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As a newcomer, I had at least 3 great issues while trying to get used to the site:

  1. I wrote wrongly an answer to my question as if it was another question, like we do in forums. For that, I suggest people with less than, let's say, 20 reputations, should not be allowed to answer his own questions. This is just the time to learn what is the purpose of the "accept answer" button.

  2. After being alerted of the problem in a comment, I wondered where I could discuss it. I was tempted to write back to the comments, but that would sound wrong in the context of the question. So, the question where to write about what is really an issue, because this is a huge site, with lots of possibilities. To learn, one needs some guidelines.

    My suggestion here is that as the moment of the login, the new user should be taken to a tutorial page and could earn some reputation by reading it all (you can evaluate that by checking time on the page, clicking "next" button, etc.).

  3. Today I asked a question that was moved to another site (programmers). I would like to know if there is some policy about the content of a question, and how can we choose the right place to ask.

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I forgot the tag "suggestion", but I can't put it anymore. Does someone has the power to do this little favor? Thanks in adv. –  Dr Beco Mar 24 '11 at 5:49
Thanks waiwai933. –  Dr Beco Mar 24 '11 at 5:57
tutorial tutorial tutorial +1 –  Won't Mar 24 '11 at 14:01

2 Answers 2

up vote 8 down vote accepted

As for #1 -- note that on your own question, the answer input box is not pre-expanded. You must click "Answer Question" and agree to this JavaScript dialog ...

Are you sure you want to answer your own question?



.. before being allowed to answer your own question.

So users who answer their own question are already sort of in the "won't read anything" camp.

As for #2 and #3, we are very generous linking to the /faq in many places. This defines what is on and off topic.

Note that on Stack Overflow new users are REQUIRED to read http://stackoverflow.com/questions/how-to-ask before being allowed to ask a question at all.

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Dear Jeff, thanks for your answer. For the "Are you sure you want to answer your own question", you'll agree with me that this sentence are abused in computers. We read a lot of "are you sure you want to delete your file?", "are you sure you'll browse outside the encrypted page?", and so on. This does not mean anything. Am I sure? No. But why? This site has a great advantage over forums, but it is a new concept (at least for me). We should let it more clear. –  Dr Beco Mar 25 '11 at 0:28
Anyway, I'll vote the question as accepted, because I think you made a good point: the site has already some tools. My intention was just to make it better, with more tools. –  Dr Beco Mar 25 '11 at 0:29

Here are my views about the suggestions that you mentioned.

1) PO can only accept their own answer 23 hours after posting the question. Therefore, there are lots of scope for someone else to provide a valid enough answer which can be accepted. In the event, a wrong answer is given others can vote that answer down and legitimate PO would eventually correct their answer. There still can be reputation cap control for this, the only issue I can think of, say a new expert user asks a question, no body else is able to answer it and then he gives a partially correct answer which is worth discussing. But with the cap, he wont be able to answer it. Of course, the chances of this is extremely low but still possible.

2) I totally agree to the idea of tutorial page for first time users. Most reputed sites have this.

3) You can read the FAQ of each site to know if your question fits there. And of course, if there is overlook or misunderstanding, the Mods can help to have it migrated as they are doing so with such posts.

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