Stack Exchange is a series of question-and-answer sites, including Stack Overflow for programming and Cross Validated for statistics. I was introduced to these sites at a short talk by Barry Rowlingson at the 2011 UseR! meeting, “Why R-help must die!”
These sites have a lot of advantages over R-help: The format is easier to read, math and code can be nicely formatted, the questions are tagged, search is easier, and there should be less redundancy.
Additional pros
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It’s good to help people.
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It’s fun to rack up reputation points for helping people.
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It’s good exercise, in both thinking about statistical questions and in articulating useful answers (and there are some interesting questions).
However, some cons
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The reputation points thing is a bit too addictive to me.
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The easy questions go fast; you have to watch constantly if you want a chance at them.
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Far too many questions are either dreadfully dull or terribly sloppy. (See Jeromy Anglim’s “How to ask me a statistics question” and Eric S. Raymond’s “How to ask questions the smart way.")
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Good answers are, at times, insufficiently appreciated.
So I gave up
I started spending time on stackoverflow and cross-validated soon after returning from UseR! 2011, but I lost my patience and quit within three months.
One needs to treat each question with respect, and I eventually seemed to lose my ability to sustain such goodwill. I think I take things too personally.
Update
I should clarify: I do continue to use Stack Exchange, mostly through google. Many problems I run into have already been answered. I just don’t have the right temperament to participate regularly in answering others' questions.