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I would love to use stackoverflow actively, but wasn't very successful so far. It's great to use as a passive user. It's a great encyclopedia. But all my attem
by dx034 10y ago
I would love to use stackoverflow actively, but wasn't very successful so far.
It's great to use as a passive user. It's a great encyclopedia. But all my attempts to ask questions were unsuccessful.
I posted 3 questions where I did not receive any answers or clues at all. The questions seem to have a lot of views, so I tried to answer them myself later (in cases I found one). Which is ok, but makes it like an encyclopedia.
On two other occasions I needed help to figure out which way to attack a problem (which systems to use). I wrote a detailed description of my data, use case, restrictions, etc. Both questions were heavily downvoted as they're too subjective and not specific enough. Apart from downvotes I received some unhelpful spam so that I deleted the questions after a while. Luckily, I got more helpful answers on Reddit.
I understand that SO wants to keep discussions on topic, but why can't I ask questions about how to implement a problem, or which design to use best for a given data set?
So the problem is, I cannot use it for too specific questions (often receive no answer) but also not for too general ones (receive downvotes as being too subjective). Everything in the middle is covered already.
Some communities in the network seem to handle that much better, GIS for example has been a great help to me (as they allow open questions).
- thewhitetulip 10y agoGo is the first language I learned from the docs alone and from reddit. Never once did I go to SO. I even wrote an introductory book on it, and wrote one or two answers for Go questions. never had to refer SO. doesn't imply that I think SO is declining.
- dx034 10y agoGo just has an amazing documentation. Especially the fact that it links directly to the source code helps a lot. IMO way better than what Java or C# offer as an official documentation (just to name the two where I struggled the most).
- thewhitetulip 10y agoTrue that.
- bryanlarsen 10y ago"But all my attempts to ask questions were unsuccessful." Sure. But all the times you had questions that were answered on stackoverflow even before you asked them on Google, you were successful. And by answering your own questions on SO you're helping out the next guy. Post your question hoping you'll get an answer, but recognizing that you probably won't, and that you'll probably come back 24 hours later and post an answer to your own question. You will accumulate karma for these, slowly but steadily. But more importantly, you're helping out those who follow.
- dx034 10y agoYes, answering questions is great, I totally agree with that. But I would love if SO could allow more open questions as well. I'm not a huge fan of Reddit, but it seems the only place where I can ask those questions (plus some IRC channels perhaps).
- acjohnson55 10y agoI'm curious -- could you share links to your questions?
- dx034 10y agoUnfortunately not, I deleted them after they were continuing to accumulate negative points.
- PretzelFisch 10y agoAt this point in time SO is not the place for that. But that kind of question is more in line of their sister sites like code review, and programming.