I don't know of an alternative but I'll add a gripe. Many answerers like to not answer questions but instead tell the askers to do something a completely differ

I don't know of an alternative but I'll add a gripe. Many answerers like to not answer questions but instead tell the askers to do something a completely different way. That's great, if you're a beginner. But advanced usage does require doing unusual and difficult things that aren't textbook usage of a language/toolkit. One helpful source for me has been bug/issue report forums but it's not really a substitute. Also GrepCode.com is helpful for reading the source of various libraries (at least Java).