Ask HN: What are these low quality “code snippet” sites?

#1

Post by endofreach » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 2:34 PM UTC

Whenever i am trying to google a code issue i have, there is countless low quality sites just showing SO threads with no added value whatsoever. It is so annoying it actually drives me mad.

Does anyone know what's up with that?

I am really disappointed because the guys creating these sites (i guess for some kind of monetization) must have some relation to coding. But i feel this is an attack against all of us. Every programmer should be grateful for the opportunity to find good quality content quickly. Now my search results are flooded with copy & paste from SO. They are killing that.

Am I the only one experiencing this or being that annoyed by it?

P.S: I don't name URLs because if you don't know what I am talking about already, you probably don't have that issue.

Re: Ask HN: What are these low quality “code snippet” sites?

#2

Post by brianwawok » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 2:49 PM UTC

It’s an easy way to make money. Scrape a popular site like Stack overflow or Wikipedia and add a bunch of advertisements.

One of the many ways that scum ruin the web.

Re: Ask HN: What are these low quality “code snippet” sites?

#3

Post by slater » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 2:53 PM UTC

Spammers. They mirror SO stuff on their own sites and put google ads on them

Re: Ask HN: What are these low quality “code snippet” sites?

#4

Post by ruffrey » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 2:59 PM UTC

I suspect they were always there, but google and ddg are getting gamed more now. The quality of results has dropped quite a bit in the past 4 or 5 years in this regard.

Re: Ask HN: What are these low quality “code snippet” sites?

#5

Post by lloydjones » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 3:03 PM UTC

As others have said: SO content is ripped-off (poorly) and mirrored. The page games Google's algorithm and shows up as a 'legit' result.

Probably more complex than simple keyword stuffing, which isn't supposed to work these days..

Re: Ask HN: What are these low quality “code snippet” sites?

#6

Post by legrande » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 3:14 PM UTC

Just whitelist Stack Overflow in your head and avoid splogs / spamblogs?

Re: Ask HN: What are these low quality “code snippet” sites?

#7

Post by grinchygrinch » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 3:14 PM UTC

Same thing with various GitHub issues lookalikes.

Re: Ask HN: What are these low quality “code snippet” sites?

#8

Post by TYPE_FASTER » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 3:20 PM UTC

People are crawling content that is searched for frequently, then using SEO to rank higher in the results than the original content to make money from the ad revenue.

Code and recipes are two examples.

I'm also seeing politicians posting Tweets containing a link to their personal website, which has ads.

Re: Ask HN: What are these low quality “code snippet” sites?

#9

Post by pupppet » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 3:22 PM UTC

Really ticks me off that Google allows itself to be so easily gamed, it's your core business for christ's sake.

Re: Ask HN: What are these low quality “code snippet” sites?

#10

Post by endofreach » Wed, Dec 01, 2021, 3:23 PM UTC

Well, as i wrote i understand that they try to monetize it.

But: why the sudden explosion? I feel there is more of these sites going live regularly. Many times they make up 80% of the first pages on search results, just repeating the SO threads listed before. So it‘s really getting difficult.

Something must be done…