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I find googling for existing answers on forums, StackOverflow and Reddit to be great resources when I need to solve a problem, but I really dislike asking questions myself on those kind of platforms. I hate having to write a formal post and then hope someone responds, and then if anyone responds the conversation slowly crawls along post by post.

When I need help, I greatly prefer more casual, real time environments like Discord. To me, asking on forums feels like posting a newspaper ad for help and hoping someone mails me a letter, compared to asking on Discord feeling like walking into a room of knowledgeable people and discussing my question face to face.



The thing is that StackOverflow is not meant just for the asker; it's meant to serve as a searchable Q&A repository, so that when you google "how do I do X?" it's one of the first matches.

If you ask your question in a messaging system, it will help you but then be lost to the wider audience.


So you're actively participating in reducing the amount of useful solutions/answers available for everyone via a search engine.




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