> I think most people dislike how hostile the main stack overflow site is to beginners, who despite being the ones who need the most help, are the most likely to get their question closed/ downvoted. It's unfortunately necessary to maintain the high quality of the site.
It's not just hostile to beginners. It's also quite hostile to experienced programmers (at least those subject to less than ideal design constraints), who are incorrectly treated like newbies and force-fed cookbook answers that fail to answer the actual question asked.
For example. Here's a paraphrase of some experiences I've had on Stack Overflow (obfuscated to preserve my anonymity):
> Me: I need to know about the implementation of this weird function in this weird proprietary language. I need to re-implement its output, which was (unwisely) directly exposed in our system's output and is depended on by our integrations. I know this sucks, but it's the problem I have to solve.
> StackOverflow: That's a bad design. You should use the XYZ function in Python instead.
> Me: You're not answering my question. I know it's a bad design, but I can't change it. The output is fixed, and I have no authority to force a change. If I can't re-implement the function, I'm suck using the weird language forever.
> StackOverflow: You should use XYZ function in Python. If you can't, talk to your architect and get budget allocated to rewrite all the downstream systems.
> Me: You're no help at all. Why did you even bother answering?
> Me (thinking to myself): Wait, I know: chasing after internet points and trying to feel high and mighty.
> StockOverflow: What if a newbie found this question? If I don't tell you to use XYZ function in Python, they might do something else instead! Like design and implement and entire less-than-ideal system!
It's not just hostile to beginners. It's also quite hostile to experienced programmers (at least those subject to less than ideal design constraints), who are incorrectly treated like newbies and force-fed cookbook answers that fail to answer the actual question asked.
For example. Here's a paraphrase of some experiences I've had on Stack Overflow (obfuscated to preserve my anonymity):
> Me: I need to know about the implementation of this weird function in this weird proprietary language. I need to re-implement its output, which was (unwisely) directly exposed in our system's output and is depended on by our integrations. I know this sucks, but it's the problem I have to solve.
> StackOverflow: That's a bad design. You should use the XYZ function in Python instead.
> Me: You're not answering my question. I know it's a bad design, but I can't change it. The output is fixed, and I have no authority to force a change. If I can't re-implement the function, I'm suck using the weird language forever.
> StackOverflow: You should use XYZ function in Python. If you can't, talk to your architect and get budget allocated to rewrite all the downstream systems.
> Me: You're no help at all. Why did you even bother answering?
> Me (thinking to myself): Wait, I know: chasing after internet points and trying to feel high and mighty.
> StockOverflow: What if a newbie found this question? If I don't tell you to use XYZ function in Python, they might do something else instead! Like design and implement and entire less-than-ideal system!
> Me (thinking to myself): Good grief.