5 ms·

I also have found that often the answers that make me reflect the most on SO are treated this way by the mods. Does this effect have a name?

enriquto 3y ago
But even the mods acknowledge this! Here you have it, straight from the mouth of the beast: https://blog.codinghorror.com/new-programming-jargon/ https://blog.codinghorror.com/new-programming-jargon/ They explain why they deleted the most appreciated question ever in Stack Overflow, and how they magnanimously let you look at a few scraps of the answers (but not to all, these are DELETED!), and why we can't, after all, have nice things. > Does this effect have a name? If I wasn't against ad-hominems, and to avoid giving undue credit, I'd propose to call this effect "Jeff Atwooding". As in, the cool answer by Thurston on contributing to mathematics has been jeff atwooded recently.
- bee_rider 3y ago
  But it should be noted that the question in the blog post—share a bit of programming jargon you’ve made up—is not a good question for a Q/A site. It is a “fun to play with” social media engagement question, more suited for Reddit. The question on the original post seems more grey-area. It isn’t really a math question that can be answered in a math-y way, but it is the sort of thing that some folks might benefit from seeing anyway…
crispyambulance 3y ago
> Does this effect have a name? That's a good question. It should have a name. We've seen it around for a long time on stackoverflow and all stackexchange-sites. I bet there's a very long German word for this kind of behavior? It's a combination of extreme persnicketiness mixed with smug arrogance and some amount of glee in punching-down.
- mejutoco 3y ago
  Institutional schadenfreude?
- Tainnor 3y ago
  Blockwarttum
- jodrellblank 3y ago
  The "I'm angry at the moderators enforcing 'keep off the grass' because I want to be on the grass and I'm special so the rules shouldn't apply to me" effect? StackOverflow advertises itself as a place for precise questions and answers, and explicitly not for open ended questions and answers. It tells people who sign up not to post open ended questions and answers, and encourages participants to flag same, and moderators to close same. To then be bitter and rude because that happened exactly as the prophesies told you it would, is unreasonable.
  - enriquto 3y ago
    > moderators enforcing 'keep off the grass' That's a good analogy! These moderators act as angry old men booing people out of their lawn. People who were having innocent and wholesome fun, and overall improving the neighborhood. It's the same kind of guys who call the police on kids selling lemonade.
    - jodrellblank 3y ago
      It's the same kind of guys who call the police on festival goers trampling their land, ruining nice things, and using "you must be fun at parties" as if it was some kind of justification. You can't go to a vegetarian cook-out and start cooking burgers because "I want burgers" and then mock the hosts for being unhappy at you. Well you can, but you're the jerk in that situation. You can't go to Wikipedia and start posting questions and answers and saying "I wish it was StackOverflow you angry OLD MAN horrible moderators". > "People who were having innocent and wholesome fun, and overall improving the neighborhood." Misusing someone else's site, in a way the creators and existing users don't want it used, in a way you agreed not to use it when you signed up, is not "improving the neighborhood".
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - crispyambulance 3y ago
        > Misusing someone else's site, in a way the creators and existing users don't want it used, in a way you agreed not to use it when you signed up, is not "improving the neighborhood". No one cares about "the creators", and MOST ESPECIALLY NOT what Jeff Atwood thinks about their questions, answers and comments on stackexchange sites. Atwood is gone anyway, he cashed-out and moved on. The existing users are many and varied (I am one) but for whatever reason the gamification attracts a high level of zeal from certain personalities that tend towards petty authoritarianism and persnickety behaviors. As useful as these sites are (at least up to now), this is a serious problem.
js8 3y ago
We could call it the Thurston effect - a mistaken belief that site like SO exists solely to give solutions to abstract computer problems and not as a communal mechanism maintained by the practitioners to disseminate and further understanding of the craft.

enriquto 3y ago

But even the mods acknowledge this! Here you have it, straight from the mouth of the beast: https://blog.codinghorror.com/new-programming-jargon/ https://blog.codinghorror.com/new-programming-jargon/ They explain why they deleted the most appreciated question ever in Stack Overflow, and how they magnanimously let you look at a few scraps of the answers (but not to all, these are DELETED!), and why we can't, after all, have nice things. > Does this effect have a name? If I wasn't against ad-hominems, and to avoid giving undue credit, I'd propose to call this effect "Jeff Atwooding". As in, the cool answer by Thurston on contributing to mathematics has been jeff atwooded recently.

bee_rider 3y ago
But it should be noted that the question in the blog post—share a bit of programming jargon you’ve made up—is not a good question for a Q/A site. It is a “fun to play with” social media engagement question, more suited for Reddit. The question on the original post seems more grey-area. It isn’t really a math question that can be answered in a math-y way, but it is the sort of thing that some folks might benefit from seeing anyway…

crispyambulance 3y ago

> Does this effect have a name? That's a good question. It should have a name. We've seen it around for a long time on stackoverflow and all stackexchange-sites. I bet there's a very long German word for this kind of behavior? It's a combination of extreme persnicketiness mixed with smug arrogance and some amount of glee in punching-down.

mejutoco 3y ago
Institutional schadenfreude?
Tainnor 3y ago
Blockwarttum
jodrellblank 3y ago
The "I'm angry at the moderators enforcing 'keep off the grass' because I want to be on the grass and I'm special so the rules shouldn't apply to me" effect? StackOverflow advertises itself as a place for precise questions and answers, and explicitly not for open ended questions and answers. It tells people who sign up not to post open ended questions and answers, and encourages participants to flag same, and moderators to close same. To then be bitter and rude because that happened exactly as the prophesies told you it would, is unreasonable.
- enriquto 3y ago
  > moderators enforcing 'keep off the grass' That's a good analogy! These moderators act as angry old men booing people out of their lawn. People who were having innocent and wholesome fun, and overall improving the neighborhood. It's the same kind of guys who call the police on kids selling lemonade.
  - jodrellblank 3y ago
    It's the same kind of guys who call the police on festival goers trampling their land, ruining nice things, and using "you must be fun at parties" as if it was some kind of justification. You can't go to a vegetarian cook-out and start cooking burgers because "I want burgers" and then mock the hosts for being unhappy at you. Well you can, but you're the jerk in that situation. You can't go to Wikipedia and start posting questions and answers and saying "I wish it was StackOverflow you angry OLD MAN horrible moderators". > "People who were having innocent and wholesome fun, and overall improving the neighborhood." Misusing someone else's site, in a way the creators and existing users don't want it used, in a way you agreed not to use it when you signed up, is not "improving the neighborhood".
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - crispyambulance 3y ago
      > Misusing someone else's site, in a way the creators and existing users don't want it used, in a way you agreed not to use it when you signed up, is not "improving the neighborhood". No one cares about "the creators", and MOST ESPECIALLY NOT what Jeff Atwood thinks about their questions, answers and comments on stackexchange sites. Atwood is gone anyway, he cashed-out and moved on. The existing users are many and varied (I am one) but for whatever reason the gamification attracts a high level of zeal from certain personalities that tend towards petty authoritarianism and persnickety behaviors. As useful as these sites are (at least up to now), this is a serious problem.

js8 3y ago

We could call it the Thurston effect - a mistaken belief that site like SO exists solely to give solutions to abstract computer problems and not as a communal mechanism maintained by the practitioners to disseminate and further understanding of the craft.