To me that's the most critical point. For better or worse, most of what I see on SO is a determined effort to ensure that the site provides valuable answers for developers. It's a valuable resource because of the standards it enforces.
The guidelines enforced on the site seem reasonable. It's the tone of the responses that often go out of line. There are reasons, such as frustration with lazy, low-quality questions, but sarcastic, derisive comments are never appropriate. It's a balance between caring so much that one tries to preserve the quality of the content and caring so much that one gets frustrated and starts lashing out. When the latter happens it's time to step away and take a deep breath. It's just a website and someone else can answer the questions, or not.
For what it's worth, a decent amount of effort goes into helping people get answers. If the question is unclear, I explain in a comment why it's unclear. Sometimes I'll edit the question.* Before someone asks their first question they're provided with a wealth of suggestions to improve its quality as well as answers that may match the question.
To summarize, I think what Stack Overflow does is working. People just need to be nicer. (Maybe there's something more going on to which I'm oblivious, maybe in areas of the site I don't use.)
*Far too often the title of the question has nothing to do with the question. It's like I'm trying to bake a cake, I get in the car to buy some flour, and the car won't start. So I ask a question titled, "Can't bake cake please help!"
To me that's the most critical point. For better or worse, most of what I see on SO is a determined effort to ensure that the site provides valuable answers for developers. It's a valuable resource because of the standards it enforces.
The guidelines enforced on the site seem reasonable. It's the tone of the responses that often go out of line. There are reasons, such as frustration with lazy, low-quality questions, but sarcastic, derisive comments are never appropriate. It's a balance between caring so much that one tries to preserve the quality of the content and caring so much that one gets frustrated and starts lashing out. When the latter happens it's time to step away and take a deep breath. It's just a website and someone else can answer the questions, or not.
For what it's worth, a decent amount of effort goes into helping people get answers. If the question is unclear, I explain in a comment why it's unclear. Sometimes I'll edit the question.* Before someone asks their first question they're provided with a wealth of suggestions to improve its quality as well as answers that may match the question.
To summarize, I think what Stack Overflow does is working. People just need to be nicer. (Maybe there's something more going on to which I'm oblivious, maybe in areas of the site I don't use.)
*Far too often the title of the question has nothing to do with the question. It's like I'm trying to bake a cake, I get in the car to buy some flour, and the car won't start. So I ask a question titled, "Can't bake cake please help!"
Lol @ the title. Reminds me of the day someone asked a question titled "How to give free coupon code in Laravel" 😁😁