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Someone did the work of getting to the bottom of this and OP eventually shared his questions that were deleted https://old.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/116vvpp

Someone did the work of getting to the bottom of this and OP eventually shared his questions that were deleted https://old.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/116vvpp/saying_goodbye_to_stack_overflow/j9bjepo/ https://old.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/116vvpp/saying_good... > The first question is a request for ideas. That's offtopic for SO. > The second question was a good question, but since it ended up being a bug in your setup, and not actually part of the language, it wasn't as useful of a general question. This one I'd argue could be trimmed down further to a SCCEE for the bug and rephrased, but it doesn't matter now since the bug is auto-patched. > The third question has a great question set-up (formatted and straight to the point with SCCEEs) but the answer is the same as the linked duplicate so it should be closed. > The fourth question is another straight up duplicate asking for the meaning of certain Regex characters.

marcus_holmes 4y ago
I get that technically this is correct (the best kind of correct). But the UX of the site is basically "post a question, get modded to shit" now. I don't think the original author is complaining about the functionality, or even the community (though debatable). I think they're complaining about the UX. And that's not something we can argue with - they think they're posting valid questions, and their experience is that their questions are always rejected. This is true, and it remains true even if technically their questions should be rejected for valid reasons.
- HeavyStorm 4y ago
  That's a GREAT discussion to be had... SO purpose is to be a kind of encyclopedia, so it makes sense to try to categorize duplicates (eventually fading them into obscurity). But is that the best experience for the user? Is it supposed to serve only readers, or those who are actually asking questions?
- chrisan 4y ago
  > But the UX of the site is basically "post a question, get modded to shit" now. You are 100% correct. SO clearly has an issue as this comes up time and time again. I wonder if a ChatGPT like front for it would serve everyone better?
  - marcus_holmes 4y ago
    Yeah, probably. Even doing the modding in real time would help, I think: "Your question appears similar to these other questions, do they answer your question?" "Your question appears to be a rant, and doesn't actually ask a question. Is this true?" "Your question is easily solved: you have mis-spelled this configuration setting. Would you still like to post it?"
    - Y_Y 4y ago
      Yes to all.
- michaelt 4y ago
  > But the UX of the site is basically "post a question, get modded to shit" now. I'm sympathetic - but have you ever noticed, when people complain about their questions being closed unfairly, how rarely they provide links to the questions? If I'd posted 5 great questions, they'd all been unfairly closed, and I wanted to convince other people that was the case, I'd be linking to them - why wouldn't I present the primary evidence?
  - ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
    Ask, and ye shall receive: [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34722910 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34722910 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34887968 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34887968
    - Izkata 4y ago
      The main post[0] you go on about in there is a badly formatted question: It's not self-contained, and relies entirely on external links. It doesn't surprise me it got close votes. [0] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/75361518/accessing-an-ios-url-scheme-at-runtime https://stackoverflow.com/questions/75361518/accessing-an-io...
      - joshuaissac 4y ago
