I disagree. I've learned a ton of programming languages over the years and the big differentiator between 'welcoming' and 'gatekeeping' communities around those languages is that the welcoming ones go out of their way to make new people welcome and the gatekeeping ones go out of their way to make the barrier to entry as high as they can. Telling people (several times, actually) in this thread that they should go read the documentation first is rude to the point of being on a different level than just gatekeeping. It makes the assumption that (a) the person didn't read the docs (b) that if they read them that they're too stupid to understand them and (c) that the documentation is perfect and explains things in a way that connects to the persons' level of understanding. None of these may be the case and to assume them is really bad. Consider that you are an ambassador for Elixir in this context and that you are driving others away, which does not serve Elixir and ultimately doesn't serve you.

It also stands in sharp contrast to how others in this thread have responded, which I think could easily be used as an example for the 'welcoming' element. Now, it is possible that you are for some reason personally irritated at 'newbies asking stupid questions' but consider that once upon a time you too were a newbie and that there are many fields where you are a newbie today and where talking to people and asking questions will serve as an accelerator to gaining knowledge because interaction is a much faster path to clearing things up than staring at the documentation.

Whether Elixir and Phoenix have 'some of the best documentation you will find' is besides the point, that only shifts the line at which interaction with others becomes the main driver of further advancement. And that good documentation wasn't written to serve as a hook for a putdown for new learners of the language.