I think in the last week or so some users have been picking up the discussion of how to help this site grow, and trying to narrow down what is on and off topic for us. One area where we could improve on is the number of questions asked per day. We're at 2.1 as it stands, and the general goal is 15 a day.
We need new and current users to feel unafraid to ask questions. Yes of course, they must be on-topic and this post is not to ask to widen our scope.
In order to get users to ask questions, we need to foster a friendly atmosphere, but I'm afraid that that is not easy when questions are down-voted without explanation. Perhaps on a larger SE site, where many votes can get lost in the shuffle, this would not be important, but I feel that votes here tend to matter more.
What I'm asking is that if you feel that a question does not belong on this site, and you chose to vote accordingly, please explain why. (And please be nice about it...we're here to help each other.) This way people can reword their questions for clarity or whatever the case may be. I'm asking this so we can improve our questions, and the atmosphere of a friendly learning-environment.
EDIT/UPDATE: I think this should go with votes to close as well.