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I question the wisdom of pure democracy and majority vote for such decisions as opening and closing articles. As you say, fluff topics appeal to the GCD of the

I question the wisdom of pure democracy and majority vote for such decisions as opening and closing articles. As you say, fluff topics appeal to the GCD of the population, and should have plenty of votes to stay open. One of the things that I liked most about StackOverflow when I started using it was how hard it was to get karma. To get it, you either had to ask good programming questions or give good programming answers. That's not easy to do. Then I saw a question about office chairs with 50 points on the front page.

kylec 18y ago
True. However, while there is an extremely low reputation threshold for being able to vote, there is a significantly higher threshold for closing and opening. The term "reputation" is sort of a misnomer in that it doesn't particularly signify technical skill, but rather an investment in the community. With a daily cap of 200[1] and a minimum of 3000 required for closing, an extremely active user would need to spend at least 15 days asking great questions and giving great answers. I think that after such an investment of time and effort, most users would want to maintain the level of quality on the site. Also, one thing that I didn't mention before is that Stack Overflow has a setting called "Community Wiki" that, among other things, is customary to use when posting subjective or off-topic material to prevent reputation gain. Whether or not a question is marked as Wiki can mean the difference between staying open and getting closed, and a question that gets over 30 answers is also deemed subjective and rolls over to Wiki. This means that not only does a closer have to earn 3000 rep, but it's also granted primarily through on-topic posts. The question you mention, I assume, is this one [2], which has been Wiki since it was posted. 1: It's possible to exceed the cap by hitting it then having an answer or bounty accepted, but this is very hard to do regularly for normal users. 2: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/306708/must-haves-for-developers-office http://stackoverflow.com/questions/306708/must-haves-for-dev...
- jacoblyles 18y ago
  Good points. StackOverflow is my favorite site that I discovered this year. Its community is incredible. I hope you guys make enough money off of it to stay open for a long time.
  - kylec 18y ago
    I should clarify myself - I'm not affiliated with Stack Overflow, I'm just an engaged user that saw parallels between the article and the recent discourse about how the community should be moderate itself. That aside, I agree with your sentiment - SO is my newest favorite site, and I, too, hope that Jeff & company are able to keep the site open for a long time. Once you go Stack you never go back.

kylec 18y ago

True. However, while there is an extremely low reputation threshold for being able to vote, there is a significantly higher threshold for closing and opening. The term "reputation" is sort of a misnomer in that it doesn't particularly signify technical skill, but rather an investment in the community. With a daily cap of 200[1] and a minimum of 3000 required for closing, an extremely active user would need to spend at least 15 days asking great questions and giving great answers. I think that after such an investment of time and effort, most users would want to maintain the level of quality on the site. Also, one thing that I didn't mention before is that Stack Overflow has a setting called "Community Wiki" that, among other things, is customary to use when posting subjective or off-topic material to prevent reputation gain. Whether or not a question is marked as Wiki can mean the difference between staying open and getting closed, and a question that gets over 30 answers is also deemed subjective and rolls over to Wiki. This means that not only does a closer have to earn 3000 rep, but it's also granted primarily through on-topic posts. The question you mention, I assume, is this one [2], which has been Wiki since it was posted. 1: It's possible to exceed the cap by hitting it then having an answer or bounty accepted, but this is very hard to do regularly for normal users. 2: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/306708/must-haves-for-developers-office http://stackoverflow.com/questions/306708/must-haves-for-dev...

jacoblyles 18y ago
Good points. StackOverflow is my favorite site that I discovered this year. Its community is incredible. I hope you guys make enough money off of it to stay open for a long time.
- kylec 18y ago
  I should clarify myself - I'm not affiliated with Stack Overflow, I'm just an engaged user that saw parallels between the article and the recent discourse about how the community should be moderate itself. That aside, I agree with your sentiment - SO is my newest favorite site, and I, too, hope that Jeff & company are able to keep the site open for a long time. Once you go Stack you never go back.