I found this post today. Yeah, I agree that this question has been asked many times before but isn't 9 downvotes for a new user a bit too intense? I think mass downvoting newbies will only harm the site long term (as per new long term users goes).

What I would suggest people to do is leave helpful comments and if OP isn't ready to fix their question, then only go for close vote rather than downvote if it's a new user.

Why? The meaning of downvote isn't something that a new user could understand without any comments pointing out what's wrong. The second reason would be that people are more likely to turn long term contributors if they are welcomed well on to the site. That is if they continue to contribute.

Maybe there are reasons that I don't know on why it is a good idea to do this, if this is the case kindly explain why it would be as an answer.