As a longtime contributor and moderator on SO this is, unfortunately, very true. The community has always been toxic, being a newbie on SO requires a really thick skin or being willing to withstand a lot of abuse to use the site (if you're asking new questions).
The fact that there's very no off topic also makes it nearly impossible to "build" a community out of the site as well, it's all too focused on just questions and answers and I feel no need to go back to talk to anyone because I've never met anyone at SO while I made many longtime friends in other forums.
It also saddens me that SO has killed all these smaller and more or less insular communities, i see very little movement on the old mailing lists and forums that are still up, all questions moved to SO in a way or another (even for non-English speaking communities) so I'm not sure if the site has been positive for the tech community in general.
I had so much coaching and help from people in the local and regional communities I was a part of when I was in college and later starting my career and now there's nothing like it around anymore because SO sucked all the oxygen around them. Not sure where i'd be if I was starting right now.
The fact that there's very no off topic also makes it nearly impossible to "build" a community out of the site as well, it's all too focused on just questions and answers and I feel no need to go back to talk to anyone because I've never met anyone at SO while I made many longtime friends in other forums.
It also saddens me that SO has killed all these smaller and more or less insular communities, i see very little movement on the old mailing lists and forums that are still up, all questions moved to SO in a way or another (even for non-English speaking communities) so I'm not sure if the site has been positive for the tech community in general.
I had so much coaching and help from people in the local and regional communities I was a part of when I was in college and later starting my career and now there's nothing like it around anymore because SO sucked all the oxygen around them. Not sure where i'd be if I was starting right now.