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I used to love SO, but nowadays the proportion of assholes running the site is so big that it ruins everything. To give you an example, check out the last ques

I used to love SO, but nowadays the proportion of assholes running the site is so big that it ruins everything. To give you an example, check out the last question I've asked there: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/27510345/c-map-assignment-overload-for-different-types http://stackoverflow.com/questions/27510345/c-map-assignment.... 11 downvotes and closed within a few hours; apparently I pissed off one of the moderators (when asking him why is my question "off-topic") and he invited his gang to downvote me as well, some other guy even threatened to deactivate my account. That is SO now, and I no longer try to engage into that community. Edit: Looking at how the votes in my question are evolving as we speak, I see that some guys still go in and downvote it more. Read out the question, and check out the really good accepted answer, if you don't think that's valuable information for many programmers out there then I'm at a loss of words.

itsbits 12y ago
haha..gangs of Stackoverflow huh..i can see that happening..i dont have many friends thgh SO but I agree people groupup through SO chat rooms..
3JPLW 12y ago
Well, you didn't just ask why it's off topic. You threw around insults and used very vulgar language. http://stackoverflow.com/posts/27510345/revisions http://stackoverflow.com/posts/27510345/revisions
- _almosnow 12y ago
  Actually I did ask, strange you didn't notice that since it's right there in the link you posted. And yeah, you are right, I used the word 'cunt' after they started behaving like that, I'm sorry if that scared you; I did it because I was really pissed off by all their bs. Have you ever felt annoyed some time in your life? Apparently not, lucky you.
  - minitech 12y ago
    I’m happy to say that I downvoted you specifically for that! It’s what I always do whenever there’s a rude remark, regardless of question content. Glad to see you’re getting so many votes now, though.
  - JScarry 12y ago
    Maybe they don’t want people like you on the site. I wouldn’t.
  - Guvante 12y ago
    The history of questions is why StackOverflow is so great. If it were like a normal forum with only time sensitive content it would have gone away like all other technical forums. Your question is shared with all the future people who have the same problem, it isn't your soapbox to complain in. Your experience with SO is probably fairly minor, the moderators have each had to deal with at least a half dozen people breaking questions to suit their own benefits, it gets tiring quickly.
    - Marcus316 12y ago
      Please note, closed questions can also be removed from the site. I have a single Gold Badge in the SO world. It was awarded for an answer that I gave which earned more than 100 up votes[1]. Sadly the question to which I responded has since been closed (for years now). When content that I worked hard to create suddenly disappears from the site because moderators deem it to be "not a good fit", you start to feel it's not worth your time ... [1] http://stackoverflow.com/help/badges/25/great-answer?userid=1429 http://stackoverflow.com/help/badges/25/great-answer?userid=...
      - teh_klev 12y ago
        At least they let you keep the badge :)
      - Guvante 12y ago
        Took me a minute to realize what you were talking about as I have mod powers and could see the post just fine (finally clicked everything was red). They outgrew the initial laissez-faire model and needed to grow beyond it. However I heartily agree they didn't do the best at making that transition.
nitrogen 12y ago
I'm not sure why the question was closed, but the name calling and vulgarity in the edit probably contributed to the downvotes. http://stackoverflow.com/posts/27510345/revisions http://stackoverflow.com/posts/27510345/revisions
Arnt 12y ago
Ruins what? That question is the kind of thing that helps only you. SO tries to be a site where one person gets an answer, and the same answer can later be found by a thousand people who google. Your question asks people to help you, with no attempt at making this useful for others. I can see why people downvote such questions.
Latty 12y ago
I looked back at version one to see what people would have downvoted/closed for: 'I have tried to do that (by overloading operator[], operator=) but it doesn't seem like I'm going somewhere. Can anyone suggest me a way to achieve this behavior?' You said you have tried, but you didn't post what you tried, or how it didn't work. This makes your question hard to answer, and essentially means anyone answering is going to have to write your code for you. You then finished it up with a passive-aggressive FAQ section which was entirely unnecessary, and included 'I want to do it this way, even if there is a better way' - which is just a terrible way to go in asking a question. StackOverflow gets incredible numbers of questions every day, and the reality is people are not willing to help people who actively make their questions harder to answer. That's not people being assholes, it's people getting burnt out trying to help the 20,000th help vampire (http://slash7.com/2006/12/22/vampires/ http://slash7.com/2006/12/22/vampires/). Everyone who complains about StackOverflow, in my experience, tends to be someone who wants others to do work for them. Yes, SO doesn't do that. That's by design.
- _almosnow 12y ago
  >You said you have tried, but you didn't post what you tried, or how it didn't work. >by overloading operator[], operator= It's literally there... >You then finished it up with a passive-aggressive FAQ section which was entirely unnecessary ... 'I want to do it this way, even if there is a better way' What's wrong with that? I wanted to achieve a very specific thing. Can you please tell me what is wrong with that? That FAQ is meant to avoid getting answers that I don't need. Have you ever used SO? When you do you'll see that these questions usually get a lot of responses like: "Just drop C and go for Python, Python does everything for you XD" "Just throw Boost in there and you're done [and turn your 1s compile time into 10 minutes] XDDD"
  - peeters 12y ago
    > That FAQ is meant to avoid getting answers that I don't need. 1) Answers on questions aren't just meant to serve you, they're meant to serve people that find the question later. It's incredibly important to note when there's a better way altogether to approach a problem. 2) Askers on SO often exhibit the XY problem. Saying you're not interested in other approaches is not simply dickish; it's ignoring (often) good advice that other people are donating their time to give you. Honestly, your entire interaction on that question is a prime example of why so many moderators go to the other extreme and become trigger happy. Because anybody would get burnt out dealing day in, day out with people having the same sense of entitlement that you have.
Guvante 12y ago
You got the downvotes for editing your question to complain, including vulgarity in a few instances. People bitching in questions is a lot of peoples pet peeves (because it is frustrating to moderate correctly). I would agree that "off-topic" is completely incorrect and I can't think of a valid reason to close it.
bwy 12y ago
There are a lot of replies on this comment, but I just wanted to add my experience and maybe some advice - I'm TA'ing for a CS class this semester, and we have an open forum for discussion kind of like Stack Overflow. Unfortunately it's content like what you posted in your revisions (expletives, open frustration) that make it unpleasant. The plain fact is that saying things like that does affect strangers, no matter how frustrated you might be - no one wants a public forum with that. I have had questions like yours before, by the way (see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24173094/c-polymorphic-interfaces http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24173094/c-polymorphic-in..., for example), and I kind of agree that it shouldn't have been closed like that. C++ is a confusing language and there was indeed a good amount to learn from the answer to your question. But you definitely could have handled it much better; get some feedback and maybe edit or make a new post with that feedback and you'd be good to go! All this is going to trying to show you that your attitude is a little belligerent (it's showing on this HN thread again, even), and changing it goes a long way. I've come to the conclusion that the people on my class's forum and you don't really realize that there's something wrong with how you're communicating. But being polite isn't very hard, and I think you almost managed to do it in that SO thread. Take some time to work on your attitude, and you will get much further :) Please don't take this in the wrong way. It's up to you to change if you'd like; I'm pointing out the benefits and you don't have to if you don't want to.
yonran 12y ago
I have also had many stack overflow commenters come to critique my code for style but no one actually answer the question[1], and it can be rather frustrating because I know that what they are saying will not solve my problem. But I would suggest a little patience. Hopefully someone will come and answer the question after the initial criticisms die down. My question was eventually answered after all. [1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16227877/how-to-update-a-jcomponent-with-html-without-flickering http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16227877/how-to-update-a-...
- praneshp 12y ago
  I would say you were incredibly patient in that thread, not just 'little'. Everyone seemed to try to help though.

