Is it right to close questions based on lack of effort?

Question

I have seen questions being closed due to lack of effort on communities like Biology and Mathematics and sometimes there are questions in DSE with absolutely no effort and very less effort presented from the poster's side? It might be either asking for a piece of code or on how to do something which can be obtained from minimal effort by Googling.

I feel like voting to close such questions based on lack of effort or at least holding them till they show their effort. Is it a right take to flag a question on the above basis at the current time? Or since most of the questions are from new users, we should be tending user-friendly.

Answer 1

_{Note: There is an extensive discussion on SO Meta on this topic.}

Downvote it

Tooltip from Downvote Button:

This question does not show any research effort; it is unclear or not useful

Note that I am not suggesting piling on the down votes. A -1 question, with no answers, will be roomba'ed away in about a month. In addition a -1 is enough to tell some they needn't bother opening the question if they are concerned about reading low quality content. Thirdly, if the Asker fixes the question, the hole they need to climb out of to have a good question, is not so deep.

_{Note: There is no reputation penalty for down voting questions.}

Close Vote (flag) as Too Broad

Is it a right take to flag a question on the above basis at the current time?

Many of these sorts of questions would require a book to answer. These questions will be Too Broad and you should should consider if a Vote-To-Close would be appropriate. From the help section:

if your question could be answered by an entire book, or has many valid answers (but no way to determine which - if any - are correct), then it is probably too broad for our format

... limit it to a specific problem with enough detail to identify an adequate answer.

Keep in mind, that unless a moderator votes, it takes 5 community members to close a question. So your close vote (flag), is just getting the process started. If you feel the question is Too Broad, then a Vote-To-Close is the right course of action.

Should we be user friendly?

Or since most of the questions are from new users, we should be tending user-friendly?

I would suggest the friendliest gesture would be to leave a comment explaining the above. And if desired, give some tips on improving the question. I personally have had mixed luck with this, from hearty thanks you's, to down right hostility. So I can only recommend comments if you don't mind occasionally getting a hostile reaction.

A helpful comment is probably the most likely way to help a new user along, but that does not preclude a Down-Vote and/or a Vote-To-Close