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I don't disagree with your point, but I have to ask: How do you design a site like SO that is simultaneously valuable for both beginners and experts?

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By letting everyone (almost) regardless of rep upvote or downvote questions and closing questions only when they're downvoted into oblivion. The trick is to get a wide variety of questions, and that means vague and confusing beginner questions need their fair shot as well.

SO did go through that phase.

People appear to be forgetting how it used to be. Before SO, that was how it was, and it sucked. You constantly found answers to beginner questions that were wrong or useless because of lack of context, or just unanswered questions when you searched.

SO is regulated because it means the content that is there is quality. Getting rid of stuff that doesn't work on SO makes it a better resource. Trying to shove that stuff back in would be terrible.

By all means, go set up that 'SO for newb questions', and when it's full of ananswered questions (because all the answerers get fed up trying to decode incomprehensible questions and feeding the help vampires), and content no one wants, maybe you'll get it.

Beyond all that, it's better for those asking too. Getting a short answer out of context isn't what those people need. They need proper, in-depth tutorials.

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