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It sounds like you are upset that you put a lot of effort into solving the problem, and also that the question got closed. I can understand how that could be f

by mhp 14y ago

It sounds like you are upset that you put a lot of effort into solving the problem, and also that the question got closed. I can understand how that could be frustrating, but your answer is still there and can still be voted on (only new answers aren't allowed). And to be honest, the question is definitely without a doubt, not on topic to SO. I'm sorry you came away with a bad experience, but just because a questions is closed doesn't mean SO is saying something mean to you personally.

btilly 14y ago
The problem is there at the moment. But for several hours yesterday it was deleted. It is clear that for people who are senior in the stack overflow community, like Oded, think that deletion is what should have happened. What was intended is one thing. What resulted is that I got the message that effort put out by me, that I thought was appreciated due to upvotes, is not what is actually desired there. So why bother?
- mhp 14y ago
  I don't think you should let an isolated incident speak for the community as a whole. But your point still stands and it's been repeated often... You felt personally insulted by a moderation action by the community due to the way it was handled. I think most people have been in that situation (I am still upset that the 'programming on a boat' question is gone). My only consolation is that we recognize this is a problem and it is one that almost all online communities face, and we're working on ways to alleviate it. I hope you'll stick around and help us figure out how to do that.
  - nathan_long 14y ago
    >> it is one that almost all online communities face I'd strike "almost" and "online" from this sentence. Being part of community always means compromise. Only hermits win all their arguments. But most of us have decided that the benefits of community outweigh the cost.
  - btilly 14y ago
    What part of, "I've decided to quit" do you fail to understand? I'm not sticking around. It was not the moderation itself. It was the discussion on meta that convinced me that what I was interested was so far from the norms that were going to be enforced that there was no point in being present. As for trying to "help us figure out how to do that" - there could be nothing farther from my interests. As I said in http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4197385 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4197385 I've never enjoyed being around the kind of people who enjoy debating and enforce rules for what is worthy for their community. But if you should manage to change the culture, maybe it will show up in a story on Hacker New. Then I might give it another try. But not now.
ximeng 14y ago
FAQ: "if your question generally covers … a specific programming problem a software algorithm software tools commonly used by programmers practical, answerable problems that are unique to the programming profession … then you’re in the right place to ask your question! show more What kind of questions should I not ask here? You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face." This is practical, answerable, an actual problem someone has faced (presumably for a programming interview), to do with a software algorithm, specific, and unique to the programming profession (otherwise why would you specify 2^63-1 as a limit?!). How on earth is this "definitely without a doubt, not on topic to SO"? Why would "Progamming Language Pragmatics" be cited as a reference if this was not a programming problem? The comments in the meta thread are also unhelpful - "True, I would close it as not a real question. Because it is the text literally copied from the interview question whitout any effort to change it into a question and without any effort to solve it". I'm with btilly, these guys should put more time into answers and less into meta-answers, if I were treated like him I'd be looking for the door as well: why would he want to spend his time convincing these people a clearly useful question and answer should be on this site?
- batista 14y ago
  >This is practical, answerable, an actual problem someone has faced (presumably for a programming interview sorry but, "faced at an interview" is far from "actual problems that you face". Interviews contain all kind of junk, abstact and bs questions...
  - ximeng 14y ago
    This question is not "junk, abstact and bs", it's concrete though terse, and substantial. It is also clearly a problem he's faced. Perhaps the fact that he's not hit this issue while producing a product or experiencing this problem in everyday working life is the concern? Or lack of generality? In any case this is within a reasonable interpretation of the guidelines, and as Jeff points out in this thread, within the spirit of what he intended for the site. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabin%E2%80%93Karp_algorithm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabin%E2%80%93Karp_algorithm shows serious research into a similar problem. It is depressing that useful questions and answers like this are judged on whether they are homework or interview questions, not on the quality of the response. The discussion on meta shows no appreciation of the quality of btilly's contributions to the site. I'm not surprised he's leaving, and I agree StackOverflow will be worse without his answers. What do you think?

by mhp 14y ago

btilly 14y ago

The problem is there at the moment. But for several hours yesterday it was deleted. It is clear that for people who are senior in the stack overflow community, like Oded, think that deletion is what should have happened. What was intended is one thing. What resulted is that I got the message that effort put out by me, that I thought was appreciated due to upvotes, is not what is actually desired there. So why bother?

mhp 14y ago
I don't think you should let an isolated incident speak for the community as a whole. But your point still stands and it's been repeated often... You felt personally insulted by a moderation action by the community due to the way it was handled. I think most people have been in that situation (I am still upset that the 'programming on a boat' question is gone). My only consolation is that we recognize this is a problem and it is one that almost all online communities face, and we're working on ways to alleviate it. I hope you'll stick around and help us figure out how to do that.
- nathan_long 14y ago
  >> it is one that almost all online communities face I'd strike "almost" and "online" from this sentence. Being part of community always means compromise. Only hermits win all their arguments. But most of us have decided that the benefits of community outweigh the cost.
- btilly 14y ago
  What part of, "I've decided to quit" do you fail to understand? I'm not sticking around. It was not the moderation itself. It was the discussion on meta that convinced me that what I was interested was so far from the norms that were going to be enforced that there was no point in being present. As for trying to "help us figure out how to do that" - there could be nothing farther from my interests. As I said in http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4197385 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4197385 I've never enjoyed being around the kind of people who enjoy debating and enforce rules for what is worthy for their community. But if you should manage to change the culture, maybe it will show up in a story on Hacker New. Then I might give it another try. But not now.

ximeng 14y ago

FAQ: "if your question generally covers … a specific programming problem a software algorithm software tools commonly used by programmers practical, answerable problems that are unique to the programming profession … then you’re in the right place to ask your question! show more What kind of questions should I not ask here? You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face." This is practical, answerable, an actual problem someone has faced (presumably for a programming interview), to do with a software algorithm, specific, and unique to the programming profession (otherwise why would you specify 2^63-1 as a limit?!). How on earth is this "definitely without a doubt, not on topic to SO"? Why would "Progamming Language Pragmatics" be cited as a reference if this was not a programming problem? The comments in the meta thread are also unhelpful - "True, I would close it as not a real question. Because it is the text literally copied from the interview question whitout any effort to change it into a question and without any effort to solve it". I'm with btilly, these guys should put more time into answers and less into meta-answers, if I were treated like him I'd be looking for the door as well: why would he want to spend his time convincing these people a clearly useful question and answer should be on this site?

batista 14y ago
>This is practical, answerable, an actual problem someone has faced (presumably for a programming interview sorry but, "faced at an interview" is far from "actual problems that you face". Interviews contain all kind of junk, abstact and bs questions...
- ximeng 14y ago
  This question is not "junk, abstact and bs", it's concrete though terse, and substantial. It is also clearly a problem he's faced. Perhaps the fact that he's not hit this issue while producing a product or experiencing this problem in everyday working life is the concern? Or lack of generality? In any case this is within a reasonable interpretation of the guidelines, and as Jeff points out in this thread, within the spirit of what he intended for the site. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabin%E2%80%93Karp_algorithm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabin%E2%80%93Karp_algorithm shows serious research into a similar problem. It is depressing that useful questions and answers like this are judged on whether they are homework or interview questions, not on the quality of the response. The discussion on meta shows no appreciation of the quality of btilly's contributions to the site. I'm not surprised he's leaving, and I agree StackOverflow will be worse without his answers. What do you think?