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0 pointschuckcode11y ago0 comments

I'm sure that a lot of people spend a lot of time reading through Stackoverflow's answers. Not sure you're taking the parent comment to heart when you classify that time as wasted. Stackoverflow might not be the optimal solution for finding answers but it certainly adds enough value to the community that they deserves some respect for their approach.

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ab_thomas11y ago

It can be a useful resource but not for new coders.

eglover11y ago

This. The SO community is not very open to newbies and it's very difficult to get a well thought out answer that teaches the issue. Someone asks a simple question and you get a link to a Google search or some sample code that couldn't possibly make sense to the person asking.

Maybe this is natural to answering such questions on forums or maybe it's the results of everyone fighting for points and upvotes. My money is on the latter.

Point is there is MUCH greater value in talking directly to an expert so long as you can get in touch with one which is a tough nut to crack.

_almosnow11y ago

That is because 99% of newbie questions are already answered... and when someone just asks the same "what is a pointer in C" question, without even taking time to search if it's already been answered, it pisses off the community and they get negative feedback as a result.

I don't think a one-to-one chat with an experienced developer is a better solution for noobs, quite the contrary. But time will tell, maybe the guys who sign-up to coach on askadev will never get tired to explain the difference between an integer and a float type over and over and over again.

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