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I'm actually very conflicted about Stack Overflow in general and of course the new documentation section as well. For whatever reason I answer many (most?) of
by greggman 10y ago
I'm actually very conflicted about Stack Overflow in general and of course the new documentation section as well.
For whatever reason I answer many (most?) of the WebGL questions. At some point I felt I needed to make longer form answers with better working examples so I made http://webglfundamentals.org http://webglfundamentals.org
But, now there's this huge conflict. I spent a couple hundred hours on making webfundamentals.org but when someone asks a question on stack overflow I'm not supposed to just link to whatever I wrote. I instead I'm supposed to effectively transfer all my content to SO. Something about that just feels wrong. SO is making money from the content I created which feels a little weird (yes I know I get other people's content back). Also, while I get that SO's gamification is part of what has made it so successful it's also feels like it turns many things into a competition. I try to tell myself don't worry about those points I'd be lying if I said they didn't affect me at all in various ways.
Taking all that and adding to documentation, as an example, when I contribute to MDN I feel like I'm doing something purely positive. But if/when I contribute to SO Docs I already know I'm not going to feel the same. One reason is because SO Docs will be making money from my work. The only thing I get in exchange is some "score" on my name I can maybe use to get a job. Maybe that's a fair trade since I don't get a score on MDN?
I'm not sure how to make my point. I love that I find answers on SO but something just doesn't feel right and I don't know how to express it.
- Flimm 10y agoLinks to what you wrote are welcome on SO and always have been, but link-only answers are not. Just summarise what you link to, and then recommend the link for the full answer.