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Recently I noticed that the quality of questions on Stack Overflow is degrading by the day.

When I joined Stack Overflow almost year and half ago, the quality of questions was standard. (By saying standard I mean, questions consisting of real problems)

Now, whenever I visit Stack Overflow I find most of the questions trivial and of Homework kind. Most of them, just require little efforts for finding solution to it. They aren't really a problem. They are asked just as to avoid any work or research.

My question is: How, as a normal user, I can help make it better? (like it was before)

Note: Not providing any example as you can find them anywhere on Stack Overflow first page.

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    To quote ЯegDwight: Many people have noticed that last month. Also the month before that. And the year before that. And five years ago, too. See recency illusion. – Martijn Pieters Mar 14 '13 at 14:09
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    @giammin not really dupe; that other question just ask "Has anyone else noticed this?" and closed without any answer; this question is more constructive and ask "How can I make it better". – Shadow Wizard is Vaccinating Mar 14 '13 at 14:20
  • @ShaWizDowArd That does seem a bit broad though. The entire purpose of Meta as a whole is to improve the quality of the site. Almost every question is about improving content quality, a single question asking "what can be done to improve question quality" couldn't possibly have answers in a sufficently narrow scope. It will be, at best, a long (and incomplete) list of things, most of which are already mentioned in the FAQ. – Servy Mar 14 '13 at 14:29
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    The nature of the questions has not changed. Really. Only the quality of English language has changed because of covering/attracting more and more non-English countries/people (India, Brazil and so on). Perhaps this gave you the wrong impression and interpretation of the problem. – BalusC Mar 14 '13 at 14:30
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    "Has anyone else noticed that the overall quality of questions that are being asked on SO has been declining significantly over the last few weeks?" - January 2010 – Brad Larson Mar 14 '13 at 14:34
  • I notice this more around the times of the year where University students would be submitting assignments (we're currently heading up to Easter for example), but maybe that's just my perception – JMK Mar 14 '13 at 15:07
  • For those who think this is duplicate; I asked this cause I do not have privileges to eliminate dupes and remove them entirely from SO. I just wanted to know HOW as a normal user I can help make it better. – viral Mar 15 '13 at 5:27
  • Just edit out the Engrish. Like magic, the question will appear more intelligible and intelligent. – BalusC Mar 15 '13 at 13:43
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OK, will give my two cents now.

First of all, the quality problem was always there; there were always good questions to be found and there still are but with the increase in the volume of questions, those good questions are more and more hard to find. Think of that as ever expanding forest with ordinary small trees that hide the thick sturdy trees.

To help fight this there are the basic actions:

  1. Upvote good question once you find one. Share it, there is such banner below every question:

    Know someone who can answer? Share a link to this question via email, Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.

    This will increase the attention given to the question and hopefully give it more votes.

  2. Utterly horrible questions better be just flagged as "very low quality" and let moderator or high rep users close them. Downvotes are limited.

  3. Downvote bad questions that can still be salvaged, explain why it's bad and hopefully the OP will improve it.

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