- Those who were "burned" asking questions on SO and have a grudge against it now (mainly people just starting out in programming)
- "Lurkers" who mainly just drive by from Google links and don't ever ask questions
- Experienced programmers with accounts that mainly lurk, occasionally ask or answer a question, and never really have problems with the site
- Power users with crazy high rep who who are extremely pedantic and patrol their favorite communities too zealously and aggressively, and often unsympathetically
I like to think the vast majority of people are in categories 2 and 3 and are very satisfied with the quality and utility of SO.
The problem is that:
- category 1, while a minority, is extremely vocal about their displeasure with the site and so that gets a lot of attention
- category 4 types tend to exacerbate category 1 types
- category 4 though also does a very good job keeping the site clean, accurate, well-edited, etc.
Moderation is a thankless, tedious job, and the people most willing to do it might have other undesirable personality qualities unfortunately.
> Moderation is a thankless, tedious job, and the people most willing to do it might have other undesirable personality qualities unfortunately.
I'm sorry you feel this way. I donate my time to occasionally moderate on SO to help people learn and become better programmers. In my experience, the vast majority of mods quietly help like this asking nothing in return.
I could very well be wrong. I've never been a mod myself; maybe the bad ones just stand out. It's certainly noticeable on certain subreddits when the good mods are slowly displaced by power tripping bad mods.
- Those who were "burned" asking questions on SO and have a grudge against it now (mainly people just starting out in programming)
- "Lurkers" who mainly just drive by from Google links and don't ever ask questions
- Experienced programmers with accounts that mainly lurk, occasionally ask or answer a question, and never really have problems with the site
- Power users with crazy high rep who who are extremely pedantic and patrol their favorite communities too zealously and aggressively, and often unsympathetically
I like to think the vast majority of people are in categories 2 and 3 and are very satisfied with the quality and utility of SO.
The problem is that:
- category 1, while a minority, is extremely vocal about their displeasure with the site and so that gets a lot of attention
- category 4 types tend to exacerbate category 1 types
- category 4 though also does a very good job keeping the site clean, accurate, well-edited, etc.
Moderation is a thankless, tedious job, and the people most willing to do it might have other undesirable personality qualities unfortunately.