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Yes, I've noticed the attitude over there as well. Since CP wants to compete with SO why not build a Knowledge Tree of posts and answers that they could quickly search and browse (and link to articles)? I have yet to see a proper Knowledge Tree structure implemented anywhere yet. And I've haven't had the time to write about it. But it's a proper and significant next generation step in the evolution of knowledge structures (another concept that needs writing about). If anyone is significantly interested I will do a CP article on this.
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SO works by the following rule: garbage in - garbage out.
Lets have a look at the question that you asked and we might figure out why it was down voted and how to improve your experience on SO.
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I like stackoverflow.com, though I have seen some limited behavior like you described. Many users are way too quick to down vote both questions and answers. I've used the site for several years and have only down voted once or twice. I reserve that for extreme circumstances such as abuse or repeating the same problems many times while ignoring question asking advice from other users.
There are a few recurring issues that people have with asking questions on there that could be helped with better research and communication skills by the askers of questions.
Sometimes there are disagreements about exactly what does qualify as a suitable topic for SO (or it's sister sites) as well as the tags used for questions. Once I asked a question on there about the using sed. Some people may have considered that question to have not been on topic because it wasn't enough of a programming question, but it was answered. If I had been asking a general user question, such as "How do I run a program on Windows 98?" then I'd probably have been down voted because it wasn't a programming question (and because it mentioned "Windows 98").
Asking a question on SO should almost never be the first thing anyone does when a question comes to mind. When you post a question there it takes up other people's valuable time to read, consider, research, and answer (ignoring the time that it takes for someone to down vote), so if someone asks a question on SO that could easily have been answered by Googling then people are likely to down vote that question because they take it as disrespectful of the value of their time. If someone does look for resources and is still confused, or even confused by the resources, then cite those resources in your question. If no resources can be found, mention what you've searched on (the keywords). It is quite common that people are calling a concept the wrong thing or at least something other than what it is commonly known as, which can make searching and asking questions not work out well.
SO is in English, so make sure that you're English is readable. It would be nice if native language wasn't an issue, but it is. If you're question makes no sense grammatically then it will be misunderstood, ignored, or down voted. People on SO will try to help fix up questions like this, and the asker needs to check back to read the changes, suggested changes, and pleads for clarity that other users have posted. Personally I often find it easier to read broken English if I know what the writer's native language is, and I suspect that is probably the case for others. At the very least it may allow you to get help communicating your question by someone who speaks your language. When writing this response I almost included an expression that is very understandable, but when translated literally might be confusing to others. That is another thing to be aware of.
Beginner programmers often have misconceptions and confusion about how certain things work that are difficult for more seasoned programmers to relate to. Most of us have been there, but it's hard to remember to try to scrutinize what someone is saying for clues about misconceptions, especially when the asker is often speaking with confidence about their unconscious assumptions being true. This is another communication issue. This often results in a question starting out as "How do I do _X_ with _Y_?" but end up being more about what Y actually is and how that's different than what the asker thought Y was.
Learning how to include relevant information without overloading with too many details about your particular instance of a problem is a skill that must be learned. It can take time, but reading other questions can help. Many times I've seen someone ask a question that included completely irrelevant information about what product they hoped to eventually have when they were really wanting to know some small detail about a programming language, algorithm, or library. Other times I've seen people leave out so much information about what they are trying to do that it's either not comprehensible to others or that it isn't clear to others that the specifics of this problem would actually fit solving the problem a different way than the asker was trying. For instance, asking how to send a message from one computer to another one over the Internet does not usually need to include what kind of information that message carried, but it may be relevant what protocols are being used, what operating systems, and how they are connected.
Another thing to be clear about is why the asker is asking the question. This may sound silly because the answer is obviously "Because he/she wants to know the answer.", but this is actually about if the asker is trying to solve a problem a certain way (and may be pursuing a more difficult path than have to pursue), doing homework (people on SO will almost never give you the answers to your homework, but they will often guide you), or just for your own understanding.
I hope that this is clear.
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I've been on Stack Overflow both making and answering questions, and I have found it a great community overall, however, to get a good answer, you should ask a good question, this is more evident on newbies, who often ask either, to give them the code, something that has been answered multiple times before, or you realize that they don't even understand some basic concepts; most of the time I try to help them (even when they should not ask that, do a quick search or it's not the purpose of SO), but when you're on the 100th question of the same style you may start to loose your temper, in the end we're all persons, so please don't be quick to judge the whole community just because someone freaked out.
