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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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Yep, he got the no vote, dropped the Scots later that day, now is going to focus all his energy before the next election stoking up English nationalism and wooing UKIP voters.
Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.
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chriselst wrote: stoking up English nationalism and wooing UKIP voters.
I hadn't thought of that angle.
It seems that Labour Salmond, has actually emasculated Labour. They might be able to form a Union govt, but they will never get any law through an English only, and thus heavily Tory, commons.
Well done Salmond!
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We've got two in Ireland! One at either end
Ger
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The right wing always profits when there is division between people; it's what right-wing-ism is all about.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Way too defensive there, Maggie.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Defensive would be 'no', what I wrote is dismissive.
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Dismissive would be not replying.
Feeling the need to reply aggressively is defensive.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Let's see if we can vote...
Spanish politicians have started speaking of suppressing the Catalan autonomy, cancelling our government and putting some of our politicians in the jail... their reasons seem to be that voting is not constitutional nor legal...
At least in the UK they allowed people to vote in a normal way. 
Sh@#$ country I do live in... 
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If not Caledonia, then why not Catalonia?
Ger
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I don't have much of an opinion on Catalonian independence, but what is amusing is the Spanish PM Rajoy has been very vociferous against Scottish independence because it sets a trend that would see Catalonia go alone, and yet despite Scotland voting no, the Catalans are pushing ahead.
Castilla is an drag on their region, they pay a lot into it, and would be far more successful alone, although I know little about it. What I do know is it is a beautiful region with two big airports, a great coastline and skiable mountains inland. If Cataln went independent and ran itself on Irish style economics I would put my head office there in a second. 
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