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Discussion on: Stack Overflow Isn’t Very Welcoming. It’s Time for That to Change.

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remotesynth profile image
Brian Rinaldi

This is a great post and pretty much everything they said is, in my opinion, on the mark. The key here will be if they truly follow this up with action.

Also, not to shift any blame from SO, but this is a problem on many developer-focused sites - some more so than others. For example, I still sometimes check Hacker News, but try to stay away from the comment sections. Other similar sites like EchoJS, Lobsters and the programming sub-Reddits, for example, can sometimes suffer from a similar level of hostility to varying degrees.

As a business, it is up to SO to fix its community and tools. As a community, it is up to us developers to stop accepting or even glorifying hostile attitudes, including things like RTFM and "read the code." We are not all obligated to help (it'd be nice but not realistic)...but the least we can do is not actively demean or exclude.