> 30% of question consists of "how to do this on my homework, please submit a full solution"
I've suggested a few times already that part of this problem might be that asking questions is the first privilege you get and you get it for free.
If it costs something people would be more careful.
The cost can be anything:
- Classify 5 answers correctly
- Pick answers from a multiple choice
- Pay a dollar
- Wait a few days to activate
- etc
Ideally the user should be able to choose a method that suits them but make the account worth something.
As long as accounts are free, activate instantly and comes with a free right to ask questions, stop being surprised that new accounts pop up to ask silly questions.
It'd be interesting if the cost were something like "vote on these items in the moderation queue", and they'd only get through if they voted in line with existing votes (with a few new items mixed in).
The idea being to help cut down on work for mods by getting some prioritization based on new/young user votes. By mixing in topics that have been voted on, the user can be convinced that they have to vote honestly, and by gathering a large number of votes on actual posts mixed in, things can be roughly classified reliably.
By voting I'm referring to things like whether or not a question is a duplicate of another etc.
You could also have a gradual onboarding process, this should help a bit but might be over the top :
- first: multiple choice. You get 5 good questions and 5 good or bad answers. For each of the questions you have to answer if the answer is good or bad.
- Next: 5 known questions, that might be good or bad. You have to answer if it is good or bad.
- Finally: the moderation queue where the answer is only used as an weak signal to the actual moderators.
Success rate of 100% required for stage 1, 60% for stage 2 and just completion for stage 3.
This would leave a new user with a good understanding of what the site is for before they can spam.
It will also make their account seem somewhat valuable.
And if someone wants to pay someone to take their test, fine with me, at least the account isn't free anymore.
I've suggested a few times already that part of this problem might be that asking questions is the first privilege you get and you get it for free.
If it costs something people would be more careful.
The cost can be anything:
- Classify 5 answers correctly
- Pick answers from a multiple choice
- Pay a dollar
- Wait a few days to activate
- etc
Ideally the user should be able to choose a method that suits them but make the account worth something.
As long as accounts are free, activate instantly and comes with a free right to ask questions, stop being surprised that new accounts pop up to ask silly questions.