I'm relatively new here, so I'm still trying to get the hang of what sorts of questions are really appropriate here. I'm used to Stack Overflow, where questions are a little more generally applicable. But on here I've noticed that there's actually native support for tagging particular patents, and that people tend to ask questions like "has this application been granted?" Is that kind of question appropriate? I would initially call it a "no research effort," although I also know more about finding information on this stuff than most people do, even just in that I, and I imagine anyone else on this Meta site, knows about the PAIR systems.

There are also even more specific questions that I sometimes see, like http://patents.stackexchange.com/questions/9876/blood-diluent-and-method-of-use-thereof for example. This person is asking a specific detail about the invention, not about the patent or application. Am I right to think that that's inappropriate?

When I first came across Ask Patents, I assumed it would be more questions like "What's the difference between a provisional and a non-provisional?," or "how long does a patent last?" I recognize that those sorts of questions would lead a short-lived SE site, and I certainly have no problem with answering more detailed and specific requests, I'm just curious of what exactly is meant to be on here. What's the mission of Ask Patents?