Question

I would just like to ask about the main point of Socratic being to help students solve problems?

Quite a few contributors it seems are just out there to gun down answers posted by other contributors and this in my opinion defeats the whole point of such a platform.

Answer 1

If I may offer my perspective on this...

Explanation:

Indeed, the main point of Socratic is to help students solve problems, or, bettter yet, to help them understand how to apply theoretical concepts to solve problems.

I would say that the vast majority of contributors, especially more experienced ones, focus solely on teaching and helping students understand how to solve problems.

Now, I don't think that letting someone know about a mistake they might have made in an answer they posted is something to be avoided.

Socratic is community-driven and we rely on each other to make sure that answer quality stays as high as possible.

With that being said, I definitely agree that not all comments are made equal, so to speak.

It's true that critique sometimes comes off as being aggressive, especially when tone of voice and intention are so difficult to decode over written comments.

Not only that, but many people are very competitive by nature and tend to let that side creep out when they spot mistakes others have made.

You know, the old "making someone feel stupid makes me feel like I'm not so stupid" routine :D

I would still hope that most people who critique other people's answers do so out of passion for the subject material, and that they're not malicious in any way.

Socratic's purpose aside, our goal as a community is to pull in the same direction.

It's safe to say that most of us are here for the right reasons, which is why it's important to try and avoid scuffles and small fights that can be so distracting and time-consuming.

I'm not sure about the severity of the incidents you're referring to - maybe we can help moderate some of these discussions?