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Admin
I have a similar reaction whenever I hear free-software advocates say that software development could be financed with support contracts.
Admin
TRWTF is that the business done the sensible thing
Admin
The article was from 2014 but this stack overflow is from somewhen around Feb 2013 and has an answer:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14830146/how-to-transfer-a-file-through-sftp-in-java
So maybe TRWTF is Aikh not using google?
Admin
Maybe it was submitted before that answer was posted. Or the original event just happened in a time before Stack Overflow got popular. Or maybe it was embellished a little, maybe a lot. You never know, huh?
Admin
That links to a question marked as a duplicate. One of the links from there is closed as "off-topic", the other contains nothing but an external link.
This is why I don't use Slack Undertow. There's so much focus on moderation and curation (along with sneering "why would you do that?" comments) that an answer to a question is considered secondary.
Admin
Weird, I had a similar reaction whenever I had to watch my manager invoke the company's Microsoft Gold Partner status for a support ticket on a fairly malignant issue. It would usually involve waiting around for months, asking for escalations at least once a week, before being told the problem was not going to be fixed.
(I hear Canonical and Red Hat are doing fine, by the way.)
Admin
@Jester Yes, there's a lot of that. Because a lot of people sadly don't know how to ask a question (or don't give a crap).
Ask questions properly and you receive very helpful answers. Not to mention all the goodness you come across when googling your problems beforehand.
Teaching people how to properly phrase questions and forcing them do be active on their own actually does more for them than dumping code. On the long run, anyway. But not everyone is open to learning those skills.
Admin
Hmm, I've never had that experience. To be fair, both the linked question and the closed question both have full answers that aren't link only. You normally won't see link-only answers unless the question is really old (like 2011). IMHO, stack overflow has changed programming for the better.
Admin
Maybe that SO question (or one of the linked ones) is from Dean - who knows.
Admin
"Ask questions properly and you receive very helpful answers."
Most of my questions don't get very good answers, which I actually take as an indication that I'm only asking hard questions. I don't think it's that I ask bad questions, I think I've only ever gotten one down vote. It seems like the reward system is geared more toward answering lots of easy questions, though I don't know why anyone would spend time just to increase their points on SO.
"Not to mention all the goodness you come across when googling your problems beforehand."
Tons of that, yes.
Admin
Either that or I've been completely blind the many times I've seen this. If they do have the link to the original question somewhere, they've succeeded in hiding it very well.
SO is based on Jeffware, isn't it?
Admin
"Most of my questions don't get very good answers, which I actually take as an indication that I'm only asking hard questions."
Maybe. It does help to reduce your problem to a minimal case. Unfortunately, SO gets a very large number of "plz send me teh codez" requests, and has become a little more defensive as a result.
"though I don't know why anyone would spend time just to increase their points on SO."
Because it's a number that's next to your name. Same reason people post way too much on traditional forums that show a post count.
Admin
At the top of a question maked as a duplicate is a yellow-tinged box with the words "This question already has an answer here:" and a link to the other question.
Admin
Just go to the forums here. Half the posts are by the same handful of people.
Admin
The previous TDWTF comment system had Likes, which were just as gratifying to get as those meaningless numbers on Stack Overflow.
Admin
"That links to a question marked as a duplicate. One of the links from there is closed as "off-topic", the other contains nothing but an external link."
Lol yeah. The top most results in google searches are always the ones that are "marked as duplicate" or where someone tells the OP to "use the search function". Very annoying. I think one day I will witness something like: *Le me using google to find an answer to a problem *Find a forum post with a link to "let me google that for you" *Only result will be the forum post with the link to "let me google that for you"