The flaw of StackOverflow, to me, is that activity is discouraged. What I mean by that is, rehashing previous discussions is verboten, shooting the shit rarely

The flaw of StackOverflow, to me, is that activity is discouraged. What I mean by that is, rehashing previous discussions is verboten, shooting the shit rarely happens, and nebulous questions are never explored (even though some of the better questions linked to on SO are often closed topics!). As a result, StackOverflow is an authoritative source on a great many things. But the atmosphere of "ask any question" is absent. You're supposed to know what to look for instead of honestly throwing your query into the void trusting that someone will catch you. In other words, your question has to be novel in a specific sense. Which is great! But it doesn't mean it's an encouraging environment. Edit: I mean, witness this comment, posted at the same time as me: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5919768 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5919768 I dunno, I have never felt motivated to "hang out" at SO.