StackOverflow - like many popular forums - is a place where a lot of inexperienced people end up spending their time. This is almost a tautology: "pop-forums fu

StackOverflow - like many popular forums - is a place where a lot of inexperienced people end up spending their time. This is almost a tautology: "pop-forums full people that act inexperienced" end up that way because... inexperienced people end to flock towards popular sites full of like-minded people. Given that most people will at least try to helpful, you end up with a lot of people re-distributing the bits of knowledge they've learned. This often starts as cargo-cult behavior, and - if left to grow in isolation - it can turn into groupthink[1]. It's easy to jump to the conclusion that some form of moderation or judicial process is needed; if the greater resource is to be saved, the trolls/n00bs/"children" need to restrained so they can't make a mess that pollutes the community. I think this approach fails to address the actual problem: that some people need a lot more education before they can progress past the "inexperienced n00b"/"child" stage. The mechanics in place at StackOverflow - even with its flaws - can be a very useful tool. If enough people who are experienced (in technical or social areas) spent some time there regularly, the extra role models would help this greater social problem a lot. Answer the same n00b questions over and over is annoying, but that's the kind of effort it takes to maintain a community across generations. [1] Regardless of what you think of the language itself (or this well-known rant against it), the article "PHP: a fractal of bad design"[2] is a good case-study of what happens if that groupthink is left in isolation far too long. [2] http://eev.ee/blog/2012/04/09/php-a-fractal-of-bad-design/ http://eev.ee/blog/2012/04/09/php-a-fractal-of-bad-design/