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Could we please be a bit nicer to the noobs?

It might be that I'm being over-sensitive, but I think that we're all being a bit harsh on new people on Stack Overflow. Someone happens upon the site and asks their first ever question and is instantaneously bombarded by angry people telling them that their question has been written wrong.

This elitist attitude towards someone who is just asking for help doesn't seem that fair.

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marked as duplicate by fretje, Shogging through the snow, ChrisF, alex, Tyler Carter Mar 5 '10 at 11:34


Out of curiosity, did you personally choose the name of your book? –  Jimmy Mar 5 '10 at 9:40
this has been discussed quite heavily before: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/9953/… –  fretje Mar 5 '10 at 9:41
I disagree. I see a lot of questions maybe sometimes getting gruff comments - still, much, much less than in other places - but almost always at least one useful answer. –  Pëkka Mar 5 '10 at 10:26
Proved my point really. –  Steve Fenton Jan 26 '11 at 14:21
It is interesting to see that the Stack guys have decided to measure this now. I hope it makes the community even friendlier. –  Steve Fenton Aug 6 '12 at 9:45

1 Answer 1

These days, I don't see lots of such behavior on SO anymore. In fact, often the opposite is true: some people welcome a new user by upvoting his first question just to give him a head start. (Though I am personally not a fan of such gifts, either, since they kind of circumvent the initial 15-point rep threshold, which is there for a reason. But that's outside of the scope of this question.)

Anyway, if you feel insulted by an answer (or a comment), you can always flag it as offensive or even requiring moderator attention. If the answer is truly offensive or hateful, it will be deleted. And even if that doesn't happen, the answer will probably get a few downvotes from other members of the community who feel just like you do. At least that's what my personal experience is in the tags I visit on a regular basis.

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