Reminds me of that saying "no good deed goes unpunished". As a user of SO, I always prefer to see an answer already there than asking it. Even though SO users

Reminds me of that saying "no good deed goes unpunished". As a user of SO, I always prefer to see an answer already there than asking it. Even though SO users are super fast at answering my questions (usually get answers < 1h), there is something to be said about the answer already being there. Having said that, the "hive" at SO has already developed a set of informal rules, and there are plenty of people who seem to make a point of making meta-commentary on questions. While this is standard fare for social sites and the interwebs in general, at least the signal to noise ratio is an order of magnitude better than most other social sites.