You want a nice collection of exemplary questions? That's easy; simply use this link.
Footnote: I once praised Yoichi Oishi's questions in an ELL meta answer.
As others have said, I don't think having this link anywhere will diminish the high number of shoddy questions that continue to plague this site. Still, it might be nice to have a handy link when you are trying to gently nudge a newer user in the right direction.
EDIT
Seeing that this question is getting more downvotes than upvotes, I'd like to clarify: The original link is to a list of questions written by one of ELU's most prestigious users, sorted by votes. I'm not saying these questions are exemplary because of what they ask about, I'm saying they are exemplary because of how they are presented and structured.
I have always thought that Yoichi's questions provide a good example of:
- providing background information and context,
- referencing what kind of prior research was done, and
- clearly presenting the question
(or, as the OP of this meta question puts it, "a sort of model for asking good questions").
When the OP of this meta question talks about Low-Quality Questions, I'm assuming that means questions that provide scant background information and context, don't mention any prior research, and aren't always clear about what is being asked. For example, in the last hour or so, I've seen new users ask:
Is first come, first served hyphenated (first-come, first-served? Thank you.
and:
I need help with this phrase, pls.
what does "offering empowering" mean?
Thanks
and:
I'm trying to make it sound that her beauty is the opposite of dangerous, it's delicate but it doesn't perfectly describe what I want to say.
As I type this, all three of these questions are (probably rightfully) getting downvotes, close votes, and/or comments requesting further information, details, context, or comments asking about what prior research was done. If any of these commenters wanted to link to an exemplary question showing how to do this, they could easily pick one of Yoichi's top-voted questions, such as:
I found the term “that guy”, used as “He embarked on a career as a 'that guy',” in the following sentence of the article of the New Yorker (Feb. 7, 2011) titled “the Most Interesting Man in the World”:
In a recalls of a contentious exchange with Hoffman: “I jumped up and said, ‘Dustin, the reason you don’t like me is because I’m gonna make it and you’re not.’ ” Jonathan Goldsmith eventually made it - out to Los Angeles, anyway—and embarked on a career as a “that guy,” very often the that guy who gets killed, on television shows such as “Bonanza,” “Mannix,” “Gunsmoke,” “Hawaii Five-O,” ... to name a few.
As I don’t understand what that guy used in quotes means, I checked online dictionaries. Neither Cambridge online, nor Free Merriam-Webster has an entry for “that guy.”
Only Onlineslangdictionary.com carries the definition as “any person who does something considered inappropriate,” with an example, “I was going to crack a joke then, but I didn't want to be that guy.” But I don’t think this definition applies to “that guy” appearing in the above sentence.
What does “that guy” as a career Goldsmith built up mean? Does it mean a villain (in the film)? Is "that guy" a well-received of its own word?
or:
Today most people die in a hospital bed, though many would prefer to die in their own home being watched over by their loving family.
We have an old saying, “to die on a tatami mat”, meaning to die peacefully in one’s own home — as opposed to dying miserably and bedridden in a hospital while being distressed by the presence of tubes supplying oxygen and nutrients as if one was trussed up with some sort of monstrous spaghetti.
For reference, tatami is a floor mat made of woven rush which you may find in most Japanese houses. (The size of a room is quantified in terms of the number of tatamis, e.g. a 6-tatami room or a 12-tatami room.)
“To die on a tatami mat” originally meant “to end a peaceful life” without being subjected to such perils as war, fighting, fires, earthquakes, tsunamis and typhoons as are rife in this country. By extension, we call a reckless person “a fellow who is unable to die on a tatami mat.”
I associate “aging in place”, a term which I understand is current these days, with “dying on a tatami mat.” But the connotation is not the same.
Are there any English-language expressions that are similar to the Japanese saying “I want to die on a tatami mat”?
I believe that if more users emulated Yoichi in provide such details, the site overall would be a much happier and more interesting place.