text: i just asked a question, why did they subtract 2 points from me?   because of questions like this.  because people ask questions before they do any research.  if before you ask a question you type it into the search box, you can see if anyone else has already asked the same question.  as you can see from the link at least 60 people have asked the same question in the past week or so.  they are trying to encourage people to look it up first and see if the question has already been answered.   this cuts down on duplication..  it might deter on person from asking how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll tootsie pot, or why is the sky blue?  they are trying to improve the quality of the site...   obviously, it has not worked yet...   source(s):  http://answers.yahoo.com/search/search_r...