4 ms·

I could ignore the bad comments if someone actually answered the question. But questions like "What are the most restrictive permissions I can put on /var/lib/

by rrwo 4y ago

I could ignore the bad comments if someone actually answered the question. But questions like "What are the most restrictive permissions I can put on /var/lib/foobar without breaking foobar" are not actually answered by saying "Don't use foobar. bobaz is better". And questions like "I am using foobar v10, and I am wondering if there are performance issues with the bleep function, or problems upgrading to v11 or later" shouldn't be answered with "The bleep function violates the sacred separation between model-view-controller. Do not use it." None of these are answer the questions in any way. It's not a matter of "different people have different discussion styles". It's as if they see the mention of certain keywords and want to post a dogmatic criticism.

hooby 4y ago
I assume you are more interested in venting, rather than actually getting links to "pedant-free" forums. Right?
- rrwo 4y ago
  Part venting, but I really would like to know about decent forums.
  - hooby 4y ago
    You probably don't want to hear this - but I think you are chasing the wrong rabbit. Not getting the good answer you want is an entirely separate problem from getting "pedantic" answers you don't want. Reducing the amount of pedantic answers will NOT increase the amount of good answers. A lack of good answers is NOT caused by having pedantic answers. People giving good answers do exist on SO - but just like everyone they have limited time - and they can choose which questions to spend that time on. They answer the questions they like most - well laid out, all relevant information contained, information about prior research/efforts to fix things, asking party seems to know/understand the basics, etc. - whether they pick your question to answer or not, depends solely on your question - not on the pedantry of other answers. The big problem here is, that cracking down on "pedantic" questions through strict moderation - will ultimately have a negative effect on the amount of good answers on the platform. Simply because there will be less answers in general, an people will feel more reluctant about writing an answer - or leave entirely, after being punished for a not perfectly on-topic answer elsewhere. But if you want to increase the amount of good answers on the platform as much as possible, you'll have to adopt a fairly lenient stance toward the pedantic answers... foster a free-for-all atmosphere, where all answers are welcome - but only the good ones get upvoted and accepted. Consider it training the next generation of good answer-givers. So the big question is - if you can't have both - do you want a forum that has MORE good answers - or do you want a forum that has LESS pedantic answers?

by rrwo 4y ago

hooby 4y ago

I assume you are more interested in venting, rather than actually getting links to "pedant-free" forums. Right?

rrwo 4y ago
Part venting, but I really would like to know about decent forums.
- hooby 4y ago
  You probably don't want to hear this - but I think you are chasing the wrong rabbit. Not getting the good answer you want is an entirely separate problem from getting "pedantic" answers you don't want. Reducing the amount of pedantic answers will NOT increase the amount of good answers. A lack of good answers is NOT caused by having pedantic answers. People giving good answers do exist on SO - but just like everyone they have limited time - and they can choose which questions to spend that time on. They answer the questions they like most - well laid out, all relevant information contained, information about prior research/efforts to fix things, asking party seems to know/understand the basics, etc. - whether they pick your question to answer or not, depends solely on your question - not on the pedantry of other answers. The big problem here is, that cracking down on "pedantic" questions through strict moderation - will ultimately have a negative effect on the amount of good answers on the platform. Simply because there will be less answers in general, an people will feel more reluctant about writing an answer - or leave entirely, after being punished for a not perfectly on-topic answer elsewhere. But if you want to increase the amount of good answers on the platform as much as possible, you'll have to adopt a fairly lenient stance toward the pedantic answers... foster a free-for-all atmosphere, where all answers are welcome - but only the good ones get upvoted and accepted. Consider it training the next generation of good answer-givers. So the big question is - if you can't have both - do you want a forum that has MORE good answers - or do you want a forum that has LESS pedantic answers?