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Stack Overflow is laying off another 28%

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Re: Stack Overflow is laying off another 28%

#131

Post by bastardoperator »

dehrmann wrote: post #64
ram4jesus wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They pushed me out when I was a student in Uni struggling with Java 101. And my experience left me shocked that an industry could be so cruel to people trying to learn the ropes and be just another programmer. Luckily, I persevered, and I give back to the programming community by always being kind to the folks that ask me for help; but I always help others offline and not in hostile web forums.

I've answered a lot of Java questions on SO. One of the themes is beginner questions, and a lot are essentially "do my homework for me," poorly researched, or poorly asked. What have you tried? What have you researched? Explain your understanding for why you think what you're doing should work. Even if you're asking good beginner questions that don't already have an answer, you get tired of reading all the bad ones.…

Who cares, people with homework need help too. They're beginners so asking them to formulate a perfect question or conduct research is basically a non-starter. If the barrier to entry is become a professional first, it's no wonder why the company and its user base are shrinking.

Re: Stack Overflow is laying off another 28%

#132

Post by radicalbyte »

mellosouls wrote: post #118
bryanlarsen wrote: post #103

Am I the only one that still finds SO to be quite useful? If I paste an error message into Google, it's still quite likely that the SO answer is the best one. And if it doesn't, I contribute an answer if/when I eventually find it because I still think I get more out of SO than I put in. I've received 21 necromancer badges doing that.

ChatGPT generally solves stuff quicker and more precisely for me. I have yet to receive a badge but could add that to the prompt or custom instructions as an alternative to its encouraging words when I'm nearly there.

It does now. If StackOverflow stopped then it would certainly not be as useful in several years time.

Re: Stack Overflow is laying off another 28%

#133

Post by tekkk »

dehrmann wrote: post #64
ram4jesus wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They pushed me out when I was a student in Uni struggling with Java 101. And my experience left me shocked that an industry could be so cruel to people trying to learn the ropes and be just another programmer. Luckily, I persevered, and I give back to the programming community by always being kind to the folks that ask me for help; but I always help others offline and not in hostile web forums.

I've answered a lot of Java questions on SO. One of the themes is beginner questions, and a lot are essentially "do my homework for me," poorly researched, or poorly asked. What have you tried? What have you researched? Explain your understanding for why you think what you're doing should work. Even if you're asking good beginner questions that don't already have an answer, you get tired of reading all the bad ones.…

Yes, that's beginners in nutshell. It's why it's so important to educate them rather than take the opposite stance which is to chastise them for being so inept. I wouldn't take their bad questions that personally myself, it's what it is, but also I am not a person to answer SO questions so there's that.

Those who answer questions want good questions but those who ask good questions probably solve them on their own. Leaving things as they are.

Re: Stack Overflow is laying off another 28%

#134

Post by sremani »

mellosouls wrote: post #118
bryanlarsen wrote: post #103

Am I the only one that still finds SO to be quite useful? If I paste an error message into Google, it's still quite likely that the SO answer is the best one. And if it doesn't, I contribute an answer if/when I eventually find it because I still think I get more out of SO than I put in. I've received 21 necromancer badges doing that.

ChatGPT generally solves stuff quicker and more precisely for me. I have yet to receive a badge but could add that to the prompt or custom instructions as an alternative to its encouraging words when I'm nearly there.

the context ChatGPT provides around some of my error message inquiry is incredibly useful. on stack overflow, I have to read and discern the context.

Re: Stack Overflow is laying off another 28%

#136

Post by this_user »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #75
this_user wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you vastly overestimate the level of planning and forethought that the average management is capable of.

Management is obviously capable of long-term planning - there just aren't incentives in place for that.

Most of them aren't Machiavellian masterminds though. Most of them are barely passable managers who are mostly just reacting to what is right on front of their noses. Company is growing? Extrapolate linearly, and hire enough people to cover the projected growth over the next 12-18 months. Growth didn't increase linearly, costs have gone up due to inflation, and we can't borrow more cheap money? Lay off a bunch of people to stem the bleeding, hope the company makes it through alive.

Re: Stack Overflow is laying off another 28%

#137

Post by antimora »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #103

Am I the only one that still finds SO to be quite useful? If I paste an error message into Google, it's still quite likely that the SO answer is the best one. And if it doesn't, I contribute an answer if/when I eventually find it because I still think I get more out of SO than I put in. I've received 21 necromancer badges doing that.

For finding answers, Stack Overflow may be useful, but for posting questions, it is not. I ceased posting questions a while ago due to the aggressive moderation, which often labeled my questions as duplicates or too common. I was very upset with the direction Stack Overflow had taken, as it seemed to embody the very criticisms it had once had about forums. The Stack Overflow community has lost its vibrancy and has become stagnant. I am pleased that platforms like ChatGPT are emerging as real competitors.

Re: Stack Overflow is laying off another 28%

#139

Post by [deleted] »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #103

Am I the only one that still finds SO to be quite useful? If I paste an error message into Google, it's still quite likely that the SO answer is the best one. And if it doesn't, I contribute an answer if/when I eventually find it because I still think I get more out of SO than I put in. I've received 21 necromancer badges doing that.

[deleted]

Re: Stack Overflow is laying off another 28%

#140

Post by manonthewall »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #103

Am I the only one that still finds SO to be quite useful? If I paste an error message into Google, it's still quite likely that the SO answer is the best one. And if it doesn't, I contribute an answer if/when I eventually find it because I still think I get more out of SO than I put in. I've received 21 necromancer badges doing that.

I love stack overflow, however I also hate it. I have asked some, I thought very reasonable question on there, and they got shot down and removed. The elitism, in this day & age of nearly infinite search and data storage capabilities makes me not feel all that sorry for them though. I do hate that we are doomed to AI generated trash answers on google now for at least a decade though.
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