Welcome to Software Development on Codidact!

Will you help us build our independent community of developers helping developers? We're small and trying to grow. We welcome questions about all aspects of software development, from design to code to QA and more. Got questions? Got answers? Got code you'd like someone to review? Please join us.

Review Suggested Edit

You can't approve or reject suggested edits because you haven't yet earned the Edit Posts ability.

~~This is long, I apologize, but I hope someone finds my treatise valuable*.~~
*(_and I hope you SE/SO diehards, if you are not willing to have open minds, down vote me to death... then get fed up and go back to SE/SO [where you belong, if you are not willing to open your mind to the possibilities]_).
~~ ~~
**StackExchange, while a great improvement is not the end all be all of QA... (and not just because they recently announced an agreement to giveaway all contributor content to Micro... errr OpenAI).**
The system they created was ground breaking but has some flaws.
It is NOT a perfect system.
My recommendation: _Follow the parts they did right, and learn from the rest_.
~~ ~~
~~**A few thoughts:**~~
~~_(definitely TL;DR if that's even used on the internet anymore lol)_~~
 1- SO/SE IS hostile to question contributors
 2- Their system lends itself to inbreeding
~~**Explanations:**~~
~~ 1- HOSTILITY ~~
The guarding of the specifics of how questions are asked... and rejecting/downvoting them if asked poorly, or if there is some belief that they are (or even if they are) duplicates makes for a generally hostile environment.
~~ _EXAMPLE_: ~~
Imagine, you are a new user, particularly one who is a non-native English speaker.
~~- You are not even sure how a question is meant to be asked in English. - You do your best to search and don't find anything~~
~~- You ask the question as best you can~~
~~- Within minutes you get downvoted and get a few messages telling you you did it wrong~~
~~- In fact you're told the question was a duplicate of a different question that doesn't seem to have answers for your question~~
~~- You now dumped a bunch of time into this very popular site yet you aren't much closer to getting help~~
ALTERNATE OPTION: Instead of criticizing the question as bad, LINK it to the one YOU think IS an answer. Then tell the OP you think the other question has answers for them, but if they don't find them there then please clarify...
LESSON: There really is no bad question... because a question is just a grouping of words that someone might type in a search engine... the closer the 'bad' question is to something someone else might type, the closer they both are to an answer to their 'bad' question.
(NOTE: bad answers on the other hand... technically bad answers)
~~RECOMMENDATIONS:~~
- Don't allow down voting on questions... a low upvote score is plenty enough from making people think it's the best way to word the question...
- Don't close questions... a question that is worded badly will have less answers... this is a self solving 'problem' in the area of popularity of a question and the subsequent answers
- DO link questions to similar or same questions... in this way it is very easy for someone with a similar or same, but differently worded, question to get their answers... ANSWERS are the treasure in these sites, questions are just a way to get to them... so if you have 50 similar questions pointing to the same gloriously worded answer, then people are just more likely to find the ANSWER they need.
~~ 2- INBREEDING ~~
IF I have a question on SO that is a really well thought out wording and has a lot of good answers, I'm going to see anything similar as a duplicate and want to shut that 'duplicate' down to get more people funneled to the 'best' version of the question.
This is a version of 'when you have a hammer all problems look like a nail'.
~~HOWEVER, if I'm asking through a search engine am I likely to ask a question in a very well worded question format?~~
~~In fact, who cares how I ask... If I have the right technical parts to the question to get me to an answer, that's all I need.~~
There is a darker side to inbreeding, which I suspect happens on SO and SE in general, but have no proof of.
But it's something I ask myself in all situations, because typically if there's nothing preventing it someone will do it.
SCENARIO: A user who has the privileges can shut down related questions and then can add those details to their original question... making for motivation to shut down not even duplicates but just similar questions.
But here's what that gets us:
 1- One persons perspective on the technical topic... their wording and inherent opinion ... this does NOT help those who wouldn't word the question that way or who have different inherent/underlying opinions
 2- Less variety of answers as well as questions for search engines to pick up...
~~GOOD LUCK! (and I'll help where I can... I may bring my few questions over from SO)~~

This is long, I apologize, but I hope someone finds my treatise valuable.[^diehards]
**StackExchange, while a great improvement is not the end all be all of QA... (and not just because they recently announced an agreement to giveaway all contributor content to Micro... errr OpenAI).**
The system they created was ground breaking but has some flaws.
It is NOT a perfect system.
My recommendation: _Follow the parts they did right, and learn from the rest_.
# Summary
1. SO/SE is hostile to question contributors
2. Their system lends itself to inbreeding
# Elaboration
## Hostility
The guarding of the specifics of how questions are asked... and rejecting/downvoting them if asked poorly, or if there is some belief that they are (or even if they are) duplicates makes for a generally hostile environment.
### Example
Imagine, you are a new user, particularly one who is a non-native English speaker.
- You are not even sure how a question is meant to be asked in English.
- You do your best to search and don't find anything.
- You ask the question as best you can.
- Within minutes, you get downvoted and get a few messages telling you you did it wrong.
- In fact, you're told the question was a duplicate of a different question that doesn't seem to have answers for your question.
- You now dumped a bunch of time into this very popular site, yet you aren't much closer to getting help.
#### Alternative
Instead of criticizing the question as bad, **link** it to the one *you* think *is* an answer. Then tell the OP you think the other question has answers for them, but if they don't find them there then please clarify...
#### Lesson
There really is no bad question... because a question is just a grouping of words that someone might type in a search engine... the closer the 'bad' question is to something someone else might type, the closer they both are to an answer to their 'bad' question.
(NOTE: bad answers on the other hand... technically bad answers)
#### Recommendations
- Don't allow down voting on questions... a low upvote score is plenty enough from making people think it's the best way to word the question...
- Don't close questions... a question that is worded badly will have less answers... this is a self solving 'problem' in the area of popularity of a question and the subsequent answers
- DO link questions to similar or same questions... in this way it is very easy for someone with a similar or same, but differently worded, question to get their answers... ANSWERS are the treasure in these sites, questions are just a way to get to them... so if you have 50 similar questions pointing to the same gloriously worded answer, then people are just more likely to find the ANSWER they need.
## Inbreeding
If I have a question on SO that is a really well thought out wording and has a lot of good answers, I'm going to see anything similar as a duplicate and want to shut that 'duplicate' down to get more people funneled to the 'best' version of the question.
This is a version of 'when you have a hammer all problems look like a nail'.
However, if I'm asking through a search engine, am I likely to ask a question in a very well worded question format?
In fact, who cares how I ask? If I have the right technical parts to the question to get me to an answer, that's all I need.
There is a darker side to inbreeding, which I suspect happens on SO and SE in general, but have no proof of.
But it's something I ask myself in all situations, because typically if there's nothing preventing it someone will do it.
### Scenario
A user who has the privileges can shut down related questions and then can add those details to their original question... making for motivation to shut down not even duplicates but just similar questions.
But here's what that gets us:
1. One persons perspective on the technical topic... their wording and inherent opinion ... this does NOT help those who wouldn't word the question that way or who have different inherent/underlying opinions
2. Less variety of answers as well as questions for search engines to pick up...
# Good Luck!
I'll help where I can... I may bring my few questions over from SO.
[^diehards]: And I hope you SE/SO diehards, if you are not willing to have open minds, down vote me to death. Then get fed up and go back to SE/SO, which is where you belong, if you are not willing to open your mind to the possibilities.

Communities

Review Suggested Edit