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I'm sure they would punch customers, but getting fired is what prevents them from doing so. You can't fire SO users as they are not being paid, so they exercise their freedoms 
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Just taking the analogy a step further, eventually the coffee-shop customers who do read the signs stop coming because of the huge queue of people who don't.
I think the general comments about SO are correct (that's why I'm here ) but there is a flip side. Because SO are *so* strict, they do actually have - in my opinion - the best Q&A around. While I don't always agree with their decisions (or comments) I think the principle to try and keep questions and answers as readable and useful as possible should be commended.
Sure, it'll upset a few people but at the end of the day, when you search in Google for a solution to your problem, which sites come up first almost every time?
You can't please everyone all of the time though ![Java | [Coffee]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/coffee.gif)
[EDIT] I'll just add this, so my comment is clearer. A website (any website) is only as good as its content. At the moment on CP there's quite a lot of cruft in the Q&A section which means - I imagine for most - SO is the go-to site for getting decent information.
modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.
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I entirely agree about the queue length - and it is an issue that is hard to address.
I'd be happy to take a hard line - delete questions and answers that are deemed 'not worthy' but...
a) Still being nice and polite to the OP - explaining that their question is being removed, and why
b) Adhering to my idea of what makes a worthy question and answer
really, the more I think about it, I think you need a team of editors, taking the good q&a s and moving them somewhere - thus creating a reference site of useful information without the dross.
Like a Wiki I guess.
isn't that why SO quality is generally good - because they don't mind editing out questions - but if one took it further ...
But maybe it's too hard doing it with volunteer members, I dunno
PooperPig - Coming Soon
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I'm pretty new here - aren't there volunteer members?
modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.
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Well, yes - that's what I meant - the people who volunteer aren't necessarily the best ones to be impartial - a little power, and all that!
PooperPig - Coming Soon
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I get where you're coming from, but leaving it as a free for all isn't going to make things any better either. There's got to be some "minimum level", surely?
modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.
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Yep - but how to do it IRL?
You and I disagree on whether a question about bypassing office internet logging is a legitimate question - if we are both mediators of questions, one of us might flag the question for deletion, the other not - without very clear rules, and the ability to remember and follow them - or some sort of voting system that works, it's not really helping.
PooperPig - Coming Soon
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I think for a legitimate site like CP there has to be a question of whether offering advice on bypassing office IT policies crosses any legal boundaries (it certainly appears - at least to me - to have some ethical question marks hanging over it).
At the end of that day I can see from my own usage (and this is entirely based on a survey of one user ) that I use CP for finding useful articles and SO for useful Q&A's. I don't know what other users experiences are though, but I'm of the opinion (and yes, we're back to my famous survey) that I'm not a complete oddball.
Looking to the future, I guess CP can either continue the status quo, drop Q&A or improve Q&A. It's not just my call though (nobody died to make me God, it just happened on merit  ), it's up to everyone here at the end of the day.
We all contribute to make this site what it is, and what it will be.
modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.
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Indeed, there's a lot of needless down-voting here as well.
I think voting should be way down the list of people's priorities, but I think some here think they have to vote on everything.
Voting isn't helping. Are you here to help? Or are you just here to feel superior? (Rhetorical, not directed at you, Maxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.)
What if users had a limit of ten votes per day?
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Another thing that drives me crazy is the bloodlust moderators have to close questions that are even remotely similar to another question on the site, even if that question is 2 years old and has no solution.
Often questions will only bear a surface similarity to another question and will get closed as a duplicate (perhaps they share the same obstacle or bug) even when what is being asked is completely different.
Sometimes the question is the same, but no one has provided a satisfactory answer on the other question. Give me a way to bump an old question and add my own information to it and this would be fine! But just because a question has been asked doesn't mean it should never be asked again!.
SO needs a better way to merge duplicate questions instead of just closing the duplicate and preventing new answers. If someone asks the same question as another, their question should be merged with the original question and bumped as if it were a new question so that people using the site will see it and be able to answer it again. Keeping an unanswered question around historically with no new information is worthless.
Sad but true: 4/3 of Americans have difficulty with simple fractions.
There are 10 types of people in this world: those who understand binary and those who don't.
{o,o}.oO( Check out my blog! )
|)””’) http://pihole.org/
-”-”-
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Yes - I agree. But it would take a lot of thinking about how to do it.
I would like to see the ability to merge questions and answers, delete trivial answers and comments, to provide a go-to place for the knowledge about that particular problem - but that would take sensible moderation.
Imagine if SAK was moderating, for example? Any questions about VB would be deleted on the grounds the OP shouldn't be using an outdated language...
PooperPig - Coming Soon
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I stopped posting there precisely because of this arrogance.
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Tough croud!
I personally don't mind SO, it has helped me out of a conundrum more times than I can remember.
It isn't a friendly place though, if you ask a question and put "thanks in advance" or something similar at the end, sooner or later some ass-hat will come along and edit the "thanks" part out of your question, and if you are new and ask a question that isn't perfect[^] they are bloody brutal.
If you read and follow their rules though, you can actually get a lot of value out of the site, even if it is full of Americans  .
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HomerTheGreat wrote: even if it is full of Americans
Well, Jon Skeet's English.
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What about his English? It seems pretty good to me.
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That is a valid apostrophe without possession.
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Yes, I know. Yet ambiguous.
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Actually no it's not ambiguous. Your interpretation would result in an invalid sentence fragment as it has no verb. 
Sad but true: 4/3 of Americans have difficulty with simple fractions.
There are 10 types of people in this world: those who understand binary and those who don't.
{o,o}.oO( Check out my blog! )
|)””’) http://pihole.org/
-”-”-
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This is 'Merica; land of the sentence fragment.
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I don't think Jon Skeet technically has a nationality
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HomerTheGreat wrote: "thanks in advance"
 Can't stand that.
But I never edit the content of questions, usually I just add or fix pre tags.
Edit: I just remembered that recently I edited a question that was asked in Portugese. I passed it through a translator and added the English translation.
modified 10-Aug-14 11:19am.
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The way they treat people there on SO has kept me from even thinking of creating an account there.
"I've seen more information on a frickin' sticky note!" - Dave Kreskowiak
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You can create an account there? 
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To sign up, which I never have done, and do not plan on it, seeing what kind of an online community they look like...
"I've seen more information on a frickin' sticky note!" - Dave Kreskowiak
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I created an account and posted a very small number of answers.
One answer had a small inaccuracy in it and I was voted down and flamed.
The helpful answers were not even acknowledged.
That led to me cancelling my account and carrying on with Codeproject - where people are much more friendly and helpful.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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