It is a real problem. I've never asked a question on Stack Overflow, but many, many times I have entered a question into a search engine, received a Stack Over

It is a real problem. I've never asked a question on Stack Overflow, but many, many times I have entered a question into a search engine, received a Stack Overflow link with my question at the top, and been greeted with several screens full of text none of which is an attempt to answer the question. In other contexts Stack Overflow's conventions are set up on the understanding that they're trying to produce a curated database of questions with their answers, rather than acting as a technical support forum for individuals. It's a real shame that culture doesn't extend to dealing with this case properly. (The most common case is where the question is something like "does A provide a function for doing B?" and the correct answer is simply "No".)