[EnderShadow8]

Marking questions as "stupid, irrelevant, lazy etc" is SO's way of maintaining site content quality. Though they do get a bit aggressive at times, it's actually a good thing. A site without that just turns into Reddit.

AKA Shitpost Central.

[MattGaiser]

Has any alternative to meanness been found for turning random rabble of highly assorted quality into something with a minimum bar?

The military does it. Prisons do it. Stack Overflow does it. It clearly works and has for millennia. Just wonder if it is the only way.

I agree that if SO that was nice to people who did not do much prior research would quickly have a lot of junk.

[singularity2001]

Gentle education? Scandinavian prisons do it, schools do it, HN does it*

* (I was once called out by dang for posting humor/meme content but fully comprehend now how keeping such stuff away yields better discussions)

[singularity2001]

you're right I don't mind (too much) getting labeled anything or getting downvoted but I do mind content being closed and blocked (often for outrageous reasons or no reason at all)

if someone with a math degree and 10 years of experience in the field is treated as ignorant I don't know want to know how newcomers to stack overflow feel.