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I've recently began using SO more actively (providing answers). Most of the questions I've found and tried to answer were duplicates, but since I didn't have e

by kzisme 10y ago

I've recently began using SO more actively (providing answers). Most of the questions I've found and tried to answer were duplicates, but since I didn't have enough reputation to mark it as duplicate. (or enough rep to comment on a post to ask for more information on a poorly asked question) It's fairly depressing to attempt to try to be active on a site like SO when it's setup for failure in the beginning. It's irritating when users with 10k+ reputation can more easily gain reputation by commenting, editing, and "moderating" new questions. The other issue I have is that for new questions it's more about being first to answer a question rather than what is actually correct. I also dislike providing answers to new questions, and the OP is a brand new user asking a question and never marks an answer as correct... I wish it was easier and less frustrating to be active, but I suppose I'll keep trying.

Bartweiss 10y ago
One of my least favorite SO patterns is seeing a top answer with ~150 points that's simply wrong, and then a second or third answer with ~20 points that's actually correct. For high-profile questions this gets sorted out eventually, but it sometimes persists indefinitely for niche questions, and it's really unfortunate. I know "first mover advantage" is hard to solve (cf. Reddit), but it's a really big deal for SO.
- kzisme 10y ago
  It's frustrating as well when the question that was asked gets answered by me, and I receive a slew of down-votes since I answered it first. The next few answers are essentially copy/paste of my answers or other answers on the question...but I'm still negatively impacted by the down-votes since I only have ~39 rep and wow has getting started been a pain.
  - Bartweiss 10y ago
    A weird observation: starting with SO is particularly punishing if you come to it as an established programmer. The karma restrictions don't chafe much if you're a novice who mostly asks questions, and occasionally answers a simple topic they recognize. If you're experienced, you want to give more complex answers, and perhaps comment on other answers that you think are suboptimal. Doing that, you feel the new users restrictions (and the sting of uninformed downvotes) constantly. 50 karma is big, because the option to comment on other people's posts is core to giving relevant answers ("Did you want it to do X, or Y?") and using the site properly. Honestly, I'd just ask a few questions (if your domain is uncommon enough that they won't be duplicates) and let that karma carry you until the site becomes usable.
    - kzisme 10y ago
      Fortunately the only tag I've been following is C# I try not to ask trivial questions (or things that have already been answered) so, providing answers to things I have a decent grasp of is the next best thing. I'm still a fairly new programmer (in the industry), so I'm not claiming to know all of the answers, but if the OP didn't take the time to look themselves - then i'll gladly look for them and answer it. Their question just becomes non-unique and will probably be closed by someone with more reputation than me. Last week I reached I think 52 rep, but the question I answered got closed/deleted so I lost all of that rep.
    - r00fus 10y ago
      Huh. Maybe the site has changed in the past 5 years, but when I started - I gave answers on stuff I knew (basic JS, advanced SQL) and asked questions about stuff I didn't know (Obj-C, advanced JS/jQuery, Ruby).
      - Bartweiss 10y ago
        This is still viable, but it's gotten a bit trickier because "closed as duplicate" has slowly become a more common outcome. So it's possible to have the stuff you know well be largely covered, and you lose gained karma if the post with your answer gets deleted.
- r00fus 10y ago
  Do you have an example? Honestly curious.
  - kzisme 10y ago
    Of what exactly? The last question I answered got deleted by moderators.
    - r00fus 10y ago
      Specifically this: > ... seeing a top answer with ~150 points that's simply wrong, and then a second or third answer with ~20 points that's actually correct.
      - kzisme 10y ago
        Ah the other user wrote that, but I think what he was getting at was... It's fairly hard to dispute an incorrect answer with a low amount of reputation. I think?
      - Bartweiss 10y ago
        I wrote it, I'll see if I can dig up a link later. The example I was specifically thinking of was asking "I want to do X, the API call is producing bad data, any workarounds?" and getting a highly-upvoted answer of "Just use the API, obviously!" This was Android, with devices mis-reporting their valid camera resolutions via 'getSupportedResolutions()'. I realize that's not wrong to the same level as "Java Hashmaps are synchronized!", but it's a good example of what I mean. I often see this when the top response just reproduces an error the question was addressing.
bhandziuk 10y ago
FYI those moderators with 10k+ of rep are not gaining rep any longer for editing questions. You only get that +2 rep bump per edit when you are <1k (or <2k I forget) of rep. And Commenting never gets you any rep.

