Me: I'm trying to do X, I know I need to do Y first but it doesn't work. Can someone
please go through the basic principles I need to do this thing.
Comment: Post some code
Me: (posts summary code but it's a difficult problem and you can't make a trivial example)
Comment: No idea
0 answers
Me: I have this problem with X and Y, but it's not working.
Answer (2 upvotes): You should (onerous and time consuming alternative approach
suggestion with absolutely no evidence that it would solve the problem)
My comment: How do I know this is going to solve my problem ?
Comment: Try it first and come back.
Someone: (difficult and useful question) ?
0 answers, 5 upvotes
#1 result in Google; top 10 hits for every search on this and related subjects leads to
this question on SO or mirror sites
Another scenario -
Me: (challenging question) ?
0 answers, 0 upvotes
Another person: Why does j++(++)++++++++++ not give me the answer I expect ?
110 answers, accepted answer receives 200+ upvotes, question has 1000 upvotes and is
locked because of too many frivolous answers/comments
What makes this worse is that sometimes the alternative approach to #2 really is much easier, if the asker would do it. And sometimes, the asker really is wrong to regard it as more onerous. So we can't categorically ban that kind of response. But it's not automatically valid either. People will generate instances of both problems all day. So we're back to moderation to solve that somehow and moderation always has problems.
It's only a community problem when the community takes up a strong bias e.g. against the asker, and does things like closing questions aggressively. There is an underlying problem but the community has made it worse and closed off the natural compensation mechanisms.
As for lack of response to serious/challenging/useful questions (which already has a 'reputation' incentive) I'm afraid there's no way to solve that unless cash bounties will work.
