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Indeed. This is the problem with any rep based/badge based system, with people running all over each other in the pursuit of a high score - as though it were an ego-fest video game, rather than a means of helping others out.
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No, I'm here to win T-shirts. 
These days people need a reason to do anything, which makes this a bigger version of Big Brother sometimes. You often get shallow questions, and sometimes even more shallow answers. I guess it all comes down to why you want a Q&A/Discussion section on a page, and what means you want to use to get there...
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The only reason that doesn't happen here is because OG has filled the high-score table, and nobody stands a chance of beating him. 
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Thanks for the heads up. I'll start downvoting your answers from now on. 
Signature construction in progress. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Damn you have the perfect signature - CBadger
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Pete O'Hanlon wrote: I tend to find that I get most of my answers from blogs and articles here on CP.
This is true. If I'm looking up some language syntax issue, a regex example, or some arcane LINQ or Ruby usage, then SO does well. If want to know how to set up Entity Framework in a multitier environment, then I don't even bother looking at SO, I go immediately for CP.
Marc
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Pete O'Hanlon wrote: That is a pretty damning indictment of CodeProject that your find your knowledge route is crippled by the unavailability of SO. What went wrong here?
The two are totally different formats. SO is amazing for code snippets that demonstrate things. I don't have questions I want to ask on SO, I have questions I want the answer to because I know thousands of other people have asked the same thing. So, for example, if I want to find out if there's an extension method that implements a ForEachElse (where the Else part executes if there's nothing to iterate on), I'll more likely find the answer on SO. In fact, CP hardly ever comes up on google for most of the questions I ask.
I don't think it's "what went wrong here", rather, CP just doesn't address the same niche.
Marc
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I use SO for the same reason. I also look at several of the other StackExchange sites, like Server Fault (for server errors and configuration tips), the Electronics one (I like electronics) and so on.
What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?
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Marc Clifton wrote: SO is amazing for code snippets that demonstrate things ... I have homework questions I want the answer to because I know thousands of other people have asked had the same thing homework assignment.
FTFY
Once you lose your pride the rest is easy.
The report of my death was an exaggeration - Mark Twain
Simply Elegant Designs JimmyRopes Designs
I'm on-line therefore I am.
JimmyRopes
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JimmyRopes wrote: I have homework questions
Well, in my case, I assign my own homework. 
Marc
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Marc Clifton wrote: CP just doesn't address the same niche.
But why doesn't it address that niche? CP has been going a lot longer, has the whole article thing going for it, and has both forums and QA. So, why is SO the first port of call in Google, where CP barely gets a mention?
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I feel that CP is more for articles, SO for Q&A.
If the CP community took a tougher stance on rubbish that appears in the Q&A like SO appear to do and changed the format slightly I think it would help.
However how to achieve that on both fronts I'm not quite sure.
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Pete O'Hanlon wrote: What went wrong here?
CP is about articles, not Q&A.
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You might want to mention that to Chris. He seems to have allocated some time and energy to the forums and QA.
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This discussion has been held a number of times. CP wants a more inclusive approach where low grade questions are tolerated (along with low grade answers). SO is a bit more selective I feel with questions and consequently there is less spam. The cabal of high ranking posters seeking points is not helping. I don't care how high their rank they mostly all post a great deal of crap to get there and their motives are completely transparent. About 50% of what is currently in the Q&A could be culled without any loss whatsoever.
Peter Wasser
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell
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CP has never been the go-to source for short snippets and answers to 'how do I do this simple thing I forgot?' questions, which is what most of us need resources for. It's attempted to barge in on SO's domain with Q&A, but our Q&A is not a patch on SO and it doesn't have the Google karma either.
For more in-depth things and reading about new topics or expanding the mind, CP is far superior. But we don't need to do that as often.
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The irony here, of course, is that Chris reportedly planned QA long before SO came on the scene. In fact, there was a fair bit of bad blood between the two sides when SO was launched.
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Hand in your code project membership at the door. Security will see you out. Please don't attempt to contact any of us again. Your sort are not welcome round here anymore.
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P0mpey3 wrote: Hand in your code project membership at the door.
 SO and CP are two very different services. It would be impossible to write articles on SO, for example.
Marc
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Hmm? What's that?
You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.
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Marc Clifton wrote: use MSDN.
Don't do it, Marc! Nothing's worth that - nothing! 
Will Rogers never met me.
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Oh c'mon Roger, it can't be that bad. Here, I'll show you`~~~CARRIER LOST
Software Zen: delete this;
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I just noticed a new customer has emailed me a scanned image of a spreadsheet (where he has printed and then written on the document) of a set of numbers (only about 300 total) needed for a one-time setup. I had asked for the spreadsheet to use for an import, something we do all the time and could have been done in 5 minutes...and this is what I get! Some users, I get a bad feeling about right off the bat, and this is one of them. It was confirmed in the first minute of conversation when he corrected my enunciation of the word 'elementary'...his version (the correct one) is to stress the 'tar' syllable. Then he apologized for correcting me, and gave me a lesson about how Northerners are more abrupt by nature. I pretended to sound interested and made sure to adjust my dialect and personality to match his. Oh well, during the time that I have been complaining about it, I could be halfway through manually entering the values into a spreadsheet! Just thought others might find amusing...probably not. Rant over. 
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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Just stick it back through a scanner and OCR and turn it back to a spreadsheet! 
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That is somewhat like the "just delete it" response to spam. 
I'm retired. There's a nap for that...
- Harvey
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How?
I thought it more like "The fly" where it goes back through the teleporter to undo the badness and get back what went in at the start. 
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