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StackOverflow is the Least Friendly Developer Community

William Torrez on October 30, 2023

I try participate in the community making: Answer Question Modifications Upvote My question are banned, my answer down-vote and my modification...
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jodoesgit profile image
Jo

Hey William,

I feel this. I think it's really hard for people to be sympathetic for the "little guy." It's a frustrating experience. Even on here, asked a question. Was assumed in the field. When outed as not (self-outing), got no replies. Prior to, got a fantastic reply. Life happens.

In general, it's an intimidating field for people seeking external assistance from others. You can look up things all you want, search through every archive and site. That's a-okay. Asking another human being for assistance can be an outright slight to others in their minds. Especially when the solution is so "simple" or "readily available" to them.

Catch is you don't know what you don't know and sometimes you're looking in the wrong place for the right answer.

But that's okay. And I know it's amplified by reaching out to folks in your non-native tongue. Cause I'd be damned if I had to write a question in Spanish, yesterday =P!

So you've got this. Hang in there brother. You'll be okay, just stick to the dev-way =D

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villelmo profile image
William Torrez • Edited

That's why one must be self-sufficient, self-taught, practice too much and overcome the fear.

Exist documentation, books and course.

We must focus!

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jodoesgit profile image
Jo

fo-cus...? Hahahaha! You know, I think you've just got to try. And if you can't get in, just try again - somewhere else. Not everyone is a jaded asshole or of a rugged old-school mindset. There's helpful folks everywhere. But there is a real bootstrap mentality to this damn field. I mean we even named a damn library off of it. Mrfphff!

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villelmo profile image
William Torrez

The mentality nowadays: positivism. The negativism have no place in this period apparently, the negativism seen like toxic.

The scammer take advantage of the positivism.
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jodoesgit profile image
Jo

Oh yeah, I talk about this all the time with my gal. I say to her - toxic positivity has taken over. It used to be legit for programmers to be anti-social butt-munches. Now you're expected to be a business major, as well as a comp-sci. You're expected to be an expert as soft-skills. In fact those hold far more weight than any sort of code-competency.

It's a difficult thing to express, because I generally was a next-level positive person. I believed anything and absolutely everything could be accomplished as long as you had your eye on it. But two things happened to me that bat that shit down. One, moving to the PNW, where friendships are whispers among the crowd. I am a social butterfly. I love to lick people's eyeballs for social juice. Just love'em! This is not the place for loud obnoxious things. This is the place for quiet introspective moments amongst the meth. Not my scene. Trying to edge into it was a nightmare, made worse by covid. Jesus help us all!

The second being by my physical health decaying. Won the lucky gal lottery, and have been working through a lot of pain. But when you're in pain regularly it's hard to put on a happy face and just "know" or "say" everything is going ot be alright. So yeah, that was a thing. The pairing of the two ate the rose-tinted glasses right off my damn face. Probably accelerated by aging =P! But I just don't have a place for that anymore.

I do hope for the best, but I am prepared for worst if it must happen. Being overtly optimistic in the face of reality seems like some combination of delusional and overtly-privileged. Yet I will say that it is true that when you keep your mindset out the crapper, better things tend to happen. Probably due to some combination of shared energies - being open to new possibilities. As I do think we openly influence one another, and the concept that the only person who can change someone is themselves - is bunk =P!

But maybe I'm just an egotistical butt-face? I don't know. I couldn't tell you. I saw a Kurosawa quote earlier searching for another by him - that said something like (wait this is the internet I can go get the quote):

“I can’t afford to hate anyone. I don’t have that kind of time.”

That, is some boss a-- s---! So in that sense, I guess we choose what influences us. But I don't think we're in total control =P! Regardless, keep going or burn your own path. Cause sometimes you strike diamonds, and if you keep eating sh*t somethings gotta change. And if it ain't you - find a way to make it work on your terms =P!

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mellen profile image
Matt Ellen-Tsivintzeli

People complain that SO users have standards and Yahoo Answers don't. 🤷‍♀️

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silentwarrior profile image
João Carlos • Edited

Started programming back in 2002, the community was VERY different, its was extremely welcoming and people would go out of their way to help you.

SO doesnt have standards, they have pedantic assholes who are too unsure of themselves to actually expose their questions when they don't understand something because it was posted in front of them in a form that they cant easily parse.

Knowing this form is all about having experience. Using this form is all about efficiency. Both of which newbies don't have.

Mentorship and guidance, which should have been paramount pre-reqs for any "status" of importance in the site are ignored, stumped upon and ultimately lost, and all you end up with is an unfriendly site that ultimately becomes un-useful.

SO has all the tools to make it an awesome resource (all the question re-writing and evolution tools for example and the ability to vote a best answer), its only problem is the long term users.

For one, spam should be a ban worthy offence (if warnings are ignored), this includes saying that a question is repeated/stupid/google it/etc, it does NOT add to the solution nor to the "path to solution", and therefore is just junk or spam. Downvoting shouldnt be allowed without a very good reason (if reason is bad, then loss of "karma"). With just these two, you'd root out 90% of SOs childish anti-newbies bullying.

Arrogant behavior is ultimately stupid behavior, it detracts from evolution and hurts the resources usefulness, which is its ONLY goal... to be useful.

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villelmo profile image
William Torrez

They want maintain the power.

The power corrupt, the absolute power corrupt absolutely.
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villelmo profile image
William Torrez • Edited

Are standards very high, supposedly is a community not the NASA.

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miketalbot profile image
Mike Talbot ⭐

I literally haven't looked at SO since I got a ChatGPT Plus license. The questions I have tend to be a side angle to already asked questions and GPT with Bing can find and collate multiple answers, just much easier.

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galaxytea1 profile image
Van Trong

Yep! I went through the same thing, it is not newbie friendly but elsewhere you will find answers. Sometimes there are nice people out there :D

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learncodeprofessor profile image
LearnCodeProfessor

agree.