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Years ago, in the days before StackOverflow was a "professional" (I laughed when I read that) place to go and get and provide assistance, there was essentially one goal for SO. The founders wanted a Q&A site that would make the web a better place, especially for developers. In order to achieve that goal, it seemed as though everything boiled down to just one rule.

Simply put, "Don't be an ass"...

I've been observing some of the discussions the past few weeks and decided to raise a question about what we need to do as a community to get back to the days past where the site was more fun to use and reconnect with some older users...

As it turns out, the question I asked were essentially completely ignored. The ensuing answers and comments I think show the very bitterness I was hoping we could identify ways to move around. Rather than anything that would be constructive towards identifying ways to move forward, the responses all were negative and not one person provided an answer to the questions asked. Comment battles ensued and now the question has been closed as "not constructive".

Question 1

What do we have to do as a community to reconnect with our past?

Question 2

Do we even care about it?

The very feelings and emotions towards SO that I highlighted in my post standout more than ever now and the only thing that has been proven is that what I'm seeing and have been feeling are also being felt by others.

So I conclude with my final question...

What happened to the don't be an ass rule?

Is this rule still around? Is it still enforced?

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3 Answers 3

Yes, the rule is still in place, and it's codified on every site in the Stack Exchange network in the /faq:

Be nice.

Treat others with the same respect you’d want them to treat you.

As for whether or not it's enforced, yes, it is.

When the following is observed:

  • Behavior in a single instance that is so egregious
  • A pattern of behavior which persists over time (which are monitored and recorded to varying degrees)

Which indicates that someone is violating the spirit of this rule, then moderators/SE employees will engage in a range of actions to rectify the situation.

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It's worth remembering that the culture of meta is not the same as the culture of the content sites (and should not be). "Be nice" applies, but not "be nice to ideas", indeed you should be pretty frank about what you consider to be bad ideas. If you work at it you can be respectful of the people advancing those ideas at the same time.

I would encourage you not to take this last fortnight as representative. Several long simmering conflict have all come to a head at once (coincident with--and perhaps partially because of--the roll-out of the real time reputation management).

It's time for everyone to take a few deep breaths...

I've see two big issues discussed over and over again this last week

  • Moderation transparency and accountability.
  • The effects of the long-term trend toward less inclusive definition of "on-topic" for Stack Overflow and the recent uptick in application of the new standards.

Both of these are emotionally charged issues and for good reason. It's not like the moderators don't try to do the right thing as much in the open as possible, nor are either the deletionist or the inclusionists without good arguments.

There is a effort underway to make the moderation process more transparent, and the CC license insures that we can save all the deleted content. There is still the matter of how to save the data and the matter of what to do with rep earned in good faith (and for all that I am a staunch deletionist, I think this is important), but these issues can be solved.

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As CasperOne points out, the FAQs imply just that.

Be Nice.

Nobody can be nice for you.


I think that such a rule should always be enforced. Humans need some sort of restraint (or we'll end up with deletion wars or worse ducks).

Fun fact: People tend to take on a new personality online, and more often than not, that personality is not always a civil one.

There are several notable trolls on StackOverflow, and they have been suspended for long periods of time. However, there is only so much that can be done to enforce the rule. Realistically, the best way to enforce this rule is for each user to check their own behavior. Moderators should step in where it's clearly necessary, but beyond that, there's little that can be done.

Yes, it's still in effect, each user should police themselves.

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