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i left so a month ago, and while i agree with one point here (creeping authoriarianism) i am completely opposed to "teach a man to fish". for me, as a professi
by andrewcooke 13y ago
i left so a month ago, and while i agree with one point here (creeping authoriarianism) i am completely opposed to "teach a man to fish".
for me, as a professional programmer, that site is useful because it has direct, simple answers.
but it seems to have been taken over by students who are resentful that there should be simple answers without some evidence of suffering (it really seems to be that).
why should i have to explain "what i have already done" to a bunch of schoolkids when all i want is for someone who has solved this issue before to post the right answer so i can get on with life?
i'm an adult. i can make my own decisions about when i learn and when i want an answer. i don't need someone else's priorities - from a completely different context, apparently motivated by jealousy over grades - shoved down my throat.
but anyway, while that bugged me, it was the dismissive mods that finally drove me away (at 19k points).
(am i the only one that thinks that good questions - interesting ones - are no longer getting quality answers because people that could have answered them have left? and that they're no longer being asked as a consequence? the time when i wrote answers like http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7076349/is-there-a-good-way-to-do-this-type-of-mining/7237972#7237972 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7076349/is-there-a-good-w... has long, long passed)
- probablyfiction 13y agoKnowing what you have already tried is useful from a troubleshooting perspective...not to mention that if I suggest something you've already tried, it is wasted time on both our parts; mine for suggesting it and yours for waiting for me to make the redundant suggestion. Many times there are multiple potential causes for an issue. Ruling out what has already been tried is what any competent troubleshooter is going to do.
- mratzloff 13y agoMost of those "show your work" responses are designed purely to force the asker to prove that they have tried to solve the problem himself before asking Stack Overflow. Showing your work can needlessly complicates the question, especially if it requires a lot of explanation. It's also irritating because someone knows the answer but is withholding it until you do what he wants. I had that exact experience when I asked this question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13240039/group-count-with-mongodb-using-aggregation-framework http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13240039/group-count-with...
- twic 13y agoRight. The "show your work" stuff is about establishing a proof of work for effort expended on a question before anyone expends effort on an answer. It's a way of keeping the system honest, so askers aren't purely freeloading off answerers. It's a human blockchain!