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Some questions being asked could likely be answered with a quick google search, or just looking for the correct plugin.

Is there a clear way we can mark a question to be closed while providing the google search result as the reason/comment? Perhaps as a field when choosing "not enough research"?

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  • Be aware: questions asking for "the best" may get closed as "opinion based" ... Maybe slightly adapt the phrasing of your question?
    – Pierre.Vriens Mod
    Mar 19, 2017 at 11:11
  • Context here is everything. Your average newbie will have trouble picking the suitable hit, let alone applying it correctly.
    – Bookeater
    Jun 19, 2017 at 9:25

2 Answers 2

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Lazyness on the question or its answer being on a google search means the question should be downvoted (not useful), not that it should be closed.

RTFM/Not enough research/lmgtfy reasons have been disallowed on Stack Overflow for this reason, if you feel a question is not useful downvote it.

Quoting Stijn's comment to complete the answer:

The underlying thought is that a Stack Exchange site aims at being a comprehensive resource, so an answer existing elsewhere on the internet is not a reason to not also have the answer on a Stack Exchange site.

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    The underlying thought is that a Stack Exchange site aims at being a comprehensive resource, so an answer existing elsewhere on the internet is not a reason to not also have the answer on a Stack Exchange site.
    – Stijn
    Mar 1, 2017 at 9:57
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Be careful about rubber-stamping questions with vague statements like "this can be found in a Google search" or summary accusations like "lazy question" or "not enough research".

This doesn't actually explain (to the recipient of these remarks or anyone else) exactly what the problem is with their question. And for anyone looking on, this gets passed down as just short of an edict for closing anything that "can be found in Google" — close reasons have a tendency to do that.

It's not.

The idea of questions being "too easy" started with our English Language site when we it was envisioned folks would flood the site with questions like "What does the word trivia mean?" — so we (preemptively) worked up a close reason about using a dictionary… then folks added the thesaurus… other added Elements of Style… which soon became a discussion on every new site about which "standard references" would warrant a question be closed summarily. When the Star Trek Compendium and Wookipedia became required reading, we removed the close reason entirely.

That's where the "this is googleable" meme started.

Dismissive comments with no context or guidance are really no better than saying "I want to close this question but can't be bothered to explain why." Don't assume every new user has read your FAQ or poured through the reams of meta discussions — because they haven't.

So why DO we close these questions on occasion?

If you're putting minimal effort into asking a question you expect someone else to spend hours or even days answering, you're showing some major disrespect for the folks you're directing the question at.

You should be a bit wary about calling on others to write up a great answers when you haven't formulated a problem statement that assures it can be answered correctly by folks from whom you are seeking help.

At the same time, a community cannot universally impugn the motivation of every user who might dare ask something "easily googleable". The author may simply be trying to help the site, asking something they hadn't seen asked before. You can either answer it or let someone else answer it. But if someone is continually asking questions that you'd rather not see propagate throughout the site, down-vote it — voting is the ultimate sorting mechanism.

But usually you can help the user understand why their question might not work in this type of Q&A. Here is an example:

How can I improve a question about comparing technical solutoins?

(different problem, but handled the same way)

With a thoughtful comment, you can usually suss out exactly why the author's question may not be ready for this Q&A format. Usually you can drill down to exactly what problem they are trying to solve, and then invite them to ask that. Or if they're just an enthusiast looking to engage in conversation, we have a chat room for that.

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  • Your first few paragraphs is why I was suggesting an easy way to provide the google search link, much like how when a question is closed as a duplicate, the duplicated question is linked.
    – avi
    Mar 2, 2017 at 13:10

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