IMO, there are tootwo sides in the equation, both users asking questions and the people answering are not exactly automatons.
A fine line should be drawn between helping people who are making an effort or not, and between low or better quality answers.
Pointing out shortcomings or clues about the answer should not and cannot be considered abusive, unless being unnecessarily rude; at the end of the timeday we are volunteering time for free, and often some sensitivities about any kind of criticscritiques are quite wrongly displayed.
If the OP just wants to maximize their investment on time vs an answer, and often in many questions, are not even willing to lose time adding more data or clarifying the question when requested, up to a stretch, it is a perversion to be a burden on our side to invest far much more time on a question than the interested party is willing to invest.
Whilst not entirely frequent, we also have people that feel entitled to an answer, and forget we are not getting paid for helping them. The fact I am here helping people does not prevent me from choosing what questions I can consider best for investing my time answering. More serious yet, we often have OPs here telling us to be quiet about comments or otherwise answer. (....)
Also, there isare people that doesdo not take well that we askingask for a minimum of competence in English, and forget this in an English-speaking forum. I often wonder if they do not take well being asked to write proper English, why they do not visit similar forums in their native tongue.
Furthermore, an even more important aspect — much more important — is the quality of the database of questions and answers we are building. If we are more lenient in what passes as a good question or answer, the quality of the database will suffer.
From the side of someone who is answering questions, all, in all, often the collaborative moderation seems a bit more slowishslower for abuses of the system/intentional dupes and abusive people coming here demanding their right to answers.
Whilst we seem all totoo much concerned ofabout being often PC, this site is often being clearly abused as a quick substitute for Google, or at any remotely competent question for being known as an hangout for some knowledgeknowledgeable people.
That said, we have frequently interesting questions here.