I'll try to answer you with each of the "points" you make.
Something is really wrong with Chemistry.SE.
Is it? Why do you think a community is wrong and you are right? Maybe you should start listening to some people.
I don't know why but people here on MSE are more interested in formatting questions and asking people for more and more context to the questions they ask!!
Asking for context is because maybe someone wanted to help you and answer your question. We don't owe you answers. Editing the formatting is troublesome? Seriously? What's wrong with people trying to make your question clearer and well-formatted? Let's quote some things from the SE model:
All contributions are licensed under Creative Commons, and this site is collaboratively edited, like Wikipedia. If you see something that needs improvement, click edit!
Editing is important for keeping questions and answers clear, relevant, and up-to-date. If you are not comfortable with the idea of your contributions being collaboratively edited by other trusted users, this may not be the site for you. Help center: Editing
Also
The history of the Internet is littered with the corpses of communities that thought they could demand compliance from new members without showing them how. Editing is hands-on education for those willing to learn and a means of salvaging the efforts of those answering even when the asker never learns anything. Shog9, in defense of the editing system
So is that clear why we edit?
Most questions I ask are either on hold or said to be homework question.
When people VTC your question as a homework question, they usually (if not all the time) provide a link. This is what I say to people with inappropriate homework questions:
This is a homework question. We have a policy which states that you should show your thoughts and\or efforts into solving the problem. It'll make us certain that we aren't doing your homework for you. Otherwise, this question may get closed.
The link we provide says:
A "homework question" is any question whose value lies in helping you understand the method by which the question can be solved, rather than getting the answer itself. This includes not just questions from actual homework assignments, but also self-study problems, puzzles, etc.
See? Homework questions are not just homework. Anything that goes along the lines of "Calculate this and that and these and those" or "write a mechanism for this" (which is usually your case) and etc. is homework. We don't want our experts to be doing others homework. It feels bad to be used. So, your intention is good. You aren't dropping homework. As you said in one of your comments, you really want to learn. That's good. But does it make you immune to the rules? No.
The best way to produce a focused, specific question is to show your work. Explain what you've been able to figure out so far and how you did it. Showing your work will help us gauge where you are having problems: if it is a technical thing near the end, a short to the point answer will suffice; if it is some fundamental problem with understanding the subject, somebody will then write a longer, more detailed response. It will also prevent people from spending a lot of time going over ground that you have already covered or understand well already. Something like "I already tried X, but it didn't work", is a good addition to a homework post.
Rules are rules.
But take any other Q and A website like yahoo answers or Chemical Forums - I posted the same questions there and received positive response within few hours.
This is what I find the most amusing in your discussion/rant. If you think we haven't been using such services you're wrong. The sole purpose of SO and subsequently SE is to be somewhere not like those forums. You ask a question there, and receive a response way faster than here. Yes. Especially in Yahoo answers, it's very faster. But what is the response?
Yeah, I like that game too!
No way, go study VSER you moron!
I dunno the answre to ur question, but chemistery iz coool, righte?
StackExchange wanted those not to be. That's why we have strict rules. And that's what makes all of this sensible.
On the contrary here on Chemistry.SE people just kept asking me for more and more context, details, my approach, name of my textbook (which I eventually provided) and even then I didn't get any proper answer to my relatively "simple" questions.
Hmm, Let's see. You're saying that:
- People are asking me for more and more context, details,
As I mentioned in my comment, why do you think people do that? They wanted to answer you, no? They wanted to answer you Correctly, no?
- My approach
We already covered that part.
- name of my textbook (which I eventually provided)
I believe this was caused due to something textbooks provided that wasn't acceptable in modern chemistry.
- and even then I didn't get any proper answer to my relatively "simple" questions.
Instead of [false] accusations bring up examples, and then that'll leave open rooms for discussion. When you haven't provided any examples, don't expect us to believe you. As for the feeling that you get that states that your "simple" questions are too easy for people to answer, I'll guide you to this meta post and its dupe. As this response is long enough, I suggest you take a look at those links which exactly address the simpleness issue you think you have with your questions.
See,most people don't have all the time in the world to format and keep editing a simple question with no end result!
You're getting it the other way around. If a question is put on hold, that means you should improve it. Then when it becomes a good enough question there are 5 voters that will reopen it. So if you don't try to improve your question, what's wrong with the others?
Can anything be done to improve this website?
As Mr. Warzecha once said, hardly anything. Our site is doing great fabulous already. We have rules. We abide our rules. Life is great. I hope I helped!
