By definition, this question <i>is</i> off-topic. That said, there are exceptional cases where SO community appreciates the valuable information provided by the answers and marks a question as protected. For example:
<a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1711/what-is-the-single-most-influential-book-every-programmer-should-read" rel="nofollow">http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1711/what-is-the-single-m...</a><p>This is one of these rare cases. I'm glad that this question was re-opened and got protected - I think that was the right thing to do.<p>All that said, I'm sick and tired of all the winning I hear about SO lately, so many complaints, yet, everyone keeps using it.<p>I do not encourage a vicious behavior as sometimes seen in SO but I also don't like to watch people post again and again the same questions that have been answered multiple times and could be found in a simple google search (and which probably show on the right bar when they compose the question).<p>I'm also tired of people complaining about closing questions - dudes, if you don't want your question to get closed pretty please put some effort in it! do your research, post what you're tried, compose a minimal working example that reproduces the error, post a FULL stacktrace and show which line triggered it. But no, people don't like to "work hard" so they put all the burden on the people that are here to help them. This is NOT cool. So yes, fuck yes - I will keep voting to close poor questions, and even (potentially) good questions that the author didn't bother to give a fuck about making it clear, readable & reproducable (but please do not <i>dump</i> all your code and expect me to read it if only one small method is relevant) and no - this is almost always NOT a language/culture issue - regardless of what some people say.<p>Bottom line: they say "in rome act like romans" - well when you join a community you should follow the community rules. Take a few minutes to go through the help center, see if what you're asking is on-topic. Learn how to post a new (good) question. Hell, even ask someone you know to read what you've written and give you the feedback if it's clear and if it makes sense. You want help? so put the time and effort so that <i>we</i> won't waste <i>our</i> time & effort when we try to help you!<p>Have a nice weekend!<p>P.S.
Those who know me, know that I like to help people regardless of what I just wrote (example):
<a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/31358932/is-there-a-payment-processing-company-that-i-could-use-for-a-0-25-average-trans#comment50699206_31358932" rel="nofollow">http://stackoverflow.com/questions/31358932/is-there-a-payme...</a><p>but I really <i>am</i> tired of hearing all the criticism. It bothers me especially when I recognize that it comes from intelligent people that I'm not sure if they're just "playing dumb" or being a "smartass".<p>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<p>Help us help you!