quirky metaphors and swearing are about top answers I've crafted to existing questions that editors are slowly blandifying until its no longer my contribution anymore. The English is about people phrasing questions poorly and the mods immediately closing them, while muggins here has crafted a detailed three paragraph answer that now has nowhere to go.
> but generally pushing a consistent, impersonal scientific writing style does help a lot to make SO more accessible.
I mean you can argue that, but I think you can also argue that the dictionary is a difficult read sometimes, in spite of its existing style.
Point is the founders made a choice and it was a choice that pissed some people off, so I'm answering the "I don't have a problem with SO" comment to point out that I did because their choices made me dislike contributing.
I also think immediate closing is bad because it can waste your time like in your case. Maybe some grace period before closing would help, then closing also wouldn't be perceived as so bad
> I think you can also argue that the dictionary is a difficult read sometimes, in spite of its existing style.
Dictionaries can be difficult to read but I would compare SO more to Wikipedia in its writing style, which is very readable. Wikipedia is much more strict and without those style guidelines it would be way less useful.
> Point is the founders made a choice
Unless you mean recent choices, I would say the founders choices made SO so successful. There are a lot forums/platforms that are better suited for getting help, were discussions and expression of individual personalities are welcome and beneficial for community building. But at the same time those forums mostly help the people who are asking questions, but not people who google their issues, because long threads are less searchable and answers are harder to find. That's were SO shines, it scales because it prioritize people looking for answers instead of people looking for individual help. I too used to contribute in such forums, but knowing the limited reach of my answers there, I stopped helping individuals and choose to contribute to the much larger audience of SO (even if that means being subject to occasionally questionable mod actions or a few downvotes)
> but generally pushing a consistent, impersonal scientific writing style does help a lot to make SO more accessible.
I mean you can argue that, but I think you can also argue that the dictionary is a difficult read sometimes, in spite of its existing style.
Point is the founders made a choice and it was a choice that pissed some people off, so I'm answering the "I don't have a problem with SO" comment to point out that I did because their choices made me dislike contributing.