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I have registered on CodeProject and StackOverflow.
These two sites have taken care of all my questions for, duh, a year ? Two years ? Three ? Whatever, neat places.
I am watching StackOverFlow exhibit some behaviors which I hope are temporary, and which I don't understand.
Let me emphasize my heartfelt desire for these behaviors to be temporary. I really like that site and I really want to keep participating, both as one who helps others, and as one who gets answers when I'm stuck.
(I really can't say which role I like better)
For the moment, the behaviors I'm observing are a stark warning to me that the game there has radically changed, and what was in the past, is not going to be happening in the future.
Hence, I need to look for another place to ask (and answer) questions.
If you are a registered member of another answer site such as StackOverFlow, and you've had positive experiences either asking or answering questions, I would appreciate your feedback.
Hopefully, this entire post will be needless.
For the moment, I really feel like I need to find at least one other place to make friends and start helping others in anticipation of the (very soon to come) day when I will start having more questions again.
So, where do you go (outside of CodeProject, which is clearly the ultimate, best, and finest place on the internet) to get your technical questions answered ?
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I go to myself.
No, really. I write the question down, and then .. usually it's already solved by that time. Or if it isn't, it may take some more time. Failure is also a possibility.
But it's never worth asking some anonymous narcissistic a**hole on the internet to solve it for you. It's better to fail than to feed their overinflated egos.
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Just curious, what is your opinion of the Quick Answers section here on CodeProject ?
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Well it's not as bad as SO.
You can have bad luck and run into SAK though.
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Never use the name: like Voldemort, he will appear! 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself.
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I'm not afraid of the name, or the person - I just like that there is a small corner of the site where I don't run into his arrogant pontification. 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Kenneth Haugland wrote: Since you answered a question, this could be the beginning of a beautiful tautology
I.. but.. oh 
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Ah, Harold, esteemed mentor, if only I could go to you with all my technical questions !
« I had therefore to remove knowledge, in order to make room for belief » Immanuel Kant
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Bill, esteemed student, I seem to have woken up in an alternate reality today. Me a mentor?
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Accidentally,
while trying to write a post,
I wrote a haiku.
(not the post above this one, obviously, not that there should be any confusion..)
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One haiku deserves
another, especially
one a mentor wrote !
« I had therefore to remove knowledge, in order to make room for belief » Immanuel Kant
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I haven't been to SO in ages - years and years - because I just didn't like the attitude there.
What's changed?
C-P-User-3 wrote: So, where do you go ... to get your technical questions answered ?
Google, mostly... 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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OriginalGriff wrote: What's changed?
The invasion of the Mongolian Stompers, that's what.
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, and there is nothing new under the sun.
Sure, every question that can be asked, already has been asked. You can find the answer to any question if you read enough. That's the catch, "enough" ! The old guard (generally, guys with a few thousand points) are closing questions whenever there is the slightest tangential reference to a question buried deeply within a prior existing question.
Case in point: I asked a question in a group here on CodeProject. The next day I had my answer. I believe the sentence was sixteen words long.
The reason I came here was because the Mongolian Stompers closed my question with the accusation that it had already been asked and answered.
Just for the sake of argument, I will go along with the false accusation (i.e., no, it was not answered in another question, but I'll pretend here, just to demonstrate their mental condition). In order to wrangle the answer from the (putatively, and wrongly so) previous question and answer discussion which they (falsely) claimed covered my quandary, I'll estimate that I would need to spend five to eight hours reading over it; with a majority of that time spent in navigating the obfuscating sections which had nothing to do with my question. After finding the tiny subsection of the conversation which contained the one vaguely tangential sentence which they claimed was the "answer" to my question. After identifying that tangential comment, I would have to interpolate the answer.
If you have to interpolate anything, then the answer is not an answer; it's an encrypted obfuscation.
Those guys must spend their time watching old Columbo reruns. Nobody ever gave him an honest answer either, but, within a few weeks, and after speaking with a dozen or two different people, Columbo arrived at the truth.
