This is true in so many systems like MMO games too. I was an avid player of one for a few years, did OK but not especially well, lost interest. A few years later I visited again in a moment of idleness, mainly to see if my account was still live. Completely different experience: other players would look at my account age and flee, assuming that I was packing all kinds of whoop-ass.
I use SO all the time but just search for other people's answers and apply them to my existing problem. To some extent this is simply more convenient for me (I don't have to wait and translating a solution to my context builds my skills anyway), but the institutionalized antipathy to general/conceptual questions make it feel like an unfriendly environment.
I use SO all the time but just search for other people's answers and apply them to my existing problem. To some extent this is simply more convenient for me (I don't have to wait and translating a solution to my context builds my skills anyway), but the institutionalized antipathy to general/conceptual questions make it feel like an unfriendly environment.