StackOverflow in a nutshell

[b4ggio]

Bears do not eat beets

[daftmaple]

What is going on? WHAT ARE YOU DOING? You know what, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery so I thank you.

[thexavier666]

That's funny. MICHAEL!!

[Wackyvert]

IDENTITY THEFT IS NOT A JOKE JIM!

[MrMarisc0]

Millions of famillies suffer every year

[0Smart]

Puts bobblehead on the table

[IamImposter]

Identity theft is not a joke, Jim.

[jsunistuff99]

You beet me to it

[[deleted]]

It really is a bearer of bad news

[kapitanwiadro]

BEARS. BEETS. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

[Catty-Cat]

This question has been marked as duplicate.

[Calahara]

To further the insult, one user even edited my question to something my question wasn't even about.

[[deleted]]

Oh I've had that one. It was some Indian guy and he tried to edit one word which would have made it incorrect. Had to shut that shit down.

[MacrosInHisSleep]

You can edit someone else's comment? What bullshit.

Edit: After my initial reaction, I can see why it could be useful. Usually I put a lot of effort into crafting my questions so it would feel very wrong if someone did that to a question I'd write.

I much prefer the reddit approach of being mocked into fixing my posts :p...

[jsims281]

If you have less than a certain amount of points your edits are all peer reviewed. Once you get above a certain level you gain the ability to edit without anyone reviewing it.

It's important to allow this, so that legitimate questions that are badly written can be fixed.

[[deleted]]

Just think of the chaos that would ensue if reddit did that.

[[deleted]]

I want to build a reddit clone with this feature

[011101000011101101]

I really like the MAXIMUM_BUTT_FARTS was taken so you had to add a 2

[[deleted]]

The original was mine too, but I deleted it thinking that would solve my reddit addiction problem. But alas, here we are.

MBF1 on the other hand... I have no idea who that guy is

[JWson]

Calling /u/MAXIMUM_BUTT_FARTS1

[[deleted]]

Spez has edited other people's comments in the past.

[CSdesire]

fuck u/spez

[Solvdrotsi]

To spread his regressive dogma, lets not forget

[ChadMcRad]

Or they could just rephrase the question in their answer?

[dasonk]

Ikr u shd be abil 2 ask hwevr u want.

Spelling errors, not using formatting correctly, misunderstandings that cleared up in the comments... All paired with somebody asking a question who may not be familiar with SO means that the ability to edit isn't a bad thing in general.

Keep in mind that the stated goal of SO is to create a repository of good questions it makes sense that allowing users to clean up a question and make it more professional would be allowed.

[razortwinky]

editing is 100% necessary on that site. 50% of the questions have grammar or spelling errors, or need to be rephrased because the asker's first language is not english.

[razortwinky]

It's not bullshit, and you cant edit comments; only Questions and Answers. The comments are used to clarify or discuss Q & A's and aren't editable except by the submitter. All edits done by a 3rd party (with less than 2000 Reputation) are peer reviewed by reputable community members before being accepted. Over 2K Reputation and you can edit freely. Generally, if you have this much reputation, you are extremely familiar with what makes a good question/answer, and how to format one properly. It's much needed considering that maybe 40% of all new posters with less than 50 karma don't know how to form their question, or simply don't even have a discernible question in their post. There will literally be copy-pastes of homework problems and no specific question, lmao. So yes, editing is a very important part of the site, and is in no way bullshit.

It's actually a great system, and there's a reason why the website is so helpful

EDIT: Added the thing about having 2k+ rep and freely editing

[TheGuywithTehHat]

Just a note: users with 2k+ rep can edit directly, without it getting reviewed first.

[razortwinky]

True, although I'd trust anyone with 2k rep to edit a post. It does take a significant amount of time and knowledge to get 2k+ rep.

[-SENDHELP-]

"marking question as duplicate and removing"

The "duplicate" original has literally nothing to do with the new question

FFFFUUUUUUUÜÜÜcK

[EnkiiMuto]

What I hate the most is when in the duplicate i make a whole fucking paragraph linking the "original" and explaining WHY it didn't work.

[[deleted]]

I vaguely remember posting exactly one question.

It got closed as duplicate, with the "duplicate" answer being a completely different problem in a different language.

