<p>The arithmetic of the balance is simple: most people ask just one or two questions, while a few regular contributors have answered hundreds.  Nobody has attempted to answer more than 10% of all questions.  You can see this information for yourself in many ways, such as by following links (such as to individual profiles or the "users" page) or through queries on the <a href="http://data.stackexchange.com/" rel="nofollow">data page</a>.  </p>

<p>The tough issue concerns what happens to a site when (if) it becomes inundated with elementary questions.  So far, places where that seems to be happening, such as Math and English, are coping just fine.  <strong>The community helps tremendously</strong>: by flagging bad questions and duplicate questions, we maintain a "collective memory" that keeps new questions genuinely new.  Another key aspect of this quality control is our <strong>treatment of homework-like problems</strong>: the policy is not to answer them directly, but to provide guidance for people who show they are really working on the problems.  This keeps us from becoming just a repository of solved textbook questions.</p>
