GoofyGrin expounds on StackOverflow in a recent posting - he (and the comments) brings up a lot of issues that simply didn't exist when I first became a member, shortly after the closed beta ended.  But the "game" aspect definitely hurts, IMHO, as much as it helps.  For instance, I was looking for a specialized datastructure (or combination of many) for a project I was working on.  I wrote a question after a long day of beating my head trying to resolve the issue, and left for the day - I figured I'd give the Internet a whole weekend to chime in and help me resolve my issue and come in Monday fresh and recharged.  Instead 4 hours later on a Friday night I get: Anyway, this is pointless and OP seems disinterested anyway. I am done with this question. Please pardon me if I don't respond to any more comments. If I wanted to post my question on IRC, I would have. 

 

Plus, at some point in 2010 they started posting the questioners "Accept Rate."  I think this actually discourages people from answering if they feel they're not going to get the 15 Accepted Answer points.  It's not enough that they might actually post a useful answer.  And depending on your rate, it appears as if the color becomes more prominent, so if you have a 25% rate, it shows up, where my currently 63% rate is pretty grey and barely noticable.   When it was 57% last week it was green and stuck out.  Stackoverflow is punishing me for asking questions that have tough answers - or is punishing me because I don't come in and perform "cleanup" tasks. 

 

It's a game in many ways, ways in which it helps the system work better - but some of those ways also seem to punish, and the fly-by attitude of the above commenter just struck me.  To be fair, "Moron" provided a fairly decent answer - his comment was on the current highest-rated answer.  At the moment, I'm considering granting him the answer points just because he's closest - though it appears that no one has really answered my question.  

 

I'll concede that I may have worded it such that no one CAN answer it - which is another problem altogether. 

 

StackOverflow isn't down and out like GoofyGrin thinks - Slashdot too went through lots of growing pains (Natalie Portman, Hot Grits, Goatse.cx, Frist P0st, link spam, etc.)  It's grown over the years to help keep these to a minimum, and it's helped keep those who want to stay there - I still make it my daily check-in every morning, after nearly 14 years.  Stackoverflow has that potential with me, maybe because I didn't have to suffer through the anti-link-spam tricks and low points limitations.  But Goofygrin has a point - when you're new to a community and there are so many walls to basic participation, it's frustrating - and that's not necessarily good for your community over the long term.