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This question has almost certainly been asked. Since I couldn't find it, I'll ask it and maybe be rewarded with a link to a prior question.

Would it be possible and/or desirable to lessen reputation-point awards for questions that border on "meta" or appear nearly devoid of mathematical content? "What's your favorite integration technique?" It's not that the questions are uninteresting, but the reputation generated does not reflect the math content of the question.

Granted such distinctions are subjective, but there is a big difference between the reputation of someone who asked one very popular soft question and someone who has consistently asked or responded to non-meta material.

To be clear, I do not think questions/answers designed to enhance intuition fall into this category. It is one of the strengths of this site that one can ask people with profound intuition for analogies or impressions.

This is also a test to see if I can now post on Meta, which in the past I have been unable to do for reasons beyond my ken.

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    $\begingroup$ See: What questions should made CW and CW? $\endgroup$ – Aryabhata Mar 17 '12 at 0:55
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    $\begingroup$ @daniel: You are absolutely right. But probably nothing much can be done about it, unless one severely restricts the right to vote. Worse, in my opinion, is the fact that answers that require some thought, and therefore time, are largely invisible. $\endgroup$ – André Nicolas Mar 22 '12 at 20:35
  • $\begingroup$ @daniel I strongly agree with "Would it be possible and/or desirable to lessen reputation-point awards for questions that border on "meta" or appear nearly devoid of mathematical content?". I'm fairly inexperienced here on MSE, so I'm not entirely sure how rep points work, but I think it's not right a user be awarded so many more points than a user who gets 3 rep points for posting a question he or she has tackled for hours. $\endgroup$ – TheRealFakeNews Mar 15 '13 at 9:27
  • $\begingroup$ AlanH: in retrospect I think the link and Andre's comment above do answer the question. Anything else would be very complicated. And after all what is a rep point worth at the grocery check-out? $\endgroup$ – daniel Mar 15 '13 at 13:10

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