I think the experts basically got bored and left.
I've asked a couple of questions I'd hope would be fairly simple (like how to run a program in cgroups v2), set a big bounty on them, and never got a single useful answer.
Ask HN: Is StackOverflow Dying?
31–40 of 196 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is StackOverflow Dying?
#32[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Is StackOverflow Dying?
#33every passing year the platform gets more and more hostile to non-americans. I gave up trying to argue and deleted my account. No regrets, modern-day documentation is more than sufficient
Re: Ask HN: Is StackOverflow Dying?
#34Does Google amplify that which gets engagement?
When I go to SO, I frequently find the answer is not what I was looking for and I've probably missed some keyword to get where I'm going - so I'm back on Google within seconds.
Google doesn't need much smarts to see I'm bouncing off of SO and hardly ever sticking around - if this is a common pattern then it's not favouring other websites that provide a more sticky experience - implication being that answered my question as I didn't return to further refine it.
Re: Ask HN: Is StackOverflow Dying?
#35I've noticed this trend for years, basically : - for reference I land on official documentation - for issues I usually land on GitHub issues and source code - for random stuff I still hit SO - like some SQL problem, CSS, algorithm implementation - for design stuff I land on blog posts Personally I see stack overflow value reduce with good reference documentation and GitHub issues/open source dev discussions. The fact…
I think you might find answers of problems that are not converted in the docs, I mostly find stuff about JS, Ruby, css or SQL there, but for example for Rust I default to Github, docs.rs or Discord, it might have to do with the community of the tech you are using.
This is also true - I'm mostly in .NET world nowadays and the official reference is actually really good. For JS I default to MDN (SO is full of outdated junk). But when I was looking up RoR or Python stuff I was hitting SO more often.
So like I've said - as the reference docs improve SO loses value.
Re: Ask HN: Is StackOverflow Dying?
#36I have been using less SO over the years, as more and more libraries and even programming languages have their own Discord servers.
And there it’s easier and quicker to get a specialised reply, with less judgement or responses like “already answered in thread X”
Re: Ask HN: Is StackOverflow Dying?
#37Yes I've switched to chatgpt for all my programming questions nowadays because of many reasons: 1. It understands the versions more clearly, it won't generate the code for Bootstrap 2 when my question is about Bootstrap 5 2. Asking follow up questions is easy. So the code didn't work. I tell it that and instantly it tells me what I need to do to fix it (leave missing config file, etc) or gives me an alternate. 3. Its…
7. It doesn't ask pretentiously why would you even want to do that and opine on this being an anti pattern. I'm so sick of these people on SO.
I was literally about to comment this as well. Actually, that's the biggest plus for ChatGPT right now.
Re: Ask HN: Is StackOverflow Dying?
#38Google search results are declining, but most programming questions still benefit from a site:stackoverflow.com appended to the end, to remove the copycat spam.
It’s possible that new content is getting lower quality on SO, but for any area where a 10 or 15 year old answer is as relevant today as it was when it was written, it’s still a goldmine.
Re: Ask HN: Is StackOverflow Dying?
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find it hard to believe that ChatGPT is useful beyond trivial things or giving you a lead that you can follow on Google. It's very frequently just plain wrong.
i'm wrong about most things most of the time. i'm pretty sure i'm still useful.
Well even wrong answers have utility in a forum. When someone posts a wrong answer on Stack Overflow, Reddit or in real life(?), it baits a bunch of replies describing in detail just how wrong that answer is.
ChatGPT has the user interface of an oracle sitting alone in a cave in the mountains, but it isn't as accurate as an oracle is expected to be. That makes it useless to me.
Re: Ask HN: Is StackOverflow Dying?
#40I think a lot of has to do with dev tools/frameworks having standard, nice, readable, UX friendly documentation websites. Gone are the days of custom documentation layouts and designs that are hit or miss.
I think they also do a great job of capturing communities and discussions which SO purposely devalues. I imagine a lot of problem solving happens in discord and github now.
It might also be that SO was good for arbitrary and shallow questions, but most problems with more modern frameworks that aren't covered by the docs get domain specific and complex quick.