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Discussion on: Stack Overflow Isn’t Very Welcoming. It’s Time for That to Change.

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Douglas McKechie • Edited

Interesting blog post and good initiative from Stack Overflow to make it more welcoming.

The biggest problem I have seen with it are people downvoting or closing questions from newbies who don't have any code yet because they don't know where to start. That is very unwelcoming.

I think part of the problem was Stack Overflow's own usage rules / guidelines that questions needed to be specific and have code etc, and many moderators where happy just to post those rules as a comment rather than helping the newbie start off on the right track, getting them to the point where they can have a go at writing some code and ask further questions for help with it if needed.