[sbenj]

Well, there's really something else going on - I'm sure the phenomenon is there but I think they're asking the wrong question.

Stackoverflow tends to get a mix of questions that would require an experienced person to give a great deal of thought to, or things that require specialized knowledge ("good questions") and things that look very much like someones first year CS homework or questions coming out of pure laziness. In the worst cases the posted could have solved these questions by just checking public API docs but didn't bother. Often the worst questions are anonymous or accounts with single-digit reputation, display a fair amount of ignorance, and are syntactically mangled. The posters will generally not bother to take the trouble to upvote, respond, or thank for the replies.

I wonder if this phenomenon would disappear as a trend if they filtered out the "clown" questions (lets say, questions by people who posted less than 3 or 4 questions and no answers, or questions by anyone who had questions downvoted as homework).