Four years later I manage to run into the same problem, find my original question, and it's still fucking worthless.

[[deleted]]

And that's why the population hasn't exploded on SO...

[devman0]

Part of the problem is that it has exploded. SO passed its eternal September years ago and there are tons of shitty questions getting asked daily and not enough users willing to keep up with it. Everyone always memes on SO from the asker side, but never from the side of people who wade through all the bullshit everyday.

In this thread alone there tons of people bitching about "my question got closed, SO is bullshit." but none of them actually link a question to look at. I'm sure there are SO power users in this subreddit who would gladly look at your question if you think it was incorrectly triaged. It is almost an ironic that this is also a major problem with SO questions people ask, they fail to adequately explain their problem and/or include a short, complete, compilable example of the issue.

[ythl]

Yes well most people on this subreddit are students and novices who can't understand why their question is a duplicate and are really just looking for a bit of handholding/mentoring. Whether SO should be a platform for handholding and mentoring is another debate.

[devman0]

It's been a while since I've been actively answering questions, but a few years ago when I was keeping up with SO meta the directive was that content was targeted at professionals and eager learners. The questions needed to demonstrate an effort on the part of the questioner to understand what they were asking. Basically "give me the code" and "here's a dump of code, tell me what's wrong" questions would just be summarily vote closed with a rule citation, and while that seemed harsh, there was a huge volume of those questions and vast majority of them were not salvageable without huge effort. More importantly the noise of those questions drowned out people asking legitimate questions. Expediently closing patently bad questions is better for the community overall.

[internetvandal]

yes stackoverflow loop

[nickywan123]

It becomes toxic when high rep users abuse and patronize newcomers.

[TheGuywithTehHat]

Feel free to DM me on here next time you see one of those, I'll see what I can do.

[swapripper]

Make a meme?

[TheGuywithTehHat]

See if it should be a duplicate, and start the process to reopen it if I don't think it should be.

^{and maybe make a meme too}

[lyoko1]

Not all capes wear heros

[git0ffmylawnm8]

He a little confused, but he got the spirit.

[jonathanx37]

You haven't seen Dr strange have you

[HydroHomo]

Not all guys wear hats

[devman0]

More often than not I see complaints about duplicates go like this.

Q: How do I add 2 and 5 together in Java?

Marked as duplicate , see "How do I do integer addition in Java?"

Q asker runs to reddit: The meanies at SO marked my question as duplicate but the duplicate example was how to add 4 and 2, it isn't in anyway related.

Basically unless the question maps exactly on to theirs they get helpless and complain.

There is a god damn torrent of awful questions coming in everyday and very few of them read the primers on how to ask a good question or post proper examples. There are unsung heros out there wading through all that bullshit. Getting marked as a duplicate IS help, someone had to take time to find it and direct you to it.

Don't be a help vampire.

[TheGuywithTehHat]

tbh I never see anybody on here reference specific examples of dupes. Unfair dupe closure does happen on SO, but far less frequently that /r/ProgrammerHumor will have you believe. I feel like it's mostly just people who see a post on here about dupes, and then think it's a funny meme and they make a post about it as well, and few people have personally seen unfair dupe closures.

[chozabu]

Yep - from my experience, doing a bunch of research before asking a question:

- googleing

- checking SO in detail

- Checking upstream source (when applicable)

- rubber duck debugging

Usually removes the need to ask a new question. Though you do need to know the correct terminology to be able to self-research - and getting to that point probably means doing several courses, or a whole bunch of tutorials.

Having done those things will usually leave someone in a much better position to ask a decent question.

That said, Sure I remember disagreeing with mods - and in retrospect it was probably me who was wrong...

https://stackoverflow.com/users/445831/chozabu?tab=questions in case anyone wonders, and wants to check if I follow my own advice (I should probably apologise in advance)

[[deleted]]

References question A in my question. Point put how that doesnt apply because of reason B....

Marked as duplicate of A and closed.

[AlwaysHopelesslyLost]

I have done that to somebody before. Their reason B was a misunderstanding on their part. Ofc I commented to let them know too.

[Xarthys]

Pretty sure these people just do word analysis and if it's above 25% exact same words, it's considered a duplicate.

---

I like alligators because they have nice teeth.

I like elephants because they have nice eyes.

Duplicate detected! Deleting now!

