> Everyone whose downvotes exceed a certain threshold has their reputation points reduced to zero.
Why it would help?
While closing random questions as duplicates of similar but different question is obnoxious, downvoting "do my homework for me" questions is very useful.
> While closing random questions as duplicates of similar but different question is obnoxious, downvoting "do my homework for me" questions is very useful.
In what way? Who really cares if it's homework or a newbie question? Are you such an expert in everything that you never ask newbie questions?
This arrogant attitude is toxic, spreads quickly, and poisons far too many communities. I'm grateful to dang et al that HN hasn't become like this.
Just ignoring the newbie questions is best, unless you want to answer honestly.
On the r/jazz and r/classicalmusic, almost every day there's some question like "I'm just getting into <genre>. What are some top albums/artists I should listen to?"
Someone does answer those questions. Props to those saintly people.
SO/SE might benefit from a "this question smells like homework" button that could shunt questions that are posted without any code or evidence of adequate clue off to a forum specifically for homework, rather than leaving them in the general queue.
Why it would help?
While closing random questions as duplicates of similar but different question is obnoxious, downvoting "do my homework for me" questions is very useful.