I know I'm a bit late to answer here, but I've always seen the kind of question you're describing here as evidence that the asker hasn't really thought through the question much themselves. These questions will rarely describe anything concrete that the OP actually tried themselves, and when they do it'll often be in the form of "I tried x but [it didn't work/there was an error/insert other vague problem statement here]".

In the vast majority of cases, it seems like "please help me" evaluates to "gimme teh codez." Even if the asker doesn't really mean to ask a "gimme teh codez" question, the fact that their only "question" is "please help me" makes it a "gimme teh codez" question.

With that said, I do agree that the lack of a clear problem statement or clear question dramatically diminishes the question's potential usefulness to future readers. Personally, when I search Stack Overflow for something, I'm almost always looking for a solution to a specific problem (rather than general information about a type of problem; that's what books and tutorials are for).

I've always seen the kind of question you're describing here as evidence that the asker hasn't really thought through the question much themselves (or, at a minimum, they didn't take time to clarify which part of the task they are struggling with). These questions will rarely describe anything concrete that the OP actually tried themselves, and when they do it'll often be in the form of "I tried x but [it didn't work/there was an error/insert some other vague problem statement here]".

In the vast majority of cases, it seems like "please help me" evaluates to "gimme teh codez"/"please write this for me." Even if the asker doesn't really mean to ask a "gimme teh codez" question, the fact that their only "question" is "please help me" makes it a "gimme teh codez" question because it's unclear what part of the task they need help with.

With that said, I do agree that the lack of a clear problem statement or clear question dramatically diminishes the question's potential usefulness to future readers. Personally, when I search Stack Overflow for something, I'm almost always looking for a solution to a specific problem (rather than general information about a type of problem; that's what books and tutorials are for).

I know I'm a bit late to answer here, but I've always seen the kind of question you're describing here as evidence that the asker hasn't really thought through the question much themselves. These questions will rarely describe anything concrete that the OP actually tried themselves, and when they do it'll often be in the form of "I tried x but it [didn't work/there was an error/insert other vague problem statement here]".

In the vast majority of cases, it seems like "please help me" evaluates to "gimme teh codez." Even if the asker doesn't really mean to ask a "gimme teh codez" question, the fact that their only "question" is "please help me" makes it a "gimme teh codez" question.

With that said, I do agree that the lack of a clear problem statement or clear question dramatically diminishes the question's potential usefulness to future readers. Personally, when I search Stack Overflow for something, I'm almost always looking for a solution to a specific problem (rather than general information about a type of problem; that's what books and tutorials are for).

I know I'm a bit late to answer here, but I've always seen the kind of question you're describing here as evidence that the asker hasn't really thought through the question much themselves. These questions will rarely describe anything concrete that the OP actually tried themselves, and when they do it'll often be in the form of "I tried x but [it didn't work/there was an error/insert other vague problem statement here]".

In the vast majority of cases, it seems like "please help me" evaluates to "gimme teh codez." Even if the asker doesn't really mean to ask a "gimme teh codez" question, the fact that their only "question" is "please help me" makes it a "gimme teh codez" question.

With that said, I do agree that the lack of a clear problem statement or clear question dramatically diminishes the question's potential usefulness to future readers. Personally, when I search Stack Overflow for something, I'm almost always looking for a solution to a specific problem (rather than general information about a type of problem; that's what books and tutorials are for).