<p>There has been a lot of questions and confusion about what is acceptable here on 3D Printing SE. Let's go ahead and discuss what types of questions should be acceptable on the site.</p>

<p>We're going to do this based on votes. I'll leave it up to debate in the comments below, but we'll emulate Area51 question requirements. Here are the guidelines:</p>

<ul>
<li><strong>10 positive votes</strong>, passes.</li>
<li><strong>One answer per topic</strong>. The focus is voting on topics, and votes pertain to the validity of the topic.</li>
<li>Similar topics that can be merged should explicitly mention the deprecated topic.</li>
<li>Appropriately passed topics should have closed questions re-opened (as appropriate).</li>
</ul>

[{'answer_id': 136, 'author': 'Tormod Haugene', 'author_id': 115, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.meta.stackexchange.com/users/115', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I absolutely agree. I believe we all want this site to maintain high quality, but right now almost no questions fall within our desired scope and form.</p>\n\n<p>I think we either need to:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Change the acceptable scope of questions to be asked</li>\n<li>Change how we welcome new users</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Right now most new users do not ask questions "the SE way", which quickly leads to down-votes and closing votes. For new users this is a direct slap in the face.</p>\n\n<p>What we rather should do is to <em>encourage</em> new users to improve their question, and if they do, give them the highly desired up-votes to make them come back for more. </p>\n\n<p>I think the reputation system on SE sites is a great motivator for writing good questions and answers. And if we want this site to grow, we need to let our fellow users grow with it.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 137, 'author': 'tbm0115', 'author_id': 98, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.meta.stackexchange.com/users/98', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>We\'ve discussed this issue before <a href="https://3dprinting.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/111/closing-locking-too-many-questions">here in Meta</a>, but I think that part of the issue (and I\'m guilty of it) is that regular users expect a certain amount of effort or back story from questions. To me, it seems that most <a href="https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/search?q=closed%3Ayes">closed</a> grey-area questions seem to be related to materials. So, questions that may be considered <em>too broad</em> as a general materials question may be a viable question for a newbie to the 3D printing world. A new comer may not be familiar with various material types (ie. PLA<sup>[filament]</sup>, ABS<sup>[filament]</sup>, Stainless Steel<sup>[powder]</sup>, Bronze<sup>[powder]</sup>, etc.).</p>\n\n<p>Focusing on material questions may be a good start to the concern. While it may be technically <em>too broad</em> asking materials questions, in reality, most questions (in FDM/FFF realm) are going to be either about PLA or ABS (maybe Nylon) unless there is a specified purpose for the object. So, if a user specifies (or hints) the preferred printing method (FDM/FFF, SLA, etc.) then I think we should let people use their better judgment in answering the question.</p>\n\n<p>Would it be appropriate to consider re-opening closed questions with the before mentioned criteria?</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 263, 'author': 'Greenonline', 'author_id': 4762, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.meta.stackexchange.com/users/4762', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>One thing that I have noticed, especially after having been away for nearly a year, is how the mood of the site has changed, ever so slightly. It is just that recently there seem to be a bit more of the "Did you google first, before asking here" type comments (accompanied by a vote to close), in particular to newbie questions, or at least questions from those new to SE, but maybe not so new at 3D printing. I don\'t remember these types of comments so much prior to a year or so ago.</p>\n\n<p>While I agree that people need to do research, or at least demonstrate that they have done a bit, if people are coming here and asking an honest question (which is not a lazy homework related - and let\'s face it, there are not many, if any, 3D printer related homework questions) and that question is from someone genuinely interested in 3D printer with a tangible problem, then try to answer it, or at least provide a helpful comment.</p>\n\n<p>Seeing as we are not-quite-desperate-for-users but have an issue with user retention, then we should really not be  throwing google in their face - no matter how frustrating a question may seem, or how obvious the answer appears to an old hand. Do we really want them running off to Reddit, or Quora, or Ask (Jeeves) or (god forbid) Yahoo answers, or some other place? Or is it better that we get them to stay here?</p>\n\n<p>Believe me when I say that I know how irritating it can get, I have been there myself. I ended up not spending much time on SE.Arduino, for that same reason - in the end most of the questions started to seem nonsensical, repetitive and idiotic... because I had seen the same topics asked over and over again. I realised that I had to take a deep breath and step back a little - just because I knew the answer and had helped too many people before with the same issue, it didn\'t mean that someone new would not come along tomorrow and ask the same thing. </p>\n\n<p>Yes, they should have checked google first, and yes, they should have seen the duplicate question had already been asked. However, maybe they didn\'t have the luxury of time to spend hours googling, or maybe they had not used the right search terms, or maybe English isn\'t their mother tongue, or whatever. However, it didn\'t mean that they needed to be made to feel daft. </p>\n\n<p>After all, if someone asks a question here, it probably isn\'t because they want to wind us up and make us angry - why would they do that? And it can\'t be judged as lazy, because, let\'s face it, it takes longer to formulate and ask a question on SE than it does to search for something on Google.</p>\n\n<p>A couple of friends of mine, independently of eachother, sent me this image which, while it made me laugh, also (rather sadly) sums up the "Why are you asking me that?" mentality that StackExchange is perceived as having by the wider techy internet community - this is <em>not</em> a good reputation to have..!</p>\n\n<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/La323.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer" title="Working at SE"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/La323.png" alt="Working at SE" title="Working at SE"></a></p>\n\n<p>So, all I am trying to say is, when you see a question asked by someone with a rep of 1, be nice and try to encourage them to stay, rather than scaring them off as soon as they set foot through the door. Don\'t forget it is probably their first question here and are quite nervous as to how they will be perceived (as one generally is when approaching a new group of people and having to ask something).</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 373, 'author': 'Mark Harrison', 'author_id': 6851, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.meta.stackexchange.com/users/6851', 'pm_score': 1, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I\'ve been active on SO since it was in beta, and have participated in numerous SE sites when they were in beta.</p>\n\n<p>It\'s my impression that there is much more enthusiasm for close votes here than in other sites which launched out of beta.  I know that seems to discourage me from participating more, and may discourage others likewise.</p>\n\n<p>Whereas for programming and electronics my first goto is always stack, I\'m finding that other sites are having better answers and a "nicer" approach to my n00bism in 3d printing.</p>\n\n<p>Just IMHO and FWIW!</p>\n'}]
['https://3dprinting.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/138', 'https://3dprinting.meta.stackexchange.com', 'https://3dprinting.meta.stackexchange.com/users/98/']