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I too can't say enough about it. Perhaps it's most appealing to people with lower level questions (like mine) that can be answered in 2 paragraphs?
It really helps to update a question to clarify if answers seem inadequate. Because of the volume of answers, there's a tendency to post the shortest quickest answer. Otherwise you end up on the third page, unread and forgotten.
Since it's not really a discussion forum, you have to learn to work with the question-answer format to be able to hash answers out and get real insight out of them.
SO still feels a little off for me, partly because it's large and impersonal. The answers don't speak to each other (for good reason) so the whole thread feels disconnected, and doesn't seem to move forward too much.
It's cool, but I couldn't get into it - and I usually get into all of these sorts of sites. Why? People seem to answer questions almost instantaneously and as a new user I can't do anything to flagrantly incorrect answers. As a new user, I am next to powerless on there - at least on HN the only real "power" held back is downvoting. So I'm just a reader of SO and not a contributor - which is a shame really.
Ok I can't be the only one that doesn't find answers at SO. The question that brandnewlow submitted was relatively simple and thus you found a quick answer. Try asking a challenging question and you are just as likely to find an old blog post with an answer as a StackOverflow answer. Now, I think SO has it's place. For instance when you are picking up a new language that is used in the industry. But I've rarely found…
There are questions that are challenging by nature (objectively hard problems) and those that are challenging to me, mostly because of my lack of experience in a particular domain, but are no-brainers for an expert (or even someone who spent an hour RTFM-ing). For the latter ones, SO works like magic.
It's cool, but I couldn't get into it - and I usually get into all of these sorts of sites. Why? People seem to answer questions almost instantaneously and as a new user I can't do anything to flagrantly incorrect answers. As a new user, I am next to powerless on there - at least on HN the only real "power" held back is downvoting. So I'm just a reader of SO and not a contributor - which is a shame really.
It's cool, but I couldn't get into it - and I usually get into all of these sorts of sites. Why? People seem to answer questions almost instantaneously and as a new user I can't do anything to flagrantly incorrect answers. As a new user, I am next to powerless on there - at least on HN the only real "power" held back is downvoting. So I'm just a reader of SO and not a contributor - which is a shame really.
One method to fight "the fastest gun" problem, is to cherrypick good questions, and actually write well-written, detailed essays, along with samples. Although more time consuming, these answers usually float to the top in rather short time frames -adding more quality.
Unless the question is on a topic I love, that makes it into work. Is the point of SO to gain points to look clever in front of your peers or to actually help people? I'd rather just write a post blog to send someone to, since it stops other people editing it and I'd get all the credit and the traffic.
Perhaps I'll give it another try - maybe it's settled down a lot since launch when pretty much every question was getting a quick fire answer in minutes.
Ok I can't be the only one that doesn't find answers at SO. The question that brandnewlow submitted was relatively simple and thus you found a quick answer. Try asking a challenging question and you are just as likely to find an old blog post with an answer as a StackOverflow answer. Now, I think SO has it's place. For instance when you are picking up a new language that is used in the industry. But I've rarely found…
The people answering questions are mostly beginners themselves, with a bunch of semi-experienced folks who want to show off their knowledge, and a few genuinely smart people thrown in for good measure.
But you're right, you still won't be able to find help with anything genuinely tough there. The kind of people who could answer your question tend to also be the types who recognize the value of their time.