Skip to main content
Meta Stack Exchange

You are not logged in. Your edit will be placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed.

We welcome edits that make the post easier to understand and more valuable for readers. Because community members review edits, please try to make the post substantially better than how you found it, for example, by fixing grammar or adding additional resources and hyperlinks.

33
  • 89
    A lack of guidance for new users is what I personally think is the actual culprit. I would like SE, Inc to frame the problem much more like "How can we help new users to contribute high-quality content?" and less like "How can we prevent the community from disliking low-quality content?"
    – MechMK1
    Commented Jan 23, 2020 at 13:30
  • 29
    The thing is, that the help page - which exists exactly for this - is just ignored by most new users. Even if the help page was perfect and teached the user everything he really needs to know, it would lead to nowhere as it is not being read by the new users before they post their first question. Just like many programmers don't read documentation and then get angry because their code doesn't work.
    – kscherrer
    Commented Jan 23, 2020 at 13:43
  • 35
    @kscherrer - The help center also isn't exactly designed to be easy to read-through. It's written more as a reference than as a tutorial. That, and it's not linked to in the UI nearly often enough.
    – Mithical
    Commented Jan 23, 2020 at 13:44
  • 6
    @Mithical the tour seems perfect and outlines the basic dos and don'ts yet still we have issues because kscherrer is right. People want to simply have their issues fixed, not integrate into the idea of building an archive of quality Q&As hence a the support desk mentality.
    – Script47
    Commented Jan 23, 2020 at 15:06
  • 7
    Are we being “elitist”? Is there something wrong with that?
    – Raedwald
    Commented Jan 23, 2020 at 15:29
  • 7
    Can we be more welcoming by managing expectations?
    – Raedwald
    Commented Jan 23, 2020 at 15:37
  • 50
    The tour actually encourages a misunderstanding of the purpose of the SE network. “Ask questions, get answers, no distractions”. “This site is about getting answers”, but the first step in the tour is not looking for an existing answer, it’s asking your question. The only mention of searching is finding interesting questions, not seeing if your question has already been answered. It also ignores that often the best way for someone to get help is to visit the site’s chat room. The community starts out in a bad position due to mismanaged expectations.
    – ColleenV
    Commented Jan 23, 2020 at 21:33
  • 5
    I don't understand this word, elitism. Or rather how it is used ("Elitism is the belief or attitude that individuals who form an elite—a select group of people with an intrinsic quality, high intellect, wealth, special skills, or experience—are more likely to be constructive to society as a whole, and therefore deserve influence or authority greater than that of others."). Isn't snobbery a better fit? (I am culturally challenged - is this particular use a US-only thing?)
    – This_is_NOT_a_forum
    Commented Jan 23, 2020 at 23:33
  • 5
    Re "a lack of guidance for new users": Yes, user expectations are poorly managed. The question interface now does a little bit, but on the whole it fuels the forum expectation (time scale of days or even weeks, when the attention on Stack Overflow only lasts minutes and perhaps hours). E.g. there is nothing about staying around to promptly respond to any comments.
    – This_is_NOT_a_forum
    Commented Jan 23, 2020 at 23:38
  • 9
    Closure as duplicate is severely misunderstood; it's not a slap-down, it's a way of saying "hey, the answer you want is over there". In other words, it's a way of answering a question. But with that said, it's easy to understand why people don't see it that way, but I'm not sure what the solution is. More and better information is always suggested, but in my experience people never read the readme.
    – Maximus Minimus
    Commented Jan 24, 2020 at 3:33
  • 10
    Fantastic answer. Fantastic understanding of the dynamics of the interactions between the established community and new members.
    – tmpearce
    Commented Jan 24, 2020 at 3:49
  • 3
    @MaximusMinimus Actually, that's not quite right, duplicates are designed to be used to link identical questions, not to link a related answer from a different question. This of course stands in contrast to how they are actually used in different places on the site, but it is how they were designed to be used.
    – Rubiksmoose
    Commented Jan 24, 2020 at 4:34
  • 4
    I disagree with elitism point. I didn't suffer myself from it and if I ever vote-closed easy question as duplicate, then sorry, this is how site works. This was lack of research. Unless I see what OP lacks knowledges to find duplicate themself (e.g. he doesn't know term or concept).
    – Sinatr
    Commented Jan 24, 2020 at 9:09
  • 7
    Of course, the problem with a lack of guidance for new users is that no one wants to endure a training course to post their question or begin participating in the community. It's almost like the way to fix all this would be to prevent users from asking questions would be to wait until they have some level of rep and positively-reviewed contributions to the site already. IOW, making asking the community a question and getting answers an earned privilege, not a default ability.
    – TylerH
    Commented Jan 24, 2020 at 15:10
  • 4
    "Everything is written and considered from a male perspective, including stuff like offensive nicknames for regexes and the like." - I'm drawing a blank on what this could be talking about, could someone explain / provide an example?
    – Shiny
    Commented Feb 3, 2020 at 9:55