3 ms·
I'll blame stackoverflow. It's lead us to believe that anything but a precise, specific questions with clear use cases and previous attempt is going to get sco
by nineplay 5y ago
I'll blame stackoverflow. It's lead us to believe that anything but a precise, specific questions with clear use cases and previous attempt is going to get scolded for not meeting the guidelines.
It takes time to formulate a good tech question. "Why isn't my API getting called" is a easy question to ask but not likely to get much feedback. "Why isn't my API getting called I'm using library <X> and callback <Y> and routing framework <Z> and I've already read the documentation which says <XX> should work?" is a better question but harder to formulate. It's not surprising that someone wants to check to see if there's anyone in the void willing to answer first.
- lmilcin 5y agoThe problem has been present basically forever. Well before stackoverflow.
- wongarsu 5y agoFormulating a question that doesn't waste your time requires me to shift perspective to figure out what information you need. As a result, half the time formulating the question leads me to discovering the answer. I'd consider that time well spent regardless of the answers I get.
- topaz0 5y agoI've also experienced this. I wonder if this phenomenon leads to an overwhelming selection bias in what questions actually get to stackoverflow or irc or slack or whatever. It could be that the majority of people are good at asking good questions, but they usually don't get through formulating their good question before answering it themselves, so the majority of questions end up being bad.