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Ask HN: Is StackOverflow being ruined by its mods?

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Re: Ask HN: Is StackOverflow being ruined by its mods?

#31

Post by CamperBob2 »

recursive wrote: post #27
CamperBob2 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stackoverflow took their market directly out of the hands of expertsexchange. They're a lot better than expertsexchange in every respect I can think of offhand, but they do have weaknesses, and I agree with the submitter that one of those is the moderation culture. I'm surprised more users aren't bothered by it. The Internet is not going to run out of space. Just as with Wikipedia, "deletionism" is inevitably an atte…

The internet running out of space is a red herring. The concern is a dilution of focus of Stack Overflow.

The internet running out of space is a red herring. The concern is a dilution of focus of Stack Overflow.

I see you have the same bad habit I do, which is to hit 'Reply' and start typing after having read the first third of a comment.

Re: Ask HN: Is StackOverflow being ruined by its mods?

#32

Post by genwin »

recursive wrote: post #25
genwin wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please elaborate. If I want to know the pros/cons of storing images in a database, vs. (say) storing only the links to images in the database, what more specific question should I look for? How is that question too general or vague? Apparently at least 400 people thought it was reasonable, than thought it was unreasonable. 50+ people thought it was reasonable enough to respond to.

It doesn't have a specific verifiable answer. It's an invitation to discussion.

That seems to be the consensus here. I disagree with it. A clear invitation to discussion would be "What would you do?" not "What are the pros/cons?". There are plenty of valuable programming questions I can think of that can possibly devolve to some level of discussion. Banning all such questions greatly degrades the site and makes me not want to ask any questions there. If I ask "What is the function parameter in this particular language that I use to do this particular thing?" there could still be differing opinions and so the question could be locked.

Re: Ask HN: Is StackOverflow being ruined by its mods?

#34

Post by eswangren »

viraptor wrote: post #18
genwin wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the question was locked because it's a duplicate, I understand and agree with that. But it wasn't locked for being a duplicate; it was locked for being an off-topic question. I don't see how you've addressed that.

There's a subtle problem with closing questions - basically there's a list to choose from and you can't always express exactly why you made that choice. Even when people agree on closing a question I can often see a wide spread of chosen options. If you read into the FAQs / standards for questions, this one may not be off-topic, but is definitely low quality. Seeing the expression "is not considered a good, on-topic…

Also, the majority wins, so if two voted to close as a dup and three voted for off topic the. It gets closed as OT.

Re: Ask HN: Is StackOverflow being ruined by its mods?

#35

Post by ericb »

viraptor wrote: post #18
genwin wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the question was locked because it's a duplicate, I understand and agree with that. But it wasn't locked for being a duplicate; it was locked for being an off-topic question. I don't see how you've addressed that.

There's a subtle problem with closing questions - basically there's a list to choose from and you can't always express exactly why you made that choice. Even when people agree on closing a question I can often see a wide spread of chosen options. If you read into the FAQs / standards for questions, this one may not be off-topic, but is definitely low quality. Seeing the expression "is not considered a good, on-topic…

If being a duplicate is why it is being closed, a search must have been done. Could not a link to the other offerings be given instead? Failing that, saying it is because of duplication?

Re: Ask HN: Is StackOverflow being ruined by its mods?

#38

Post by MattBelanger »

genwin wrote: post #28
dbecker wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could be wrong, but I don't think it was closed for off-topic (non-programming). I would guess it was locked for "not having an answer." They say you should be soliciting answers rather than opinions... and, for better or for worse, that is probably why this was locked.

Clearly for worse , considering that the lock reason is (in boldface): "it is not considered a good, on-topic question for this site". A question asking for pros/cons of storing images in a database (vs. links to files) is not too subjective in my book. It's a typical programmer question.

The goal of SO is to have questions with ONE correct answer, and to have that answer there.

Any question - such as this one - where the answer is "it depends" better be a work of art, or have an answer that explores all the considerations in exquisite detail, or it's going to get closed. Because there's no "one right answer" to this question.

It's "on topic", but not a good question.

Re: Ask HN: Is StackOverflow being ruined by its mods?

#39

Post by genwin »

MattBelanger wrote: post #38
genwin wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly for worse , considering that the lock reason is (in boldface): "it is not considered a good, on-topic question for this site". A question asking for pros/cons of storing images in a database (vs. links to files) is not too subjective in my book. It's a typical programmer question.

The goal of SO is to have questions with ONE correct answer, and to have that answer there. Any question - such as this one - where the answer is "it depends" better be a work of art, or have an answer that explores all the considerations in exquisite detail, or it's going to get closed. Because there's no "one right answer" to this question. It's "on topic", but not a good question.

If that's SO's goal then I would say they've left a big hole in their strategy for a competitor.

That goal sounds good in principle. In practice, very specific programming questions often (if not usually) have multiple correct answers, with the best choice for a particular scenario being made by evaluating pros/cons just like the question I referred to. Some languages embrace multiple ways of doing things. For example, Perl's motto is "there's more than one way to do it".

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