Should high-rep users hang back a little?

Question

This is meant to start a discussion on etiquette and sustainability.

It is very clear from looking at the answers that the first-page users are very quick to answer most questions. This of-course is because they are very knowledgeable and quick at the keyboard. I am worried about the long-term effect this behavior can have on both the newcomers and the first-page users:

1. I worry that first page users will get "burnt-out" by constantly answering "easy" questions.
2. I worry that newcomers who are a little slow and careful in writing their answer will feel up-started by the high-rep users and this will be a drain on their enthusiasm.
3. I worry about this site becoming a place to ask the gurus, rather than a community where everyone has something to give and to get.
4. I worry that this model is non-sustainable for the high-rep users will eventually feel that the site is taking too much time and effort since instead of focusing on the hard problems, they jump the gun on many of the questions.
5. I worry that this model is non-sustainable for the low-rep users since they get used to only asking questions and not answering any, and this can lead to a dependent mentality which is not very health...

In short, I feel that the site would benefit greatly if the high-rep users were a little slower at the keyboard, giving an opportunity for the less-experienced users slowly edit and perfect their answer, as you know all other things being equal, there's a great "advantage" in putting the first answer, in terms of reputation and motivation...

Of course, once a question has been unanswered for a while then clearly it is much better to have it answered than not...but I think we should seriously consider the benefits of making it easier for people to attempt a first answer.

Answer 1

I completely agree, and I've been thinking along similar lines recently. I can only answer for myself and not for anyone else, of course, and only describe what I now do. What I try to do now is make the "unanswered" list (and specifically those in my tags) my main point of call. I take a look at new questions, though I try to concentrate on helping ensure that the questions are good questions (formatting, asking for clarification, and so forth). Of course, I won't deliberately withhold an answer if I just happen to know it, but for answers that will take some thought and experiment then I try to concentrate on the slightly unusual ones.

The other thing that we "high-rep" users can do is to encourage others. When we see a good answer or good question (or good comment), make sure to vote. That's how low-rep users become high-rep users. Add comments, make people feel welcome, look out for "interesting" new users - there's a few names that I recognise and look out for contributions by them on the list because I know it's likely that I'll see a good answer from them.

Answer 2

I'd like to start by saying how much I respect tex exchange and all of its users. I am quite often amazed by the wizardry that some people have.

@Werner's comment above

However, I can see a discouraged feeling when ill-commented high-rep answers (like "Try this..." or "Here you go...") win discussion-filled and correct low-rep users.

completely sums up how I feel sometimes. As a fairly low-rep user, there have been a few instances when I have posted answers, only to have a high-rep-guru post a slightly tweaked variation that ends up outscoring my answer- sob! (I don't actually cry, don't worry.)

In such cases, it might be nice to make a comment saying something like, 'have you thought about using this...'. @Werner demonstrates this regularly- see the comment on @Mico's answer How to prevent page breaks in lists? ("Exam" class) for example.

It does also seem that high-rep users are allowed to post one-line answers, and low-rep users are not. From the OP's perspective, a one-line answer is still a one-line answer, no matter who says it.

Answer 3

As a low-rep, but growing (or am I already med-rep?) contributor I only partly agree.

• I worry that first page users will get "burnt-out".

Actually, I worry more that some of you guys eventually get your thesis done and no longer have the time to contribute here :-)

(On the other hand I am pretty sure that new grad students will follow you. So I agree with Joseph that a community-wide 'burn-out' is unlikely.)

• I worry that newcomers who are a little slow and careful in writing their answer will feel up-started.

Yes, that might happen. However, in my experience the downer is not so much the speed, but the fact that an even less detailed answer by a high-rep user tends to get more votes than a careful answer by a low-rep user. This is perfectly understandable (people just trust high-rep users and "automatically" up-vote their answers), but can appear as unfair.

What I consider as important is to generously up-vote answers from low-rep users.

Answer 4

As a (very?) low-rep user, I feel like there are two worlds - the world of mortal (wo)men with, say, less than 500 reputation, and the world of supernatural beings with the gods at over 10,000 reputation. The gods interfere too much and too quickly in the affairs of men, while we should probably be encouraged to try to sort things out on our own, helping each other. Then gradually if we don't manage, or suggest kludgy solutions, being of higher and higher reputation should begin to intervene. The intervention can also be gradual, like @cmhughes suggests, beginning with a "have you considered" comment in the hope that low-rep users end up writing a good solution themselves.

Pedagogy!

Answer 5

There are a few different things here, and all are worth discussing.

Many of the 'high-rep' users have been around TeX for many years, and answer questions in a number of places. You can look at the first three pages of the user list, at least, and find very active TeX people. So I think 'burn-out' is unlikely.

To some extent, all Q&A sites or forums are 'ask the expert', as most people are coming with a question they need sorting out. A lot of (La)TeX users have reports to write, and are not so fussed about the means to do that as getting the job done. That said, we do need to have a steady supply of people graduating from 'new user' to 'helpful', and in the end to 'expert'. So it's important that we do leave space for newer users.

Many of the high-rep users do a lot of work on commenting, voting and editing. I'd encourage more of that, and also putting effort in to write a complete answer. That should still gain votes even if it's not first.

It's important to remember that different people come here for different reasons. Some people are active in meta, voting and so on, but others are not. So I suspect there will always be some people toward the high end of the rep list who answer quickly: that's why they are here! (There's also the specific interests of individuals: for example, I tend to answer the siunitx problems pretty quickly.)

Answer 6

Adding to Andrew's and Joseph's answers -- another thing high rep users could do is writing great tag wikis. Seeing all the knowledge that's around here, both in the questions and answers, and the expert users' heads, they could provide a great foundation and tacitly answer many questions.