itsbits 12y ago

haha..gangs of Stackoverflow huh..i can see that happening..i dont have many friends thgh SO but I agree people groupup through SO chat rooms..

3JPLW 12y ago

Well, you didn't just ask why it's off topic. You threw around insults and used very vulgar language. http://stackoverflow.com/posts/27510345/revisions http://stackoverflow.com/posts/27510345/revisions

_almosnow 12y ago
Actually I did ask, strange you didn't notice that since it's right there in the link you posted. And yeah, you are right, I used the word 'cunt' after they started behaving like that, I'm sorry if that scared you; I did it because I was really pissed off by all their bs. Have you ever felt annoyed some time in your life? Apparently not, lucky you.
- minitech 12y ago
  I’m happy to say that I downvoted you specifically for that! It’s what I always do whenever there’s a rude remark, regardless of question content. Glad to see you’re getting so many votes now, though.
- JScarry 12y ago
  Maybe they don’t want people like you on the site. I wouldn’t.
- Guvante 12y ago
  The history of questions is why StackOverflow is so great. If it were like a normal forum with only time sensitive content it would have gone away like all other technical forums. Your question is shared with all the future people who have the same problem, it isn't your soapbox to complain in. Your experience with SO is probably fairly minor, the moderators have each had to deal with at least a half dozen people breaking questions to suit their own benefits, it gets tiring quickly.
  - Marcus316 12y ago
    Please note, closed questions can also be removed from the site. I have a single Gold Badge in the SO world. It was awarded for an answer that I gave which earned more than 100 up votes[1]. Sadly the question to which I responded has since been closed (for years now). When content that I worked hard to create suddenly disappears from the site because moderators deem it to be "not a good fit", you start to feel it's not worth your time ... [1] http://stackoverflow.com/help/badges/25/great-answer?userid=1429 http://stackoverflow.com/help/badges/25/great-answer?userid=...
    - teh_klev 12y ago
      At least they let you keep the badge :)
    - Guvante 12y ago
      Took me a minute to realize what you were talking about as I have mod powers and could see the post just fine (finally clicked everything was red). They outgrew the initial laissez-faire model and needed to grow beyond it. However I heartily agree they didn't do the best at making that transition.

nitrogen 12y ago

I'm not sure why the question was closed, but the name calling and vulgarity in the edit probably contributed to the downvotes. http://stackoverflow.com/posts/27510345/revisions http://stackoverflow.com/posts/27510345/revisions

Arnt 12y ago

Ruins what? That question is the kind of thing that helps only you. SO tries to be a site where one person gets an answer, and the same answer can later be found by a thousand people who google. Your question asks people to help you, with no attempt at making this useful for others. I can see why people downvote such questions.