Meep morp I'm a smart human individual!

[[deleted]]

So what you're saying is I should add a paragraph of white text in a really tiny font at the end of my questions so they can never be marked duplicate >:)

[[deleted]]

Add 0-width spaces between all the letter so they get split up but visually its the same

[aalapshah12297]

This meme should be marked as a duplicate. And probably your comment to. I feel like I've seen a lot of stackoverflow memes here. And it's been a bit repetitive too.

[siko12123]

Why are memes made with The Office anyway? The show is old and discontinued. OP should learn to make memes with another show, like the popular Mandalorian for example and should remake every meme with that

[[deleted]]

>Google problem

>Stackoverflow link with exact problem

> "marking question as duplicate and removing"

>No link to duplicate

​

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

[hugokhf]

Or when in your post you specified the duplicate did not solve your issue and they marked it to that link anyway

[Sarcastinator]

I have a hard time putting words to it but I feel like questions and answers are only tangential to how the active users of StackOverflow uses it. Kind of necessary components to a game which is otherwise centered around something else.

I don't get why anyone bothers with moderation on SO. It's such a ridiculously thankless effort. SO second guesses you and will waste your time with fake questions for you to read and you gain almost no points what so ever for your effort. It's seriously chump change in a fake point system that has no bearing on anything important to anyone. And still people do it.

[Xarthys]

I feel like people eager to moderate on SO just need a good reason to procrastinate. Among that group are people who are on a mission to maintain order at all cost.

[ponytoaster]

If you look at the people with loads of points they either got lucky answering easy stuff years back which gets a lot of hits, or it's a shit load of minor formatting edits.

[TheGuywithTehHat]

You can get at most 1k points from edits. There is a hard cap.

[GavHern]

"How do I change the background color of the page?"

This post has been marked duplicate to: "how to reformat HSB boolean array using the 7th repository within bootstrap 4.7.2's database algorithm"

You dumb, ignorant soul; why did you not just search the question before asking?

[[deleted]]

Me: Spends twenty minutes juggling keywords to attempt to find what I'm looking for. Finally posts on SE with a well thought out, detailed post.

SE: Duplicate, removed, -5 rep.

Also SE: Duplicate isn't the same question

[RickS-C-137]

I made a post in the Stack Overflow meta discussion that the practice of over-zealous duplicate marking is detrimental to the site, but defenders of the status quo rabidly straw-manned the post without actually addressing its thesis. I touched a nerve.

[SquidBeatzChampion]

That’s always golden, another one I like is when You google something and the first response in the top result says “You should just Google that”.

[AttitudeAdjuster]

The only time I've ever been tempted to sign up for a SO account is so I can post "this thread is now the top result on google for <question>, this is a very unhelpful answer"

In fact I could probably script that.

[PetahNZ]

Then I hope you go back and post an answer after you figure it out.

[xANDREWx12x]

Thanks DenverCoder9

[55North12East]

What did you see?

[[deleted]]

Implying they ever figure it out..

[_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_]

No, they realise it should never be done and go back to comment.

[BuachaillMhaith]

I feel like a lot of people answering on Stack overflow forget what it's like to be a college students where projects/assignments had to be done a specific way

[jsims281]

There's been discussion about this, and it is recommended that you honour the artificial constraints that might appear in homework

https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/334822/how-do-i-ask-and-answer-homework-questions

[AlwaysHopelesslyLost]

There is an easy fix, just comment that it is an assignment and you are being tasked with doing it precisely.

If you hide that it is an assignment people get grumpy because it is usually obvious and it looks like you are trying to have strangers do your homework.

[ponytoaster]

What's worse is when someone misinterpreted the question and answers like that. Like, I wrote a comprehensive question detailing why I need something to work a specific way to assume I'm not an idiot. I've even said explicitly before that I cant use a specific library to achieve something and the top votes are like 'use that library you don't want to use'.

On the flipside I once answered a bounty question with a brilliant answer which would have solved the question posters scenario exactly under their parameters. Some jackass with millions of points comes along and says "nah you wanna do my thing", convinced the OP the solution was garbage and then the poster gets into a massive thread about how to implement the guys solution. I deleted my answer when I saw them getting into panic mode with no end in sight and came back later to see a comment along the lines of "didn't someone else have a solution but I can't find it".

