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I have been an active user of the javascript and php chat rooms on stackOverflow.

Yesterday I had a C++ question (which has since been deleted) and since it was urgent to my work I posted it (after I made the question) to the c++ chatroom, as I do in the other rooms, to get more immediate help.

The reaction by the room was to start downvoting my question and commenting on it saying that I should not post it to chat that soon after asking it.

Is this how it is supposed to be? On the javascript/php rooms I do not get as bad reaction. Is there some rule/rules regarding this?

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  • The reaction is warranted. Consider yourself "lucky" you dont get the same reaction in the js/php rooms. Your abusing chat for instant gratification.
    – Raynos
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 14:07
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    @Raynos. i don't do it for instant gratification. I do it because sometimes I am extra bothered by a question or I want to show something to someone -- which I have seen you do on numerous occasions ^_^
    – Naftali
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 14:08
  • But use chat for chat. Not for link dumping. Use it as part of a conversation. Have a damned conversation in chat.
    – Raynos
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 14:10
  • @Raynos, i always try to have convos in chat. I do not do link dumping
    – Naftali
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 14:13
  • c++ devs are the crankiest of the neckbeards. You do not want to piss them off. They never forgive, etc.
    – user1228
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 14:14
  • @Wont... well now I know that SO is not the place for me to post my C++ questions....It should not be like that. But I guess that is reality...
    – Naftali
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 14:15
  • @Neal: There is nothing wrong with posting C++ questions. I've found the answerers around the C++ tag to be extremely knowledgeable and helpful. They're just also a little grumpy. I think it's mostly forgivable, like that grandfather that's a little brusque but always has a lot of interesting stories to tell. Maybe next time just skip the chat foray? ;-)
    – Cody Gray
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 14:23
  • @CodyGray -- yes but now I am quite discouraged from posting anything with c++....
    – Naftali
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 14:24
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    @Neal: Buck up, boyo. This is the interwebtubes. Nothing is real here, nobody knows who you are, and ponies!
    – user1228
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 16:13
  • @Wont.... but why would i want ponies.... c++ gives me ponies. i want them to give me waffles and unicorns..
    – Naftali
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 16:14

2 Answers 2

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A number of the active C++ users are quite opposed to this practice and have recently tried to speak out against it. At a minimum, they ask that you stick around to discuss your question in the chat room, rather than just posting drive-by links. This particular argument makes some degree of sense to me:

I don't know if I'm the only one who feels this way, but the chat is for social chatting. It is not a reserve of answerers at the beck and call of anyone who was smart enough to look there. If someone has a question, then we have a Q&A site for that, and if someone wants to look at questions, they will browse said site.

It does seem a bit like abuse to treat the participants in the chat room like "a reserve of answerers at [your] beck and call". We already have a perfectly good Q&A site for asking questions, and brand new questions already appear at the top of the queue where they can be easily seen by users browsing the site. There's no compelling reason that I can see to drum up even more attention for them in chat.

I'm not sure what is and what is not considered acceptable in the Javascript and PHP chat rooms, but the chat rooms around here are kind of "self-governed". As long as there is not anything bad happening, we tend to let the various communities police themselves. If you do see something bad happen, that's what you have flags for, to let someone know. Posting links like this isn't something that can get you banned from chat, but it certainly can upset certain users.

As far as downvoting, people can downvote questions for any reason that they like. Nothing we can do about that. At least they left comments, right? That seems to be the most popular thing to whine about nowadays: downvoters who don't leave comments.

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  • I did try to stick around and chat, all they did was blast me...
    – Naftali
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 14:13
  • @Neal: Consider linking to the transcript of the chat in question, then.
    – Cody Gray
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 14:15
  • how do I find when I was there?
    – Naftali
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 14:17
  • @Neal: No idea. I don't use chat, but I've sure been sent a lot of transcripts before, so I'm sure it's possible. It's hard to imagine what the problem was if you were interested in discussing the question. That does seem like an appropriate use of the chat rooms. That's why I'm curious to see the transcript.
    – Cody Gray
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 14:57
  • @Neal, use your chat profile: chat.stackoverflow.com/users/561731/neal?tab=recent Right now, it looks like the only things that happened were you saying "hey can anyone here help with my question:" and posting your question URL. There are no in-chat replies, unless there are deleted posts I can't see. To find less recent things, you can always use the search box at top right of most chat pages. After you hit Enter, you'll see options to select the user who said the search term and the room to look in.
    – Pops
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 15:16
  • @PopularDemand. cool I ddnt know you could do that. so yes. noone responded to me on chat.
    – Naftali
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 15:19
  • Oh, you can also "bookmark" a conversation snippet from a live room or room transcript by selecting room > create new bookmark and clicking on the start and end messages. That'll give you a custom URL you can share that contains just the selected messages. @Neal
    – Pops
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 15:22
  • The C++ chat is completely useless. It needs to be moderated to something useful, or renamed to something that isn't C++.
    – Asheh
    Commented Jun 15, 2015 at 15:02
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The reaction by the room was to start downvoting my question and commenting on it saying that I should not post it to chat that soon after asking it.

They reacted because I presume you just linked the question then left the room.

Did you attempt to talk about it. Did you talk about it before you linked it?

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  • I attempted to talk about it, yes. as I do in the javascript and php ooms alike
    – Naftali
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 14:12

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