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Recently after adding the documentation section on Stack Overflow there seems to understandably be large amounts of questions from what we must assume are beginners to programming.

These questions usually get flagged as being either duplicates as there is already an answer or having no purpose on the site, or showing a lack of research as they are from beginners looking for fast answers.

(My opinion on the experience) As far as I'm aware there doesn't seem to be a way to flag it as being already covered in documentation or propose it to automatically be moved to a beginners questions section so they are not automatically flagged or deleted or down voted too much so it would help Stack Overflow retain the beginner users who could later help each other.

(question) So my question I guess firstly is this: How do you handle questions clearly from a beginner to both programming and the site fairly and do you feel there should be changes made to retain those users of the site and if so what changes would you like to see? And lastly, what kept you coming back to Stack Overflow if you had negative feedback early on?

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    ...flag it as being already covered in documentation ← Oy, this should never ever ever never ever happen.
    – Robert Cartaino
    Commented Aug 5, 2016 at 18:16
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    No idea what it's closed. Every site got beginners. Voted to reopen. (Just mentioning examples from specific site is NOT reason to close as "pertains only to a specific site" in my opinion.)
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Aug 5, 2016 at 20:36

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So my question I guess firstly is this: How do you handle questions clearly from a beginner to both programming and the site fairly

You handle them just like you would any other question from any other user. You vote on it based on the quality of the question, if it merits closure, vote to close it, if it merits flagging for another reason, do so, if you have a question for the author or a comment on how they can improve their question, post a comment, and if it's an appropriate and quality question, you know the answer, and you feel like providing an answer, then provide an answer.

None of this is in any way dependent on the skill level (in programming, or using this site) of the question author.

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  • Valid point in a way however it seems some questions from beginners don't fit the required format, such as giving a precise question because they don't have enough knowledge of the problem to format the question so it ends up being vague, which you handle by suggestions etc but results in down votes for the beginner and may cause them to leave the site?
    – D3181
    Commented Aug 5, 2016 at 18:17
  • @Dean219 Those statements all sound correct.
    – Servy
    Commented Aug 5, 2016 at 18:21
  • Which must result in stack retaining mostly only intermediate or higher skilled programmers, which would be good but since everyone starts somewhere my question was more how do you morally handle down voting someone who you know doesn't know better or having their question removed etc resulting in them feeling bad and leaving for asking for help?
    – D3181
    Commented Aug 5, 2016 at 18:26
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    @Dean219 No, it results in people that are unable or unwilling to post content that's appropriate on this site to leave, some of which are going to have a low programming skill, and some that won't. As far as them not knowing better, I for a fact that they do know better; they are required to have read the help center before asking a quesiton, and so they know that the site has high quality standards that it will uphold and has already seen an overview of what those standards entail, and been given resources into further details.
    – Servy
    Commented Aug 5, 2016 at 18:29
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    @Dean219 And that aside, from a morale standpoint, I would consider it my responsibility as a reviewer of content to provide honest feedback on the quality of the content. I would consider it highly immorale to lie about the quality of some content in order to make someone feel better (in the short term) for receiving "good" feedback for providing bad content. Not only is this harmful for them in the long term, as they become unable to improve, but it's extremely harmful to everyone else viewing the content to be told that it is good content when it in fact is not.
    – Servy
    Commented Aug 5, 2016 at 18:33
  • All very valid points and well reasoned! ! Actually changed my perspective on it. Thanks @Servy
    – D3181
    Commented Aug 5, 2016 at 18:36

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