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The new questions queue (http://stackoverflow.com/questions http://stackoverflow.com/questions) should convince anyone that help vampires are real. Even if not

by Veedrac 10y ago

The new questions queue (http://stackoverflow.com/questions http://stackoverflow.com/questions) should convince anyone that help vampires are real. Even if not, most experienced answerers regularly see literal copy-pasted homework questions (often several duplicates from different students) and people circumventing question bans to write yet more horrible questions. Help vampires aren't just real, they're everywhere. If they didn't exist, it wouldn't be necessary to enlist high-rep users to engage in moderation.

exstudent2 10y ago
Almost all of those have zero answers and many have been downvoted. Not sure I'm seeing a problem. Better UI can make this even less of a problem. Punishing the entire community isn't helpful. See the link to my response to the mod down thread if you want an example of the real problem on SO.
- Veedrac 10y ago
  Downvotes and close votes are two sides of the same coin. In the case of help vampires, the two are roughly equivalent. It's still moderation.
reitanqild 10y ago
Then why don't they just make it just a little bit harder to ask the first question? Today this is one of the default privileges, and IMO that is asking for work.
- Veedrac 10y ago
  What does "a little bit harder" mean? Any reputation requirement is out of the window because it would alienate far too many people from ever contributing. A screening process wouldn't work well because SO already puts too much burden on moderators (which is largely why people end up making rushed moderation decisions).
  - reitanqild 10y ago
    > What does "a little bit harder" mean? I'll try to answer below. But I don't think SO can have their cake and eat it to: IMO SO can either set the threshold for asking to non-zero or they could stop complaining about the current torrent of help vampires and low-effort questions. > Any reputation requirement is out of the window because it would alienate far too many people from ever contributing. And here is were our opinions differ. It seems like somehow SO enjoy having a torrent of fresh noobs to correct. If not, adding just the slightest speed bump to people who just want help with their homework (i.e. you cannot ask a question until your account is 6 hours old or has passed introductory training: look at tags, make a search, visit meta) would likely (IMO) weed out most vampires without affecting the large majority (the read only users) or anyone who is prepared to make any effort to become a contributor.
    - shagie 10y ago
      One must differentiate the SO core user group and SO the company that develops, hosts, and sells advertising.

by Veedrac 10y ago

exstudent2 10y ago

Almost all of those have zero answers and many have been downvoted. Not sure I'm seeing a problem. Better UI can make this even less of a problem. Punishing the entire community isn't helpful. See the link to my response to the mod down thread if you want an example of the real problem on SO.

Veedrac 10y ago
Downvotes and close votes are two sides of the same coin. In the case of help vampires, the two are roughly equivalent. It's still moderation.

reitanqild 10y ago

Then why don't they just make it just a little bit harder to ask the first question? Today this is one of the default privileges, and IMO that is asking for work.

Veedrac 10y ago
What does "a little bit harder" mean? Any reputation requirement is out of the window because it would alienate far too many people from ever contributing. A screening process wouldn't work well because SO already puts too much burden on moderators (which is largely why people end up making rushed moderation decisions).
- reitanqild 10y ago
  > What does "a little bit harder" mean? I'll try to answer below. But I don't think SO can have their cake and eat it to: IMO SO can either set the threshold for asking to non-zero or they could stop complaining about the current torrent of help vampires and low-effort questions. > Any reputation requirement is out of the window because it would alienate far too many people from ever contributing. And here is were our opinions differ. It seems like somehow SO enjoy having a torrent of fresh noobs to correct. If not, adding just the slightest speed bump to people who just want help with their homework (i.e. you cannot ask a question until your account is 6 hours old or has passed introductory training: look at tags, make a search, visit meta) would likely (IMO) weed out most vampires without affecting the large majority (the read only users) or anyone who is prepared to make any effort to become a contributor.
  - shagie 10y ago
    One must differentiate the SO core user group and SO the company that develops, hosts, and sells advertising.