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Here is an important key to written communication. If someone doesen't understand your written message, the problem is not with the reader. The problem is with

Here is an important key to written communication. If someone doesen't understand your written message, the problem is not with the reader. The problem is with you (the writer). I write clear Stack Overflow question and I don't have the problems you describe.

raxxorrax 8y ago
> If someone doesen't understand your written message, the problem is not with the reader. Not necessarily on SO. Pretending to not understand a question has become a form of mockery on SO in many cases. You see these responses in many questions that have valid and accepted answers. There are badly worded questions, sure. But there are also pretentiously shallow attempts to close some questions as quickly as possible.
- genericid 8y ago
  There is also a difference between people who find it difficult to explain complex technical questions in a manner that is easy to understand and thos who probs dont care cuz thei r 2 lzay 2 write and its ur problem
ProAm 8y ago
This is incorrect. A lot of times people are still learning about the topic they are asking a question on, so its often a case of they dont know what they dont know and simply do not have the means yet to properly ask the question. Mostly because they do not have a great depth of knowledge on the subject already, hence the question. This is also why questions should not be closed as duplicates; it is perfectly acceptable to ask the same question in a different manner as for someone else may find it useful. Do elementary school teachers not answer a child's question because another child asked it similarly in the past? It's more harmful to click on a dozen links to see them all closed as dups and try to find the one that isnt a dupe that hopefully can help you with the question. Do not blame them for trying to learn, or how they are going about doing it. It's a QA site, not a rewrite the manual on programming languages site.
onion2k 8y ago
If someone doesen't understand your written message, the problem is not with the reader. Someone could ask a question about computational fluid dynamics and regardless of good their writing is I wouldn't ever be able to understand it because I lack the necessary domain knowledge. The problem would definitely lie with me. This is part of the problem with SO - there's an assumption that any developer should be able to answer any question. When you ask a moderately complicated JavaScript question and get a series of answers saying "Use jQuery!" that isn't because you worded the question poorly. It's because SO points incentivizes people to guess at answering questions they don't have the knowledge to answer. You can't always blame the question writer.
genericid 8y ago
> I write clear Stack Overflow question Is this supposed to be English? I literally cannot read this. My behaviour is perfectly reasonable by the way, the problem is with you (the writer).

raxxorrax 8y ago

> If someone doesen't understand your written message, the problem is not with the reader. Not necessarily on SO. Pretending to not understand a question has become a form of mockery on SO in many cases. You see these responses in many questions that have valid and accepted answers. There are badly worded questions, sure. But there are also pretentiously shallow attempts to close some questions as quickly as possible.

genericid 8y ago
There is also a difference between people who find it difficult to explain complex technical questions in a manner that is easy to understand and thos who probs dont care cuz thei r 2 lzay 2 write and its ur problem

ProAm 8y ago

This is incorrect. A lot of times people are still learning about the topic they are asking a question on, so its often a case of they dont know what they dont know and simply do not have the means yet to properly ask the question. Mostly because they do not have a great depth of knowledge on the subject already, hence the question. This is also why questions should not be closed as duplicates; it is perfectly acceptable to ask the same question in a different manner as for someone else may find it useful. Do elementary school teachers not answer a child's question because another child asked it similarly in the past? It's more harmful to click on a dozen links to see them all closed as dups and try to find the one that isnt a dupe that hopefully can help you with the question. Do not blame them for trying to learn, or how they are going about doing it. It's a QA site, not a rewrite the manual on programming languages site.

onion2k 8y ago

If someone doesen't understand your written message, the problem is not with the reader. Someone could ask a question about computational fluid dynamics and regardless of good their writing is I wouldn't ever be able to understand it because I lack the necessary domain knowledge. The problem would definitely lie with me. This is part of the problem with SO - there's an assumption that any developer should be able to answer any question. When you ask a moderately complicated JavaScript question and get a series of answers saying "Use jQuery!" that isn't because you worded the question poorly. It's because SO points incentivizes people to guess at answering questions they don't have the knowledge to answer. You can't always blame the question writer.

genericid 8y ago

> I write clear Stack Overflow question Is this supposed to be English? I literally cannot read this. My behaviour is perfectly reasonable by the way, the problem is with you (the writer).