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Isn't this the kind of question we are advised not to have in the site at this stage:

What is an easy vegetable to grow in a hot, dry summer / cool, wet winter climate?

I want to try growing vegetables. What is an easy veggie to start with?

With 8 upvotes.

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    I don't see what the problem is. A beginner can't ask a legitimate beginner's question?
    – Jonathan
    Jun 12, 2011 at 9:56
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    the advice from the stack exchange team is that the beta has a special job to do - to attract an expert audience. an important part of that is eschewing easy questions and/or questions which look like a poll (anyone can have a view). no offence, i like some of your other questions, and have upvoted some of them. e.g. the one about the amount of sap in an Apricot tree.
    – Tea Drinker
    Jun 12, 2011 at 14:33
  • Thanks, and no offence taken. I agree it's an easy question, but I think it is sufficiently objective. It isn't asking for a discussion, it asks for others with more experience to explain something, to share their experience. Maybe the question could be rephrased to get more explanatory answers, and not just opinions. And... maybe you're right and this isn't a good question.
    – Jonathan
    Jun 12, 2011 at 16:45
  • I think the real question being asked here is being obscured by the example chosen. The question at stake should have been CW anyway, a better example might be "How do I water the lawn?"; an actual question where a google search would yield hundreds of equally viable, broad answers to a vague and ambiguous overly broad question.
    – mfg
    Jun 17, 2011 at 15:12

4 Answers 4

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"Easy" is subjective, unfortunately.

Whilst that's not an expert question, I personally don't know enough about vegetable gardening to say "X is the easiest vegetable - you can't go wrong with X!" I could guess and pick one, but I wouldn't have the in-depth knowledge to explain why. I'd prefer this question to be "What is the easiest vegetable to grow?" so that it encourages a more precise answer with reasoning behind it ("show your working").

Yes, we should be trying to remove questions that 90% of the world can answer, because we won't attract expert knowledge otherwise. I think we do this by changing "easy" questions into ones that give a similar answer, but require more knowledge to answer well and we reward well-explained answers appropriately.

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Being about "easy" is not the same as being easy. The question may be a beginners question, but it's a great question for an expert to answer. It's actually a deceptively complex question.

Only a very experienced gardener who has grown many vegetables, both easy and difficult, will really have a good idea of those that a beginner can't really screw up.

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I think that question needs some improvement and it could be something that an expert would take the time to answer.

  • It is tagged as "vegetable-gardening" (are we using that or "vegetables"?)
  • The question is "easy vegetable to grow for beginners", should be something like "what are novice level vegetables hardy to subtropical climates"
  • The question should remain untagged as "beginner" because that's a meta tag, but it should have something regarding "skill-level-novice" because that is information that is often published and provides something applicable to the seeds being dealt with.
  • The climate also should be used as part of the tag, because, living in Wisconsin it is not applicable to me. At least I don't think it is.

I'd edit it, but I want a little feedback.

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    I think this question can be turned in one of two directions; an objectively answerable, nice and specific question to suit this individuals specific needs (which the OP will need to provide), or into a standard 'important learning books' CW question. I wouldn't worry about the window dressing until the structure of the question is evaluated.
    – mfg
    Jun 17, 2011 at 15:15
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I believe based on other stacks that this is the 'most important book' question (and is typically CW). It doesn't make it a great question, but some great answers can come of it.

  • Personally, I feel it should have been community owned from the start and there should not have been any rep generated from throwing answers at the wall to see if they stick.

A better use would be something like "Translating cooking terms between...". If we could convert the beginner plants question, or future iterations of similar type questions to something more streamlined it would be a better thing.

At any rate, your question seems valid but do you have any other examples of "easy questions" thus far? The worry for trivial questions, or LMGTFY/RTFM questions seems largely minimal.

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