So I program for Linux, Android, (groan) Apple, and Windows.

Largely my Windows programming has been successful, although there are many times 50 ways to skin the same cat, or re-define said cat to be a bunny!

StackOverflow is a "moderate" resource mainly because I Google for C# or Visual Studio questions and a large amount of found answers appear as legacy StackOverflow question responses.

I think I've asked about 10 questions there.

I'm not so bad. An experienced engineer, 30'ish years programming. Been doing the Windows thing for a couple of years.

Probably all 10 of my questions to StackOV have largely been shunned.

People ask for clarification. You try to provide that. Your question gets down-voted. Your question gets put on hold. Your question gets removed.

When brand new on the site I was asked to either comment or edit something by a responder and I found I could not do this because people had down-voted me so that I had negative 2 reputation and therefore was a baddie. Nice eh?

Like I say, "I'm not that bad" I do ask with respect, with logic, and do try to follow-up when someone asks for more information.

So ... as pushy, snarky, overbearing as we can be sometimes here.

We're not so bad.

Sadly I had the same experience with all the stack sites. LQ has been really great to me. People seem to really want to help. You do get the occasional go RTFM which I don't personally like as an answer. This sites exists to answer questions. But all in all I have had the best experience of any forum on this site.

I had the same experiences there.
The whole thing seems like a popularity contest of one-up man-ship(?)

Vote up, vote down. Reminds me of that silly Like button.
How do those features help anyone but the people using them?
New user signs up and asks a Q and gets voted down. Well the good news is they wind up here.

#LQ_beats_stack_any_day

That is a huge site too. Like any site it takes the right person at the right time reading it.

I will have to admit that I asked a question one time and was kind of shocked to see it was voted down. How exactly can a question get voted down? Maybe an answer but a question?

I am certainly one who expects people to have made some effort before I'll give them the (final) answer.I see it (and the others) as a means to help find the answer - much better if the OP figures it out themself.
"teach a man to fish ..."

A major problem with "one size fits all" web-sites like StackOverflow is that they receive hundreds of new posts every hour ... and on any topic imaginable. The odds are therefore "quite excellent(!)" that your question will get lost in the crowd.

This, I think, is why "subject-matter specific" forums, like LinuxQuestions.org and PerlMonks.org, ultimately win the day.

In my experience, LQ is the friendliest Linux place on the inner webs.

I've seen persons go out of their way many times over to help posters who couldn't ask their question right to get the question right, so they could in turn get right answers. Sure, sometimes even the most experienced members get exasperated (I know I have, and I still consider myself a newbie compared to the gurus who have helped me over the years and who understand regex, which still makes my brain hurt), but, all-in-all, this is a very nice internet place to be. That's why I became a regular.

And the thanks go to Jeremy and community he has created and fostered.

Ditto. Hear, hear!

Linux & BSD are communities, ones that helped me when I knew nothing, & I repay them by helping out answering questions on forums, just like my predecessors did. I may not know a lot, but if I, or someone else with only a little knowledge, does likewise, it allows the true gurus the time to answer the complex questions. If you have learned something, that is more than a beginner knows.

Ditto, although I have noticed some Stack sites are better than others. The Sports one is rarely pissy.

This place is so easy going it's boring at times.

To Whit. I'm searching for iOS programming information and of course questions are answered on Stack OV.

Noticed I was still logged in there.

Noticed that my reputation was higher than the "hit" it took because I asked a suspect question about a week ago.

I recently received like 5 reputations points for a question I asked back in September, 2013 ...

I have no problem with an RTFM answer on LQ, so long as (and this is important) the answer includes a pointer to the manual (or a reasonable facsimile there of). We are here to help persons who ask for help. Sometimes, though, the answer is far more complex than can easily fit in a post.

RTFM by itself does not help. RTF that M over there can help, because it sends someone somewhere to find an answer.

I have never asked questions on stack, but I have seen what happens to those that do. Frankly the site reminds me of God Like Productions (GLP) where you can be banned for the stupidest reasons.

LQ has been the definitive site for help with Linux for a very long time. I have tried many other sites over the years and few can compare to the users here. Jeremy built something special here, and the users have for the most part kept up that vision. I have given and recieved RTFM answers(with directions of course) here in the past and even when you do recieve it as an answer, it tends to be less snarky.