Latty 12y ago

I looked back at version one to see what people would have downvoted/closed for: 'I have tried to do that (by overloading operator[], operator=) but it doesn't seem like I'm going somewhere. Can anyone suggest me a way to achieve this behavior?' You said you have tried, but you didn't post what you tried, or how it didn't work. This makes your question hard to answer, and essentially means anyone answering is going to have to write your code for you. You then finished it up with a passive-aggressive FAQ section which was entirely unnecessary, and included 'I want to do it this way, even if there is a better way' - which is just a terrible way to go in asking a question. StackOverflow gets incredible numbers of questions every day, and the reality is people are not willing to help people who actively make their questions harder to answer. That's not people being assholes, it's people getting burnt out trying to help the 20,000th help vampire (http://slash7.com/2006/12/22/vampires/ http://slash7.com/2006/12/22/vampires/). Everyone who complains about StackOverflow, in my experience, tends to be someone who wants others to do work for them. Yes, SO doesn't do that. That's by design.

_almosnow 12y ago
>You said you have tried, but you didn't post what you tried, or how it didn't work. >by overloading operator[], operator= It's literally there... >You then finished it up with a passive-aggressive FAQ section which was entirely unnecessary ... 'I want to do it this way, even if there is a better way' What's wrong with that? I wanted to achieve a very specific thing. Can you please tell me what is wrong with that? That FAQ is meant to avoid getting answers that I don't need. Have you ever used SO? When you do you'll see that these questions usually get a lot of responses like: "Just drop C and go for Python, Python does everything for you XD" "Just throw Boost in there and you're done [and turn your 1s compile time into 10 minutes] XDDD"
- peeters 12y ago
  > That FAQ is meant to avoid getting answers that I don't need. 1) Answers on questions aren't just meant to serve you, they're meant to serve people that find the question later. It's incredibly important to note when there's a better way altogether to approach a problem. 2) Askers on SO often exhibit the XY problem. Saying you're not interested in other approaches is not simply dickish; it's ignoring (often) good advice that other people are donating their time to give you. Honestly, your entire interaction on that question is a prime example of why so many moderators go to the other extreme and become trigger happy. Because anybody would get burnt out dealing day in, day out with people having the same sense of entitlement that you have.

Guvante 12y ago

You got the downvotes for editing your question to complain, including vulgarity in a few instances. People bitching in questions is a lot of peoples pet peeves (because it is frustrating to moderate correctly). I would agree that "off-topic" is completely incorrect and I can't think of a valid reason to close it.

bwy 12y ago

There are a lot of replies on this comment, but I just wanted to add my experience and maybe some advice - I'm TA'ing for a CS class this semester, and we have an open forum for discussion kind of like Stack Overflow. Unfortunately it's content like what you posted in your revisions (expletives, open frustration) that make it unpleasant. The plain fact is that saying things like that does affect strangers, no matter how frustrated you might be - no one wants a public forum with that. I have had questions like yours before, by the way (see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24173094/c-polymorphic-interfaces http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24173094/c-polymorphic-in..., for example), and I kind of agree that it shouldn't have been closed like that. C++ is a confusing language and there was indeed a good amount to learn from the answer to your question. But you definitely could have handled it much better; get some feedback and maybe edit or make a new post with that feedback and you'd be good to go! All this is going to trying to show you that your attitude is a little belligerent (it's showing on this HN thread again, even), and changing it goes a long way. I've come to the conclusion that the people on my class's forum and you don't really realize that there's something wrong with how you're communicating. But being polite isn't very hard, and I think you almost managed to do it in that SO thread. Take some time to work on your attitude, and you will get much further :) Please don't take this in the wrong way. It's up to you to change if you'd like; I'm pointing out the benefits and you don't have to if you don't want to.

yonran 12y ago

I have also had many stack overflow commenters come to critique my code for style but no one actually answer the question[1], and it can be rather frustrating because I know that what they are saying will not solve my problem. But I would suggest a little patience. Hopefully someone will come and answer the question after the initial criticisms die down. My question was eventually answered after all. [1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16227877/how-to-update-a-jcomponent-with-html-without-flickering http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16227877/how-to-update-a-...

praneshp 12y ago
I would say you were incredibly patient in that thread, not just 'little'. Everyone seemed to try to help though.