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The Fall of Stack Overflow

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Re: The Fall of Stack Overflow

#31

Post by crispyambulance »

hirundo wrote: post #2

This is a large decline. It does not correlate well with the rise of LLMs, which have shifted my own habits away from Stack Overflow recently. Looking through the graphs, the most dramatic shift was the large drop in new visits in the first half of last year, by two thirds or more. That seems late to be a Covid effect. There were some political controversies, but it would surprise me if they had such a large effect.…

> What accounts for this?

IMHO people have tired of the smug dismissive assholes that dominate SO and its its insipid gamification and they have, gradually, found alternatives.

For some, it's more welcoming and knowledgeable communities in github issues+discussion.

For others it's special-purpose, interactive forums that provide more guidance and non-hostile support for users of certain platforms/tools (eg Posit Community).

For many, copilot has been fulfilling that need, Does it always give "the correct" answer? No. Does it provide a sketch of a solution that gets you half-way there when dealing with tedious humdrum stuff that you just forgot because it's so boring? YES.

For yet others it's just plain old reddit where you can ask a question and whether it gets smacked down or not depends on how cool the community happens to be.

Re: The Fall of Stack Overflow

#32

Post by rhplus »

fishtoaster wrote: post #20

Interesting that this seems to have started around Spring 2021 when posts + votes started tailing off, followed by traffic starting to decline around spring of 2022. I can think of a few theories that I don't think hold water: 1. The rise of ChatGPT to answer many questions that StackOverflow would previously have been used for. This seems unlikely, since the timing doesn't really work out. 2. The perennial complaint…

All of the above, plus tech layoffs and associated loss of motivation/productivity.

https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/20/tech-industry-layoffs-2023...

Re: The Fall of Stack Overflow

#33

Post by ajsnigrutin »

"How to do A?"

Comment: "You shouldn't do A, it's better to do B"

Closed, duplicate of "How to do C".

Yeah sure, in the beginning, there were many more basic questions (how to increase number by 1, how to get division remainder, how to check if file exists,...), and if you're coding in Perl, you can still find all the answers... if you're working in python, you'll find answers for python2, some for python3, some specific to python2.6, etc... if you ask again, it'll be closed as a duplicate.

I know it's anecdotal, but after a few bad experiences, people just decide not to use that specific site anymore.

Re: The Fall of Stack Overflow

#34

Post by brodouevencode »

readingnews wrote: post #3

I was promoted to one of those "mod" type people who reviews new answers, first posts, etc, a few years back. I can tell you that I quit in the last 6 months. All new answers are answers on questions from first time posters, answering questions that have good solid answers from 8+ years ago (mostly 10 years), and it is pretty obvious, they are just doing it to get points. The question/answer is not something that has…

> and it is pretty obvious, they are just doing it to get points

Gamifying reputation was one of the worst things we've done. I was part of this in previous positions and after a while it became apparent that it brought out the worst in people. There are better ways of incentivizing usage rather than stupid internet points.

Re: The Fall of Stack Overflow

#35

Post by redbell »

Interestingly, just a few weeks before launching ChatGPT, ZDNet magazine made an interview [0] with StackOverflow’s CEO to discuss how the site became the world's most popular programming site. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.

__________________

0. https://www.zdnet.com/article/stack-overflow-ceo-on-how-it-b...

Re: The Fall of Stack Overflow

#36

Post by fbdab103 »

I wonder how much traffic has been siphoned away from those copy-cats that mirror SO? Out of principle alone, I will immediately hit the back button and look for the genuine article, but I could believe many do not.

The other aspect that grinds my gears is the closing of duplicate question. Fine in principle, except when the original was answered 10 years ago and all of the answers are jQuery.

Re: The Fall of Stack Overflow

#37

Post by chimen »

All, but all, my recent questions there were flagged and deleted immediately. My account there is 11 year old and has over 11k reputation - not much but not nothing. The site, for the past 2-3 years seems moderated by nazis and bots. Dunno if my timeline matches these graphs but I noticed the decline quite early.

Re: The Fall of Stack Overflow

#40

Post by woleium »

brodouevencode wrote: post #34
readingnews wrote: post #3

I was promoted to one of those "mod" type people who reviews new answers, first posts, etc, a few years back. I can tell you that I quit in the last 6 months. All new answers are answers on questions from first time posters, answering questions that have good solid answers from 8+ years ago (mostly 10 years), and it is pretty obvious, they are just doing it to get points. The question/answer is not something that has…

> and it is pretty obvious, they are just doing it to get points Gamifying reputation was one of the worst things we've done. I was part of this in previous positions and after a while it became apparent that it brought out the worst in people. There are better ways of incentivizing usage rather than stupid internet points.

I'm not sure if up voting this comment is appropriate, but I wholeheartedly agree
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