Comment by firesteelrain

2 years ago

It’s not that. It’s the browbeating that is a turn off and rude comments. Like others have said, it is toxic.

They are also drumming up old (12 year plus old) questions finding duplicates and accusing people of plagiarism when the site rules changed.

It’s gotten worse over time

> It’s not that.

I’m replying to a comment that is talking about exactly that. If you want to complain about something else, then that’s a different discussion. But for the purpose of this discussion, yes, it’s that.

> It’s the browbeating that is a turn off and rude comments. Like others have said, it is toxic.

Can you give some examples? If I believed everything people say on this subject, I would expect to see a never-ending stream of insults and bullying on Stack Overflow, but when I go there, I don’t see anything of the sort, except for the occasional comment that’s voted heavily down and/or moderated away. I know toxic behaviour is against the rules, and I can see those rules are enforced effectively.

As far as I can tell, the idea that Stack Overflow is a pit of toxicity is a complete myth. Where is all of this toxicity? Saying that something is off-topic for the site is not toxicity. Closing things as duplicates is not toxicity. Hitting pause on an account that is mass-deleting content is not toxicity.