StackExchange, a success, and a failure.

I made a mention in an earlier post that I've been enjoying the StackExchange website for a while.  One of the things that I've been finding interesting is  how the site's Q/A format has been living up to most of the expectations that its creators had hoped for, and yet at the same time it has in a way been a failure.

Actually I find a lot more interesting about Stack Exchange than simply a view of its successes and failures, but I'm known for making the occasional bold and controversial statement so I'd better try and stick to defending my point of view without getting too far off topic.

Dealing with a poisonous workplace culture

I've become quite a fan of the StackOverflow and the Programmers StackExchange websites over the last couple of years.  Not only as a resource whenever I get stuck on some IT related question that I don't have a ready answer for, but also as a place to return a contribution to the development community at large as payment for the years of help that I have received by people who I have never met that gave over some of their time to post the answer to a question or two.

At first I found myself contributing answers to technical questions, but lately I find myself ignoring most of those, and focusing instead on the questions that relate to the problems that technical people often face, where people skills and psychology are required.  Take this post for example in which I answered a question relating to dealing with people treating the poster as a bit of a tall poppy in his view. As I read the poster's question, it reminded me of past events in which I had found myself in a similar situation.