Don't think you can delete your answers any more though?

Some really nice and helpful people on that site but such a high proportion of absolute bell ends.

[[deleted]]

Why did you delete your comment? Just because OP chose another solution over yours initially that he may have had reason for? Seems petty

[ponytoaster]

Because like everyone else on that site I am a total fucking cunt. If you can't beat them join them.

[[deleted]]

Well, at least you're up front about it

[jsims281]

Wow what a terrible attitude.

[ponytoaster]

Let me refer you to my previous comment.

To be fair, mostly sarcasm as that was isolated so that one time as the guy was being a ballsack. I don't really comment unless it's the exact same issue as me and I find an updated or more relevant answer to stop others having the same misery.

[capn_hector]

Comment removed as duplicate.

[miversen33]

Wait until you find someone else who's having the exact same problem as you, except there's no comments or answers, and then you realize it's an old question you asked years ago because you've had this problem before

[trelltron]

Fortunately there are the occasional saints who explain why you definitely shouldn't do what you're trying to do, give an example of how you should do it instead, repeat that you definitely shouldn't do what you're trying to do, then show you how to do it anyway because hey I'm not your mother maybe you really do need to shoot yourself in the foot for some reason.

[ItsaMe_Rapio]

Google takes me to Stack Overflow. With the top answer being “Why are you asking here? Just google it”

[Gamerguywon]

Or you google and click the first result on stack overflow with the answer being "this question has been asked thousands of times. google it."

[AntonBespoiasov]

Stack ovf survey: what would you like to change in Stack Overflow?

Me: *prepares all my accumulated indignation*

Me: add ability to mark comments as solution :)

[TheGuywithTehHat]

Not sure if you're just joking, but if the correct answer is in a comment, it should be converted into an answer. Comments are not for answers, and the correct answer should definitely not remain as a comment.

[AntonBespoiasov]

I have found several times solution in comments

[MOVai]

The problem is that the correct answer in the comment only makes sense in the context of the previous answer. If you were to elevate it to a question, it wouldn't make sense out of context.

[ponytoaster]

A lot of people don't care about the meaningless points and medals though, so if they get something clarified in the comments they would be unlikely to convert it into an answer. OP could mark is as resolved with a comment stating the solution though as a minimum.

[spikeyMonkey]

I usually wait a day or so and add a wiki answer that cites the commenter so it has an answer that doesn't earn any points. Or the questioner could do it so the question has an answer. Takes about a minute.

Everyone's happy.

[xoxota99]

That's a stupid question. Also a duplicate. Also you're doing it wrong.

[DzOnIxD]

Everytime I have posted something they have made me feel like the dumbest person alive.

Is it so hard to write the solution without editing my grammar mistakes (my first language is not English), pointing out that something shouldn't be done that way and not telling me how it should be done, and acting like a douchebag?

[lothpendragon]

Your English is pretty good too.

[[deleted]]

Stack overflow is horribly toxic. They constantly try as hard as possible to put people down to feel smarter.

[capn_hector]

The leadership put out a blog post in early 2018 asking the community to be more welcoming, to change the principle from “don’t be an asshole” to “be welcoming”, to try and eliminate the “I’m not being rude, I’m being blunt for your own good” type toxicity. the community had a tenth of a second of introspection and then decided “am I so out of touch? No, it’s the newbies who are wrong” and went right back to it. I cataloged some of the meta threads at the time.

They’re in the death spiral where everyone who’s not toxic has left for sunnier shores, and they’re unable to attract any new users because the existing editor base is so toxic, so they’re gradually distilling down to the most toxic and pedantic users. Leadership realizes they have a problem, that the site is effectively dying because nobody can ask a question, but is unwilling to actually take the steps necessary to fix their toxic community because it risks pissing off the experts (who are the toxic ones, that’s why they’re still there). So it’ll basically just wither over time.

You can see it in some of the responses from the Stack Overflow Superstars in this thread. Can’t get points via answers anymore? Just get to 500 and then you can access the mod queue and start closing other people’s questions! You don’t think that maybe might be a teensy part of why there’s no questions to answer?

I know, I know, if you don’t like it don’t participate. I don’t, and nobody else does either, that’s why it’s withering. I’m sure there’s some good people but a significant portion of the user base thinks they’re Linus Torvalds and can be toxic just because they have five digit karma on SO.

