Should Y!/A forbid people from asking the same question over and over again?

Question

Examples:

"How can I download such-and-such-a book?"
"How can I get published?"
"Should I put my writing online?"

and other variations of the above. Every single one of the above questions have been more than well-answered - If people take the trouble to look in the archives that is. These are just observations I have made in the Books and Authors section. Such repetition of question pushes other questions down and on to the next page, where nobody looks - sometimes I see a question with only one answer to it. I think that overall, this detracts from the Yahoo! Answers experience.

What do you think?

Thanks for the detailed response, Poseidon, but I was referring the way that many different people ask the same questions. Everybody wants to know how they can download a still-copyright-protected book for free, how they can get published, etc. I hope this clears matters up.

Maybe Y!/A should set up a different FAQ for each section. For intance, there ought to be a side bar for the Books and Authors section filled with Frequently Asked Questions, one of them being "How can I download (insert popular book title here)"

I guess I'll email Yahoo! about this.

Answer 1

Tricky question, it seems like a good idea at first but I'll say no for a couple of reasons.
As time goes by when a similar question is asked, it gives new people a chance to answer and add a fresh perspective.
Also answers to at least half the questions on here can easily be found by using a search engine, so should yahoo eliminate those questions as well?

Questions that I think should be eliminated are from people who don't seem to be able to form a complete thought or anything resembling a sentence.

Answer 2

Hi Tigertrot.

Forgive me if I appear to be splitting hairs but I feel the the 3 examples you give are not strictly duplicate questions. Each question asks for a different answer.

However, I certainly know what you mean and I agree that if someone repeatedly asks the same question they should be made aware that there is no need for it. Especially if they ask the same question in the same category

Being a moderator on a couple of Q&A Sites, I am constantly deleting duplicated questions and whenever possible I contact the person(s) posting them and ask them to stop.

I assume there are moderators on this site who can and will do the same.

Repeat offenders should be warned that if they persist, they run the risk of being suspended.

Poseidon

Answer 3

Are you going to sit on your computer and monitor every single question that gets asked? Probably not, so no i dont think so, plus some people like gettting different answr instead of reading ones that they dont know how old they are. But if you mean like one use asking the same question they actually do say in the rules please dont ask the same question over and over.

Answer 4

Your question could have been worded as folows;
Should Yahoo Answers exclude participants repeatedly asking the same question?However,It is my considered opinion that it the responsibility of Yahoo Answers to ponder and determine what policy amendments are appropiate.

Answer 5

Well.... I don't think it should, but the great thing is that it always shows similar questions when a question is asked....