Is the block against unregistered users asking questions still necessary?

Question

Since 2012, unregistered users (users who haven't explicitly signed up for the site) have been prevented from asking questions (not answering questions) on this site. This block was implemented because a very large percentage of questions asked by new users were of low quality or off-topic.

However, this was back before the major re-scoping of this site from Programmers to Software Engineering. Back in 2012, many users who had asked off-topic questions on Stack Overflow would be directed to ask their question here because of the existing question base on this site and its general perception as a "subjective" site. However, after the major re-scoping, this is no longer the case.

The Stack Exchange team generally prefers that the settings to block unregistered users from making posts not be set unless absolutely required (e.g. too many low-quality questions getting asked), to ensure the site remains inclusive. Looking through the questions asked by new users, most appear to be in scope for the site.

In my opinion, most of the problems that resulted in many new users asking low-quality or off-topic questions have mostly been resolved, mainly as a result of the site scope change. I also no longer see Stack Overflow users directing users to this site.

Is it still necessary to continue blocking unregistered users from asking questions here? Does the community still consider the percentage of low-quality questions asked by new users to be high enough to warrant continuing to block unregistered users?

(I'm asking this as I'm updating the general network list of sites requiring registration to ask or answer questions so each one has a link to the relevant meta post. I noticed that the post for this site is from 2012 and possibly outdated. Notice that very few sites are on that list; the vast majority of sites on the network do not require registration to make posts.)

Answer 1

My initial gut reaction would be that it is still necessary. I'd have to dig and look at the hard data, but we do get a good number of off-topic posts from people who went through the hurdles of creating an account here. The reason that you don't see them is that we aggressively delete them, either through moderator action or with 3 user delete votes. Deleting them keeps them off the homepage, so it doesn't become cluttered with closed off-topic posts for our registered users.

I do think that SO users have gotten better about directing people here, but I'm not sure there's enough data to warrant making the change regarding registered users.

If staff wanted to run an experiment, it would have to be a fixed timebox experiment and we'd have to make sure we had accurate before and after data regarding questions, close reasons, deletions, and who was making them.