Tired of Stack Overflow

Of those three, only the last one is one that I can view.

Consider the original question: https://stackoverflow.com/revisions/57323981/1 which... really is "design an entire system for me" type question.

The refinement, while better is still getting into discussions in the comments.

While its from a different site on the SE network, consider:

Green fields, blue skies, and the white board - what is too broad? -- https://softwareengineering.meta.stackexchange.com/questions...

The structure of Stack Overflow wants a question that has a problem that has some code that isn't behaving correctly and can be solved.

The list of "any better ways" is without bound or qualification as to what "better" is.

That type of question would probably be better suited to a higher density communication medium such as chat or a true forum (with threads). Stack Overflow was intentionally designed to make that type of question hard to answer.

Its not that it isn't a good question - just that it isn't a question that fits well into the SO format. That should be ok, there are many other places where such questions can be asked.

Stack Overflow announced changes to the site intended to help combat these issues less than a week ago:

https://dev.to/stackoverflow/what-s-in-the-works-at-stack-ov...

I think the criticisms of Stack Overflow in general capture real problems, but I think people underestimate how difficult it is to enact solutions to these problems at scale, and they also underestimate the magnitude of the problems that led Stack Overflow to this place to begin with.

> only the last one is one that I can view.

That’s the point. The site automatically deletes question with negative score. They disappear for most users, they even disappear from “my answers” section of my profile, despite I have enough reputation to view them if I have a link.

> which... really is "design an entire system for me" type question.

For a professional working with multimedia stack on Windows, the original question is clear. The question received two good answers before these edits. The 4 web developers who closevoted the question are obviously incompetent in the domain, but for some reason unclear to me they decided to closevote.

> is still getting into discussions in the comments.

No it’s not. All the comments were written before I’ve edited the question.

> The structure of Stack Overflow wants a question that has a problem that has some code that isn't behaving correctly and can be solved.

Only a minority of the highest voted questions have some code: https://stackoverflow.com/questions?sort=votes

I agree 1000%. I'd even donate money to support an initiative to fight this bullshit. Valid questions downvoted, interesting questions with very useful and highly-upvoted answers closed and deleted (thanks to my karma I can see them an I'm amazed) for stupid reasons. I never donwvote anything but spam and offence, I don't care about what do the rules say when reason says the opposite and I usually upvote just to oppose downvotes.

Regarding your 4 examples: /r/NoStupidQuestions/, /r/AskHistorians/, /r/legaladvice/, /r/personalfinance/

I see why those 4 subreddits influence your thinking in how StackOverflow should work so it seems like it could adopt the same (social) mechanisms and it would only improve the site and not degrade it.

However, notice that there is no reddit.com/r/ProgrammersAskAnyQuestion/ comparable subreddit that has more traffic and/or better answers than StackOverflow even though Reddit is older (2005) than StackOverflow (2008). Why is that?

Here's my pet theory on why I think technical programmers' Q&A won't have the same dynamics as your 4 example sites based on observations of programmers asking questions for decades on USENET, Experts-Exchange, etc:

- the questions on the 4 non-tech sites you mention are often "entertainment" in and of themselves. Whether it's the compelling drama of a girlfriend asking LegalAdvice about a boyfriend emptying her bank account or somebody on AskHistorians asking about Hitler (for the 100th time), the tolerance for dupes or silly questions is much more relaxed.

- In contrast, programmers have less patience for answering someone else's "homework questions", or doing free consulting work for incompetent developers, or encountering poorly researched questions, etc. Programmers (in general) definitely have more of a smartass "lmgtfy"[0] type of defense against people wasting their time on a question forum. Yes, developers do want to help but they also have a lower threshold for annoying questions than the 4 sites you listed. (If you haven't read through the 2 meta stackexchange threads I cited in my comment you replied to, please do so to get a glimpse of this collective psychology. Also a recent 3rd thread to read to understand how some SO veterans feel.[1])

- Since a tech question like "What's the regex to extract an email address?" doesn't have the same entertainment value as "Do sighted people really look at the toilet paper after they wipe?"[2] ... the programmers volunteering their efforts don't want to see that duplicate regex question 10000 times.

I might be wrong with my analysis. Perhaps somebody can start a new subreddit dedicated to answering any programmers questions. Specifically advertise the subreddit as having no moderation, no deletion of dupe questions, no closing of questions, no downvote buttons[3] to prevent anyone's feelings from getting hurt, etc. Basically, take all the social dynamic complaints about SO and make that subreddit do the opposite. We can then see if it attracts questioners (and good answers) like your 4 example subreddits.

(I'm serious about that subreddit suggestion; it would be a fascinating experiment.)

[0] https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=lmgtfy

[1] https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/386584/why-is-the-p...

[2] https://old.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/cxurmr/d...

[3] https://old.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/4ir1qg/why_ha...