4

I've been registered on Stack Exchange for almost on year, and I've used it as a useful resource.

Recently, I decided to reciprocate, and I started to reply to question (mainly on Stack Overflow) in the past four months.

In the last month I'm seeing a degradation of questions.IMHO

Most of those low quality question are from <10 reputation users or just registered users.

I am talking about questions anyone can find a solution to by just googling or searching on Stack Overflow or reading the documentation.

So, I decided to reply to those question only giving the elements and info or general code examples to resolve those problems but without writing the exact code answer.

I try to give them info to resolve it by themselves, explaining the concept and not a cut&paste solution, but every time they ask for the exact code.

It seems that the only reason for their question is to find someone to do their job or homework or whatever.

It seems that some people are taking advantage of the pursuit of reputation points.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Improve this question
14
  • I guess nothing can be done, SO is open to all users..
    – P.J
    Commented Mar 7, 2013 at 15:43
  • 1
    IMHO those questions should be flagged as they are not really in the scope of the site, which is about helping and not freelancing
    – Hugo Dozois
    Commented Mar 7, 2013 at 15:43
  • You're perfectly within your rights to just not get involved in such questions. It's usually pretty easy to tell early on when a question falls into the category you've described. If you don't catch it early, just learn to walk away if someone is clearly not interested in help and only wants a full solution. It may seem harsh at first, but I've found it to be helpful to get to that point.
    – Servy
    Commented Mar 7, 2013 at 15:44
  • I was wondering if there could be a kind of filter
    – giammin
    Commented Mar 7, 2013 at 15:45
  • 2
    Sounds like Help Vampires to me
    – LittleBobbyTables - Au Revoir
    Commented Mar 7, 2013 at 15:45
  • 13
    Many people have noticed that last month. Also the month before that. And the year before that. And five years ago, too. See recency illusion.
    – ЯegDwight
    Commented Mar 7, 2013 at 15:46
  • 1
    A lot of the help vampire type Qs can be closed as Too Localized, as well.
    – JNK
    Commented Mar 7, 2013 at 15:46
  • @giammin It's pretty hard to automate something like that. It's hard enough for people to determine what belongs (just look at the disputes over what should be closed).
    – Servy
    Commented Mar 7, 2013 at 15:46
  • I agree with you but sometimes you get they are vampire after you have spent time to reply their question. I started to answer question to contribute to this great community. Those "vampire" are really annoying.
    – giammin
    Commented Mar 7, 2013 at 15:48
  • @giammin They are annoying, yes. But after a bit, they become easier to identify early on. And even if you try hard and find out afterward, you often get rewarded with up votes for your attempts, anyway.
    – Andrew Barber
    Commented Mar 7, 2013 at 15:50
  • 1
    @giammin: There is a filter, and also an automatic ban for frequently-downvoted users. Not much more SO can do automatically than that.
    – David Robinson
    Commented Mar 7, 2013 at 15:50
  • @giammin As I said, you need to learn when it's appropriate to just walk away when you've determined that the help you're willing to offer is not wanted. Don't make a big fuss; don't start an argument, don't give them what you don't want to give them, just stop responding to the question.
    – Servy
    Commented Mar 7, 2013 at 15:51
  • @LittleBobbyTables great link thanks. Now i know how to call them!
    – giammin
    Commented Mar 7, 2013 at 15:52
  • 2
    Anyway, i hope this is the right place to ask about it. thanks guys for all your replys
    – giammin
    Commented Mar 7, 2013 at 15:58

0

Reset to default

Browse other questions tagged .