Could we have a 'no research effort' close/flag reason?

Question

Some questions are decent but lack research effort:

The standard close reason for this type of question is that they are too broad:

Requirements are too broad — This is a community-run website to help users complete an exhaustive solution search given very specific requirements. Posts should detail why a simple product search did not work for you. Unfortunately the "requirements" listed are not sufficient to narrow down the possible solutions in any definitive way.

Consequently I think that this could be confusing to some users, even with a comment addressing the reason behind the question being put on hold or closed. The current reason for "no research effort" may also prompt the user to adding more specific requirements to their question, but still does not include evidence of any research undertaken (if any).

Instead, I personally think it'd be a good idea to add a new close/flag reason:

No research effort — Some questions are easily answerable via a search-engine, and must include some evidence of research. Unfortunately there is no evidence of any research undertaken, or it is not sufficient to narrow down possible solutions in any definitive way.

I know a similar close/flag reason to this has been proposed on other Stack Exchange sites, but however I think that this is something that Hardware Recommendations solely needs.

Answer 1

I disagree. We have multiple reasons that could cover "no research".

We have the generic "too broad".

We have the custom "too broad".

We have "unclear".

Any of these three can be used to cover "lack of research".

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However, should lack of research, if it is not "too broad", really be a reason we close questions? I argue that it should not. If a question is clear, on topic, and meets our quality guidelines then it should stay open.

We have a limited number of close reasons available. Using one of those slots because questions aren't covering one specific aspect of our quality guidelines doesn't seem like the best use of close reasons. If users are not following our guidelines, use one of the above reasons and add a comment about the guidelines.

Instead of using a close reason for "lack of research", I think it should be used for technical support

Answer 2

I say this is unnecessary, for a number of reasons.

I closed that question using the custom "too broad" reason we have, because that reason fits the case. It sets out requirements that are too broad to narrow the search down to a few products.

I don't see any situation in which a "no research effort" close reason would be used, where our custom too broad reason could not be used instead.

The other reason I have is that creating a "no research effort" reason is a bit accusatory - if we close a question under that reason, it's essentially saying to the OP "you didn't bother with this, go away". To which many people will say "grumble grumble, arbitrary requirements, grumble, don't care, grumble, elitist, grumble." None of those are terms I particularly want applied to the site and community - we're better than that.

Now, while a specific close reason for this is not needed, what you can and should do is comment. Take a look at the comment I left on that question when I closed it:

Hi there. I'm putting this question on hold because as it stands you're asking for a product that could be found fairly easily with a Google search or two. This site is here to provide specific recommendations when you've tried all the Google research and have a list of specific requirements for us. Those you've specified leave us with hundreds of possible answers. Have a Google, tell us what you found and why it didn't work, have a read of the guidelines and then edit your question.

That essentially says "no research", but comments are more verbose and can be used to say it in a nicer way that says "this question doesn't quite have what we need to give you great answers, but you can do this and this and we can reopen it".

Answer 3

Stack Exchange already has a tool for questions that lack research effort.

If you think a question lacks research effort, downvote it.

Questions that lack research effort often warrant closure, but not because they lack research effort. Research effort is a property of how the question is written, not of what it asks. Closure is about answerability, it's about what answers the question calls for, not about how it's written. There is some correlation, for example questions that lack research effort are often unclear or too vague. So if the question is unclear, close it as unclear, etc. But “lacks research effort” in itself is not related to closure.