I find SO good for questions that have already been answered (but even then, some answers are out of the left field). For answering questions, good questions are harder to come by.

@zmike I don't ask good questions... hehe.... I'm an absolute beginner at dev stuff. So they usually get cheeky and downvote but someone answers which is all I care about.

@Kilisi SO is literally the last place I go to for Dev help. It's not worth digging through so much nonsense and nastiness

@Old_Lamplighter I don't have a choice, no devs in this country. I don't dig through anything, just describe what I want and let any cheeky stuff wash over me as irrelevant. Worked every time so far.

nonsense and nastiness don't mean a thing to me... some small amusement value I guess, but thats about it.

@Kilisi I wish I had your temperment

@Old_Lamplighter Wrong language. Swear at me in the local tongue here in physical range and it's an instant fistfight. Swear at me in English or French or something.... I know exactly what you're saying, but it doesn't affect me the same way. Getting cheeky on the internet is just lame so doesn't affect me at all.

@Kilisi LOL, Yeah, I'm a bit more forceful IRL as well.

@Old_Lamplighter well some people are the opposite... hence the term keyboard warriors.... but at the end of the day anyone on the internet is different in real life.... no point letting someones fake internet persona upset you is my idea on the matter.

I also like the "sub"-titles: "Cutting corners to meet arbitrary management deadlines" and "the internet will make those errors go away"

@Kilisi I have asked a bad question or two myself ;)

@Old_Lamplighter what resources do you use when you need help if not SO?

@Old_Lamplighter We had a look at it with the mod tools, but there are actually 10k rep analytics views that will show you the same. Participation dropped sharply on all fronts coinciding with the pandemic and has remained at that reduced level.

But that's been the case for nearly 2 years at this point, it hasn't shifted much recently beyond the slight drop that's usual post-summer.

@Lilienthal Actually, I get a good deal of help from the Microsoft developers community, as well as language specific sites. I don't have to deal with the snarking, the speech policing, or the lack of explanation.

@Lilienthal It also coinceded with the Monica wars, whitch left a bad taste for alot of people, myself included

OOps, @Zmike, Actually, I get a good deal of help from the Microsoft developers community, as well as language specific sites. I don't have to deal with the snarking, the speech policing, or the lack of explanation.

@zmike SO has become the Wikipedia of tech sites

@Old_Lamplighter I'll have to take a look at the MS Dev community

On the topic of the Monica wars: I kept seeing the same "user" across multiple SE sites with "reinstate Monica" in the username, and I was like "Reinstate Monica? Monica Geller from Friends? Reinstate her where?" Then I noticed that different users were showing support for Monica.

I was completely oblivious to what had transpired "behind the scenes"

I read up on the whole fiasco

Yeah, a textbook way to Not handle a situation. The Streisand effect was in full force and yeah, what a mess.

@Old_Lamplighter This site is used primarily while people are working at their desks at their job. Since so many people are now working from home, they can do other things (watch television, get snacks, exercise, whatever) when they want to goof off - they aren't restricted to things that sort of look like actual work when someone might be watching. Thus, less use of this site. At least, that's my theory.