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Total monthly number of StackOverflow questions over time

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Re: Total monthly number of StackOverflow questions over time

#661

Post by whilenot-dev »

scirob wrote: post #622
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…

Has anyone tried building a modern Stack Overflow that's actually designed for AI-first developers? The core idea: question gets asked → immediately shows answers from 3 different AI models. Users get instant value. Then humans show up to verify, break it down, or add production context. But flip the reputation system: instead of reputation for answers, you get it for catching what's wrong or verifying what works. "T…

That seems like a horrible core idea. How is that different from data labeling or model evaluation?

Human beings want to help out other human beings, spread knowledge and might want to get recognition for it. Manually correcting (3 different) automation efforts seems like incredible monotone, unrewarding labour for a race to the bottom. Nobody should spend their time correcting AI models without compensation.

Re: Total monthly number of StackOverflow questions over time

#662

Post by carra »

I find this quite worrying: with this much decline SO might end up disappearing. This would be a very bad thing because in some answers there are important details and nuances that you only see by looking at secondary answers and comments. Also, this seems to imply that most people will just accept the solutions proposed by LLMs without checking them, or ever talking about the subject with other humans.

Re: Total monthly number of StackOverflow questions over time

#663

Post by vultour »

ianbutler wrote: post #79
etamponi wrote: post #49

I spent the last 14 days chasing an issue with a Spark transform. Gemini and Claude were exceptionally good at giving me answers that looked perfectly reasonable: none of them worked, they were almost always completely off-road. Eventually I tried with something else, and found a question on stackoverflow, luckily with an answer. That was the game changer and eventually I was able to find the right doc in the Spark (…

It's flat wrong to suggest SO had the right answer all the time, and in fact in my experience for trickier work it was often wrong or missing entirely. LLMs have a better hit rate with me.

It entirely depends on the language you were using. The quality of both questions and answers between e.g. Go and JavaScript is incredible. Even as a relative beginner in JS I could not believe the amount of garbage that I came across, something that rarely happened for Go.

Re: Total monthly number of StackOverflow questions over time

#664

Post by culi »

braiamp wrote: post #597
throw-12-16 wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your post formatting is making this very difficult to read

I am aware, I tried to do some kind of bullet point as I've seen other posts, but I don't understand how to "activate it"

there is no special list rendering in HN markdown. You just have to put extra spaces between each list item so that they are separate paragraphs

Re: Total monthly number of StackOverflow questions over time

#666

Post by latexr »

lobsterthief wrote: post #646
__patchbit__ wrote: post #624

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is https://grokipedia.com which encourages you to suggest an article and you may submit improvements to an existing article.

This is _not_ at all the same thing. Grok just ripped off Wikipedia as its base and then applied a biased spin to it. Check out the entry on Grok owner Elon Musk; it praises his accomplishments and completely omits or downplays most of his better-known controversies.

And everything is “fact checked” by the Grok LLM. Which… Yeah…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok_(chatbot)#Controversies

Re: Total monthly number of StackOverflow questions over time

#669

Post by dataviz1000 »

cpa wrote: post #641
scirob wrote: post #622

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has anyone tried building a modern Stack Overflow that's actually designed for AI-first developers? The core idea: question gets asked → immediately shows answers from 3 different AI models. Users get instant value. Then humans show up to verify, break it down, or add production context. But flip the reputation system: instead of reputation for answers, you get it for catching what's wrong or verifying what works. "T…

Am I reading an AI trying to trick me into becoming its subordinate?

In 2014, one benefit of Stack Overflow / Exchange is a user searching for work can include that they are a top 10% contributor. It actually had real world value. The equivalent today is users with extensive examples of completed projects on Github that can be cloned and run. OP's solution if contained in Github repositories will eventually get included in a training model. Moreover, the solution will definitely be used for training because it now exists on Hacker News.

Re: Total monthly number of StackOverflow questions over time

#670

Post by Gigachad »

namanyayg wrote: post #399
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…

I had a similar beautiful experience where an experienced programmer answered one of my elementary JavaScript typing questions when I was just starting to learn programming. He didn't need to, but he gave the most comprehensive answer possible attacking the question from various angles. He taught me the value of deeply understanding theoretical and historical aspects of computing to understand why some parts of progr…

For every example of that, there were 999 instances of people having their question closed, criticised, or ignored.
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