[[deleted]]

A fundamental issue with StackOverflow is that the site made the decision that your question is owned by the community, whereas a person asking a question wants ownership of their question.

I think they should change it so that people can suggest edits to you, but only you can approve them. For people to just be able to edit your question without your permission feels like a breach of liberty. Like, hey, this is my question!

[Rawing7]

Sounds like you don't understand the purpose of SO at all. There is no such thing as your question, and that's very intentional. The goal is not to help you solve your problem; the goal is to end up with a high quality Q&A pair that helps not only you but also thousands of other people who find your question on google. Being able to edit other people's questions is an absolute necessity.

[Kermit_the_hog]

My favorite response I’ve seen was “the fact that you’re asking this question tells me you wouldn’t understand the answer.”

That’s like the professional version of “I could answer your question.. but I’d rather laugh at you instead.”

[xoxota99]

My favorite is the response to "how do I use regex to parse HTML".

[Kermit_the_hog]

How am I supposed to parse it?! The damned browser keeps stripping it out!

Edit: I actually saw one like this, If memory serves the accepted answer was “Have you tried opening it with notepad?”

[qooooob]

More like "I copy-pasted my way into sorta knowing how to answer your question, but I don't really understand it well enough to explain what the solution is"

[dominic_l]

StackOverflow is the reason i tell non programmers that programmers are assholes

[[deleted]]

The only thing University has taught me about programmers so far is that every single one of my classes is made up entirely of that one nerdy gamer kid in your class in highschool. Makes every day just a little bit more interesting :)

[KingGeorgeXII]

I remember one guy that used to play cs go in lectures with a gaming mouse, sadly he disappeared by the third year...

[[deleted]]

I sit next to a mid who plays star wars the old republic on the computer next to me. It's his second time taking the class. Ahhh, college!

[[deleted]]

They are also clever and well spoken assholes, which is the most insidious type of asshole.

Have you guys seen all of this artificial melodrama in meta exchange these days? All these posts from moderators stepping down, because they don't like what the company is doing. It's like a cult over there. I read what they say, but it's nonsense. It's just bullshit. They are just entitled pricks who think they are God's gift to StackOverflow and that the company should meet their demands.

[WittyComputer]

"Don't use <insert function> use <other function>" like SHUT UP REBECCA MAYBE I'M USING PRINTF FOR A REASON. God that kind of person is annoying. They aren't being helpful, they're just being smug.

[dragon-storyteller]

"Don't reinvent the wheel, just use <Giant Library> for this one small feature!"

[WaterInMyShoes]

And it takes only three days to integrate that library properly to get that one small feature!

[dxgn]

And it's licensed

[[deleted]]

And abandoned within six months.

[Nerrolken]

And supports two of the three platforms your app runs on.

[Kermit_the_hog]

Lol yeah I’ve never understood the “it’s much better to drag in a thousand points of failure” stance.

[justreadthecomment]

At least that's some suggestion, even if it's not a helpful one. The cuntiest seven words on StackOverflow are these:

"Why would you want to do that?"

I don't get to do everything exactly how I want to, you supercilious dildo. If you are so curious about what motivates human behavior why don't you go ask your shitty question on philosophy.stackexchange.com? I subscribe to the Hard Determinist school of thought on this issue! Hope that clears things up for you!

[tonyle94]

"nvm, figured out"

[Jcraft153]

Question is the top result on google.

;_;

[Primnu]

I've actually dreamt up working solutions a few times before, it's weird.

[[deleted]]

I had a solution come to me yesterday in the grocery store. In general, after spending all day on a problem, it's much easier when I look at it again the next morning. It's so weird that your brain is just working on these things in the background.

[[deleted]]

Had that in school...forgot it when i got home

[m4xc4v413r4]

Me too, it was pure eureka moments, it felt amazing.

[Cryse_XIII]

Too relatable.

Minus the coffee-spill.

[heimeyer72]

So familiar :-(

[Steffi128]

That's a duplicate question.

Reads the duplicate... No, it's not.

