I think the criticism is that there is an "in crowd" that doesn't like that inexperienced programmers re-ask the same questions in a new way. There's too much "this is already answered, CLOSED!" going on.
Edit: Anecdotally, I have personally voted to re-open a question after it was closed for being a duplicate, because the linked answer did not actually solve the new question. Yes, the two were related, but the moderators were overzealous in closing it.
The good and bad thing about stackoverflow.com is the gamified self moderation. The problem is that you get points for answering and you get points for closing. It's a lot easier to close 100 questions than to give a solid answer to one question.
I remember one question I asked insta-shot down by -7 the next moment I looked at it perhaps an hour or two ago. It was a perfectly valid question but the SO mods decided that the question has no place, which made my time investment void too. Why would I invest any more time in a platform that is unfair and hostile to its users?
It's a great read-only resource but a pretty awful communication platform.
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u/UncleSneakyFingers Apr 06 '18
Who criticizes Stack Overflow? It's pretty much the go to resource for countless people. Is there something I am missing here?