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submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by BenLloydPearson@programming.dev to c/programming@programming.dev

Stack Overflow has seen a substantial decline in traffic over the last year that appears to be accelerating. https://observablehq.com/@ayhanfuat/the-fall-of-stack-overflow

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[-] danhab99@programming.dev 111 points 11 months ago

IDK what shitoverflow gets out of being so fucking toxic. I asked one dumb question and I'm basically banned from posting on the website.

It feels like they're trying to be a sort of "wikipedia" of every programming problem and solution. The problem is that eventually everything will be posted, and everyone will be banned from the website.

[-] bh11235@infosec.pub 36 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

You lack vision, but I see a place where people get blocked and their questions opened then immediately closed as duplicates. Opened and closed, opened and closed all day, all night. Soon, where the internet once stood will be a string of condescending experts, admonitions that "you shouldn't do that, do Y instead", pleas for information closed as off-topic. Passive aggression, spiteful ego contests and wonderful, wonderful karma meters reaching as far as the eye can see. My God, it'll be beautiful.

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 23 points 11 months ago

"you shouldn't do that, do Y instead"

That's one of my favorites: ignore the problem, only pick on the scope we can't change.

[-] omegastick@lemmy.ml 14 points 11 months ago

I asked for advice on how to express something in UML once:

"No one cares whether you follow the UML standard, just make something up"

"But my company uses waterfall and requires UML diagrams to move onto the next phase of development!"

"That's an issue with your company then. Ask your boss how to do it. Question closed."

[-] Spike@feddit.de 8 points 11 months ago

It isnt even my problem and I still despair reading this.

[-] thebardingreen@lemmy.starlightkel.xyz 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

You have to build Rust from source, then install the dependencies with cargo, then update your node.js because it uses npm to manage it's configurations and if your npm isn't at least the current unstable version, the configs will be outdated. This worked for me on Arch, which is what I use btw.

[-] TehPers@beehaw.org 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

You have to build Rust from source

As someone who actually did out of interest at one point, you'd be surprised how easy this is to do. x.py is a godsend.

For the rest of your comment, it was immediately invalidated when you said you use Arch. The reality is that more people use Ubuntu, so you should be using Ubuntu too. Don't use apt? Figure it out yourself :P

[-] sheogorath@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

I think it's a behavior from work got carried over answering questions in StackOverflow. Usually when there's a request from client/PM/PO, I usually ask them what they want to achieve by requesting said feature, usually after asking that question they will think and find out that making that pet feature is not the best way to achieve that goal.

As a Software Engineer we're conditioned to respond that way to a question, and when we go to websites that's specifically to answer questions, we are still answering questions from fellow technical people in that same mindset, which is not helpful.

However, I've used the condescending answers from StackOverflow to my advantage. Sometimes in a project we'll get businesspeople with a technical background, either they used to be an engineer 15 years ago or they studied computer science in university but transitioned to product management after graduation. If they are really insistent on some technical detail, I usually created a StackOverflow question based on their request and show them all the comments telling how stupid that idea is.

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 1 points 11 months ago

Heh. Easy there, Satan. But I do like how you weaponised S.O ;-)

[-] MBM@lemmings.world 23 points 11 months ago

The problem is that eventually everything will be posted, and everyone will be banned from the website.

I don't think they see that as a problem, that's the goal

[-] astral_avocado@programming.dev 15 points 11 months ago

You were able to post on there at all? Don't they have extremely high barriers to entry for even question comments?

[-] danhab99@programming.dev 12 points 11 months ago

Honestly, I put some effort into get some of their reputation points. Then I asked one question that I didn't realize was dumb and I can't post questions anymore. You're welcome to see my profile and try to figure out how I did it ๐Ÿ‘

https://stackoverflow.com/users/3971843/dan

[-] astral_avocado@programming.dev 7 points 11 months ago

lmao, how dare you be inquisitive

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Not only post, but I have content that still feeds me residual cool-points even now.

I got a nastygram because I was editing the questions to follow a proper style and form (AP) and some people got upset that my comments were more "run on sentence" and " 'emails' and 'helps' both sound wrong as nouns for the same reason" instead of something like "there-there, Timmy".

So I said "you can have free editing, or the next guy can be a people person instead." And they agreed.

So I'm read-only there now too. :-D

[-] ICastFist@programming.dev 15 points 11 months ago

I vaguely recall the first time I ever asked something on SO, around 2013, the first reply was "this has already been asked before". No link to said previous question. Taught me to lurk and search more before asking anything there.

I sometimes also suffer a case of "explaining until I figure the question myself", where the more details I punch into my question, the more likely I am to find the answer myself.

[-] nic2555@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It feels like they're trying to be a sort of "wikipedia" of every programming problem and solution.

That is exactly what stackoverflow is supposed to be. It's not there to answer your question about "why is my IF statement not working", it's there to be a resource for all developers. How is a question about your specific problem gonna helps anyone ? If you haven't, take the time to read the "how to ask" section, it describes what kind of questions are acceptable and what kind are not.

There is, obviously, some proper questions that should not have been deleted, but most of them are not suited for the site, as they don't bring anything to the rest of the community.

[-] Deely@programming.dev 7 points 11 months ago

If SO supposed to be wiki, then why there no clear way to update the answer with new information? Why only the person that asked the question can mark answer as correct? Clearly some person with more expirience should have possibility to mark answer as correct.

[-] Spike@feddit.de 10 points 11 months ago

"You should be making a wiki page instead of a forum."

  • SO user on SO business model, thread closed Aug 2008
[-] nic2555@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

Depending on your reputation, you can edit the answer / comments of others. It's usually not recommended to change the context of the question or the answer but you could. Those update will be reviewed by other if needed. As for the correct answer, you can always upvote the answer you feel is the correct one, which is kind of a community way of selecting the correct answer.

this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2023
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