[suzzer99]

At least 50% of the time on SO, the best answer is 3rd or worse, and I'm always thinking, "Why is this not the top answer?"

[nottorp]

Because the person who asked the question has accepted the first answer that looked decent enough and moved on.

Usually the most superficial, not that it's always a bad thing.

Oh, also on SO there's this kind of exchange:

Q: "I want to do X because of this and that - or because I simply fucking want to".

A: You should never do X, do Y or Z instead.

[badc0ffee]

The "that's a XY problem" guys always seem to think they're the smartest in the room.

[blt]

imo this was the single worst problem with SO, people always searching for the XY problem in every question instead of taking it at face value

[nottorp]

Mostly I'd say their downfall was that they encouraged copypasta material and actively discouraged any kind of behaviour that would have built a community.

[puchatek]

I might even find an upside in that if it wasn't for the fact that this stolen crowd sourced knowledge will be used to make some billionaires even richer.