Is my question/answer ratio something I need to be worrying about?

Question

My Spanish is somewhat rusty and unpracticed. Whilst I am confident in my reading and listening ability, I would not consider myself competent to string too many error-free sentences together.

As a result, I'm currently hesitant in trying to answer questions here, even if I think I know the answer:

• Whilst the reader might understand what I'm getting at, my level of spoken/written Spanish is rusty enough that I'm bound to make plenty of mistakes.

• There are plenty of fluent Spanish speakers here who can likely provide error-free answers.

On the other hand, I have no doubt that I'll have plenty of questions to ask.

So, my question is, how acceptable is it to largely be a question-asker rather than a question-answerer? Is my question/answer ratio something I need to be worrying about?

My experience on StackOverflow has been that the community tends to frown on "question pump" users. (Fortunately, my coding skills are a little more polished than my Spanish.)

Answer 1

Ask away!

Generally, there is nothing wrong with asking questions, and there is definitely nothing wrong with avoiding answering questions when you are not confident that you have the answer.

The bias towards people answering version asking is handled by the reputation difference between questions (5 points per upvote, with not rep cost for other users downvoting) and answers (10 points per upvote, a rep penalty for people downvoting, and the possibility of the bonus if your answer is accepted).

There should be no reason why you should worry about whether you can ask more questions simply because you haven't posted many (or even any) answers. The only thing to worry about is if the questions are good questions (which is, of course, relatively subjective, but defining that subjective "good question" is part of what this meta is for). So long as your questions are on-topic, in a format that matches the platform, within the guidlelines established here in meta, and not duplicates, you should feel free to ask as many as you like, without any obligation to try to post answers.

Answer 2

I really don't think there is a problem about that.

In the English Language & Usage my ratio is 239 answers/0 questions, and I'm one of the top users! You use Stack Exchange according to your needs and wishes.

If you want to ask something, ask away. If you can't write in Spanish, use English.
If you want to answer and you think your answer is correct, do it.

No-one will care, apart from personal curiosity or similar things, that you only asked or only answered... :)

Answer 3

I don't know about Stack Overflow, but that's a high traffic site for one thing, and that really does make a difference whether it ought to or not.

I know for a fact that I ask more than I answer on probably every site I participate on, and personally I see nothing wrong with it. I also answer when I'm pretty sure I know but not when I just have an opinion or a theory.

I do also do lots and lots of commenting which I think is often almost as valuable as answers.

So I say Go for it!