Totally agree. Recently I asked a specific question on ServerFault, mentioning only that I run a SaaS monitoring service to give context. My question was closed, and I was accused spam. My question didn't include a link nor even the name of the business. I was offended but mostly just disappointed I couldn't find the help I needed.
StackOverflow modding itself out of existence
51–60 of 139 posts
Re: StackOverflow modding itself out of existence
#52I have a question on SO with nearly 80000 views and it has been closed and reopened at least six times.
Occasionally I check if it is still there.
I'm still convinced that the answers are interesting and useful. At the moment it's locked because of "historical significance" which makes me little proud even.
[1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/961942/what-is-the-worst-...
Re: StackOverflow modding itself out of existence
#53Outside of "how do I do X in JQuery again?", most times google directs me to StackOverflow it is to a question that got closed for some reason or other. I just can assume there are people for which it works better that way, but for me StackOverflow is useless in most cases where I'd hope it could help me. (EDIT: to add, the case mentioned by jrcii of "question is closed, but has a useful answer" also happens)
I usually get closed questions but the answers are often useful. I don't see why "closed" as such is problem. I could interpret it as "someone asked this question and it's been answer, we're moving on". Sometimes I find an answer on a random web forum - if the forum still permits answers, there will 20 or 100 pages to look through and the usually the only good things will be right after the question. The web at scale…
If the reason for closing the question is that it's already been answered then why not simply redirect to the answer? What is the point of having a dead-end?
Re: StackOverflow modding itself out of existence
#54After seeing a couple of posts like this, I'd like to provide an alternative perspective: I no longer actively answer questions on StackOverflow, because it is too hard to find worthwhile questions between all the noise. If someone specifically asks me to answer something, I will do it, but trying to find interesting questions on StackOverflow has become impossible due to the high influx of very low quality material.…
[deleted]
Re: StackOverflow modding itself out of existence
#55IMO, one thing that'd help would be requiring more close/delete votes for questions with lots of upvotes (and lots of heavily upvoted answers) like this one had. That said, the question - "Of course the Unsafe class is undocumented, but how can I use it in a real world scenario" - is pretty much the definition of "too broad". That said, I voted to undelete and reopen, which appears to have succeeded.
The trouble is, the question is completely backwards. "I have this solution, what problems can I solve with it?" is not something a human being generally asks. For every answer to this question, SO would be better served with a question asking "How does [Java internal or widely used library class] accomplish [thing that seems impossible in Java]" for which the answer is "It uses sun.misc.Unsafe in [this way]". Yes, t…
The question may have been better phrased as "What was the motivation for Unsafe? How is it intended to be used in real code?"
Re: StackOverflow modding itself out of existence
#56After seeing a couple of posts like this, I'd like to provide an alternative perspective: I no longer actively answer questions on StackOverflow, because it is too hard to find worthwhile questions between all the noise. If someone specifically asks me to answer something, I will do it, but trying to find interesting questions on StackOverflow has become impossible due to the high influx of very low quality material.…
[deleted]
Re: StackOverflow modding itself out of existence
#57After seeing a couple of posts like this, I'd like to provide an alternative perspective: I no longer actively answer questions on StackOverflow, because it is too hard to find worthwhile questions between all the noise. If someone specifically asks me to answer something, I will do it, but trying to find interesting questions on StackOverflow has become impossible due to the high influx of very low quality material.…
What is SO "noise" for you? E.g. would the question debated here be "noise", and why? (To me, it appears to be clear what information the person asking wants, and it isn't already answered elsewhere)
I don't think many people are arguing against moderation of questions in general.
Re: StackOverflow modding itself out of existence
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the contrary, as a C# developer I find tons of useful information there especially in advanced issues. And the discussion is also useful because they present solutions from different angles. Perhaps SO is better suited for those on the Desktop frontier rather than mobile or web development.
Weird. In the past two years or so, I've answered almost every one of my own answers after an additional day or two of work. Generally, when I think I've exhausted all leads on solving a problem I'll distill everything down into the smallest reproducible setup, do a detailed write-up, and list all what I've done. At best I might get a token up-vote from someone who pities me, but I never get any real attention. There…
> The winning strategy is
That's true, if you care about the points, badges, etc.
Re: StackOverflow modding itself out of existence
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
The trouble is, the question is completely backwards. "I have this solution, what problems can I solve with it?" is not something a human being generally asks. For every answer to this question, SO would be better served with a question asking "How does [Java internal or widely used library class] accomplish [thing that seems impossible in Java]" for which the answer is "It uses sun.misc.Unsafe in [this way]". Yes, t…
The question may have been better phrased as "What was the motivation for Unsafe? How is it intended to be used in real code?"
True, except that the 'right' answer to that question is 'it's not intended for use'.
Re: StackOverflow modding itself out of existence
#60IMO, one thing that'd help would be requiring more close/delete votes for questions with lots of upvotes (and lots of heavily upvoted answers) like this one had. That said, the question - "Of course the Unsafe class is undocumented, but how can I use it in a real world scenario" - is pretty much the definition of "too broad". That said, I voted to undelete and reopen, which appears to have succeeded.
The trouble is, the question is completely backwards. "I have this solution, what problems can I solve with it?" is not something a human being generally asks. For every answer to this question, SO would be better served with a question asking "How does [Java internal or widely used library class] accomplish [thing that seems impossible in Java]" for which the answer is "It uses sun.misc.Unsafe in [this way]". Yes, t…
What a horrible reason for deciding a question is bad. If you are simply exploring the java library and see something you don't understand it is perfectly valid to ask why the hell something exists.
Also you give no reasons as to why your preferred way of asking questions is superior other than stating as a fact that "SO would be better served" by it.