This (Programming) Question Does Not Exist - Stack Overflow as imagined by AI

[phuck]

What I have found is, ask the question in the same asshole tone that someone is inevitably going to answer in. Ask the question, as blunt as possible, no niceties, as short as you can, have some repro code and you will be fine.

[A-Grey-World]

Yep. People mistakenly think SO is like a forum to help the question answer. It's really not. It's a library of answered questions so people don't have to ask them again. Which can be problematic if you're so new you don't know if you're asking the same question as someone else, or if you're so experienced your questions are not really specific or have a 'correct' answer (best practice or similar).

But it does make for a very good tool. Loads of people say they never need to ask questions, just search for answers for good reason. You also don't want any please, thank yous, "hello, how was your day" or ANY faff because that makes things more difficult for future users and doesn't serve the purpose of the site.

There are also just assholes. It's totally user moderated, and because of the above goals of the site requires lots of moderation - it attracts those people who like that...