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IE Web Development Support Moving to Stack Overflow

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Re: IE Web Development Support Moving to Stack Overflow

#121

Post by xorcist »

bunderbunder wrote: post #101
drewblaisdell wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is by far the worst problem with Stack Overflow. The mods seem to leap at the chance to mark questions that are similar, but not identical, as duplicates.

There's one easy fix for this, and several other problems with SO: Don't close duplicate questions. Just cross-reference them. Reasons: - Gets rid of the "This was closed because of trigger-happy moderators failing to distinguish between 'similar' and 'identical'" problem by making that situation impossible. - Improves answer discovery for users: If Google gets you to almost, but not quite, the right question, cross-…

Absolutely right. And this is also the way every other bug tracker on the planet works.

(Yes, I think SO looks like a bug tracker used as a discussion forum. They're certainly very close, including hostile project owners, WONTFIX's, etc.)

Re: IE Web Development Support Moving to Stack Overflow

#122

Post by robertwharvey »

sajt wrote: post #7
kayman wrote: post #2

Microsoft making a lot of moves that are starting surprise the tech community. it will take some time to convert the generation that grew up with the old closed microsoft, but slowly I believe they will have converts.

I think Stack Overflow has been getting worse and worse in recent years. Their community is outright hostile to active discussion. Only directly answerable questions are tolerated. Microsoft is (as always) a few years late to the party.

That's because Stack Overflow is not a discussion forum. It is, in fact, quite the opposite. Think back; remember the time when you actually got usable, timely help on a forum? Can't think of any? I didn't think so. Why? Because forums are flooded with useless, mindless crap, like users who can't be bothered to form complete sentences, who can't be bothered to do fundamental research or learn the most basic skills of their craft, who want someone to write their program for them, and who have an unbridled sense of entitlement.

It's not the discussion Stack Overflow seeks to squelch; it's the noise. Unfortunately, discussion is one of the things that attracts noisy posts, so it's not exactly something that's actively encouraged.

Re: IE Web Development Support Moving to Stack Overflow

#123

Post by speedkills »

andrewstuart wrote: post #89

I created www.NotConstructive.com a few days ago in response to some of the challenges of posting to Stack Overflow. Launch announcement: http://fourlightyears.blogspot.com.au/2014/11/notconstructiv...

Great idea, I really hope you are able to get the word out and build a community there. We need a place to talk about engineering, the part that comes down to trade offs, not just easy answers. I think that would be very constructive.

Re: IE Web Development Support Moving to Stack Overflow

#124

Post by tonyedgecombe »

MichaelGG wrote: post #106
hoodoof wrote: post #24

Such a bad idea. The format of StackOverflow is very tightly defined. I bet all support questions don't fit that format. Then what? StackOverflow should speak up against companies doing this.

Correct. Microsoft did this for Azure support. I had a question, they redirect you to post on SO. And then the question is closed because it's off topic. Now moving to a dedicated Stack Exchange site would be fine (like AskUbuntu). The software is OK, it's just the idiotic mods and hostile users that make SO suck. I asked a question on Server Fault, and 5 years later someone added a helpful, perfect answer (a new lib…

Strange, I answer old questions all the time.

Re: IE Web Development Support Moving to Stack Overflow

#125

Post by tonyedgecombe »

pyrocat wrote: post #9
mooreds wrote: post #4

I guess you have to go where the people are, but man, I wouldn't want to outsource the knowledge base/forums for a major product to a different company. Seems like a valuable asset to give up.

It'll be a nice change from condescending Microsoft employees insisting the problem is on your end. Generalizing of course, but that's pretty much been my experience with the official forums.

Asking any big company for support is pretty much guaranteed to be as pleasurable as sticking sharpened pencils in your eyes.

Re: IE Web Development Support Moving to Stack Overflow

#126

Post by tonyedgecombe »

zanny wrote: post #38
px1999 wrote: post #32

Given the nature and content of the specific forum, and that SO is built on a largely microsoft tech stack, moving it to SO makes sense. Still an interesting move from Microsoft. Projects hosted on github, open source, versions of the .NET runtime for mac and linux, embracing docker, node.js and avoiding getting in fights over front end frameworks... this really seems like they're trying to turn a new page.

This might just be another embrace phase. They have been cyclical in the past. If they were to get a large portion of market share on their proprietary tech platforms they would certainly move to lock in their users and cripple the open platforms they are now adopting. They are only restarting the cycle because they are losing ground. And I'm not coming at this from a malicious Microsoft angle, they are just in the s…

Exactly, I don't see them open sourcing Office or Windows any time soon.

Re: IE Web Development Support Moving to Stack Overflow

#127

Post by Kiro »

MichaelGG wrote: post #106
hoodoof wrote: post #24

Such a bad idea. The format of StackOverflow is very tightly defined. I bet all support questions don't fit that format. Then what? StackOverflow should speak up against companies doing this.

Correct. Microsoft did this for Azure support. I had a question, they redirect you to post on SO. And then the question is closed because it's off topic. Now moving to a dedicated Stack Exchange site would be fine (like AskUbuntu). The software is OK, it's just the idiotic mods and hostile users that make SO suck. I asked a question on Server Fault, and 5 years later someone added a helpful, perfect answer (a new lib…

> telling them off for answering an old question

I find this hard to believe. Link?

Re: IE Web Development Support Moving to Stack Overflow

#128

Post by tkubacki »

DCoder wrote: post #113
vatotemking wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

do you have a link to your question?

I would guess it's this one: https://i.stack.imgur.com/NFYi1.jpg

Yes this was that one.

Being honest this may not be following guidelines - so I deleted question. Maybe someone should create Stackoverflow like site for more open questions.

Re: IE Web Development Support Moving to Stack Overflow

#130

Post by ygra »

tkubacki wrote: post #128
DCoder wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would guess it's this one: https://i.stack.imgur.com/NFYi1.jpg

Yes this was that one. Being honest this may not be following guidelines - so I deleted question. Maybe someone should create Stackoverflow like site for more open questions.

It's a very poor question, indeed. And downvotes and the close doesn't surprise me. Hobo Sapiens' last comment actually details that quite well. I also wouldn't expect the dev team to comment on that at all. When they are able to share whether something is being done, then the status on the page will change, but before that they'll make no comments or commitment on anything.
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