I suggest taking a look at Jon Skeet’s blog on culture – Stack Overflow Culture. He makes some good points on how to ask and answer questions on the Stack Overflow site. It is everyone’s job to maintain a positive culture within a community. These guidelines, which Jon calls his ‘covenant’, can easily be translated to a work environment outside of the site as well.
The company I work for and the people I work with follow these types of guidelines. These guidelines have helped us have a great culture and allowed our company to be one of Fortune’s top 100 companies to work at for 15 years straight. The online community, like a company, can be improved with reasonable guidelines and accountability. I would hate to see the Stack Overflow/Exchange community, one of my most valuable resources, be lost to a declining culture.
Adam McCardle 