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Ask HN: In your opinion, what sucks about StackOverflow

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Re: Ask HN: In your opinion, what sucks about StackOverflow

#51

Post by techdragon »

achairapart wrote: post #38

StackOverflow is one of the most toxic community out there. Asking a question is a miserable experience. Answering a question? Same. It really seems no one is there to help each other. It's mostly status quo or reputation. Moderators have too much work to do or have serious ego problems (most users call them "StackOverlords"). Or a mix between the two. One thing I noticed is that other sites of the Stack Exchange Net…

That’s actually a really fantastic idea. Smash StackOverflow into hundreds of smaller StackExchange sites where people have a fighting chance of managing things. PHP.stackexchange, Wordpress.stackexchange (already exists interestingly enough) Python.stackexchange, Django.stackexchange, React.stackexchange, Java.stackexchange, JavaScript.stackexchange… some of these will still be very busy sites but at least they will be of more manageable size and better equipped to moderate outdated content.

Re: Ask HN: In your opinion, what sucks about StackOverflow

#52

Post by webmobdev »

Jorengarenar wrote: post #46
webmobdev wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are billions of us for whom English isn't our native language. A little more patience and empathy by the mods would go a long way.

Sorry, I don't buy this argument at all. I'm not native speaker either and somehow have been able to write comprehensible sentences since elementary school. There is no excuse for not using punctuation, not capitalizing letters, not breaking statements into sentences. Here, an example [1] right from SO, raw copy-paste: >please can anyone point out what I have done wrong this is code for permutation which stores all p…

> I'm not native speaker either and somehow have been able to write comprehensible sentences since elementary school.

Good education makes a difference. Not everyone is so lucky.

Re: Ask HN: In your opinion, what sucks about StackOverflow

#53

Post by UweSchmidt »

david_allison wrote: post #35
UweSchmidt wrote: post #25

The width of the code blocks in the answers is often too narrow and require horizontal scrolling "Hot Network Questions" are a distraction and take up too much horizontal space.

> "Hot Network Questions" are a distraction and take up too much horizontal space. Well worth blocking these with an adblocker, if you don't already

Done, but now there is some empty space instead. Probably fixable with some custom CSS...

Re: Ask HN: In your opinion, what sucks about StackOverflow

#54

Post by ___luigi »

Stackoverflow is a very toxic community. It's not a welcoming place for beginners who are basically want to learn how to learn. An alternative was to use discuss forums (e.g. https://forums.fast.ai/).

I have spent time responding to questions on Stackoverflow, I think I spent 2-3 years providing answeers, and one time I answered a question that didn't follow a weird policy that I strongly don't agree with (https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/311442/opinion-base...). I got banned, and my account has been deleted, the answers still there. My only regret was that I could have spent that energy and drive to contribute to open source projects on github. Now, I have less time, but I answer questions -when I have time- on reddit or forums.

Re: Ask HN: In your opinion, what sucks about StackOverflow

#55

Post by Jorengarenar »

webmobdev wrote: post #52
Jorengarenar wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, I don't buy this argument at all. I'm not native speaker either and somehow have been able to write comprehensible sentences since elementary school. There is no excuse for not using punctuation, not capitalizing letters, not breaking statements into sentences. Here, an example [1] right from SO, raw copy-paste: >please can anyone point out what I have done wrong this is code for permutation which stores all p…

> I'm not native speaker either and somehow have been able to write comprehensible sentences since elementary school. Good education makes a difference. Not everyone is so lucky.

Really? They didn't receive "good education", so makes it somehow OK to write like preschooler? They would need to receive education deliberately worsening their learning skill for it to be understandable. Capitalization of first letter in sentence isn't difficult concept to grasp, neither is using periods at the end.

Re: Ask HN: In your opinion, what sucks about StackOverflow

#56

Post by thomastjeffery »

Jorengarenar wrote: post #47
thomastjeffery wrote: post #42

Questions are silos. StackOverflow users are constantly complaining about duplicate questions. The real problem is that the onus for better question asking is placed on the asker, who is only really motivated and prepared to express their confusion. The whole reason most questions are asked is because the asker isn't familiar enough with the problem domain to find the answer. That also means they aren't familiar enou…

> That also means they aren't familiar enough with the problem domain to find a duplicate/related question. It would be a valid point if only the answer wasn't so often the first result after pasting the title of their post into search engine.

Often times this is when the asker is failing to articulate a similar question.

Even in those cases, it's still just as easy to merge/reference the other question as it is to antagonize the asker.

The point is that it's advantageous for everyone involved to help an asker ask a question instead of berating them for their inadequacy. After all, inadequacy is a key attribute of people with questions.

Re: Ask HN: In your opinion, what sucks about StackOverflow

#57

Post by KabaKun »

david_allison wrote: post #35
UweSchmidt wrote: post #25

The width of the code blocks in the answers is often too narrow and require horizontal scrolling "Hot Network Questions" are a distraction and take up too much horizontal space.

> "Hot Network Questions" are a distraction and take up too much horizontal space. Well worth blocking these with an adblocker, if you don't already

Don't even need to do that - just go to site settings and use the preference to block them - https://stackoverflow.com/users/preferences/current

It requires being logged in but you don't have to worry about empty spaces.

Re: Ask HN: In your opinion, what sucks about StackOverflow

#58

Post by david_allison »

KabaKun wrote: post #57
david_allison wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Hot Network Questions" are a distraction and take up too much horizontal space. Well worth blocking these with an adblocker, if you don't already

Don't even need to do that - just go to site settings and use the preference to block them - https://stackoverflow.com/users/preferences/current It requires being logged in but you don't have to worry about empty spaces.

Didn't know this. Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: In your opinion, what sucks about StackOverflow

#59

Post by webmobdev »

Jorengarenar wrote: post #55
webmobdev wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not native speaker either and somehow have been able to write comprehensible sentences since elementary school. Good education makes a difference. Not everyone is so lucky.

Really? They didn't receive "good education", so makes it somehow OK to write like preschooler? They would need to receive education deliberately worsening their learning skill for it to be understandable. Capitalization of first letter in sentence isn't difficult concept to grasp, neither is using periods at the end.

Your ignorance is not surprising. I am from India where our education system is multi-lingual. As a developing country many of our schools (and even colleges) are poorly funded. Many students in these small and underfunded schools (especially in rural and urban poor areas) are taught in their local language. And while English and another non-native language (or another foreign language like French in some of the better schools) are also taught in these non-english medium schools, the focus is often only on basic reading and writing skills. This is partly why some indians struggle with the language. Those who can speak it fluently often have the advantage of a better education (and more importantly educated parents who emphasised on reading books and speaking fluently, and a social network conversant in the english language). I've seen many a good student struggling in college and workplaces because of the language barrier.

Re: Ask HN: In your opinion, what sucks about StackOverflow

#60

Post by Jorengarenar »

webmobdev wrote: post #59
Jorengarenar wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? They didn't receive "good education", so makes it somehow OK to write like preschooler? They would need to receive education deliberately worsening their learning skill for it to be understandable. Capitalization of first letter in sentence isn't difficult concept to grasp, neither is using periods at the end.

Your ignorance is not surprising. I am from India where our education system is multi-lingual. As a developing country many of our schools (and even colleges) are poorly funded. Many students in these small and underfunded schools (especially in rural and urban poor areas) are taught in their local language. And while English and another non-native language (or another foreign language like French in some of the bett…

Again, how does this excuse not capitalizing letters and not using any punctuation at all? Stop fighting a straw-man and answer this question already.
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