one of the pages (the on topic page) can be customized by mods, but I don't believe that is the correct place for the subject of avoiding delay()

@sa_leinad The main problem in this community is the horrible ignorance of many first time posters. People that doesn't know how to program are wasting everybody's time. People that doesn't how to google it must be show the exit door. I come here to learn from other people experience with more interesting problem and all I find are boys that doesn't what while(1); do.

having a canonical question concerning the main ignorance topics we point new users to will be helpful

@ratchet That people doesn't google it, doesn't tour it, doesn't read it in the first place, I really want to make it a official policy: general programming question are off-topic here and they will be closed or migrated to Code Review site.

I would fear that the newcomers with the questions related to freshman status would not stay and learn more, if they are shunted away.

For example, the Blink arduino example is too often used as the starting point for projects, which end up with the "how can I merge two programs" type of question. The "Blink without Delay" arduino example is the pathway to fixing/answering that kind of question. There are a few good examples out there of the state-machine structure for pseudo-multitasking, but they don't come up first in googling, if you don't know what search terms to use.

So, if the SE community here had a FAQ style page that could be pointed to without relying on external links... Maybe it would be helpful?

The solution there is the canonical question that gets spammed around as a dupe target or extra reading in those basic questions

Is there a list or repository of such "Authoritative" answers or informational answers? I have seen at least a couple that have been created (i.e., an experienced user "asks" the question and then provides a complete answer")

not to my knowledge, you could create a meta question listing them if one doesn't already exist

@josecanuc. This is un-PC, but here I go: those newcomers are worthless. They will never achieve anything, there are just toying with things they don't understand. They are the one-post-posters in search for a step-by-step answer taylored to their particular setup. If someone doesn't know how to merge two programs, he better learn to program first. This about Arduino, not a programming school.

I don't necessarily disagree... But there is opportunity there for them to see the light

It may be true that many of the newcomers will never contribute anything worthwhile to the site, but there are almost certainly some who might - if given the right encouragement.

Besides, Stack Exchange has a basic Be Nice rule. At the very least we need to comply with that.

@sempaiscuba. I feel devalued as a professional programer every time someone suggest that programming can be learned posting questions here.

@LookAlterno That is a fair point. Perhaps that is something that could be addressed with a FAQ style page aimed at new users?