Comment by mlinhares

I don't think the problem is blocking, the environment it was built on was sterile. We had large forums back then where people would discuss anything, build community at the off topic channels (like the venerable JavaRanch) but there was no such thing at SO because it was actively trying to kill any off topic discussion.

The site itself was built on a platform of being a tool alone, where people shouldn't interact unless it was to ask a question or provide an answer. I have made friends and met multiple people from the multiple forums and user groups I was a member of but I met 0 people at SO even though i contributed hundreds of answers.

So it's no wonder it produced this mechanistic and toxic environment. It saddens me we lost so much of these niche communities to this thing.