When I first started programming, I could use SO without asking a question because everything I needed to know was fairly basic. It was great because many of the answers I came across helped me to understand more of the "broader universe" of issues I would encounter during development, and so encouraged me to research and learn more about the language.
Once I started asking questions, I was careful to respond to comments and accepted and upvoted the best answers. I wanted to be a good citizen of the community. And reciprocity was a part of that: eventually, I found myself able to respond to questions and I remember how great it felt to see the first +25 on my profile because someone accepted my answer.
These days, if I ask a question it's because I've spent a good amount of time on it and haven't been able to resolve it myself. Here's what happens when I ask a question on SO:
1 - I ask the question, post the code, and the error message I'm getting
2 - Question downvoted
3 - Respond to comment that says my question is a duplicate (it's not, which I clarify to avoid "closed as duplicate")
4 - Respond to comment about a missing semicolon that got deleted when I was cutting/pasting/formatting my code. (Despite the error msg making it clear that the missing semicolon isn't the issue)
5 - Question upvoted
6 - An answer! Says that I need to read the docs and provides a link to a non-relevant section (I've read the docs)
7 - Finally, a helpful answer! Looks pretty good, so I test it out and it does the job. I accept and upvote the answer.
8 - Notice a duplicate answer posted less than 1 minute after the accepted answer. Duplicate answer person complains that their entry was posted first. I advise them that the timestamp indicates the other poster was first and they reply that it is a time zone bug.
9 - Later I check back and notice this message: "Question closed as vague and cannot be answered"
10 - Check back one more time and see that someone has downvoted my question
11 - Email the mods to get the downvote removed