> The original idea always centered around SO being a blog for programmers that don't really blog; at least that was what was constantly talked about. I used t

> The original idea always centered around SO being a blog for programmers that don't really blog; at least that was what was constantly talked about. I used to listen to the early podcasts and I never got this impression. As far as I can tell SO has always been run much the same way - aimed at getting the top google hit for direct questions like "how do I make my button transparent." For the most part they are succeeding. Questions like "list of freely available programming books" have always been outliers. Now that they are not allowed at all, maybe the old ones should be hidden instead of being shown as "locked." StackExchange is an SEO company, not your blog hosting company. Just because you find a topic interesting does not mean it is their job to host your discussion/poll/list-of-lists etc. for it.