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StackOverflow Considered Harmful?

codingthewheel.com

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Re: StackOverflow Considered Harmful?

#2

Post by DennisP »

Considering that whenever I google a programming question, the most useful answer is generally on StackOverflow and at the top of the search results, I have a hard time considering it harmful in any way. It might not be perfect, but I don't know anything better.

Re: StackOverflow Considered Harmful?

#4

Post by redthrowaway »

This sounds like a similar problem to Wikipedia: great resource, bad community. I've never been active in the SO community, and am no longer active in the WP community, so my experience with both is as a read-only resource. Both are excellent in that regard.

Re: StackOverflow Considered Harmful?

#5

Post by BigChiefSmokem »

I can't say this wasn't unexpected. I've read so many useful questions on there that were seemingly derailed by the mods and people complaining to the mods in the comments section. I understand their point of view about the strict QA format. That's their business model and it's how they became who they are, but not listening to your core audience begging you to reform your policies is a clear sign of stagnation and complacency.

Leaves them wide open to be dominated by a newcomer.

Re: StackOverflow Considered Harmful?

#7

Post by nvivo »

I had this problem with forums before. As I requested my content to be removed from a site, my account was suspended and they actually reposted some stuff I had deleted, and blocked my account. I lost the right to my content, even though my name was still there. It was just a small dev forum, so it wasn't a big deal.

But it's funny because when you join those sites, they make it clear that any content you may find in their website is not their responsibility, as they are just a place for people to express their opinions, and any texts you find are owned by it's authors. But once you don't want your opinions there anymore, suddenly your texts become their texts and you're a dick for preventing them from making money of your content.

Re: StackOverflow Considered Harmful?

#8

Post by blt »

I like Stack Overflow. I agree with many of its criticisms, but I still think it's a huge gain for the programming community overall.

I think the worst aspect is the endless "your premise is flawed, you should do instead" answers. I often formulate toy examples, or ask questions out of curiosity rather than practical need. Somehow, users always latch on to the irrelevant part of my question instead of answering the part I care about. It's gotten to the point where I put big disclaimers in my questions to steer users away from those useless (to me) responses.

I got so annoyed with this pattern that I now consciously avoid writing anything that's not a direct answer to the user's question. I wish others would do the same.

Re: StackOverflow Considered Harmful?

#9

Post by ratsmack »

DennisP wrote: post #2

Considering that whenever I google a programming question, the most useful answer is generally on StackOverflow and at the top of the search results, I have a hard time considering it harmful in any way. It might not be perfect, but I don't know anything better.

Considering that whenever I Google a programming question, the most relevant question has been moderated into oblivion and so I have to seek my answer elsewhere.

Above is a bit toungue-in-cheek, but it is true in many cases. I don't find SO as the definitive answer site for that reason, but there is a lot of good information there.

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