Possible Duplicate:
Embrace the non-Googlers…

For some reason (people being lazy or whatever) StackOverflow is being used like a search engine.

I don't have a problem with beginners and "easy" questions. If somebody is willing to help them, has enough time and patience for these questions I can only admire. But asking questions that are easily answered by the simplest google query are just creating noise. I know we are supposed to down-vote them but it seems to me that people don't like spending their hard earned reputation points on something like this.

Should I learn how to stop worrying and love the bomb or is there any way to change this?

marked as duplicate by John Rudy, Ladybug Killer, juan, user27414, Shog9 Dec 6 '09 at 19:48


  • If you want to down-vote easy but valid questions, better do it anonymously. Otherwise we will flag you heavily. – Ladybug Killer Dec 6 '09 at 18:50
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    Even if they didn't try to find answers, the next guy who does should come back to the Trilogy via Google. Hence, we want those questions. The Trilogy is supposed to be the canon of its various missions (SO - Programming / SF - Systems Administration / SU - All other computer) – John Rudy Dec 6 '09 at 19:30

If the Google query's top results show a corresponding, duplicate Trilogy question, then vote to close and move on. If you can't vote to close, flag for moderator attention.

If the Google' query's top results do not show a corresponding, duplicate Trilogy question, then no, the question is not noise. The goal is that Google is the "home page" for StackOverflow, ServerFault and SuperUser -- no question too trivial, as long as it is answerable and written decently.

Done and done. And this is really a duplicate. Many times over.

  • Instead of just claiming "duplicate", why don't you also provide a link, please? – Davide Dec 6 '09 at 21:49
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    It's at the top of the question. I considered putting it in there, but I knew once the first close vote was cast it wouldn't take long for this question to fully close out and the dupe to display. And I was right -- less than an hour. – John Rudy Dec 6 '09 at 22:23