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Stack Overflow Isn’t Very Welcoming – It’s Time for That to Change

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Re: Stack Overflow Isn’t Very Welcoming – It’s Time for That to Change

#41

Post by StaticRedux »

I always thought Stack Overflow/Exchange should have a way to filter questions from users with less than a certain amount of karma and any of those questions/ansers/comments should not be able to be down voted or closed as duplicate or low quality or off-topic (the most annoying close reason).

Anybody that gets annoyed by those questions can opt to not see them and focus on higher quality. Anyone that wants to help newbies can. Those people can also be marked as unfriendly or hostile and won't be able to answer newbie questions if they get a certain number of reports.

This seems like it would solve two problems: oft-repeated low quality questions annoying users who want more complex help, and encouraging newbies bc they won't be afraid of retribution.

Re: Stack Overflow Isn’t Very Welcoming – It’s Time for That to Change

#42

Post by jakelazaroff »

metalliqaz wrote: post #19

From the linked article: > Too many people experience Stack Overflow as a hostile or elitist place, especially newer coders, women, people of color, and others in marginalized groups Breaking that down... "...people experience Stack Overflow as a hostile or elitist place..." This is obvious just by looking at the discussions that happen here, or, even by observing the SO-related memes that bubble up to the top of Red…

Are you saying that Stack Overflow is lying about the response from people who belong to marginalized groups? From the article:

> Many people, especially those in marginalized groups do feel less welcome. We know because they tell us.

It may not not stand out to you, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

Re: Stack Overflow Isn’t Very Welcoming – It’s Time for That to Change

#43

Post by bdcravens »

dionian wrote: post #12

has anyone here ever seen women or people of color treated poorly on SO? I haven't but maybe I'm not paying enough attention

I have not, but I think the point they're trying to make (but don't really agree with) is that of cultural norms, or more specifically, the cultural norm of overly-assertive, insensitive nerds (most of which who are younger white males), so that it's an unwelcoming environment to outsiders.

Re: Stack Overflow Isn’t Very Welcoming – It’s Time for That to Change

#44

Post by kennedycollins »

jaghaj662 wrote: post #9

>Too many people experience Stack Overflow¹ as a hostile or elitist place, especially newer coders, women, people of color, and others in marginalized groups. Women consider SO an elitist place? People of colour? What colour? Black? White? Marginalised groups? Which groups are those? Are people in SO hostile to Palestinians? Amputees? Such an accusation, where's the data to back it? I'm white and male and completely…

How about this paper from the IEEE for data:

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6542459/

From the paper: "although the computing field is generally unbalanced towards men, the community around this Q&A site [StackOverflow] seems to create and maintain higher barriers to entry for women."

Re: Stack Overflow Isn’t Very Welcoming – It’s Time for That to Change

#45

Post by warent »

I've experienced a form of hostility in StackOverflow just recently--as in a couple of days ago. On a whim, I visited the website and answered a couple questions, something I'd never done before. I realized it was actually a lot of fun, so I started rapidly answering the all JavaScript questions I could as they were asked.

Suddenly a "higher ranking" individual started leaving comments on my answers that I needed to stop answering certain questions, and only address "well asked" questions. After reading the guidelines, I noted that neither I or the asker had broken any rules, so I commented that I felt I was being treated unfairly, and I asked where I could discuss further since the comments on my questions seemed inappropriate.

Suddenly another, even higher scoring person, deleted all the comments and locked my answer, noting that the discussion had stopped being productive. After that, my answers were left alone with no more meta criticism.

In my limited experience, it's a bizarre community.

Re: Stack Overflow Isn’t Very Welcoming – It’s Time for That to Change

#46

Post by ythn »

wvenable wrote: post #29
jaghaj662 wrote: post #9

>Too many people experience Stack Overflow¹ as a hostile or elitist place, especially newer coders, women, people of color, and others in marginalized groups. Women consider SO an elitist place? People of colour? What colour? Black? White? Marginalised groups? Which groups are those? Are people in SO hostile to Palestinians? Amputees? Such an accusation, where's the data to back it? I'm white and male and completely…

I don't disagree with the article in general but I was surprised by the women and people of color comments -- how does anyone know someone's gender or race on SO? Of all the sites on the Internet, SO seems to be particularly well suited to the anonymity of posters -- even more so than HN because HN is more free form and conversational.

Maybe women and people of color just perceived SO as a more hostile place because they imagined the person on the other side of the keyboard as a white male (true or not) and took it as an attack on their gender/race, forgetting that they are anonymous.

Re: Stack Overflow Isn’t Very Welcoming – It’s Time for That to Change

#48

Post by weberc2 »

fidels wrote: post #38
metalliqaz wrote: post #19

From the linked article: > Too many people experience Stack Overflow as a hostile or elitist place, especially newer coders, women, people of color, and others in marginalized groups Breaking that down... "...people experience Stack Overflow as a hostile or elitist place..." This is obvious just by looking at the discussions that happen here, or, even by observing the SO-related memes that bubble up to the top of Red…

I don't think what they mean is that when a minority goes to SO and they get a condescending response it's because of their race/ethnicity/gender. What they mean is that, since minorities might have insecurities about their ability to code because there are not that many people who look like them in the industry, when they receive a condescending response their insecurities aggravate. Therefore, SO can be consider mo…

I like your explanation--I hadn't thought of it and it's less cynical/more charitable than the obvious alternative (virtue signaling). But wouldn't the same be true of anyone with heightened insecurities? Why highlight minorities?

Re: Stack Overflow Isn’t Very Welcoming – It’s Time for That to Change

#49

Post by amingilani »

protonimitate wrote: post #3

Glad to see an active approach is being taken. SO is a great resource and contains some of the best information on the web IRT programming. If there was only one thing I could change it would be this: If someone marks a question as duplicate, and closes, make them provide a link to the 'original' question and a brief summary as to why it is a duplicate. Closing something as duplicate and then forcing the user who sub…

Actually, if you browse up to the top, it tells you what question it's a duplicate of. But even I was thrown off a few days ago, when I couldn't find that link after a question I answered was marked as duplicate. It's just bad UX, I suppose.

Re: Stack Overflow Isn’t Very Welcoming – It’s Time for That to Change

#50

Post by amelius »

jowiar wrote: post #39
metalliqaz wrote: post #19

From the linked article: > Too many people experience Stack Overflow as a hostile or elitist place, especially newer coders, women, people of color, and others in marginalized groups Breaking that down... "...people experience Stack Overflow as a hostile or elitist place..." This is obvious just by looking at the discussions that happen here, or, even by observing the SO-related memes that bubble up to the top of Red…

> I don't post much because that's usually a waste of time That's the particular problem that they're trying to figure out, with a broader version of "waste of time". Either "asking a question is met with hostility", or "posting a response is met with hostility".

I sometimes like to contribute, but there are these hurdles, like you first have to build karma. So basically I just let it be.
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