user1590: Sometimes new users are answering multiple questions in a short period of time but, as is often the case with new users, the quality is low (formatting, research, lack of good sources) or information is just incorrect. There is one recently arrived user with multiple low answers like this, they have been directed to the help pages by several users across their questions and been asked for improvements, yet these improvements seem to not be forthcoming. 
Is there anyway we can block an account from posting new answers in these cases? I think just a very short timeout (a few hours) with a message to consult the help pages about the quality of answers and to look around the site at other answers that are well upvoted (perhaps give a link to a page of answers awarded the Nice Answer badge) so they can see what sort of standard is expected. However, I think that this would be quite an extreme treatment, something like a time-out should only be used VERY occasionally, we do not want to deter new users.
Potentially better softer solutions:
Perhaps new users should have a limit on the number/rate of answers they can post, so they can get used to the way biology SE works before going on answering marathons. 
Perhaps answers from new users (for example; their first ten answers, answers in the first weeks, or answers from people with less than a certain amount of upvoted/accepted answers to their name - I specify this because I don't think rep is a particularly useful blocker, you get 100 just for being registered to multiple SE sites) aren't posted publicly until peer-reviewed.

a note..
I'm getting quite fed up with having to explain to people that answers should be of a certain quality (see how a good answer is described in the help pages) and just getting resistance and defensiveness in return. I'm seriously considering giving up bioSE because of the issue. If more experienced users don't point out these issues of quality it will just end up being full of nonsense, opinions, guesses, and misinformation like Yahoo answers!

user6: There is a mechanism that will stop any user with too many extremely low-quality answers from answering any further questions. I can't really provide more details here because only SE employees know those, and I'm not sure if the few details I actually know are meant to be public. I'll say that this answer ban was triggered very recently on this site.
Apart from the answer ban, less severe cases can be handled manually by the community and the moderators. Downvoting and commenting are actions most users here can perform, and those should be sufficient for the common cases. 
We could change our rules to require a bit higher standards for answers with regard to references. I'm not sure if that would help, but it would add the option of moderators removing answers not fulfilling the requirements more quickly. This is not without drawbacks, but I could see some limited forms of requiring references that might work on this site.

user3624: It is not very difficult to understand what users that sparked this post, and in this case I would encourage you to just add short comments, downvote and maybe flag, especially after seeing the responses you've got to previous comments that suggested improvements. Engaging more in an extended discussion will just drain the life-force out of you.

user948: So we now have rolling question rate limits network-wide, but I'm not sure if the same applies to answers, or if this has even been addressed (I searched through Meta.SE and Meta.SO without success). I think the best course of action for these sorts of answers is to downvote and/or flag as very low quality (or not an answer, if it truly doesn't even attempt to answer the question). Yes, downvoting answers does consume rep, although it's only 1 point, but, as the popup when mousing over the down arrow says, "This answer is not useful", so if that's truly the case then a downvote is warranted. Feel free to leave a comment if you wish - it's not mandatory, but may help the answerer fix their contribution if they so choose. Flagging as VLQ puts the answer into the review queue, where higher-rep users and mods can edit it or vote to delete it. Finally, if you find that a certain question is attracting a lot of low-quality answers from new users, you can either protect the question (if you have the rep), or custom flag the question and ask for it to be protected.
While I understand not wanting to deter new users, we also need to keep a watchful eye on the quality of the site. Many new users (if they return) will take constructive comments to heart, and attempt to fix their questions/answers. Unfortunately, some do not, so it's up to us as the community to maintain the standards of the site.

1590: <p>Sometimes new users are answering multiple questions in a short period of time but, as is often the case with new users, the quality is low (formatting, research, lack of good sources) or information is just incorrect. There is one recently arrived user with multiple low answers like this, they have been directed to the help pages by several users across their questions and been asked for improvements, yet these improvements seem to not be forthcoming. </p>

<p>Is there anyway we can block an account from posting new answers in these cases? I think just a very short timeout (a few hours) with a message to consult the help pages about the quality of answers and to look around the site at other answers that are well upvoted (perhaps give a link to a page of answers awarded the <a href="https://biology.stackexchange.com/help/badges/23/nice-answer">Nice Answer</a> badge) so they can see what sort of standard is expected. However, I think that this would be quite an extreme treatment, something like a time-out should only be used VERY occasionally, we do not want to deter new users.</p>

<p><strong>Potentially better softer solutions:</strong></p>

<p>Perhaps new users should have a limit on the number/rate of answers they can post, so they can get used to the way biology SE works before going on answering marathons. </p>

<p>Perhaps answers from new users (for example; their first ten answers, answers in the first weeks, or answers from people with less than a certain amount of upvoted/accepted answers to their name - I specify this because I don't think rep is a particularly useful blocker, you get 100 just for being registered to multiple SE sites) aren't posted publicly until peer-reviewed.</p>

<hr>

<p>a note..
I'm getting quite fed up with having to explain to people that answers should be of a certain quality (see how a good answer is described in the help pages) and just getting resistance and defensiveness in return. I'm seriously considering giving up bioSE because of the issue. If more experienced users don't point out these issues of quality it will just end up being full of nonsense, opinions, guesses, and misinformation like Yahoo answers!</p>
 6: <p>There is a mechanism that will stop any user with too many extremely low-quality answers from answering any further questions. I can't really provide more details here because only SE employees know those, and I'm not sure if the few details I actually know are meant to be public. I'll say that this answer ban was triggered very recently on this site.</p>

<p>Apart from the answer ban, less severe cases can be handled manually by the community and the moderators. Downvoting and commenting are actions most users here can perform, and those should be sufficient for the common cases. </p>

<p>We could change our rules to require a bit higher standards for answers with regard to references. I'm not sure if that would help, but it would add the option of moderators removing answers not fulfilling the requirements more quickly. This is not without drawbacks, but I could see some limited forms of requiring references that might work on this site.</p>
 3624: <p>It is not very difficult to understand what users that sparked this post, and in this case I would encourage you to just add short comments, downvote and maybe flag, especially after seeing the responses you've got to previous comments that suggested improvements. Engaging more in an extended discussion will just drain the life-force out of you.</p>
 948: <p>So we now have <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/243460/rolling-question-rate-limits-are-now-network-wide">rolling question rate limits network-wide</a>, but I'm not sure if the same applies to answers, or if this has even been addressed (I searched through Meta.SE and Meta.SO without success). I think the best course of action for these sorts of answers is to downvote and/or flag as very low quality (or not an answer, if it truly doesn't even attempt to answer the question). Yes, downvoting answers does consume rep, although it's only 1 point, but, as the popup when mousing over the down arrow says, "<em>This answer is not useful</em>", so if that's truly the case then a downvote is warranted. Feel free to leave a comment if you wish - it's not mandatory, but may help the answerer fix their contribution if they so choose. Flagging as VLQ puts the answer into the review queue, where higher-rep users and mods can edit it or vote to delete it. Finally, if you find that a certain question is attracting a lot of low-quality answers from new users, you can either <a href="https://biology.stackexchange.com/help/privileges/protect-questions">protect</a> the question (if you have the rep), or custom flag the question and ask for it to be protected.</p>

<p>While I understand not wanting to deter new users, we also need to keep a watchful eye on the quality of the site. Many new users (if they return) will take <strong>constructive</strong> comments to heart, and attempt to fix their questions/answers. Unfortunately, some do not, so it's up to us as the community to maintain the standards of the site.</p>
