I don't really agree with this article's assessment.
If your question isn't clear, it's not possible to get good answers. If your question is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the technology you're using, the best possible answer is "You're fundamentally misunderstanding the technology you're using."
Stack Overflow encourages users to edit other people's questions for clarity and formatting, which I think is helpful for a lot of new users that don't know how the site works yet. And my experience has been that when there isn't enough information in a question, you tend to get comments asking for more, which is productive.
I do agree that Stack Overflow can be a bit daunting for new users, especially because you're not allowed to comment right off the bat. I believe the threshold is 50 reputation, which can be hard to get early on, because questions get answered so quickly on Stack Overflow that it's hard to find questions that still need an answer.
If your question isn't clear, it's not possible to get good answers. If your question is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the technology you're using, the best possible answer is "You're fundamentally misunderstanding the technology you're using."
Stack Overflow encourages users to edit other people's questions for clarity and formatting, which I think is helpful for a lot of new users that don't know how the site works yet. And my experience has been that when there isn't enough information in a question, you tend to get comments asking for more, which is productive.
I do agree that Stack Overflow can be a bit daunting for new users, especially because you're not allowed to comment right off the bat. I believe the threshold is 50 reputation, which can be hard to get early on, because questions get answered so quickly on Stack Overflow that it's hard to find questions that still need an answer.