What most people fail to understand (but was explained very well by Joel in some talks) is that SO is primarily optimized for Google & read-only users just look

What most people fail to understand (but was explained very well by Joel in some talks) is that SO is primarily optimized for Google & read-only users just looking for the answer to a common issue. By that metric they are extremely successful. Many things people complain about are deliberate design choices that actually made SO popular in the first place.