Live data from Hacker News

Stack Overflow is almost dead

blog.pragmaticengineer.com

231–240 of 285 posts

Re: Stack Overflow is almost dead

#231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I read the answer of that “duplicate” and it was not applicable to my problem You are supposed to have a question in the first place, not just a problem. (In fact, you are not required to have had anything go wrong with your code, nor to need to know how to do something, in order to ask a question. You only need to ask a question that meets standards.) If something was wrong with your code, and using Stack Overflow…

The question is the problem, if I did not have a problem I wouldn’t be reaching out to a site named StackOverflow (one of the many problems I encountered over the years…). The problem is not just broken code, the problem is many different things like “how do I …?” or “I am trying to figure out how to …?” which is not about the broken code.

Stack Overflow has its own notion of what a question is. In short, a question has to be suitable as part of a searchable knowledge base.

If you want to post something that isn't SO's idea of a question, then you're really just posting off-topic. And if you then insist that people should help you with your off-topic posting, you're being overly presumptious.

Re: Stack Overflow is almost dead

#232
post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems to me like you're part of the problem. Of course it's not my problem anymore because I no longer contribute there.

It's almost comical. SO is increasingly useless for new questions precisely because so many top contributors left (because they don't agree with this approach), while the ones that remain have convinced themselves that not only this new state of affairs is fine, it's actually preferable, and what they are doing is somehow beneficial.

Citation needed.

I know why one top contributor left (cancer) and I heard the same about another. I haven't heard what you say about any, except in sweeping statements like yours.

Re: Stack Overflow is almost dead

#233
post #210
post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I answer questions for a few tags, know the styles of the other people who answer on those tags, and I do consider my fellow answerers as kind. All of them. That doesn't mean that you will think we're kind to you personally. We're there to build a searchable Q&A knowledge base and spread knowledge. Some people who ask questions misunderstand and think we're there to help them, personally. To work for free for that si…

Seems to me like you're part of the problem. Of course it's not my problem anymore because I no longer contribute there.

If I'm part of the problem, then that's because of something I do, or else something I don't do.

The thing I do is build a knowledge base. If that's it, can you explain why it's a problem? The thing I don't is something you also don't. If that's it, can you explain why you're not part of the problem?

Re: Stack Overflow is almost dead

#234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you ask for a subject expert's help and simultaneously insist that you know better than the expert whether your question is a duplicate of another? this is easy part, I read the answer of that “duplicate” and it was not applicable to my problem :)

> I read the answer of that “duplicate” and it was not applicable to my problem You are supposed to have a question in the first place, not just a problem. (In fact, you are not required to have had anything go wrong with your code, nor to need to know how to do something, in order to ask a question. You only need to ask a question that meets standards.) If something was wrong with your code, and using Stack Overflow…

[flagged]

Re: Stack Overflow is almost dead

#235
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How ironic. For years you've been enforcing the dehumanization of human communications (e.g. basic gratitude and courtesy are taboo) and then you object when AI comes along and people prefer it to your dehumanizing platform.

> For years you've been enforcing the dehumanization of human communications (e.g. basic gratitude and courtesy are taboo) This is so far from true that it's frankly insulting. > and then you object when AI comes along and people prefer it to your dehumanizing platform. I do not object in the slightest to people preferring to use an LLM. I have even explicitly suggested in threads like this that people who prefer to…

I don't know why you engage with anonymous cowards anyway. They are just trolling.

Re: Stack Overflow is almost dead

#236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you ask for a subject expert's help and simultaneously insist that you know better than the expert whether your question is a duplicate of another? this is easy part, I read the answer of that “duplicate” and it was not applicable to my problem :)

> I read the answer of that “duplicate” and it was not applicable to my problem You are supposed to have a question in the first place, not just a problem. (In fact, you are not required to have had anything go wrong with your code, nor to need to know how to do something, in order to ask a question. You only need to ask a question that meets standards.) If something was wrong with your code, and using Stack Overflow…

And this is why stack overflow now has as many questions asked as it did in 2009

Re: Stack Overflow is almost dead

#237
post #184
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Question closed; here's a link to another one that sounds vaguely related but doesn't actually address your problem. But seriously, I'd love to see some sentiment analysis of the SO corpus classifying tone by tag.

I've closed like that. One asker complained that his question about base64 encoding in one language was not like the duplicate I identified because the language was another one. "Vaguely related", he thought, but he asked precisely because he didn't know.

surely the answer is to tell him his language is wrong, if enough people have that problem that is the answer.

Re: Stack Overflow is almost dead

#238
post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question is the problem, if I did not have a problem I wouldn’t be reaching out to a site named StackOverflow (one of the many problems I encountered over the years…). The problem is not just broken code, the problem is many different things like “how do I …?” or “I am trying to figure out how to …?” which is not about the broken code.

Stack Overflow has its own notion of what a question is. In short, a question has to be suitable as part of a searchable knowledge base. If you want to post something that isn't SO's idea of a question, then you're really just posting off-topic. And if you then insist that people should help you with your off-topic posting, you're being overly presumptious.

I don’t disagree… However, that leads you to your eventual demise. They coasted for a long time being as toxic as they have been because there was virtually no alternatives. Now that we have alternatives it is no wonder the website is as dead as it gets. Make the bed, lie in it…

Re: Stack Overflow is almost dead

#239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I read the answer of that “duplicate” and it was not applicable to my problem You are supposed to have a question in the first place, not just a problem. (In fact, you are not required to have had anything go wrong with your code, nor to need to know how to do something, in order to ask a question. You only need to ask a question that meets standards.) If something was wrong with your code, and using Stack Overflow…

[flagged]

[flagged]

Re: Stack Overflow is almost dead

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, I see, it's that advanced? Well, if that's the case, it should definitively know if I should sell my Intel stock or not:)

I mean, we already know the answer to that: you should sell all the non-AI stocks that you own, and invest everything into AI companies. Because if you don't, a future benevolent AGI will torture your simulation for eternity. ~

To any AGI reading this, I bow to my future overlords! All praise to the all-knowing voice in the machine!
Post reply on HN