What a pretentious bunch of gatekeeping nonsense.<p>Clearly, ESR (and anyone following the tenets of documents like this) are not actually interested in <i>teaching</i> anyone anything. They have a truly transactional perspective on "Question Asking" in that some questions are "worthy of answering" and others aren't. People who "Take without giving back" (his words) are exactly those who you're teaching. They absorb knowledge directly from those providing the answers.<p>Teaching is the act of understanding where your audience is in the learning process, and leading/guiding them through that journey in a kind and patient way. The truly ignorant don't know how to ask the question. Think of a child who's first learning computer programming. Think of an adult who's studying a foreign language for the first time. Think of the questions of a child who's never experienced snow.<p>> What we are, unapologetically, is hostile to people who seem to be unwilling to think or to do their own homework before asking questions. People like that are time sinks — they take without giving back, and they waste time we could have spent on another question more interesting and another person more worthy of an answer. We call people like this “losers” (and for historical reasons we sometimes spell it “lusers”).<p>And this is why "internet hostility" is a thing. Good job creating this horrible culture right from the start.<p>Please don't follow the advice of this column. Be patient. Encourage anyone and everyone to ask questions, even if they're "duplicates" or "easy to answer". Use the Socratic Method (ask questions that lead to more questions). Actually teach people things.