[torstenvl]

Most of them are inside jokes that aren't very funny.

Most of them are indeed frequently asked, but by people who are a bit obstinate or otherwise don't fit the mold that old timers thought newbies should fit.

As a result, the responses are often intentionally dismissive and unhelpful.

EDIT: It occurs to me that comp.lang.c was the 80s-90s version of Stack Overflow. So at least they're comparatively funnier than the SO responses they'd elicit today.

[bluedino]

It was better than StackOverflow in a lot of ways.

Sure, it wasn't useful as a searchable database of questions, but the FAQ was very useful if you could spend time to wade through it, and any zero-effort posters were either flamed to oblivion or simply ignored.

I remember asking a couple stupid questions and directed to the documentation. To this day, at work I will suggest "let's see what the manual says", while troubleshooting and get a funny look and eve pushback after I find the answer.

[MrLeap]

What kind of pushback?

[layer8]

“The documentation can’t possibly be up-to-date”, probably.

[bluetomcat]

On SO, any of these answers would be downvoted to death by people not recognising them as jokes at all. Language lawyer types would cite the part of the standard that classifies this as UB in the blink of an eye. It’s a different world we’re living in.

[torstenvl]

On SO these questions would get downvoted to death and the newbie would be admonished for breaking the site guidelines.

1.1: How do you decide which integer type to use?

    Closed as opinion based.

1.3: If I write the code int i, j; can I assume that (&i + 1) == &j?

    Please provide a minimal, complete and verifiable example. 

Etc.