I liked what the moderators and their teams did to make SO and SE sites interesting to read by keeping away lower quality contributions. But at the same time, I don't think think the sites were very welcoming to newer members/contributors. Recently, I have started visiting some of the microsoft sponsored forums/developer communities. They have no problem if the exact same questions have been asked many many times already. The use of downvotes button should also be minimize. Rather, a short reply to something you disagree is actually quite friendly. Downvotes can sometimes hurt someone feeling because you have no way of knowing why he/she is upset at what you posted.