Over the last few months we've seen an influx of questions that, pretty easily, could be solved by a quick Google search or a visit to that topic on Wikipedia. Many of the replies to these questions has indicated as such, from the rather tame to those which are outright violations of our rules.

While its not explicitly highlighted in our rules, these questions are a violation of our rules (first paragraph under Submissions):

Questions are just that: questions. Users should make every effort to ensure that their questions are clear, specific and novel. The more tightly-focused your question, the more likely you are to get an answer. Further, the question should rise to the level that the answer cannot be a quick Google search. Please put your question in the title. And finally, the question should be an actual question. However, not every post that ends with a question mark is appropriate. Questions like “Does anyone else think…” or “Liberals of this subreddit, what do you think about…” are more appropriate in other subreddits.

So what does this mean?

1. Going forward we will add a new removal reason highlighting this reason the question is being removed: "Easily Researched Question".
   
2. If you feel a question can be answered by a quick Google or Wikipedia search, please report is as such. There will be a new reason for the reports that matches above. The moderators will review and make a determination.
3. If the person who submitted the question feels that it is more complex than determined, feel free to reply to the removal message to contact the moderator who removed it. We would be happy to discuss how the question could be worded to pass muster.

Also, let's keep the rules in mind. Posting a link to "Let me Google that for you..." is not helpful and will be removed. Please report instead. Just because a question breaks the rules doesn't give those making comments free reign to break the rules in even more egregious manner.