Discussion: Why I think voting on this site would be bad
Let me start off by saying that I know that this is not a current topic, however it does come up periodically. When ever someone makes a thread mentioning "improvements" to our beloved site here, someone else invariably makes the suggestion to include a method of voting for the "best" answer. Well today I was Google'ing around to try and figure out why a certain DLL had so many entries (50+) in a certain 3rd party applications SEH chain when I stumbled on this little thread on good old SO: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9129852/why-cant-windbg-find-the-mscorwks-dll
What bothers me isn't the OP's question, we ask questions to learn. What bothers me is the top voted "solution"; that is to copy the DLL and rename it. Now copying the correct version over to the host machine is certainly necessary, but how the hell this guy got "just rename the file" as an answer is just baffling. Now 4 whole votes isn't a big deal, but look over at the number of times that this thread has been viewed and try to picture how many of those people now believe this to be the correct solution to this common as dirt issue. This is why I believe that any kind of "popular vote" system on a technical forum is a folly. I've mentioned that the easiest to digest answers are always the ones that get the most attention, well evidently no one even questioned this one for two years. This is the top hit on Google when you search for this dll by the way, so I didn't have to do very much to find it.
For those of you who might not be as intimate with Windows but would still like to know what is going on; here are the correct solutions to this problem:
- DLL Redirection: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms682600(v=vs.85).aspx
- Version control via .Manifest file: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa375632(v=vs.85).aspx
Anyone else have any thoughts about this topic?
What bothers me isn't the OP's question, we ask questions to learn. What bothers me is the top voted "solution"; that is to copy the DLL and rename it. Now copying the correct version over to the host machine is certainly necessary, but how the hell this guy got "just rename the file" as an answer is just baffling. Now 4 whole votes isn't a big deal, but look over at the number of times that this thread has been viewed and try to picture how many of those people now believe this to be the correct solution to this common as dirt issue. This is why I believe that any kind of "popular vote" system on a technical forum is a folly. I've mentioned that the easiest to digest answers are always the ones that get the most attention, well evidently no one even questioned this one for two years. This is the top hit on Google when you search for this dll by the way, so I didn't have to do very much to find it.
For those of you who might not be as intimate with Windows but would still like to know what is going on; here are the correct solutions to this problem:
- DLL Redirection: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms682600(v=vs.85).aspx
- Version control via .Manifest file: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa375632(v=vs.85).aspx
Anyone else have any thoughts about this topic?
I agree. This is probably the only forum I like for programming. I like the Qt one, and the Unity Forum (NOT Unity Answers - I hate Unity Answers). All the others, especially stack overflow, I hate. They are way too... "innovative", or in other words, they try to have so much on it. This forum, is amazing. You want an answer to a question? Cool! Post it on this forum, it will be answered (usually) in minutes!
Other forums, it goes to a moderator, then gets posted an hour later, finally, an answer! Nope, just some dick who thinks he owns the site: "This is in the wrong subforum. You need to post this elsewhere".
I admit this site could use some updates, maybe a nicer UI, a couple more sub forums such as game programming or GUI programming, etc. I hate tagging on a forum though. It is way to hard for it to be found. Also, the whole "commenting" thing is pretty futile. You don't get an email, and I almost always miss it when I check for answers.
But another pro to this forum is the community! Everyone is so nice! It is small, too. I can probably name off 10 usernames that are on this forum. And people know how to answer a question.
Other forums, it goes to a moderator, then gets posted an hour later, finally, an answer! Nope, just some dick who thinks he owns the site: "This is in the wrong subforum. You need to post this elsewhere".
I admit this site could use some updates, maybe a nicer UI, a couple more sub forums such as game programming or GUI programming, etc. I hate tagging on a forum though. It is way to hard for it to be found. Also, the whole "commenting" thing is pretty futile. You don't get an email, and I almost always miss it when I check for answers.
But another pro to this forum is the community! Everyone is so nice! It is small, too. I can probably name off 10 usernames that are on this forum. And people know how to answer a question.
| "This is in the wrong subforum. You need to post this elsewhere" |
Our community here is MUCH smaller than SO's. I think the vote system works well for their site, and much more often then not the accepted answer is correct (in my experience).
@ComputerGeek01 I think you should post the correct solution to that thread.
@ComputerGeek01 I think you should post the correct solution to that thread.
@ naraku9333: That tiny intellectual part of me that exists knows that I should. But as childish as it is I'm feeling really nihilistic toward that thread right now. I would have to recover my S.O. account and determine which one of the five possible Email accounts I have it linked to. Determine how much disinformation I seeded the security questions with, because I'm a jerk like that. Make a new password and log in all to do what? To tell a post that is two years old that I know a better way to fix a problem that the OP has likely forgotten about?
I know based on the hit counter that someone should post the right solution though so if you want to I'll leave it up for grabs. I guess I'm too bitter about how the "popular vote" has elected yet another mediocre script kiddie solution to a well known and solved problem.
EDIT: For anyone who does post the correct solution to that thread, remember it's either redirection OR a manifest file. NOT both.
I know based on the hit counter that someone should post the right solution though so if you want to I'll leave it up for grabs. I guess I'm too bitter about how the "popular vote" has elected yet another mediocre script kiddie solution to a well known and solved problem.
EDIT: For anyone who does post the correct solution to that thread, remember it's either redirection OR a manifest file. NOT both.
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Is the whole site called a forum, or is each 'topic' (Beginner, General, Lounge, etc) called a forum?
To me a forum is any public place that exists for discussion. So I guess my answer to your question is: Yes?
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