Puzzles that request 'no googling'?

Question

Is it ok to ask questions that have already been asked and answered on other sites, and are easy to find? And then request users 'not to google it'?

When the answer does come out, it is possible that someone has searched for the answer but does not want to declare so (to gain rep). It is also possible that people happen to 'know' the answer due to their earlier research. Lastly, it is possible that someone makes a genuine attempt and people are not sure whether to trust him/her.

I am against this because users who like such challenges can anyway browse through old questions.

Related: How to answer when the solution was published/proven a century ago?

Answer 1

I don't think there's anything that should prevent you from doing this, however I would question why anyone would want to. What are they hoping to gain from doing this?

"Puzzling Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for those who create, solve, and study puzzles."

• The person posting the puzzle will not have created it. I expect that they will learn little about creating a puzzle by doing this.
• They will not be trying to solve it and may end up with a sub-optimal solution. If time and effort has been expended on producing a solution elsewhere, then why repeat the effort? If they are looking for an improved or alternative answer, then they should say that they are unhappy with the answer on the other site and explain why.
• If they are interested in studying how people arrive at a solution, it would be best if they said that this was their intention.

If, on the other hand, they are just trying to gain Rep by regurgitating something that someone else has done, I would hope that they wouldn't get many upvotes.