Apologies if is this is obvious (or if this is the wrong place to ask), but:
How do I navigate Stack Overflow? Where is the Stack Overflow FAQ, or introduction for beginners/newbies?
I can understand if the answer is some form of RTM.
In that case my question is "Where is The Manual?"
This site (meta) seems a more appropriate place to ask than Stack Overflow itself, and, after some exploration, the question seems to apply to many Stack Exchange sites.
I've actually learned a little more by browsing the Meta Questions & Answers, particularly FAQ for Stack Exchange sites and What's the single biggest barrier to entry on Stack Overflow?, but I still think this is a good question.
I didn't bother doing s/StackOverflow/StackExchange/g in the following, in some cases it wouldn't apply.
In general, I am finding the site overwhelming. I would like to find previous answers to my questions, before asking, but I don't know how.
I would love to find (unanswered) questions that I might be able to answer, but again, too much to wade through.
The tour is great, and explains the overall philosophy well.
I have browsed the help center, and read much that is helpful:
I have tried doing the following searches in the help center:
- beginner's introduction to Stack Overflow - 98 results
- Privilege: access to moderator tools - Access reports, delete questions, review reviews
- etc…
+beginner's introduction to stackoverflow - 1 result
* What are tags, and how should I use them?
helpful, but…stackoverflow faq - 8 results
helpful, except for where is the FAQ ?
My attempts at Stack Overflow search:
- Beginner's introduction to StackOverflow - 15 results
- static object creation
- text box message in visual basic
- starting activity after list view item is clicked …
- how to search stackoverflow - 5,103 results !!
- Navigating StackOverflow - 764 results
- nothing obviously helpful in first page
- StackOverflow FAQ - 412 results
- nothing obviously helpful in first page
- Where is StackOverflow FAQ - 59 results
- nothing obviously helpful in first page
- Where is "StackOverflow FAQ" - 3 results
- millions of photos on web server
- NOKIA N9 pppd
- SVN repository
Hope I didn't go overboard with beginner's Markdown.
Even though I'm a newbie to Stack Overflow, I am a systems programmer with decades of experience. I fondly remember participating in the (pre-Eternal-September) comp.sys.* & comp.lang.* Usenet groups. I know that probably means squat nowadays, but there may be others out there in my position.
