> I really like answering questions; it's nice to know that the thing I'm writing will be immediately useful to somebody, and maybe a bunch of somebodies Total

> I really like answering questions; it's nice to know that the thing I'm writing will be immediately useful to somebody, and maybe a bunch of somebodies Totally agree. Explaining something to somebody else is a great way to learn, too. That was my experience on early SO, and it was great. I'd just browse a tag I knew, and pick questions where I knew most of the answer, and the act of explaining it would be useful to me, too. Now I find doing so neither fun nor fulfilling. First there's lots of garbage questions that are impossible to answer. When you do finally find something good, it's hard to get it before it gets closed as dupe or someone else answers. And if it's from a new user, there's still a good chance they'll never come back to accept the answer and awards your fake internet points. I'd love to see a SO that encourages more new users to actually answer those "dupe" questions (instead: hide them from search and older users)