[monksy]

Contributing to what ChrisDutrow said, SO used to be great for asking questions. However, they retroactively changed their points value for asking questions. I found this to be a bit counter productive.

I realize that they are trying to "fight the people gaming the system." But I just felt like asking questions wasn't valued well enough. My participation dropped on SO like a rock after that.

I wrote an article about SO 4 years ago, and many of the points still remain and there are newer issues: https://theexceptioncatcher.com/blog/2012/09/stackoverflow-i...

My participation in SO now is primarily focused on asking questions only when I have something I've been struggling with for quite a while. By that time, I won't get an answer on the questions because it's so obscure.

[ChrisDutrow]

My reaction was different. I chose to keep asking a lot of questions and just brace myself to get kicked in the teeth by some people.

The value of just the chance that someone will clarify things and suggest things that I wouldn't have known about is worth the inevitable online beat down.

[sndean]

This is essentially what I do.

I've deleted some of the questions afterwards, after receiving a lot of down votes or having it closed, but generally within 30 seconds there'll be a two line answer to a question that I spent several hours trying to figure out.

It's still an amazing resource, just a broken points/closure system.