@ThomasBrowne The founders of this SE decided back during the Area 51 days that there are plenty of web sites for amateur quants. We wanted build one exclusively for professionals and working academics, ie. people who earn a living at this.

And no, the point of many SE's is most certainly not to encourage aspirations. The Theoretical Computer Science SE, for example, takes great pride in closing questions that don't reflect a PhD-level of understanding, which they declare in their FAQ.

But there's a deeper issue here: You've been on Quant SE only four days now and you're already complaining about what the site should look like?! You haven't answered a single question here!

I dug around your Q&A history on other SE sites. You haven't answered anybody else's question on Stack Overflow. In fact, the only time you've ever answered anybody's question that wasn't your own, it was to declare that the newer Mac OS X was fast.

That's it? That's the sum total of what you can bring to Stack Exchange?

If you want to demonstrate value on Quant SE, then answer one of the many open questions that are available; we have plenty. Until then, don't whine about what kind of questions the professionals should be answering here.

@chrisaycock Right. Honest apologies for a genuine misunderstanding of the target audience. Didn't realise that it was for the pros only. I think my questions were not stupid that said, I put quite a bit of effort into them, to try to counter the (legitimate) charge that I ask a lot and don't tend to reply (for reasons of not being in the métier - though I am an investment professional). Anyway. Later I guess.

@ThomasBrowne Maybe I'm not aware of some behind the scenes interaction between you two, but looking at your current open questions, I think you shouldn't take @chrisaycock's comment too personally. As long as your questions are on topic, we are more than pleased to have them here.

It's just that being on topic here is rather about being potentially asked by/interesting to quant professionals. So it's more target audience criterion than purely topic based, and that's why the site is really selective. But that doesn't mean that graduate level questions can't be asked here. As long as they show reasonable effort, they are welcome here.

And as long as aspirational quants manage to abide by those rules, I haven't seen any problems. To be honest, I'm neither a professional in the field nor working academic (yet), but every now and then I find opportunities to contribute a little.

And I wouldn't say the site is discouraging. Simply browsing through the questions you can learn a lot. And being mostly asked and answered by real experts is what makes the site so interesting. That has some drawbacks (lower volume), but I think quality over quantity is a better solution here.

@KarolPiczak Thank you Karol for your informative and balanced response. Points taken and input. Not discouraged / no backstory. I'll keep reading and learning.