During the private beta. the rules are slightly different to during the public beta. And no, absolutely no Econ-101 style questions during the private beta. They can wait until the beta is well established, and we've already got a decent body of expert content.
My thanks to Steve S. for stating this (in the comments) better than I could:
the "Beta" period of this site is split into the "Private Beta" and "Public Beta" and it's only during the private beta that we should be limiting ourselves to expert-level questions only? After that it's fair game? And, though the "Beta" phase generally lasts a few months, the private part is only a couple of weeks
All being well, the private beta is only 1-2 weeks long, and then we go public, and the rules change a little, with more scope for below-expert questions; but we'll still be craving expert answers.
The first time you posted a question, you agreed to a message, which included this:
If the private beta doesn't produce enough high quality expert level questions, it won’t proceed onward to the public beta. To help ensure your site makes it out of private beta, here are some tips: Avoid “easy” questions ...
This is explained further in the invitation email you received:
The first questions set the tone for the site. If you ask high quality, expert-level questions, you'll build a site that attracts the experts and pros who will make it really successful. But if you ask beginner questions, survey questions, or social-conversation questions, experts and pros will not be interested.
The private beta gives you the opportunity to get the site off to a great start with expert questions and answers. When we open to the public, new users will look at your questions to get an idea of what they should ask. ...
Remember, you get the site you build! Ask difficult, specific questions — the kind of questions pros and experts ask each other, not the kind of questions novices ask pros, because a site full of pros and experts will attract everybody, but a site full of novices rapidly becomes boring. No easy questions, no survey questions, no polls, no intro-level/basic questions, no unanswerable hypothetical questions.
These guidelines were based on the experience of launching over 100 sites. In every private beta, there are some posters that think "this time it's different", and that it will be ok to ask simplistic questions in the private beta, and somehow the experts will arrive later. They're wrong. We want a site that experts are attracted to contribute to. That means building a body of expert content first. There'll be years and years of time, if we're successful, to ask the simple questions. But we've just got a couple of weeks to ask purely expert questions. Let's not squander it.