since new users tend to be less experienced and less able to answer difficult, good questions from other new users)
- dupe rep-whoring is mitigated because once a rep-whore becomes an expert, they cannot answer dupe questions without new/regular users having time NEW_Q_DUR to flag as dupe
- new user expectations are made more realistic. until they've participated a certain amount, they cannot expect to draw immediate attention from experts. also, they become aware of the dupe problem.
A caveat might be that new user questions with enough upvotes can become answerable by experts before the normal time limit. Also, if/when new user question quality improves, NEW_Q_DUR can be reduced.
Some very minor drawbacks:
- new users would be slightly deterred from asking certain questions because they do not value answers from non-experts (leading them to do more research on their own)
- more class-ful community, potentially creating stronger biases (I don't think this is too bad because class mobility is clear and feasible)
- some new users that would care about the site might instead be turned off by the welcome period on some principal and never participate
- experts (users having rep above EXPERT_THRESHOLD, say 5000) want "interesting" questions
- most new questions are not interesting
- "new users" (having rep below some REGULAR_THRESHOLD, say 100) are not educated and have unrealistic expectations
- it is expensive for the community to manually educate new users
- asking questions is inexpensive for the asker, but answering questions is costly to the community (to research, comment, close, find dupes)
- it's hard for new users to gain rep by answering questions because rep-whores are more experienced with the site. thus new users are instead encouraged to gain rep by asking questions.
Some ideas mentioned on SE would help:
- require rep for asking questions
- give rep for finding duplicates (discouraging repwhores from answering dupes, encouraging dupe linking)
- give rep for taking a quiz about the 2-Minute Tour or other FAQs
Additionally, a training/welcome period for new users (during which they interact a slightly more among themselves than directly with experts) would go a long way toward fixing a lot of deeper issues. New user questions (which tend to be uninteresting dupes) would be hidden from experts for some period of time NEW_Q_DUR (say 1 day). During that time, only other new users or regular users can answer the question. Experts can un-hide them with a Setting but can only comment, not answer. Benefits:
- new/regular users (that care about the site) are incentivized to answer questions, find dupes, work with others at their rep-level and do some of the (educational) activities that experts see as menial, rather than just ask questions
- experts get a higher signal/noise ratio of interesting questions, as bad questions can be cleaned up by new/regular users and interesting questions will likely remain unanswered after NEW_Q_DUR (since new users tend to be less experienced and less able to answer difficult, good questions from other new users)
- dupe rep-whoring is mitigated because once a rep-whore becomes an expert, they cannot answer dupe questions without new/regular users having time NEW_Q_DUR to flag as dupe
- new user expectations are made more realistic. until they've participated a certain amount, they cannot expect to draw immediate attention from experts. also, they become aware of the dupe problem.
A caveat might be that new user questions with enough upvotes can become answerable by experts before the normal time limit. Also, if/when new user question quality improves, NEW_Q_DUR can be reduced.
Some very minor drawbacks:
- new users would be slightly deterred from asking certain questions because they do not value answers from non-experts (leading them to do more research on their own)
- more class-ful community, potentially creating stronger biases (I don't think this is too bad because class mobility is clear and feasible)
- some new users that would care about the site might instead be turned off by the welcome period on some principal and never participate