I am new to Mathematica.SE. There are few things I have observed recently. I will try to lay them down with regard to this example.
- The question was not formatted. Another user spent considerable time to help with the formatting.
- The question was localised to the poster's needs.
- Even though the question was downvoted, we tried to help the user to resolve and debug one at a time.
- However, once the question was resolved (though we felt there were still fundamental issues), the user just vanished. Never cared to respond to our further comments or accept the answer.
What I feel about it:
- The user might have been very busy and may have a deadline as well. He/she might not have enough time to get back. I still hope the user gets back after few hours and end the discussion.
- We might not have been fully correct. We felt (are still sure) there are fundamental issues and we did point them out. However, there was no answer to that. If at all the user felt that the comment was not justified, shouldn't they have explained? It would have helped us understand as well.
- There have been similar discussions on SO. This brings negativity in the community. People get discouraged to answer the questions. Have a look at the answer posted by the user mystical (second most top voted answer) for this question on SO.
- I feel it is highly detrimental to the community. Mathematics SE is relatively new and it might just become a norm resulting in a downfall.
How can we help the new users to understand this and motivate them to complete the discussion? Are such phenomenon normal and accepted by the community in general---am I over-reacting?