Your question was downvoted because it basically reads as, "I want to do X. Please do it for me." The site is supposed to be a replacement for a smart coworker. You wouldn't ask your coworker to do something like that, you'd ask him for help with a specific part of it. Asking otherwise just comes across as freeloading.
Yes, that's the rule and I disagreed so I left the site. I'm interested in a site to augment the wizardly elisp or Haskell guy you run into occasionally, who you know could show you "the way". I don't use elisp in my day job, for example, but when I get the rare chance to play with it, it would nice to have a deeper repository of questions from which to learn.
The point is, it's not a "do my work/homework for me" site.
It's a "I tried to solve the problem this way, but it doesn't quite work; can you show me what I'm doing wrong?" or a "I solved the problem this way, but it seems really bad; is there a better way?"
I agree, asking a question without demonstrating an earnest attempt at solving or understanding it shows to me that you didn't care enough about it to even attempt it. Given that, why should I care enough about it to attempt it?
Btw, I added a downvote to your question. It really is in poor form.
Hi. I answered this question, and was delighted to see it because it was the sort of question that is fun to answer. I was surprised about the "do your homework" rule as I've never heard of it before. So I read the FAQ and it's not there. You need to read the FAQ AND from there click on a link to go to another page to explain this rule.
I don't know what good this rule brings to the site. Sure in a lot of cases it's better for the person who asks the question to try and solve the problem themselves, but for the site itself it's better the more questions and answers there are to read.
The original question could be changed to be more generic, such as: How can I write elisp code that transforms a selected region of text? or something similar.
What I would like to see instead of questions being closed is just a banner at the top of the question saying: Warning: This question may not meet the standards of the site due to [which rule it broke] and let the people searching decide what weight to give it.
All this said, I think the way the question was handled was quite polite and proper given the rules.
