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8I think the WSOIN question did a better job of educating the "more experienced" users who continued to upvote and/or answer the garbage questions instead of finding the "close" button. This is just one less arrow in the quiver regarding fighting a progressive deterioration of quality (could just be my opinion and not reality). Did some people abuse it? I don't know, but if those comments didn't educate the asker one bit but at least got the question closed, deleted, and obliterated from the planet just a bit faster, they were worth it. Broken windows, you know.– Anthony PegramCommented Jun 27, 2012 at 1:12
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2@AnthonyPegram if it was meant for the more experienced users, it should have been targeted at teaching them, not being thrown at people who, honestly, don't care.– ZeldaCommented Jun 27, 2012 at 1:13
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3I know the frustration, @Anthony - but you're just replacing one broken window with another– Shog9 StaffModCommented Jun 27, 2012 at 1:51
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6@Shog rude comments are alive and well, with or without WSOIN– PekkaCommented Jun 27, 2012 at 14:54
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2@discount then perhaps a few canned examples of nice, constructive, helpful comments for people to choose from and learn from would be instructive? I think so.– Jeff Atwood StaffModCommented Jun 27, 2012 at 15:00
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1@Jeff I would totally support that. Or as an alternative to WSOIN, create a high-rep feature to post polite, community-curated pro-forma comments. (If there's too much snark, then maybe even make them static... although that would take away a lot of ability to respond to an individual situation.) Related: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/136609/…– PekkaCommented Jun 27, 2012 at 15:02
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3@JeffAtwood I kinda thought that was what WSOIN was supposed to be. For a long time it wasn't successfully meeting that goal (it was not always constructive or helpful) but with the recent number of edits, and possibly with further edits for those questions not helpful or constructive, it could continue to be a good resource for, "What should I say in a comment when a user does X wrong?" That's what I used it for, whether I linked to it directly or not.– ServyCommented Jun 27, 2012 at 18:30
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@Servy: that was the intention, but in practice that wasn't how it was being used (in most cases): see the examples I list in the question here - those were all posted after the recent spate of edits.– Shog9 StaffModCommented Jun 27, 2012 at 19:57
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6@Shog9, I just don't see in what way that link-only comments are rude. They summarize, and the user can click through to get a longer explanation. If the user is offended by a daggum link, they really are going to have a difficult time wading the internet. We're programmers, not their mothers. "Stack Overflow is not a research assistant" is far more constructive than a "go read the FAQ" comment, which is still more constructive than just a downvote and a vote to close (by themselves).– Anthony PegramCommented Jun 27, 2012 at 20:12
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1And with the "Stack Overflow is not...," you also potentially sidestep the sympathy upvotes and discussion around "why all the downvotes." Click the link, that's why.– Anthony PegramCommented Jun 27, 2012 at 20:13
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@Anthony: yes, it's more constructive than GTFO too; you can come up with plenty of examples that are more rude. I disagree strongly that any of these are more useful - of your time or of the time spent by anyone else reading - than simply voting. And closing automatically results in a pre-defined message with links to the FAQ being posted. Also... "Stack Overflow is not a research assistant"... Sure it is. Anyone posting that with a straight face is ignoring what actually happens every day on SO. If you want someone to provide more details, then ask them to do so.– Shog9 StaffModCommented Jun 27, 2012 at 20:30
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3@Shog9, the entire point is that voting by itself is often countered by people who do not understand why the negative votes are occuring. The vote to close can be countered with later votes to reopen for the same reason. But I reject the entire premise that link-only comments that point to a specific answer in WSOIN is in any way rude. It is not. It is entirely civilized and consensus-building, especially in comparison to what may appear when people are once again left to their own devices. "WhatHaveYouTried.com" comments are rude. WSOIN is not. But maybe I'm way too far gone to the dark side.– Anthony PegramCommented Jun 27, 2012 at 20:57
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I tend to agree that WHYT comments fall into the same bucket, @Anthony (they're referenced in this question also). I checked on them at a moderator's request a month or so back, and at the time they were about 50/50 helpful/rude. I should probably check again...– Shog9 StaffModCommented Jun 27, 2012 at 21:22
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@Shog9: Time to break out the StackExchange SuperCollider? Comment Burninator? again.– user102937Commented Jun 27, 2012 at 21:27
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@JeffAtwood, full circle? :)– BenjolCommented Jul 5, 2012 at 7:58
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