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Total monthly number of StackOverflow questions over time

data.stackexchange.com

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Re: Total monthly number of StackOverflow questions over time

#351

Post by Neywiny »

0xfaded wrote: post #225

I once published a method for finding the closest distance between an ellipse and a point on SO: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22959698/distance-from-g... I consider it the most beautiful piece of code I've ever written and perhaps my one minor contribution to human knowledge. It uses a method I invented, is just a few lines, and converges in very few iterations. People used to reach out to me all the time with…

Looks like solid code. My only gripe is the shadowing of x. I would prefer to see `for _ in range`. You do redefine it immediately so it's not the most confusing, but it could trip people up especially as it's x and not i or something.

Re: Total monthly number of StackOverflow questions over time

#352

Post by marcosdumay »

Philip-J-Fry wrote: post #260
zero_shift wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh I love that game! (At least I think it's a game) You ask how to do X. Member M asks why you want to do X. Because you want to do Y. Well!? why do you want to do Y?? Because Y is on T and you can't do K so you need a Z Well! Well! Why do you even use Z?? Clearly J is the way it is now recommended! Because Z doesn't work on a FIPS environment. ... Can you help me? ... I just spent 15 minutes explaining X, Y and Z. D…

To be fair, asking why someone wants to do something is often a good question. Especially in places like StackOverflow where the people asking questions are often inexperienced. I see it all the time professionally too. People ask "how do I do X" and I tell them. Then later on I find out that the reason they're asking is because they went down a whole rabbit hole they didn't need to go down. An analogy I like is imag…

> Especially in places like StackOverflow where the people asking questions are often inexperienced.

Except that SO has a crystal clear policy that the answer to questions should be helpful for everybody reaching it through search, not only the person asking it. And that questions should never be asked twice.

So if by chance, after all this dance the person asking the question actually needs the answer to a different question, you'll just answer it with some completely unrelated information and that will the the mandatory correct answer for everybody that has the original problem for any reason.

Re: Total monthly number of StackOverflow questions over time

#354

Post by CGamesPlay »

I recall when they disabled the data export a few years ago [0], March 2023. Almost certainly did this in response to the metrics they were seeing, but it accelerated the decline [1].

[0] https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/389922/june-2023-da...

[1] https://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/edit/1926...

Re: Total monthly number of StackOverflow questions over time

#355

Post by [deleted] »

johnfn wrote: post #210

Some comments: - This is a really remarkable graph. I just didn't realize how thoroughly it was over for SO. It stuns me as much as when Encyclopædia Britannica stopped selling print versions a mere 9 years after the publication of Wikipedia, but at an even faster timescale. - I disagree with most comments that the brusque moderation is the cause of SO's problems, though it certainly didn't help. SO has had poor mode…

[deleted]

Re: Total monthly number of StackOverflow questions over time

#356

Post by Philpax »

sky2224 wrote: post #344
0xfaded wrote: post #225

I once published a method for finding the closest distance between an ellipse and a point on SO: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22959698/distance-from-g... I consider it the most beautiful piece of code I've ever written and perhaps my one minor contribution to human knowledge. It uses a method I invented, is just a few lines, and converges in very few iterations. People used to reach out to me all the time with…

This is a perfect example of an element of Q&A forums that is being lost. Another thing that I don't think we'll see as much of anymore is interaction from developers that have extensive internal knowledge on products. An example I can think of was when Eric Lippert, a developer on the C# compiler at the time, responded to a question about a "gotcha" in the language: https://stackoverflow.com/a/8899347/10470363 Devel…

The second answer cites Lippert's pre-existing blog post on the subject: https://ericlippert.com/2009/11/12/closing-over-the-loop-var...

I agree that there will be some degradation here, but I also think that the developers inclined to do this kind of outreach will still find ways to do it.

Re: Total monthly number of StackOverflow questions over time

#357

Post by 0xfaded »

Neywiny wrote: post #351
0xfaded wrote: post #225

I once published a method for finding the closest distance between an ellipse and a point on SO: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22959698/distance-from-g... I consider it the most beautiful piece of code I've ever written and perhaps my one minor contribution to human knowledge. It uses a method I invented, is just a few lines, and converges in very few iterations. People used to reach out to me all the time with…

Looks like solid code. My only gripe is the shadowing of x. I would prefer to see `for _ in range`. You do redefine it immediately so it's not the most confusing, but it could trip people up especially as it's x and not i or something.

Hahaha thanks, I never noticed that. If I ever print it out and frame it I'll be sure to fix it

Re: Total monthly number of StackOverflow questions over time

#359

Post by ianbutler »

GaryBluto wrote: post #350
ianbutler wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I'm not sure he intended it as an insult. Despite not using LLMs for HTML or JavaScript often (if at all), I was under the impression that it was one of their strong areas.

In my experience, at least in circles I've been around, I have found other developers who are a little too high on their own supply so to speak use "hurr durr web dev" as the "easy not real dev" insult.

So I both wanted to shame that in case they were and also categorically show otherwise.

Re: Total monthly number of StackOverflow questions over time

#360

Post by ajkjk »

gfhifd42 wrote: post #205
ajkjk wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well you can say all that but it doesn't hold up to experience. The culture feels very different here. So, no, it's not the same.

[flagged]

maybe I think those things, or maybe I think totally different things; you have no way of knowing
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