by kzisme 10y ago

Bartweiss 10y ago

One of my least favorite SO patterns is seeing a top answer with ~150 points that's simply wrong, and then a second or third answer with ~20 points that's actually correct. For high-profile questions this gets sorted out eventually, but it sometimes persists indefinitely for niche questions, and it's really unfortunate. I know "first mover advantage" is hard to solve (cf. Reddit), but it's a really big deal for SO.

kzisme 10y ago
It's frustrating as well when the question that was asked gets answered by me, and I receive a slew of down-votes since I answered it first. The next few answers are essentially copy/paste of my answers or other answers on the question...but I'm still negatively impacted by the down-votes since I only have ~39 rep and wow has getting started been a pain.
- Bartweiss 10y ago
  A weird observation: starting with SO is particularly punishing if you come to it as an established programmer. The karma restrictions don't chafe much if you're a novice who mostly asks questions, and occasionally answers a simple topic they recognize. If you're experienced, you want to give more complex answers, and perhaps comment on other answers that you think are suboptimal. Doing that, you feel the new users restrictions (and the sting of uninformed downvotes) constantly. 50 karma is big, because the option to comment on other people's posts is core to giving relevant answers ("Did you want it to do X, or Y?") and using the site properly. Honestly, I'd just ask a few questions (if your domain is uncommon enough that they won't be duplicates) and let that karma carry you until the site becomes usable.
  - kzisme 10y ago
    Fortunately the only tag I've been following is C# I try not to ask trivial questions (or things that have already been answered) so, providing answers to things I have a decent grasp of is the next best thing. I'm still a fairly new programmer (in the industry), so I'm not claiming to know all of the answers, but if the OP didn't take the time to look themselves - then i'll gladly look for them and answer it. Their question just becomes non-unique and will probably be closed by someone with more reputation than me. Last week I reached I think 52 rep, but the question I answered got closed/deleted so I lost all of that rep.
  - r00fus 10y ago
    Huh. Maybe the site has changed in the past 5 years, but when I started - I gave answers on stuff I knew (basic JS, advanced SQL) and asked questions about stuff I didn't know (Obj-C, advanced JS/jQuery, Ruby).
    - Bartweiss 10y ago
      This is still viable, but it's gotten a bit trickier because "closed as duplicate" has slowly become a more common outcome. So it's possible to have the stuff you know well be largely covered, and you lose gained karma if the post with your answer gets deleted.
r00fus 10y ago
Do you have an example? Honestly curious.
- kzisme 10y ago
  Of what exactly? The last question I answered got deleted by moderators.
  - r00fus 10y ago
    Specifically this: > ... seeing a top answer with ~150 points that's simply wrong, and then a second or third answer with ~20 points that's actually correct.
    - kzisme 10y ago
      Ah the other user wrote that, but I think what he was getting at was... It's fairly hard to dispute an incorrect answer with a low amount of reputation. I think?
    - Bartweiss 10y ago
      I wrote it, I'll see if I can dig up a link later. The example I was specifically thinking of was asking "I want to do X, the API call is producing bad data, any workarounds?" and getting a highly-upvoted answer of "Just use the API, obviously!" This was Android, with devices mis-reporting their valid camera resolutions via 'getSupportedResolutions()'. I realize that's not wrong to the same level as "Java Hashmaps are synchronized!", but it's a good example of what I mean. I often see this when the top response just reproduces an error the question was addressing.

bhandziuk 10y ago

FYI those moderators with 10k+ of rep are not gaining rep any longer for editing questions. You only get that +2 rep bump per edit when you are <1k (or <2k I forget) of rep. And Commenting never gets you any rep.