Could we let low rep users (presumably budding young chemists...) answer homework questions? If they can teach, then they are reinforcing their knowledge.
Let's say that after 500 reputation a user becomes a "real chemist" and should refrain from answering homework questions.
You could implement this in code of course, but that is probably too complicated for this site alone. It would seem that all the Stack Exchange sites have this problem.
I upvoted the question because it is a good question. However, I do not agree with the suggested proposal.
Stack Exchange’s policy is to attract high-quality questions by delivering high-quality answers. It is a key part of that policy to require questions to have a certain standard. This is one of the reasons why the upvote arrow’s tooltip reads:
This question shows research effort; it is useful and clear.
Area 51 denotes the type of question that a fictional plumbing.SE site should get:
Ask real, expert questions
We want you to capture the moment that plumbers feel when they look at Plumber Overflow and say, "Whoa! That's my kinda site!" On a site about plumbing, there are 200 easy plumbing questions, and they've all been asked 100 times on other sites. Don't suggest questions like "How do I unclog a drain?" Instead ask, "If you run 2.5 GPM through 50 feet of 1/2" galv pipe, how many psi will be lost to friction loss?" Remember, pro sites WILL attract the enthusiasts, but not the other way around!
This is the real reason behind the homework close reason: They are bad questions, they do not show research effort, and they repel professionals — professionals in teaching already typically sigh when they have to explain a simple concept twice. It is also the reason behind the wording and the ‘effort requirement’ — we are much more happy to accept questions where OP showed thought.
Thus, all homework questions should be considered with the same scrutiny. It would go against this site’s model to leave bad homework questions as a practice playground for inexperienced users. We should enforce our community’s rules on all questions regardless. And we should notify users that (accidentally?) answer bad homework questions why they are unlikely to get much recognition.
Note that answering homework questions has never been forbidden. If you manage to answer between posting and closing, that’s good. If the answer is correct, one or two users will upvote it. But we shouldn’t encourage it.
Please note that I took the liberty to downvote your question, because I think that
Like most of the regulars, I do help to close homework dumps. The decision usually comes very fast and no, it doesn't bother me.
But I do like to answer the good ones and it is fun, using hints, analogies, some drawings and the obligatory
spoiler :)
About 17% of my answers are on homework questions.
As Jan, Ben, and orthocresol have already agreed upon, this site is about quality, in questions and answers. I'm strictly against a low quality homework ghetto, or as Jan kindly called it, a playground for inexperienced users.
Users with less experience are welcome to give answers on whatever topic they chose. If somebody has just done a lab, he might very well be able provide useful hints on experimental procedures and their pitfalls.
However, in terms of quality, the same standards should apply to all answers.
As far as the homework topic is concerned, we often make use of the obligatory link on how to ask a good homework question. Do we need a similar guide on how to give a good answer to a homework question?
I think that common sense and the vault of editing wisdom are sufficient.
I am (as of this post) the fourth highest reputation user and I do not care for this suggestion. Jan is correct in noting that often homework questions are low quality and a poor fit for our model. However, I teach chemistry for a living and I generally enjoy answering those homework questions that are of reasonable quality. In fact, you want users like me to answer these questions so that they get high quality answers, which attracts more and better questions. I have a special soft spot for borderline homework questions that I think I can save, but that is another topic for an older meta post.
A move like this would alienate me and those like me.
From the point of view of somebody who would potentially be enforcing this: My apologies but I don't entirely understand what is going on here and how such a policy might be implemented.
As long as the question is not closed, there is actually nothing stopping low-rep users from answering them. As others have mentioned, if the answer is good, it will be recognised appropriately. This holds true regardless of the reputation of the answerer.
The only way we are actually preventing people from answering homework questions is by closing them. So, would you want us to refrain from closing questions in order to specifically let low-rep users answer them? If this is really about closing questions, then you may wish to drop a line on this meta discussion: A new policy of closure: November 2016 All comments are welcome regardless of whether we actually end up implementing them or not. We do want to hear from the community.
And should we automatically delete any answers to homework questions by >500 rep users? For reasons that are obvious enough, I cannot agree with this, so I hope that this is not under consideration.
