3 ms·

It is funny that for a site which spent the better part of the last two years to be more welcoming (which they IMO approached unsuccessfully), this is still the

It is funny that for a site which spent the better part of the last two years to be more welcoming (which they IMO approached unsuccessfully), this is still the prevailing strategy. And it works, so I can't disagree. Now I don't think SO is that bad, if you really try to write a good question, at least in my experience, the reception is good. But I know I'm the odd one out among my dev friends and colleagues about not being afraid of posting questions to SO. Others, like you say, don't dare.

alttag 7y ago
I have a question I want to ask, but haven't. This is mostly because I feel that asking it properly, describing what I've tried, linking to (not) duplicates and explaining why they're not relevant, and linking to the docs to try and explain why I don't understand them, etc., etc, is a great deal of work. In other words, explain why the top 20 Google and SO results and workarounds aren't relevant to the answer I'm looking for. Doing it "properly" would take about 30 minutes. ... and thus I haven't asked. I went with a workaround that I'm unsatisfied with because it was easier than asking a good question.
- tomashubelbauer 7y ago
  I see what you mean, but when it comes to the rigor required to putting together a good question, this is no different than say filling in an issue template when reporting a bug or asking for support in a Github repository, right? Do you avoid that for the same reason? Not that I would blame you, I for one hate filling in overly defensive issue templates designed to discourage drive by shitty issue posters, but inadvertently alienating otherwise decent posters, such as (hopefully) myself.
JohnFen 7y ago
> Others, like you say, don't dare. I'm in that camp. I'm not afraid (they aren't going to send goons over to beat me up or anything), but looking at the most common responses to questions posed by others gives me the clear message that it's not worth putting up with that stuff.
- tomashubelbauer 7y ago
  That's a fair point, I haven't considered that it is entirely possible to just not want to bother due to one's experience with read only SOs perceived pedantry, as opposed to hostility.

alttag 7y ago

I have a question I want to ask, but haven't. This is mostly because I feel that asking it properly, describing what I've tried, linking to (not) duplicates and explaining why they're not relevant, and linking to the docs to try and explain why I don't understand them, etc., etc, is a great deal of work. In other words, explain why the top 20 Google and SO results and workarounds aren't relevant to the answer I'm looking for. Doing it "properly" would take about 30 minutes. ... and thus I haven't asked. I went with a workaround that I'm unsatisfied with because it was easier than asking a good question.

tomashubelbauer 7y ago
I see what you mean, but when it comes to the rigor required to putting together a good question, this is no different than say filling in an issue template when reporting a bug or asking for support in a Github repository, right? Do you avoid that for the same reason? Not that I would blame you, I for one hate filling in overly defensive issue templates designed to discourage drive by shitty issue posters, but inadvertently alienating otherwise decent posters, such as (hopefully) myself.

JohnFen 7y ago

> Others, like you say, don't dare. I'm in that camp. I'm not afraid (they aren't going to send goons over to beat me up or anything), but looking at the most common responses to questions posed by others gives me the clear message that it's not worth putting up with that stuff.

tomashubelbauer 7y ago
That's a fair point, I haven't considered that it is entirely possible to just not want to bother due to one's experience with read only SOs perceived pedantry, as opposed to hostility.