<p>Since I'm still quite new to the site, I just wanted to poll what the general consensus is on voting down questions from people with very low rep.</p>

<p>As an example, I don't think the OP from <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/3516/binomial-test-for-a-binary-variable">this question</a> really understands the difference between a categorical and a continuous variable.  I saw that some had voted the question up, but I personally wanted to vote it down (and did) because I feel the OP didn't understand what he or she was asking.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Do you think this discourages new posters if they have their questions voted down?  (Even if perhaps they received answers that are voted up?)</p></li>
<li><p>If you answered yes to question 1, is there some <em>approximate</em> metric, duration of account in days, or minimum rep before you believe a question should be voted down?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>My motivation is that I really want to encourage my students to ask questions here, but I don't want to raise the noise level with questions that aren't well thought out.</p>
