Should we (if we can) rate-limit the number of questions which a user is allowed to ask to one per day (or n per week)?
I'm suggesting that this be applied to all users across the board.
Advantages (as I see them):
Could improve quality, because if I can only post one question today then I'll post my best one.
Doesn't require us to make subjective decisions about the merit of a question or the merit of a genre or (even worse) the merit of a user.
Doesn't use up the time or require the presence of moderators or high-rep users.
Disadvantages (as I see them):
Another Rule. Limits the freedom of users.
Doesn't completely address the problem , e.g. doesn't address the problem of poor-quality answers. (But if it helps a bit, IMO that would be a good thing. All improvement is good).
It would reduce our questions per day rate, which could have an impact on the site coming out of beta. We'd (hopefully) be trading quantity for quality.
Thoughts?
I would suggest that we do it for a 1 month trial and see whether it's effective and what any knock-on effects or problems might be.
Geobits has brought up the interesting question of whether we should be judging the subjective merit of a question. So just to clarify what I mean by 'subjective' above: I mean dependent on personal preference.
If I'm judging whether a question should or should not be allowed on the site then (for fairness) I should have some objective criteria to refer to, for my to at least try to apply impartially. Rather than me just saying that the question shouldn't be allowed because I (subjectively) happen to dislike the question or the genre. That wouldn't be fair.
IMO we're having trouble developing those objective rules - partly because 'puzzling' is such a broad (and puzzling) area - and so IMO systems that help us cope without them are (at least for the moment) potentially useful.