So, chiming in on the discussion earlier regarding the blood draw question - I happened to be up late, and saw the question just a few minutes after it was posted. I considered casting a close vote, but didn't. I'm trying to be more restrictive in my use of the homework close reason, as there was no indication that this was a homework question. It's not too broad - it's a specific question with a specific answer.
I googled it, and didn't really find any results in the top 10 that looked really authoritative - there was some stuff from Quora, Yahoo Answers, blogs, the usual. I happened to know enough about the subject (along with some help from my sister-in-law) to give a fairly concise but complete answer.
I figured I might get an upvote or two, but didn't really think about it much until I logged in the next day and saw all my upvotes. With the number of page views, I figured it had been in the Featured Questions list somehow, and it interested enough people that they checked it out, and many people who might not otherwise have been members of Biology logged in to vote on the question and the answers.
So, in the end (rep gain aside), I'm glad I didn't VTC. Once users see a close vote or two, others seem to pile on and close a question pretty quickly. This can be helpful with some definitely awful questions, but this one had enough general interest that in the end I think it should remain open.
I know that by now this is old new but I heard that a cell that used a synthetic pair of nucleotides, called X and Y, have been made. My question was, how did the cell understand the X and Y nucleotides during translation and how was it even represented in mRNA? It must have been represented diff...
When I took a course on genetics and evolution, I learned that recombination and sexual reproduction is advantageous compared to asexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction allows more combinations of DNA because of recombination, allowing more variations of species, causing natural selection to "c...
Do what you would do for any lousy/off-topic question - downvote and vote/flag to close. If you feel very strongly, flag a question, select the custom reason, and clearly explain your concerns.
It's up to the mods. You can get in touch with them by casting a custom flag on any of the offending questions. Just clearly explain what your concerns are, with links if possible (I'm not sure about the character limit on flags), and leave it up to them.
@MattDMo well, the questions weren't offensive ... the user keeps posting software questions on a Biology website.. although they have to do with bioinformatics, they are better suited for other websites.. BTW, who r the mods?
sorry, I didn't mean offending as in containing rude/slanderous/pornographic content, I was simply refering to the questions that you have concerns about - those that are off-topic, too broad, or whatnot.
The mods have a diamond symbol after their username.
I too think that the artery vein question was fine IMO; i didnt vote to close. However there were other questions from the same user which deserved closure.
Regarding low effort questions: We can try downvoting them. I am not sure if this really happens or not but I think that some really obvious question which some of us think is of low quality and effort, gives new inexperienced users an opportunity to gain some rep.
and in this process sometimes a lot of junk is accumulated.
@MadScientist wrt deciding homework or not. Is it right to put that onus on the OP. Should we make it a policy to demand a rationale or "what have you tried" from the OP.
@TAbraham I don't think that user needs to be blocked. If they are asking bad question then downvote them or vote to close. Unless someone shows serious problems i dont think users are banned. I dont think VassiaAlk is malicious or really pathetic. I hope they would improve on seeing that most of their questions get closed.
@terdon I agree that Qs should be closed if off-topic even if they are popular (there is also a difference between SE-wide popularity and BioSE user popularity). It can be hard though. I also don't have a problem with homework Qs, as long as they include a good background and initial attempts to solve them.
@WYSIWYG Good point about leaving the homework decision to the OP - this is also why I think we should have a more general "minimum effort/background" close reason instead.
I found one of the meta posts about the whole requiring effort that I vaguely remembered. It is probably not entirely applicable to our site because it is based on SO, but there are some important points made there:
This just came up again:
homework is not acceptable if the asker has made no effort whatsoever
I'm developing a bit of an involuntary twitch that manifests itself when I encounter the word "effort" on Stack Overflow these days.
Don't get me wrong — effort is good. At least, productive eff...
@WYSIWYG re: your first point: as much as we tend to recognize repeat offenders, one of the main tenets of moderation on Stack Exchange is to focus on the question, not the user (obviously, unless the user themself is the problem, such as spamming, harassment, etc.). Sure, you may think "Oh, it's XYZ123 again, their questions suck, I'll DV and CV right away" without even examining the question for any potential merits.
I've been guilty of that in the past, so we need to make sure we're not falling into that kind of trap.
@MadScientist I remember that post, but I'm not sure how much consensus came out of it. Yes, a community manager wrote it, but I think it would be worth having that discussion again here, as we are different from SO.
@MadScientist @MattDMo Nice post and discussion, but I mostly side with the two top answers which mainly explains why no-effort is a problem. Some comments also highlight that context is a big issue; is this Q an actual problem or just loose speculation? How well does the Op know the topic? etc
This is one example where there isn't much effort, but I also don't see any reason to close the question. The lack of effort doesn't have much of a negative effect, that question doesn't need more context to be answerable
I've started posting this comment on *no research at all* questions:
*It's considered a requisite on biology.se that at least some research is carried out and presented with your question. Otherwise it will be closed as *homework*. The [site tour](http://biology.stackexchange.com/tour) and the [help center](http://biology.stackexchange.com/help) provide guidance on how to use this site. Please take a few minutes to read about the kind of questions which are on topic here.*
@medica yeah, saw that exchange (and also commented on the question). I think it is fine to post to clarify your reasoning, but it is a problem that we don't have clear way to handle this (and a consensus on what types of Qs that are off-topic).
I wouldn't worry too much about it. Additionally: Even if someone is used to other SE sites, this doesn't mean he shouldn't familiarize with the community he is new to.
In this particular case, I could reformulate the question for SO (the OPs main site) as a comparison between languages and language features, showing the same level of comprehension, and that question would be closed at once. So just because you are an active member at one SE site doesn't mean that you can formulate good and relevant questions at other SE sites.
What do you think about this question: [What shows how healthy someone is by their heart rate?](http://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/27847/what-shows-how-healthy-someone-is-by-their-heart-rate?noredirect=1#comment45057_27847) To me it's pretty clearcut as off-topic since it's only worded in terms of health (not biological processes ie how heart rate during excercise or how long it takes to get back to resting pulse is related to oxygen uptake). However, because of the reaction of the OP I'm feeling unsure (also named/asked my specifically). Opinions?
This just came up again:
homework is not acceptable if the asker has made no effort whatsoever
I'm developing a bit of an involuntary twitch that manifests itself when I encounter the word "effort" on Stack Overflow these days.
Don't get me wrong — effort is good. At least, productive eff...
Children and teens can hear high pitched sounds that adults can't hear anymore. Why do adults lose high-frequency hearing?
