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I am bad at answering questions on Stackoverflow.com
How about a difficulty rating for questions?

I am a new user to Server Fault and Stack Overflow. I am trying to help and answer questions, but it is difficult, because there are too many questions and it is hard to figure out which questions are answerable with my knowledge. So what about an option like "level of question". Like, beginner, intermediate, expert? I click the Java tag and so many Java questions appear. It's difficult to dig for beginners questions which I can answer.

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marked as duplicate by random, Shog9, Ralph Rickenbach, ChrisF, Ladybug Killer Jan 25 '10 at 12:13


And then you would have no questions to answer because all the easy and intermediate questions would be done. meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3521/… –  random Jan 25 '10 at 6:20
See: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3811/… –  Shog9 Jan 25 '10 at 6:27
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2 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

For now, kick back and learn. When I first registered, I had no idea how much I was about to learn. This site works wonders for filling out knowledge, so you shouldn't feel ashamed or useless for not knowing how to answer a majority of the questions. That's normal; I learn a new thing or seventeen every day on the site.

So when a question comes up you are unsure of, pull out your favorite text editor and start working on it yourself. If you find a solution and nobody has posted it, post it! But don't be discouraged if someone beat you to the punch; take it as a learning experience.

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And who decides the hugely subjective complexity number? Something might look like a simple question to the poster but actually be inherently complex and subtle, or it might be a nightmare to the asker (hence asking it), but actually be pretty simple or a FAQ.

Even if you're new to an area, it might easily be that this one thing that nobody else groks is the one thing you've been working at for the last 2 weeks, so you can help with despite your relative inexperience.

I just can't think of a way of making that work in practice... just hang for a little while; there will be questions you can help with.

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