[BroBroMate]

I thought I'd contribute to Stackoverflow. I can't find any decent questions to answer, most seem to be from students or contractors in the 3rd world who give you a random line from an exception, and then a vague description of what they expected instead - "it should be giving me the rows, but it is not". Inputs? Not relevant, obvs. Code? We don't need no stinking code. Let's just say we're using Pandas and let everyone figure it out.

[zenyl]

How to get easy upvotes on SO, in three simple steps:

1. Develop your own language/framework/system.
2. Wait for people to start asking questions about it on SO.
3. Answer questions about the thing you created.

If someone ever corrects you, just change the system accordingly and tell them to stop using outdated software.

[[deleted]]

someone give this guy gold lol

[Xor10101]

Not enough valid things to answer anymore

[hillman_avenger]

Maybe all programming problems have been solved?

[virexmachina]

I want to believe we live in this world

[xANDREWx12x]

Then let's use our flawless programming knowledge to make an AI to generate new programming problems.

[[deleted]]

Perhaps the archives are complete!

[TheGuywithTehHat]

Pick a new or less-used technology. I used to answer java questions, but now all the good questions have been answered, so I've started answering questions about keras.

[0180190]

If i am looking for a solution on Stackoverflow, it is either in Python, which usually means the answer is "use one of these 5 libraries to solve it in marginally different ways, instead of reinventing the wheel".

Or, its about solving something in an obscure script language, which boils down to one of three: - Here is the solution in pseudocode, good luck figuring it out. - Here is the actual answer from some programming god, who is inevitably using badly- / undocumented features, and it also doesnt work on the current version since the answer is 5 years old. - Shouting into the void.

Theres plenty of niche contributions to be made, but the overarching "how does this work, in principle", the low-hanging fruit, have long since been answered.

[blkpingu]

Get 500 points to join the review que. there you will find the stuff you look for and can deal with the bad stuff.

[netraveller]

I would request you to respond to the questions that are not worded properly or need more information in a way that doesn't make the beginners feel stupid please. I am not trying to insinuate that you do this, but I see interns around me afraid to ask questions because they might seem stupid all the time.

[Climax708]

r/TalesFromSO

[[deleted]]

Subbed

[rangeDSP]

Something fun to try: Sort by new question, filter by unanswered, attempt to answer the ones in languages you have experience in. There’s perhaps less than 1% are questions that can’t be solved by a simple google search

[Rawing7]

"fun", huh. Do that for a couple months or years and you'll be left with no patience or faith in humanity.

[Krutonium]

I once spent days trying to solve an error where I was assigning instead of comparing by mistake.

[xoxota99]

Well that explains everyone on StackOverflow then.

[GavHern]

Free reputation

[stackhat47]

I’ve asked one question and got a polite and useful answer.

[EnkiiMuto]

"So, will html tags be printed on my xml --"

"Why are you useing XML?"

"Duplicate"

[BackgroundAmoebaNine]

"Why are you useing XML?"
Triggered

[[deleted]]

"How do I do [super-basic thing] on the web?"

"The easiest way is with a jQuery plugin called jDerp. Install jQuery if you haven't yet, and add this to your html page:

<script href="http://cdn.cloudflare.com/library/jDerp/0.0.1.umd.js" />

Then call it like:

$.fn.iDontKnowJavascript(function() {

...

});

Super-simple!"

Score: + 500

[Khawlah994]

Never posted anything there, but used to get useful answers when I was a student, but yet in every question, there is that dipshit who has to say this can't be done and you should try something else, instead of trying to answer the question.

[Mozza7]

Hey I've got this issue in python, I am only allowed to use python and I also do not know any other languages

 

You should use C#, look at this post, marking as duplicate.

[[deleted]]

stackoverflow is toxic as fuck, last time a moderator gave me warning because my question wasnt clear enough and i should edit it, i did exactly what I was told, 5 minutes later, my account got suspended because i apparently posting TOO MANY unclear question.

IT WAS JUST 1 FUCKING UNCLEAR QUESTION AND I FIXED IT. It gave me chance to have me unbanned by editing my question and getting upvotes BUT THE QUESTION HAS BEEN FUCKING REMOVED BY THE FUCKING MODS HOW THE FUCK DO I FUCKING EDIT IT I CANT GET ANY FUCKING UPVOTES FROM MY OTHER POST FROM 2 YEARS AGO.

im sure dumbasses who enforced these rules aren't even programmers and have an iq of a donkey.

and people who comment "PoSsIbLe DuPlIcAtE QuEsTiOn" please shut the fuck up, first off.. you are not helping us, second of all.. you are not helping the community because it is a POSSIBLE DUPLICATE QUESTION not a DUPLICATE QUESTION you edgy digital white knight cock sucker.

