The problem with SO is that it tries to be two things. One is a reference/encyclopedia of questions, and answers. And the other is a welcoming place to ask for help. Those two don't seem to line up 100%.
It's clear the old school moderators seem to think of SO as a reference, but the company itself wants to view it as a place to seek help.
I think that's the great thing about SO. It's a repository of common questions, yet also manages to be great for asking questions as well.
A lot of people in this thread seem to hate SO, and I disagree with them. If I ask a question on SO, no matter how obscure of a library or language I'm using, I'll get a response back within a day. And if my question gets flagged for being a duplicate, then I've just been redirected to more resources to solving my problem. It may not be warm and welcoming, but it's very helpful.
To be useful, SO doesn't need to be welcoming at all. It needs to be exclusive. If it wasn't elitist, it would be filled with Java programmers pasting 400 lines of code with little explanation. The elitism has caused me to write better questions and to really think about the hypothetical person answering my question. Elitism and helpfulness go hand in hand. If you want to see the horrors of a non-elitist Q&A forum, go check out the Unity forums or any popular Github repository.
Comments
The problem with SO is that it tries to be two things. One is a reference/encyclopedia of questions, and answers. And the other is a welcoming place to ask for help. Those two don't seem to line up 100%.
It's clear the old school moderators seem to think of SO as a reference, but the company itself wants to view it as a place to seek help.
I think that's the great thing about SO. It's a repository of common questions, yet also manages to be great for asking questions as well.
A lot of people in this thread seem to hate SO, and I disagree with them. If I ask a question on SO, no matter how obscure of a library or language I'm using, I'll get a response back within a day. And if my question gets flagged for being a duplicate, then I've just been redirected to more resources to solving my problem. It may not be warm and welcoming, but it's very helpful.
To be useful, SO doesn't need to be welcoming at all. It needs to be exclusive. If it wasn't elitist, it would be filled with Java programmers pasting 400 lines of code with little explanation. The elitism has caused me to write better questions and to really think about the hypothetical person answering my question. Elitism and helpfulness go hand in hand. If you want to see the horrors of a non-elitist Q&A forum, go check out the Unity forums or any popular Github repository.