Why would people on this stackexchange rather close an easy question than give a quick answer?

Question

Seems kind of pity, does it not? I think it is easier to give a simple answer. It takes way less time than closing it, and closing does not help anyone. You're powerhungry

<3

Answer 1

Of course it would be easy to give a "simple answer". This does, however collide with the basic intent of this site - it's all about reuse. The intention of this site is to be able to provide a collection of knowledge based on question-answer scenarios. The intention is not to replace Google, Google Translate, DeepL or common dictionaries. By answering "simple questions", we would allow those simple questions to clutter the site and defeat the re-use purpose.

Answer 2

I fully agree with the other answers but want to emphasize a different aspect.

The answering of off-topic questions (can be answered by dictionary, thesaurus, declension table etc. comes to mind) binds resources (the nice persons to write the answers), even more so, since further similar low-quality/off-topic questions are encouraged. It also becomes more difficult for all users to find the interesting stuff among questions, for instance of the type:

What is the first person indicative form in Plusquamperfekt passive of ...

This is how I understood the re-use mentioned by tofro. We expect, that the asking person checks first, that the question is not already answered, so it puts additional burden there as well.

Answer 3

As @tofro already mentioned in his comment your question is not suitable, neither for German Language nor for German Language Meta. The reason why I answer (instead of voting to close it) is because I hope you take away some insight in how German Language in specific and how Stackexchange in general works:

Stackexchange is in its core a system of mutual recognition. You ask interesting questions and or answer interesting questions in an interesting way and your reputation rises. Stackexchange also has rather few and loose rules.

How laws work Every system of rules (starting with law as the most prominent one) has to maintain a balance between written-down ("codified") rules and some leeway to apply them. Trying to codify everything ends in disaster because you would end up not only having a law for what happens if one kills another but also a law for what happens if he does it with a knife and what happens if he holds the knife in his right hand and what happens if he holds the knife with which he kills the other in his right hand on a tuesday, etc., ad nauseam. On the other hand, if you have not enough codified you might end up with just one rule: "behave well" - and there would be neverending discussions about what that entails.

Stackexchange is in this regard more on the loose end, with relatively few codified rules and quite a lot of leeway to interpret these. The more your reputation - see above - rises, the more you are trusted to make good decisions about interpreting the codified rules and the more privileges you are subsequently granted to take part in decisions regarding these.

Closing questions is a privilege users acquire at a certain stage. Yes, there are codified rules about what is and what is not to be closed, but ultimately the decision is done by the community and the communities most reputable users specifically. Earn enough reputation and you are part of this process if you are willing to participate.

So, basically, your question amounts to: "why do you (as a community) apply the rules the way you do?" Perhaps everybody has a different take on that, but the strength of Stackexchanges system is that nobody decides alone but it is a community decision with several people "averaging out" their personal opinions.

As far as I understood, historically this has been the reason to split "English Language Usage" and "English Learners" into two separate SEs - two groups of deciders with slightly different takes on how the rules should be applied.

Answer 4

Being more easy and taking less time are very weak arguments not to close a question.

And what do you mean by "easy question"? It should be easy to show us 3 examples, if it is so common, so we can go into the details. The reason to close is given in the template, marking the question as closed and often accompanied by comments, going into the specific details.