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I have become a little discouraged at how stale some of the posts have become. I have run into Google searches that give me results where the accepted answer is

by carson 16y ago

I have become a little discouraged at how stale some of the posts have become. I have run into Google searches that give me results where the accepted answer is now wrong. Sometimes the posts have devolved into multiple new answers that are correct but have very few upvotes. In some cases the newer answers are rants on how the original answer is wrong. I do think there is still room for SO to grow with newer technology that comes out. SO became a great resource for iPhone development and I think that can still happen. What would probably help is a purge of some sort. I'm not sure how they would go about it but I don't think just re-tagging will work I think they need to flush some of the stuff out.

michael_dorfman 16y ago
I don't think a purge would get to the root of the problem, which is an incentive system that rewards adding early answers, rather than editing existing answers. One of Joel's stated goals in the early days was that the answers would converge, Wikipedia-like, toward some Platonic ideal-- but the system in place doesn't encourage that.
- wisty 16y ago
  Neither does Wikipedia, but at least Wikipedia doesn't have "cold" articles.
  - sprout 16y ago
    So you think that Wikipedia content gets worse or stagnant over time? Definitely, I think it's more effective than the SO model.
    - rquirk 16y ago
      The WP pages on Chrome or Git only mention major features of those pieces of software. Features don't change that much. Part of the articles talk about the historic aspects of the projects, and again the past doesn't really change. SO tends to go into minute detail on a particular aspect of something, so the staleness effect is amplified. For example, questions on how to write a Chrome extension tend to be stale, as do ones on specific features of Git such as integration with Subversion, or submodule support.
bonaldi 16y ago
Yep, it's a huge problem: the pervasive rating system constantly needs fresh eyes on things to keep it accurate, so old questions don't get updated votes. To compound that, if you're a newcomer arriving via Google, you can't down vote. So you, the freshest pair of eyes on the page, can see an out-of-date error, but can't correct it or comment on it. All you can do is leave another answer, which is doomed to sit at 0 votes.

by carson 16y ago

michael_dorfman 16y ago

I don't think a purge would get to the root of the problem, which is an incentive system that rewards adding early answers, rather than editing existing answers. One of Joel's stated goals in the early days was that the answers would converge, Wikipedia-like, toward some Platonic ideal-- but the system in place doesn't encourage that.

wisty 16y ago
Neither does Wikipedia, but at least Wikipedia doesn't have "cold" articles.
- sprout 16y ago
  So you think that Wikipedia content gets worse or stagnant over time? Definitely, I think it's more effective than the SO model.
  - rquirk 16y ago
    The WP pages on Chrome or Git only mention major features of those pieces of software. Features don't change that much. Part of the articles talk about the historic aspects of the projects, and again the past doesn't really change. SO tends to go into minute detail on a particular aspect of something, so the staleness effect is amplified. For example, questions on how to write a Chrome extension tend to be stale, as do ones on specific features of Git such as integration with Subversion, or submodule support.

bonaldi 16y ago

Yep, it's a huge problem: the pervasive rating system constantly needs fresh eyes on things to keep it accurate, so old questions don't get updated votes. To compound that, if you're a newcomer arriving via Google, you can't down vote. So you, the freshest pair of eyes on the page, can see an out-of-date error, but can't correct it or comment on it. All you can do is leave another answer, which is doomed to sit at 0 votes.