The same sort of atmosphere has now developed over at StackOverFlow. This atmosphere was non-existent eighteen months ago. It is now status quo.
I asked the question there, and I got stomped. The purported answer was a secret code.
I asked the question here, and I got sixteen words, which took me sixteen seconds to read; correct that: sixty seconds, because I read it two or three times to get it into the gray matter.
So, in that one case, it was...
- CodeProject, Sixty Seconds and solved,
- StackOverFlow, Eight Hours and counting.
While that one event happened to me, I'm hardly the special case. They're stomping questions from everybody; people who are really confused and can be helped with some simple explanation. I have to wonder if they are really trying to keep everyone else's reputation lower than their own.
Whatever, StackOverFlow, which was once the best place on the internet to get a short workable technical answer, has now become hostile toward those who want to learn.
That's what's changed.
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C-P-User-3 wrote: once the best place on the internet to get a short workable technical answer, has now become hostile toward those who want to learn.
Unfortunately, there is some of that in QA as well - and it seems to be getting worse.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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C-P-User-3 wrote: So, where do you go (outside of CodeProject ...
I never knew there was anywhere outside.
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Of course there is!
Where do you think the cat pictures come from?
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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I use stack overflow and code project exclusively for answers and tutorials into subject matter that I am not familiar with.
You have arrogant ass**les here at codeproject, too. They are everywhere, on the internets. You have to get over that.
My suggestion, is that, you just keep on asking intelligent questions, and eventually you will get a sincere, intelligent answer back.
You have to really try to solve the problem on your own as well, that is how you learn, IMHO.
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I used to belong to Expert's Exchange and was a paying member...until I realized that the answers were listed regardless of a membership...just waaay down the page. I really don't get many searches taking me there anymore, so they seem to be on the decline.
Oh, and there's MSDN!
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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I experience CodeProject (my favorite place on the web) and StackOverFlow, both, as superb resources for continuing technical self-education, and I think we are enriched because they are such different "social universes." In terms of "culture," I see CP as Dionysian, and SO as Apollonian, if those categories from philosophy (Nietzsche) mean anything to you.
Of course, CP has articles, many of which are invaluable resources, and I learn as much from CP's articles as I do on the forums; and, SO ain't got articles.
Both, imho, have structural problems, both have abusers (albeit with different modus operandi), both have strengths and weaknesses, both are trying to cope with a staggering volume of traffic. And, mirabile dictu, both are (drum-roll) ... free 
In contrast, for me, MSDN (language Forums, Visual Studio forum) is an utter disaster, virtually useless.
It's rare I visit sites for technical research other than CP, or SO; of course I use the C#, and Windows Forms, etc., help facilities in Visual Studio frequently. I rate the VS and C# MS Help facilities somewhere slightly above a "C" grade because of certain aspects I won't go into here.
cheers, Bill
« I had therefore to remove knowledge, in order to make room for belief » Immanuel Kant
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One thing I dislike about StackOverflow, especially, is how often discussions go off the rails. All too often people answer the question they wanted, not the one you asked. It happens here to, but not as often nor with the vitriol you get elsewhere.
Another funny thing is how often I've gotten answers from questions that were closed because "they were not productive."
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Joe Woodbury wrote: "...answers from questions that were closed because "they were not productive."..."
PRECISELY !!!
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Thanks for the feedback; greatly appreciated.
I know that there are other Short Question / Short Answer sites, and as usual, Google has been SEO (Severely Egregiously Obfuscated) to the point that asking the question is de facto asking for misdirection.
I have this annoying memory block in my head, as I know good and well that there is at least one other short and quick question and answer site. I just can't remember the name of the place.
Does anybody know the name of that site ? (Duh, you'll have to read my mind for me, and fill in the blank sections)
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I have never asked a question in SO, I regularly find a result from SO threads but if I am really stuck I always use CP for questions - the forums not the bloody Q&A crap.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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