Users who have contributed to the SO community have the ability to close and delete questions. Just because you've got to a stage where these "dumb" questions s

Users who have contributed to the SO community have the ability to close and delete questions. Just because you've got to a stage where these "dumb" questions seem obvious to you, doesn't mean they're not valid questions. You can tell them to improve their question or show that they've put some effort so that they understand that it's ultimately a Q & A site and not a code production service. As for the stats, is it really that suprising that newcomers ask more questions? I'd imagine those who have been programming for some time are more confident in their ability to research answers, check the usual resources (e.g. MDSN), read and understand open source code, and then use SO as a form of last resort.