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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

#161

Post by herogreen »

StaticRedux wrote: post #41

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 n…

Interesting idea, but what if not enough people are going to the "low quality corner" ? Also it would be nice to know the current percentage of questions closed because they were classified as duplicate because these would still have to be closed (unless you want the database to explode).

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

#162

Post by notatoad »

FussyZeus wrote: post #122
notatoad wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's significant though that both wikipedia and stack overflow, despite being ruled by petty assholes weilding the smallest amount of power in seemingly the stupidest way possible, have become two of the most valuable references in existence. Do toxic communities produce better content?

I would argue there are way too many variables in that question to present a strong argument either way. One thing I will say on it though is how much of our humanity are we ready to sacrifice on the altar of this mythical "meritocracy" that every online community, especially those built on or around code, seems to aim for? And how long until we're ready to confront the fact that a lot of these meritocracies strangel…

>One thing I will say on it though is how much of our humanity are we ready to sacrifice on the altar of this mythical "meritocracy" that every online community, especially those built on or around code, seems to aim for?

i don't mean to imply that we should preserve the toxic communities for the point of good content. but there seems to be a correlation here, and it's worth studying what positive effects the toxicity might create, otherwise it's going to be very difficult to re-create it without the toxicity and the sites that value the human creators over the content will always be at a natural disadvantage to the other sites.

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

#163

Post by ceejayoz »

homero wrote: post #10
ceejayoz wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm kinda baffled by this complaint. [edit: OP has completely changed their post.] I'd think most new SO users are looking for help or a solution to a problem. Why was not being able to vote yet so upsetting you abandoned the resource?

I tried being part of the community

Please don't edit your posts to say something totally different without at least a note. It makes the people who reply to you look like lunatics.

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

#164

Post by icc97 »

CM30 wrote: post #59

> Too many people experience Stack Overflow¹ as a hostile or elitist place True. There's definitely an elitist undertone at Stack Overflow, and the voting system has a huge effect on that... > especially newer coders, women, people of color, and others in marginalized groups. But this isn't true. No one knows anything about a user on Stack Overflow unless they explicitly announce it, and generally my perception seems…

> > especially newer coders, women, people of color, and others in marginalized groups.

> But this isn't true. No one knows anything about a user on Stack Overflow unless they explicitly announce it,

They don't say it out in the open, they contact the SO admins directly or through surveys.

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

#165

Post by Ajedi32 »

pishpash wrote: post #120
TravelTechGuy wrote: post #116

It's funny reading this article after seeing one of my questions from 2011 edited today, to remove the word "Thanks!" from the bottom. I've been on SO since 2009. I can confirm the community is getting harsher, less patient, and more exact. HOWEVER, I can see the other side. I see tons of questions that are not fit to be on the site: one-liners, opinions, "help me with my homework", and utter spam. Not to mention peo…

Ratings already take care of curating. Why do you need assholes to curate?

Same reason why HN has both up/down votes, and actual moderators.

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

#166

Post by ldiracdelta »

grzm wrote: post #140
ldiracdelta wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sneering comments from neckbeards are worse than downvotes to me. Some days are just Monday and you're not on your game, but that doesn't stop the neckbeards from trying to light you on fire, despite the fact that you spent 30 minutes massaging the question or half a day agonizing about asking the question. You know the neckbeards are lurking in their basements.

> "Sneering comments from neckbeards" Condescension, like any other dismissal, can be rough and is definitely detrimental to communication. That said, I encourage you to be the change you want to see. Name calling as you've done here, and snark, as you've done elsewhere in this thread, similarly degrade conversation and communication.

I'm not directing this at anyone in particular and so I will use "bad", yet colorful, words for people behaving bad. No one is going to read these comments and think they are the neckbeards, but most people who have participated in Stack Overflow have interacted with a preening, sneering neckbeard and neckbeards are indeed a problem on Stack Overflow.

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

#167

Post by ajkjk »

gthtjtkt wrote: post #118
lakechfoma wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read the comment from mistersquid https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16935683 to understand the point

That comment doesn't contradict my point at all. All it says is "Someone who has been bullied may interpret future slights as more of the same bullying." That has absolutely nothing to do with race or gender, and I still think it's for more insulting to imply that people in specific demographics are more sensitive or insecure.

I think that the reason so many people find this implication palatable is that there are loads of examples of people saying, from experience, that it does in fact happen this way.

The idea is not that they're 'fundamentally' more sensitive or insecure; it's that they're _empirically_ more sensitive and insecure, due to the circumstances of reality.

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

#168

Post by icc97 »

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…

The only way to close something as a duplicate is to provide a link to the duplicate. Plus I think each close as duplicate adds a 'Possible duplicate of ' comment to the question.

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

#169

Post by johnchristopher »

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…

Slightly off-topic but I can't help picturing people on HN as anything different from what I look like. No black people, no women, no teenagers, no seniors, etc.

Everyone on HN is almost the same in my head.

I am not even sure adding a profile picture would change that.

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

#170

Post by stuartd »

TravelTechGuy wrote: post #116

It's funny reading this article after seeing one of my questions from 2011 edited today, to remove the word "Thanks!" from the bottom. I've been on SO since 2009. I can confirm the community is getting harsher, less patient, and more exact. HOWEVER, I can see the other side. I see tons of questions that are not fit to be on the site: one-liners, opinions, "help me with my homework", and utter spam. Not to mention peo…

> one of my questions from 2011 edited today, to remove the word "Thanks!" from the bottom.

A successful edit is a way to gain reputation, which is hard to get these days for new users.

I know it feels a bit odd when someone else edits your question: you could roll it back, but then again why should you be bothered? It's the same question, with one less word.

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