Two things I think might help:

1. The close function could maybe use a new option:

• Do a search for [blank] to answer this question. This prevents getting drawn into a discussion of how the question could be phrased better or narrowed down when really the issue is it isn't worth spending time answering because that would take time away from more thoughtful questions. On the other hand, it helps out those people who genuinely don't realize that they could have gotten an answer quickly if only they'd known what to look for, or that they could look.

2. A section somehow that is a collection of the questions that cover the basics, curated, accessible from the main page, and a place people having trouble might be shepherded to under certain circumstances. People I think sometimes get here, get interested, ask something, have trouble, and are too shy, too defensive, too confused, too busy, or too impatient to go through the learning process. If they can't deal with being shepherded to the 'How to ask' section or handling comments, then maybe if they can spend some time looking at stuff on their level and being entertained, they'll get a feel for the process and try again, or at least learn something and maybe come back.

An example - I have pondered asking something like 'What happens during a rocket launch'. Super broad, right? But I think I could answer with a list of the main events explained very briefly and each with good links. Then each point on the list could go to a related question (many of which also don't exist, I believe), such as 'What happens when a rocket is fueled', which could also be answered with a list of events and links. Doing a search for either question doesn't bring up much on Google. This is a gap for beginners looking to learn online.

I really think that the vast majority of broad questions can be answered briefly. If someone wanted to read a book on a subject, they wouldn't be here. That doesn't mean they don't want to have a general understanding of the subject, and the more people that have such an understanding, the better off space exploration is.

This question is perhaps a good test case: How accurate are modern ephemerides, and how does their accuracy degrade over time? I asked it with no idea how complex the matter is. I didn't want to abandon it, so I tried to muddle through a couple of papers on it in order to answer in a general way. I really don't know if the answer is very valid, it was just the best I could do. Maybe it's just me, but I think few people realize the solar system is fundamentally chaotic and would find that pretty interesting. I was tempted to write about measurements used to calculate an ephemeris, and all the categories of things taken into consideration, but the answer would have gotten rather long and anyhow that wasn't really the question. And I didn't want to ask another on that theme, because I had a feeling it would be closed or go unanswered, unless I answered it, and I wasn't sure that would be a good idea at my level of knowledge. This is a case where I don't know what a really good general answer would have looked like. I have a feeling there are great, informative ways to explain why 'it depends', but maybe it is very hard to do without getting into complex mathematics. Or something.

Two things I think might help:

1. The close function could maybe use a new option:

• Do a search for [blank] to answer this question. This prevents getting drawn into a discussion of how the question could be phrased better or narrowed down when really the issue is it isn't worth spending time answering because that would take time away from more thoughtful questions. On the other hand, it helps out those people who genuinely don't realize that they could have gotten an answer quickly if only they'd known what to look for, or that they could look.

2. A section somehow that is a collection of the questions that cover the basics, curated, accessible from the main page, and a place people having trouble might be shepherded to under certain circumstances. People I think sometimes get here, get interested, ask something, have trouble, and are too shy, too defensive, too confused, too busy, or too impatient to go through the learning process. If they can't deal with being shepherded to the 'How to ask' section or handling comments, then maybe if they can spend some time looking at stuff on their level and being entertained, they'll get a feel for the process and try again, or at least learn something and maybe come back.

An example - I have pondered asking something like 'What happens during a rocket launch'. Super broad, right? But I think I could answer with a list of the main events explained very briefly and each with good links. Then each point on the list could go to a related question (many of which also don't exist, I believe), such as 'What happens when a rocket is fueled', which could also be answered with a list of events and links. Doing a search for either question doesn't bring up much on Google. This is a gap for beginners looking to learn online.

I really think that the vast majority of broad questions can be answered briefly. If someone wanted to read a book on a subject, they wouldn't be here. That doesn't mean they don't want to have a general understanding of the subject, and the more people that have such an understanding, the better off space exploration is.

This question is perhaps a good test case: How accurate are modern ephemerides, and how does their accuracy degrade over time? I asked it with no idea how complex the matter is. I didn't want to abandon it, so I tried to muddle through a couple of papers on it in order to answer in a general way. I really don't know if the answer is very valid, it was just the best I could do. Maybe it's just me, but I think few people realize the solar system is fundamentally chaotic and would find that pretty interesting. I was tempted to write about measurements used to calculate an ephemeris, and all the categories of things taken into consideration, but the answer would have gotten rather long and anyhow that wasn't really the question. And I didn't want to ask another on that theme, because I had a feeling it would be closed or go unanswered, unless I answered it, and I wasn't sure that would be a good idea at my level of knowledge. This is a case where I don't know what a really good general answer would have looked like. I have a feeling there are great, informative ways to explain why 'it depends', but maybe it is very hard to do without getting into complex mathematics. Or something.