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Comment by inostia | Hacker News Reader

The one thing I appreciate about SO is that its users aren't afraid to call out dumb questions for what they are. Seriously, the majority of new questions _are_ dumb, or at least misunderstand the point of SO being a canonical source for generalized questions relating to CS/programming.

Consider this recent question: "Should I start edx cs50 course before any other JavaScript course, or in the middle, or after?"

This person _should_ get downvoted and told that this is not an appropriate question. Hopefully they come around after a while and learn what kinds of questions are helpful for the _community_ at large. Does it suck that they feel unwelcome? Yes. But that doesn't mean users should be forced to "be nice" just because of it.

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    > the point of SO being a canonical source for generalized questions relating to CS/programming.

NO.

The point of SO is NOT to be a "canonical source for generalized questions [and answers] relating to CS/Programming".

In fact, if you ask a "generalized question" it will be smacked down as "too broad". If you ask a CS question, it will be downvoted as off-topic.

SO is a place to ask certain kinds of very specific and answerable questions. Anything outside of that narrow band (hell, even most stuff that's perfect appropriate) gets smugly dismissed by petty assholes.

> Anything outside of that narrow band (hell, even most stuff that's perfect appropriate) gets smugly dismissed by petty assholes.

The petty assholes who spend hours of their time tediously cultivating one of the world's most useful resources? Those petty assholes?

Honestly reading that I'm picturing Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons as a StackOverflow moderator and the personality type slots in so perfectly. Yes, those petty assholes.

I don't think what I said came across correctly. Of course overly broad questions will get downvoted. What I meant was, "questions that will likely benefit another person in the community". I.e. there is a sweet spot in terms of specificity. Asking for help about a very specific problem with a homework assignment or asking for advice about what class to take next are too specific and more than likely won't benefit anyone else.

Regarding your point about CS, I meant something like "within the broad range of questions related to practical computer science, specifically programming." Yes, I know there's another Exchange site for more theoretical Computer Science topics, where some questions might be more appropriate...

There are far, far more constructive ways to educate the asker of such a question than to outright tell them they're stupid. Especially because, while such a question might not be the most constructive, it being there doesn't hurt anyone at all.

It doesn't cost anything to be nice and to try and make the community feel more welcoming.

I wasn't talking about mean or hurtful language. I was talking about telling someone that their question isn't a good fit for SO. The consequence of that may be a feeling of being "excluded". So now everyone has to add a smiley face at the end of their comments when they say, "You didn't add any sample code. I don't know what you're asking help about" or "I can't understand your question, you should rephrase it"?

No, and I believe you're taking things way too far. And we've all seen pretty mean SO rejection messages. It doesn't take much to be polite in doing so. If you're going to come back with, "What if I'm polite and they still think I'm mean," well, then I don't know what to tell you. I do know that the answer is not to add actual hostility to the site just because you feel that a few people might take expectations of politeness too far.

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