It's also assuming the SO answer is less considerate of context than the documentation; this can be the case, but I find quite often good answers are quite comprehensive and explain things broadly.
before: questions were always open. and over time people added those details.
now, after someone answer with a one liner and gets accepted, the question is "closed to prevent 'me too' comments"
it's going downhill for the same reason every internet community does: power crazy moderators who completely misses the point of the site they moderate.
The "me too" functionality is protection, not closing - registered users with a certain amount of reputation can still answer them. Similar to Wikipedia's system.
Every "me too" protected item I've seen has half a dozen "me too" answers deleted at the bottom. It's likely necessary.
I don't think it's just the moderators, there's also an incentive problem because a popular question/answer has no limits on its point-payout.
This leads to a kind of popularity gold-rush pattern. Hard important stuff languishes while easy stuff is has a glut of volunteers.
I'd be interested to see what happens if questions and answers only gave up to a fixed limit of Internet-points to the authors or contributors. Would it lead to a broader knowledge base?
