There are only three reasons why people answer questions on stackoverflow:<p>1. fake internet points
2. a genuine interest in the question&#x2F;problem 
3. get paid to do it<p>I don&#x27;t know anyone who sticks with stackoverflow very long if #1 is their primary motivation.<p>And group #3 is a pretty small percentage of users whose companies have off loaded support onto SO, but they are paid real money to answer whatever question someone posts, so they will put up with a lot.<p>But leaves, in my opinion, #2 is being the majority of people actually answer questions on stackoverflow. Which I think breaks down to an aspect of question-asking that is often overlooked. Given that I am not just waiting around to help you, then it is up to you, question-asker, to motivate me to <i>want</i> to take time out of my day to answer your question.<p>At the worst, are people who asks questions with a chip on their shoulder, as if the internet is broken or the people who wrote the documentation committed some personal foul against them, and its up to the rest of the internet to make it up to them. I have <i>absolutely zero</i> motivation to help that person. Then there are the people that but no effort into either composing the question or finding thier own answer, a question that can be answered trivially enough by copying the title of the question into google and looking at the results. Again, you have failed to motivate me to answer your question.<p>Then comes the good questions, the ones that tell a story, that <i>entice me</i> into wanting to help this person achieve their goals. I <i>want</i> to help you, but <i>have other things to do</i>, give me a <i>reason</i> to procrastinate and help you figure out your problem&#x2F;misunderstanding. Tell me a story of what you are trying to do, what you tried and failed, let me see your thinking process that went into it. It&#x27;s up to you to build a social bond that I <i>care enough</i> to <i>help you</i>.<p>That, to me, is your job as &quot;the asker&quot;. Make me want to help you, and when it&#x27;s done we can both feel good about what happened. If you can&#x27;t take the time to do that, then there is little point in me helping you. I, honestly, have more important things I <i>should</i> be doing.