Why does the site attack people seeking help?

Question

I have technical problems i can't solve, and instead of providing help, I've been attacked. People complain that they don't like my questions, they troll all my content to down vote it, and now I've been told i can't ask anymore questions, due to people not liking me. Is this site here to help people with ubuntu issues, or is it just here for people to stroke their own egos, by pushing around people without as good of computer skills as them? I assume I'll be banned just for asking this, based on previous community interactions.

Answer 1

No, this site isn't here to help people with Ubuntu issues, that is a very common (and understandable) misunderstanding. The objective of this site is to collect a library of useful questions and answers that can help everyone, not just the person asking the question. This is why we get so obsessive about quality and clarity. And this is why we have a voting system, so useful questions and answers can be voted up, and less useful ones voted down. This has nothing to do with you, or any other individual, it is only about the questions and answers, not about the person posting them.

That said, you have asked a total of 8 questions:

Of these, only two have a negative score. In total, you have received 4 downvotes and 14 upvotes. That really doesn't seem like anyone is targeting you. Your questions have clearly been well received on average.

In any case, downvoting is not trolling. Not at all. If anything, not downvoting questions that deserve to be downvoted is trolling. Votes aren't personal, they are about the question. If a question isn't clear, if it isn't going to be helpful to others in the future, if it shows no effort, then it should be downvoted. That's how we can separate the really good questions and answers. I know it can feel bad, but please try not to take it personally, it really isn't about you at all.

I assume what prompted this question is your post from today. That only has two downvotes, at the time of writing, and 49 views. So two people, no more than that, out of 49 who read the question, felt it wasn't useful and downvoted. That really isn't much of a signal. It's just two people having an opinion. I have now upvoted the question myself since I do think it is clear and can be useful.

Maybe the people who downvoted felt you should have realized that you were reading old posts that were referring to an older version of the tool you use and that in the new version, there's a sort button right next to where you were looking. That is their right, of course, but I agree with you that this isn't very obvious. Not everyone finds icons with no text intuitive and not everyone is in the habit of trying every button to see what it does, so I can completely understand your confusion.

Or, perhaps, the people who downvoted felt your question wasn't clear. That makes a little bit more sense since you have posted screenshots but you haven't told us what tool you are using. There are multiple file browsers available for Linux systems, and if you don't tell us which one you are using, that is a little confusing. So maybe that's why people downvoted.

No matter the reason, it really doesn't make much difference: it's just two people's opinion, don't read too much into it. Most importantly, when people tell you your question isn't clear, that isn't an attack. It is an honest request for clarification. So please try not to take it as an attack and instead just clarify what they asked.