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I just noticed that "It's 100% free, no registration required", but I had to register to post an answer to a question.
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You're totally right!
I've post some questions which i believe, there are many people asking the same question, but with no reason the downvoted it no even explaining why they did that...  
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Most of the time it's because the asker didn't bother to google it while the result can be easily got within the first page. Sometimes they need to improve search skill. When they enter the question they don't even have a look at SO's suggestions while I'm sure there are tons of duplicates already.
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Having read some of the Jon Skeet facts[^], based on the old Chuck Norris facts, it seems that it's time for us to do our own version here. So, I'll start you off with some OriginalGriff ones.
NASA is now transmitting recordings of OriginalGriff into space. He has prevented 8 alien invasions so far.
OriginalGriff was not born. He has always been.
OriginalGriff caused the Big Bang - it happened the last time his code failed to compile the first time.
OriginalGriff's tears are the cure for every illness ever.
Chuck Norris quotes OriginalGriff facts.
OriginalGriff IS every Stig.
Dr Who is the autobiography of OriginalGriff.
OriginalGriff knows where infinity ends.
modified 9-Aug-14 4:26am.
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 No matter how OriginalGriff spells the word 'the', it is always correct.
Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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OriginalGriff knows the repeating number squence of Pi off by heart
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OriginalGriff isn't just the Original, he's the Only.
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OriginalGriff lives in Wales - the only part where the sheep aren't nervous.
OriginalGriff once wrote a simulator with a rounding error. That's why Pi is no longer 3.0.
OriginalGriff knows why it is 42
That'll do for now - we wouldn't want to embarrass him
well, OK
OriginalGriff had a dodgy keyboard -which is why Queue is spelled that way.
OriginalGriff's name comes from an anagram of 'Oral Frig If Gin' which harkens back to a best-forgotten night with Nagy
PooperPig - Coming Soon
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Don't forget the cat and the flying mouse (which he said is not a bat). 
Don't mind those people who say you're not HOT. At least you know you're COOL.
I'm not afraid of falling, I'm afraid of the sudden stop at the end of the fall! - Richard Andrew x64
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That's what you get from using a wireless mouse 
Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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I cite this as a perfect example of why we need real lives... 
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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OriginalGriff needed a restraining order to keep Steffi Graf from changing her name to Steffi Griff.
The morning after Carl Sagan said that there were "billions and billions" of stars, Griff called him up and told him the exact number - he had counted them during commercial breaks.
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OriginalGriff writes code that optimizes itself.
OriginalGriff’s first program was kill -9.
OriginalGriff can write infinite recursion functions … and have them return.
OriginalGriff’s mouse can type 140 wpm 
and the best for last
When OriginalGriff is web surfing, websites get the message “Warning: This user is malicious,dangerous and OriginalGriff. Proceed?”. 
»»» <small>Loading Signature</small> «««
· · · <small>Please Wait</small> · · ·
![Badger | [badger,badger,badger,badger...]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/badger.gif)
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literally[^]
Today is Dull[^] and Boring[^] day.
I can't decide if that's just a recognition of the quality of the towns, or ironic humour...
You looking for sympathy?
You'll find it in the dictionary, between sympathomimetic and sympatric
(Page 1788, if it helps)
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Particularly if Three Cocks[^] join in!
You looking for sympathy?
You'll find it in the dictionary, between sympathomimetic and sympatric
(Page 1788, if it helps)
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And those would surely like to drink some Peniscola
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They probably long for sunshine[^] 
Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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Next year will be Bland [^]as well!
=========================================================
I'm an optoholic - my glass is always half full of vodka.
=========================================================
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Hey, you've discovered Leslie's home town[^]!
"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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I recently was approached by an intermediary firm on behalf of another company looking for Android developers. They asked me to do a code challenge and post the source code to GitHub, which I did. About 1-2 weeks later, they asked me to do another code challenge for the prospective client/employer at their request. I've never been asked to do more than one code challenge for a prospective contract/job.
How many of you have been asked to do multiple code challenges for a prospective job? This seems a bit strange to me. The code challenges are not major projects. However they are the kind that would take a full day to complete so they aren't completely trivial either. I'm trying to find out how common this is and whether or not I should assume that the prospective client/employer isn't really serious and is just "kicking the (my) tires" by asking for multiple code challenges.
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