Agreed. I've seen this position before, with the attendant "SO isn't hostile, the users are just wrong", and I don't buy it any more now than I have in the past

Agreed. I've seen this position before, with the attendant "SO isn't hostile, the users are just wrong", and I don't buy it any more now than I have in the past. It's way too common to see exchanges like "The manual for X is factually wrong, so how do I really do it?" "RFTM!" or "I want to Y, which is not covered by similar question X for reasons A, B, C." "Closed, dupe of X!" Or for that matter, "How can I X?" and "I'd like to X, help please?" each closed unanswered as a dupe of the other. Building for the future, not solving for the moment, is a perfectly reasonable sentiment. I can understand using that argument to close "what's the bug in my code?" questions, or for that matter "how do I X under these self-imposed restrictions?" But in practice, it's frequently wielded like it would be on a nasty mailing list or Usenet group, to tell people that they shouldn't do what they're doing and therefore don't deserve an answer.