Proposal
All new sign-ups* should be required to obtain the Informed badge, which simply means taking the tour, before they are allowed to post their first question or answer.
* During the feature launch transition period, this could include all existing profiles with <100 points.
Rationale
I think if new sign-ups take a moment to go through the tour and have a basic understanding of how the site functions, it will greatly reduce the amount of uninformed misuse we get from the new signups. Some of these include:
- Treating the site like a forum (posting their follow-ups as answers)
- Not taking some time to phrase and format their questions properly (esp doing code dump)
- Not upvoting or using the green checkmark.
Wrongfully downvoting answers that are attempting to help asker, but are not quite there yet (yes, this actually happened!)(This requires some rep, so not applicable.)- Not tagging properly (just putting one tag because user is forced to).
- Asking questions that shouldn't be asked in the site.
- Not being aware of the ability to edit questions or answers.
Edit:
Comparing the tour (a very short and visually interesting overview of the site) to an EULA or TOS (a long, boring, full-text legal document) is not a fair comparison.
People who aren't going to bother to read, still won't. But people who will read, would only need to be encouraged to read and they will. (Mandating something is also a form of encouragement; severe I admit, but effective.)
About it being a barrier, it's a rather easy barrier to cross, and anyone who can get along just fine without it, can also get along just fine crossing it easily.
I don't propose this to be a one-size-fits-all solution, but at least it could help reduce some of the problems. We can't be searching for that ONE solution that will solve ALL problems on the site, but rather solve each problem with a unique solution tailored to it. We have to let all the solutions work together in solving all the problems plaguing the site.
So this is proposed as a solution to take care of a few problems in the site, not everything.