I realized I shouldn't complain without giving it another try. So I did. And.. perhaps it's just because I'm primarily a Rubyist and UNIX-dweller (the site seems a lot stronger for those living in the Microsoft world) but there's some rather crufty code in there coming from high karma users. Not only that, but the majority of questions are getting these "quick fix" answers well within an hour of the question going up rather than measured, educational responses that really help.
It's "question & answer" versus "learning." SO is the former. But answers alone do not equate to solid learning. Everyone can read Wikipedia articles on medicine all day, but it can't compete with the wisdom a professor or doctor can give you.
The scoring doesn't help. Usenet was pretty cool in the day because anyone could submit an answer and bad answers would be questioned by people with experience (many forums are still like this, and Hacker News is very much like this despite the points). On Stack Overflow, even if you have enough points to comment, it seems like hardly anyone bothers and there's little "calling out" of sloppy answers.
I haven't regretted trying it though. It's a well designed site and there are some great Q&As. I suspect in certain disciplines it's very useful. But, for me, I've realized working on my books and other documentation will be time better spent than having to play a game for points answering questions against the clock on a social network when I'd rather just help and teach folks instead. So, I tried..!
It's "question & answer" versus "learning." SO is the former. But answers alone do not equate to solid learning. Everyone can read Wikipedia articles on medicine all day, but it can't compete with the wisdom a professor or doctor can give you.
The scoring doesn't help. Usenet was pretty cool in the day because anyone could submit an answer and bad answers would be questioned by people with experience (many forums are still like this, and Hacker News is very much like this despite the points). On Stack Overflow, even if you have enough points to comment, it seems like hardly anyone bothers and there's little "calling out" of sloppy answers.
I haven't regretted trying it though. It's a well designed site and there are some great Q&As. I suspect in certain disciplines it's very useful. But, for me, I've realized working on my books and other documentation will be time better spent than having to play a game for points answering questions against the clock on a social network when I'd rather just help and teach folks instead. So, I tried..!