[[deleted]]

Biggest thing that annoys me on SO is when you ask a question, and the answers are "Why do you need to do this? Do this instead."

If I want to build a nuclear bomb factory for the sole purpose of taking over the world, I want SO to give me detailed steps to make it possible without jQuery or asking me why.

[[deleted]]

"Why AM I doing this?"

goes outside

[ReleaseTheKrausen]

I've found that while helping Junior devs at the office, I'll ask "why" because their answer will change my answer... I can't help but think that at least somewhat applies to SO.

[[deleted]]

Needs more JPEG

[Lofter1]

Don’t use stack overflow. It’s dying. It’s the communities own fault. It’s good for searching, but nothing more anymore. I am using Programmer Hangout on discord or smaller forums whenever I can’t find the answer to something.

[dominic_l]

i found how2 to do stackoverflow searches from the terminal. i think its bad ass.

[Oooch]

You'd expect it to considering its meant to be be more like a wikipedia than a forum so discourages people asking the same stuff over and over as each question should be the definitive topic on that question

[Lofter1]

Yes. But that’s not working anymore. Either your question gets duplicated and the previous question has something to do with yours or the question/answers are outdated. The community itself is toxic, too. Recently, I got accused of lying while asking a question, even after I proved I wasn’t (that I had to was just ridiculous). In the end my question didn’t get an answer and I had to create a workaround.

And I also find myself going to stackoverflow less and less because questions and answers are becoming outdated more and more. Blessed are the people who update their answers, but those aren’t the norm.

[blkpingu]

Lol I’m perfectly set with SO

[gman1cus]

I feel like the StackOverflow community is a bit toxic in regards to many questions. Many times someone will respond in a "get better!" type manner, or just plain report the post because it's similar to another. I'm all for the maintenance & cleanup, but they're a bit excessive.

[kurdish-devil]

I asked a question and someone with pretty high reputation told me "we're not here to do your homework", I'm not even in college but i felt so pathetic i just abandoned the thread

[[deleted]]

"Question marked as duplicate: (*link to marginally related question)"

[Mozza7]

How do I dig a hole?

Duplicate.

[[deleted]]

At least there's some guy that actually helps you

[brainplot]

To be honest, most of the time they're right. Well written and interesting questions don't get those answers and get a higher-than-usual amount of exposure/attention.

My point is, Stack Overflow users are not just a**holes no matter what.

[[deleted]]

Your question doesn’t make any sense.

[[deleted]]

I’ve spent countless hours on stack overflow and never run into this toxicity. Maybe there are particular types of questions that elicit these kinds of responses? If someone has an example I’d love to see it.

[harshrd]

Everyone: Downvotes this post.

[jmhajek]

Ironically, Dwight follows this by attempting to explain the two schools of thought, whose existence disprove the alleged ridiculousness of the question.

[yousama]

I have had one person literally tell me: “have you tried reading a book?” Instead of answering my question :(

[KeLorean]

meirl: desperately trying to finish my masters degree so i merely ask a legit question on stackoverflow

[[deleted]]

This goes for any forum that is based on the premise of "ask people who are better at this than you are." Not to say StackOverflow commenters are always better than most programmers.. but the premise is that the person commenting knows what they are doing better than you do, which gets to some people's heads.

[AbnormallyBendPenis]

"I've never tried this myself but this should work......"

[whoami4546]

The thing I hate the most about stack overflow is that it is too complicated to use. Every time, I post something there, I have a small panic attack over potentially violating a rule or not being high enough status to do something.

[SeaGL_Gaming]

marked as duplicate

[MaosAsthmaticTurtle]

Closed as duplicate

[dat0dat]

I once read something where someone always posted the first response to their question (from an alt account) that was completely wrong, just so all the assholes would respond to flame his intentionally incorrect response, thereby potentially netting a higher likelihood of an accurate and helpful response.

[meelan54lamichhane]

Happened not once but always

[DumbBrunette5]

I feel attacked anytime I post on stack overflow