WPSE Scope: Minimum Competency Requirement

Question

We often encounter questions (or comments/edits to questions) that are nothing more than PHP syntax errors that have not been properly debugged. (e.g. "I tried that, and my site went blank"). Here's one example from today:

https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/118988/displaying-posts-in-different-category-problem

The normal expectation is that people asking questions perform normal debugging, which implies some required minimum competency with WordPress, PHP, etc. Regular members operate under that implication, but new members aren't always aware of it, which can lead to frustration for everyone.

My question is: should we state that requirement explicitly somewhere in our FAQ?

(Related: I still hate the reformat of our FAQ/help)

Answer 1

I know it isn't the SE model, but I wish there was a minimum competency requirement to be allowed to post a question in the first place. No one reads voluntarily reads the FAQs and a lot of people just want their work done for them. You should have to read the FAQ and/or a doc on how to compose a proper question before you can pose a question. For example, if a minimum rep of 10 was required to post a question, but you could get 5 points for reading the FAQ and 5 points for reading how to write a good question, that would force people to read the FAQ first.

Any one who legitimately wants help shouldn't be turned off by such a minor barrier to entry, especially as helping a new user ask a better question helps the user get a better answer and overall improves her experience.

Answer 2

Stack overflow has two custom close reasons for this:

• Questions concerning problems with code you've written must describe the specific problem — and include valid code to reproduce it — in the question itself. See SSCCE.org for guidance.

• Questions asking for code must demonstrate a minimal understanding of the problem being solved. Include attempted solutions, why they didn't work, and the expected results. See also: Stack Overflow question checklist

But syntax errors are already off topic here, so we don’t need that.

I don’t see a good place to add a better explanation. The don’t ask page is not editable. Maybe the on topic page (that deserves a rework anyway). But I don’t think anybody reads those pages.

We could at least delete such questions faster.

Answer 3

Proposal: Meta Tags

As I've seen that there're help tags used on SO (constantly pushed in their PHP chat), I could imagine that we use something similar, but a bit reworked:

A list of new meta-tags, that have a tag wiki, explaining what's wrong. Imagine a new user visiting her/his question again and finding out that there was an edit. Hopefully the new user clicks the tag and finds himself on a page where the tag wiki gives guidance on what to do next. (Maybe along side a downvote as a reminder).

• needs-info ^{Please provide additional information. A task alone is too less.}
• needs-research ^{Please show us what you've tried so far and where you struggle.}
• needs-code ^{Please show us the code. If you posted a link to your code, etc.}
• needs-foo ...

I think we could give this a try. Instead of commenting the same thing over and over again, we can file tag edits. Users will see that there was an edit when they visit the question again (new avatar, edit time, etc.) and maybe click the link. The tag description might be a nice reminder that we can rework over and over again without the help of the SE team.