<p><em>This is my ramble:</em>
My guiding rule is whether the question will help make an internet artefact that will be useful to others. Helping the person asking the question is a small good. Helping the thousands of people that eventually access many of the questions on this site is a big good.</p>

<p>I don't particularly care whether the person asking the question is grateful. I  don't particularly care whether the person asking the question reads my answer. I care that the resource will be useful for the thousands of people who land on the page in the future via Google.</p>

<p>The person asking the question is just a useful means of creating such a seed.</p>

<p>If I think someone is asking a lot of questions that will all be of general appeal, then that's fine by me. Other times questions can be edited into something of more ongoing utility.</p>

<p>The main issue is where someone is asking a lot of poor questions that won't be of general value. Then I find downvoting and voting to close are good options; however, I'd focus it on the specific question that has problems rather than the user.</p>
