This is true, but not necessarily the role of SO to solve. This seems more like a mentoring service.
SO, I agree, is not a mentoring service. The format of SO is a poor way to pick up foundational knowledge. It's ~usually~ awesome if you know exactly what you need and are able search for it. Or if needed, formulate a precise question. (to be fair, that is often NOT enough to avoid smackdown votes, VTC, dupe marking, and dismissive put-downs).
That said, it happens many times, that people end up having to do unfamiliar tasks in their work, and they might need to just get something done without having much directly relatable experience in the task. RTFM is not a realistic option as the F-ing Manuals's would typically be hundreds of pages of dense material. Often a push in the right direction and a little orientation is enormously helpful.
And, by the way, many people really do enjoy helping out individuals-- they take joy in helping someone out even if the help they provide doesn't take the form of "a canonical answer" (god, I hate that pretentious word, "canonical"). It doesn't detract from the quality of the site to loosen up on the strictness of the rules.
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SO, I agree, is not a mentoring service. The format of SO is a poor way to pick up foundational knowledge. It's ~usually~ awesome if you know exactly what you need and are able search for it. Or if needed, formulate a precise question. (to be fair, that is often NOT enough to avoid smackdown votes, VTC, dupe marking, and dismissive put-downs).
That said, it happens many times, that people end up having to do unfamiliar tasks in their work, and they might need to just get something done without having much directly relatable experience in the task. RTFM is not a realistic option as the F-ing Manuals's would typically be hundreds of pages of dense material. Often a push in the right direction and a little orientation is enormously helpful.
And, by the way, many people really do enjoy helping out individuals-- they take joy in helping someone out even if the help they provide doesn't take the form of "a canonical answer" (god, I hate that pretentious word, "canonical"). It doesn't detract from the quality of the site to loosen up on the strictness of the rules.