        > It's not self-contained, and relies entirely on external links. The question does not rely on external links. The links just provide optional additional context (about how to use a custom URL scheme and what DRY is). The question has the ios, xcode and swift tags, so even without the links, it is pretty clear what the asker is looking for.
      - ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
        Hey, no big deal. It's all good. SO has made it clear that they don't want "my kind" participating, so ... I won’t go, where I’m not wanted. Life’s too short. That question was a bit of a "trial balloon." I'd pretty much written SO off. * pop * Problem solved. Just S’s and G’s, might want to take a gander at some of the other (over 100) questions I’ve asked. They are not all perfect, so there’s plenty of ammo.
- Too 4y ago
  That’s not really fair. The UX of the site is actually very persistent in reminding you how to post a good question and listing suggested duplicates. When posting questions with low reputation you can’t bypass these reminders without clicking accept several times.
matsemann 4y ago
Yup, classic SO bashing. "They closed my question for no reason!!", "I asked a well formed question and they down voted me!!". And people either refuse to give examples (because they know they're lying), or when responding it's quite obvious why they got the reaction they got. Mind you, I believe SO could be more friendly. But if you've tried moderating and being active there, you quickly understand the bluntness. With hundreds of useless questions being posted an hour, you quickly get jaded. Like, I genuinely want to help people there, but when you spend literally no effort asking your question you're not getting much in return.
- jmuguy 4y ago
  I feel for people that spend any amount of time trying to moderate that place. I try going through triage and its just an endless sea of low effort shit.
- metabagel 4y ago
  Here's my non-low-effort question which was closed for being a duplicate. I found help on another forum and resolved never to waste my time posting a question on SO again. The cost/benefit ratio is off the charts. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60824493/how-do-you-cast-a-rust-variant-enum-to-an-underlying-struct https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60824493/how-do-you-cast...
  - kapep 4y ago
    "Closed as duplicate" has nothing to do with effort or question quality. The only thing that matters is whether the linked questions/answers contain the solution.
    - metabagel 4y ago
      They didn't answer my question, so I don't regard them as dupes. I had my question answered in Discord or IRC somewhere, I forget exactly where.
      - 4y ago
dan_mctree 4y ago
As someone who mostly just runs into SO through searches and rarely asks: I want to see these duplicates thrive, I want to see the ideas. It's so common that the first SO thread is useless but that a near duplicate does actually provide me with the answer I need. Unfortunately, near half the questions I land on which I feel might actually help me are shut down, which is not just a complete waste of an opportunity but also a waste of my time.
- hombre_fatal 4y ago
  idk, I've often answered old questions with newer/better answers that get far more upvotes than the one OP chose back in the day as new people land on the question. Trying to canonicalize dupe questions into one makes a lot of sense. Otherwise, good answers would be scattered across duplicate questions which is quite a large trade-off as well.
funnymony 4y ago
We have only these descriptions but not the answers them self, grain of salt is applicable, possibly not in small quantities.
- hombre_fatal 4y ago
  Yes, the questions are now gone, but the person who replied went through the trouble of linking the questions in the first place so we didn't have to take their word for it. You can even read the questions from the URLs: "/meaning-of-dollar-sign-after-digit-and-dash-in-a-regex" C'mon. This is a common trope with people complaining about SO, so it's not surprising they had terrible questions. Nobody likes to admit when their questions are bad.

