[joekrie]

I find it to be a great resource if someone has already answered your question, especially if I find it via Google. As for asking questions, it's a bit off-putting to be immediately downvoted without explanation, and to not get a single answer.

Point is, it's good resource to free-ride but not actively participate.

[city41]

That's basically the point of the site. I think SO's owners are ok with this trade off.

FWIW it wasn't always like this. I have a lot of points on SO mostly acquired about 5 years ago. Back then SO was a much friendlier, and much more interesting place to participate in. I haven't actively participated in about 3 years or so.

[CaptSpify]

I've always thought this described it best: SO is a great place to find answers to your questions, but SO is a terrible place to ask questions.

[Latty]

It's more that it turns out that asking questions is hard.

Anyone who has had to work with others in tech knows the kind of crap you get. They don't give you the stack trace, they say 'I get an error' without giving the error message, they just say 'it doesn't work', it's not clear what they want, they post a screenshot of half a stack trace, etc...

Again, it's a constant trade off where you are balancing the asker's needs with the thousand people who find this via Google, and the people answering the question.

[junke]

Did you eventually find out why you were downvoted?

[joekrie]

Not really, but I did eventually get upvoted.