Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by smithkl42 3730 days ago
This is a real problem with SO. SO is still the best place to go to find answers, but they do quite a bit - though not nearly as much as Wikipedia - to frighten off beginners. Arbitrarily closing perfectly fine, sometimes even great questions, is only the half of it.
1 comments
ChrisDutrow 3730 days ago
Bill_The_Lizard does this so much I actually remember his name. I assumed it was just because he only had time to make snap decisions since he handling so much content. Now it sounds like this is a conscious decision to push beginners out.
link
kagamine 3730 days ago
It's also the manner in which it is done. About 5 years ago I asked a (dumb) question, I had no idea how to ask the "right" question and was closed down and told "this isn't your personal code writing service". I had phrased the question as can you give advice on how to proceed, I wasn't asking for code samples. Yes, SO wants you to post code, but if you have no idea where to start, some advice could go a long way. Being snarked at was unnecessary and it was 3 years before I posted there again.
link
ChrisDutrow 3730 days ago
Its surprising to me the amount of snark that is allowed from the moderators. Perhaps of the last 5 questions I've posted, I've received rude responses from moderators twice. Each time was in response to a mistake that I had made, so criticism was welcome, its the rudeness that was unprofessional.

A contributing issue might be that the moderators are the result of elections. This would weight moderator personality types towards people who crave recognition, perhaps even more on the narcissistic end of the scale. As opposed to more "level 5" type leaders who are probably less likely to run in an election and talk themselves up.

link