I absolutely agree. If I downvote an answer, it's because it doesn't help. There are some people who give answers that are based on the person's lifestyle- not on the actual problem. As such, I downrank those and tell them why.
I think the worst part is how people have a tendency to "answer" a question with their own question. Normally, the question has been dormant for at least a month as well. It'd be kind of nice if questions were locked after a certain number of days- perhaps 30? Also, there's often a lot of repeat questions- the somewhat silly questions like, "My iPod/iPhone is locked; how do I unlock it?" It'd be nice if there was some kind of system that could check when someone submits a question like that and point them to some established article. If that does not solve their problem, they could write a comment on that article asking for further guidance. So yes- locking questions after a time, and somehow cutting down on the repeat questions would be fabulous.
