I noticed that this question from a new user,
Can I compute the mass of a coin based on the sound of its fall?
went viral, attracting tens of thousands of views and hundreds of votes. The numbers speak for themselves - there is no doubt that the question was a good one, though, of course, questions covering a range of topics and difficulties are desirable. Worryingly, however, our initial responses to the question were rather negative; the question was downvoted to a negative rating and comments indicated that the question was of no value.
Does this not suggest that our response to questions can be too quick and too harsh? Are we too officious/bureaucratic? We initially discouraged one of the most successful questions of all time. Do we need to be more careful?