[tstrimple]

I think some of the early push back on asking better more relevant questions was right. But it morphed fairly quickly into gate keeping power user hell hole. I did learn early how to ask better questions. Often to the point I could get an answer without someone else feeding it to me. I appreciate that from StackOverflow. I wish I could just send some of my colleagues who ask bad questions or ask for help in a bad way through the StackOverflow ringer. The number of times my "peers" would respond with a flat "didn't work" with no additional details is driving me crazy. What didn't work? Did it fail differently than before? Were there any error messages? Did you check the logs? What else have you tried? I have to play 20 questions to even start being able help them and all of that work somehow falls on my shoulders.

[uberman]

Knowing how to ask for help is an important skill. Honestly, I admit what SO was demanding was the really the foundation of debugging and I am sure that many people are now better developers because SO having taught them how to approach a problem and how to ask for help.

That said, while the core objective may have been sound, that approach and delivery of the SO "way" was often socially wanting.

That is of course, just my observation.