marcus_holmes 4y ago

I get that technically this is correct (the best kind of correct). But the UX of the site is basically "post a question, get modded to shit" now. I don't think the original author is complaining about the functionality, or even the community (though debatable). I think they're complaining about the UX. And that's not something we can argue with - they think they're posting valid questions, and their experience is that their questions are always rejected. This is true, and it remains true even if technically their questions should be rejected for valid reasons.

HeavyStorm 4y ago
That's a GREAT discussion to be had... SO purpose is to be a kind of encyclopedia, so it makes sense to try to categorize duplicates (eventually fading them into obscurity). But is that the best experience for the user? Is it supposed to serve only readers, or those who are actually asking questions?
chrisan 4y ago
> But the UX of the site is basically "post a question, get modded to shit" now. You are 100% correct. SO clearly has an issue as this comes up time and time again. I wonder if a ChatGPT like front for it would serve everyone better?
- marcus_holmes 4y ago
  Yeah, probably. Even doing the modding in real time would help, I think: "Your question appears similar to these other questions, do they answer your question?" "Your question appears to be a rant, and doesn't actually ask a question. Is this true?" "Your question is easily solved: you have mis-spelled this configuration setting. Would you still like to post it?"
  - Y_Y 4y ago
    Yes to all.
michaelt 4y ago
> But the UX of the site is basically "post a question, get modded to shit" now. I'm sympathetic - but have you ever noticed, when people complain about their questions being closed unfairly, how rarely they provide links to the questions? If I'd posted 5 great questions, they'd all been unfairly closed, and I wanted to convince other people that was the case, I'd be linking to them - why wouldn't I present the primary evidence?
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
  Ask, and ye shall receive: [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34722910 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34722910 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34887968 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34887968
  - Izkata 4y ago
    The main post[0] you go on about in there is a badly formatted question: It's not self-contained, and relies entirely on external links. It doesn't surprise me it got close votes. [0] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/75361518/accessing-an-ios-url-scheme-at-runtime https://stackoverflow.com/questions/75361518/accessing-an-io...
    - joshuaissac 4y ago
      > It's not self-contained, and relies entirely on external links. The question does not rely on external links. The links just provide optional additional context (about how to use a custom URL scheme and what DRY is). The question has the ios, xcode and swift tags, so even without the links, it is pretty clear what the asker is looking for.
    - ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
      Hey, no big deal. It's all good. SO has made it clear that they don't want "my kind" participating, so ... I won’t go, where I’m not wanted. Life’s too short. That question was a bit of a "trial balloon." I'd pretty much written SO off. * pop * Problem solved. Just S’s and G’s, might want to take a gander at some of the other (over 100) questions I’ve asked. They are not all perfect, so there’s plenty of ammo.
Too 4y ago
That’s not really fair. The UX of the site is actually very persistent in reminding you how to post a good question and listing suggested duplicates. When posting questions with low reputation you can’t bypass these reminders without clicking accept several times.

matsemann 4y ago

Yup, classic SO bashing. "They closed my question for no reason!!", "I asked a well formed question and they down voted me!!". And people either refuse to give examples (because they know they're lying), or when responding it's quite obvious why they got the reaction they got. Mind you, I believe SO could be more friendly. But if you've tried moderating and being active there, you quickly understand the bluntness. With hundreds of useless questions being posted an hour, you quickly get jaded. Like, I genuinely want to help people there, but when you spend literally no effort asking your question you're not getting much in return.

jmuguy 4y ago
I feel for people that spend any amount of time trying to moderate that place. I try going through triage and its just an endless sea of low effort shit.
metabagel 4y ago
Here's my non-low-effort question which was closed for being a duplicate. I found help on another forum and resolved never to waste my time posting a question on SO again. The cost/benefit ratio is off the charts. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60824493/how-do-you-cast-a-rust-variant-enum-to-an-underlying-struct https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60824493/how-do-you-cast...
- kapep 4y ago
  "Closed as duplicate" has nothing to do with effort or question quality. The only thing that matters is whether the linked questions/answers contain the solution.
  - metabagel 4y ago
    They didn't answer my question, so I don't regard them as dupes. I had my question answered in Discord or IRC somewhere, I forget exactly where.
    - 4y ago

dan_mctree 4y ago

As someone who mostly just runs into SO through searches and rarely asks: I want to see these duplicates thrive, I want to see the ideas. It's so common that the first SO thread is useless but that a near duplicate does actually provide me with the answer I need. Unfortunately, near half the questions I land on which I feel might actually help me are shut down, which is not just a complete waste of an opportunity but also a waste of my time.

hombre_fatal 4y ago
idk, I've often answered old questions with newer/better answers that get far more upvotes than the one OP chose back in the day as new people land on the question. Trying to canonicalize dupe questions into one makes a lot of sense. Otherwise, good answers would be scattered across duplicate questions which is quite a large trade-off as well.

funnymony 4y ago

We have only these descriptions but not the answers them self, grain of salt is applicable, possibly not in small quantities.

hombre_fatal 4y ago
Yes, the questions are now gone, but the person who replied went through the trouble of linking the questions in the first place so we didn't have to take their word for it. You can even read the questions from the URLs: "/meaning-of-dollar-sign-after-digit-and-dash-in-a-regex" C'mon. This is a common trope with people complaining about SO, so it's not surprising they had terrible questions. Nobody likes to admit when their questions are bad.