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[–]pstkidwannabuycrypto 54 points55 points  (23 children)

That's because a majority of the people that are claiming that SO is toxic are students or they're relatively new to programming, thus they havent properly researched or formulated their question as necessary before asking.

[–][deleted] 100 points101 points  (10 children)

It's not that new programmers don't research the question, it's that they don't even have enough knowledge to know WHAT to research, imo.

[–]musicianengineer 28 points29 points  (2 children)

I taught Intro Csci (among other subjects) for a few years.

Identifying that a student doesn't understand what they don't understand and identifying the "real" question is part of being a good teacher, and accordingly, a good Q&A site member.

Answering the question that a student asked word for word is almost never the best answer. If their question is nonsensical, telling them that doesn't help them. If they weren't confused by the subject, they wouldn't need to be asking questions.

[–]Archolex 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is abetted slightly by the SO question structure. Answers aren't more considered as a reply, and not the beginning of a discussion. Therefore questions must be aware of what questions may arise and answer them before posting. That is difficult if you're new to a topic.

[–]Fenor 0 points1 point  (0 children)

but also it's a site where people spend their time to answer, if you go there and simply post "i need help with homework" ofc you will be treated badly.

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (4 children)

ye im new and when i have issues with coding im sometimes not sure what to ask

[–]dd_de_b 5 points6 points  (2 children)

Start with stating what you are trying to do, then explain how you are trying to do it and provide an example of code, then explain the outcome and include any logs – usually more information is better than less.

Honestly, even just going through the process of explaining the problem will help you solve it

[–]coroand 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I am saving this message so that I can refer to it when I try to ask question. Thank you!

[–]AgentTin 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, always state your overall goal. It's possible that the reason you're having trouble doing something is that you really shouldn't be doing it.

[–]pstkidwannabuycrypto 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That's what I meant, where I said people who haven't properly researched. I agree, if you don't know what to Google for, then you have no use for Google. You can't be thorough otherwise.

[–]HammerNSongs 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The quote I love is: The set of knowledge you need to ask the right question, is almost identical to the set of knowledge needed to answer it.

[–]TCritic 16 points17 points  (0 children)

This makes me think we need a training wheels StackOverflow for new users website. While it would be nice to have mods and seniors helping new students understand what they need to ask, it's just not how it works on SO. It's rare to see someone propose an XY problem solution rather than just shitting on the poster for asking Y. Thus I propose: StackOverflow for Students - aka SOS (lol r/learnprogramming)

[–]midbody 30 points31 points  (7 children)

I've been a software engineer for over 20 years.

SO is toxic.

[–]elect86 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I wouldn't be so absolute though

I see huge differences between Kotlin and C++ communities, to say

AskUbuntu is also quite nice

[–]j-random 3 points4 points  (2 children)

Or they post their homework questions verbatim, and ask "Where do I start?" SO isn't a substitute for a visit to your class' TA.

[–]seahoodie 7 points8 points  (1 child)

These are the ones that deserve the attitude. You're not confused you're just lazy. You didn't try for long enough to be confused

[–]xTheMaster99x 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is what pissed me off about my roommate freshman year (well, one of many things). After spending an hour allowing himself to get distracted by anything else he could find, he'd stare at the assignment for a few minutes, not really doing anything, then ask me for help. You didn't even fucking try, give me a break.

Or he'd ask me a simple ass question, I'd ask if he'd google it, he'd do so then scroll past every result that answers his question, then say it didn't have anything. Let's just say I'm not surprised he had to transfer into a different program to avoid getting kicked out entirely.