4 ms·

Congrats. Despite all the complaints about the nastiness of their mods, they’ve generated billions of dollars of programmer productivity to the world.

capableweb 6y ago
Could also be: "Despite all the nastiness of their mods, they’ve generated billions of dollars of programmer productivity to the world, but who knows how much it could have been if the moderation was done better?"
- wuliwong 6y ago
  The original quote is "Despite all the complaints about the nastiness of their mods." The original was not granting as true the mods being nasty, just that the complaints were real.
jasode 6y ago
>complaints about the nastiness of their mods, I didn't downvote your comment but I think it would be better if we don't phrase it in a "us vs them" manner such as "their mods". The mods are _us_. The mods are mostly unpaid fellow users that passed a points threshold[1] to do certain admin tasks. E.g. 3000 points to cast "close votes" isn't that high. If we don't like what the "mods" are doing, maybe that old saying is relevant: "we've met the enemy and the enemy is us." [1] https://stackoverflow.com/help/privileges https://stackoverflow.com/help/privileges
- Quarrelsome 6y ago
  its mildly more complex. As someone that never enjoyed the moderation angle that SO took (forgoing community for correctness and generally tending towards librarian stuffiness), to me the mods are most certainly not "us".
  - erikbye 6y ago
    If the mods on SO were more lenient than they already are SO would be completely useless, as opposed to barely useful, as it stands today. So many of the low-effort questions and answers belong in forums or IRC channels, or just ask your colleague, FFS. Or, you know, read official documentation? Get an understanding of the subject before you start making posts and just wait around for an answer. But I guess people could actually learn something, then. Learning is not what many developers seem to use SO for, they just want a quick fix. Something to copy-paste. It leaves them with no understanding and increases the shittyness of code everywhere. We need a higher bar for programming. If you can't get your work done without SO, you should be fired.
    - Quarrelsome 6y ago
      Way more people are on SO than venture into IRC or are now split up on discord. SO had the opportunity to be that community and to be that helping hand, the community were willing (people like me!) but due to the attitudes of some, like yourself (j'accuse!) we closed ourselves off to that because we thought being "correct" was more important than helping. SO could have easily been both but people just overly fixated on the concept of building a perfect library of knowledge.
- ProAm 6y ago
  The mods are one of the reasons SO is my last resort for finding help these days (for years now). You can say it's "us" but its not, and never has been.
- mathattack 6y ago
  Fair enough. Strictness of the model is more accurate than nastiness of the mods.

capableweb 6y ago

Could also be: "Despite all the nastiness of their mods, they’ve generated billions of dollars of programmer productivity to the world, but who knows how much it could have been if the moderation was done better?"

wuliwong 6y ago
The original quote is "Despite all the complaints about the nastiness of their mods." The original was not granting as true the mods being nasty, just that the complaints were real.

jasode 6y ago

>complaints about the nastiness of their mods, I didn't downvote your comment but I think it would be better if we don't phrase it in a "us vs them" manner such as "their mods". The mods are _us_. The mods are mostly unpaid fellow users that passed a points threshold[1] to do certain admin tasks. E.g. 3000 points to cast "close votes" isn't that high. If we don't like what the "mods" are doing, maybe that old saying is relevant: "we've met the enemy and the enemy is us." [1] https://stackoverflow.com/help/privileges https://stackoverflow.com/help/privileges

Quarrelsome 6y ago
its mildly more complex. As someone that never enjoyed the moderation angle that SO took (forgoing community for correctness and generally tending towards librarian stuffiness), to me the mods are most certainly not "us".
- erikbye 6y ago
  If the mods on SO were more lenient than they already are SO would be completely useless, as opposed to barely useful, as it stands today. So many of the low-effort questions and answers belong in forums or IRC channels, or just ask your colleague, FFS. Or, you know, read official documentation? Get an understanding of the subject before you start making posts and just wait around for an answer. But I guess people could actually learn something, then. Learning is not what many developers seem to use SO for, they just want a quick fix. Something to copy-paste. It leaves them with no understanding and increases the shittyness of code everywhere. We need a higher bar for programming. If you can't get your work done without SO, you should be fired.
  - Quarrelsome 6y ago
    Way more people are on SO than venture into IRC or are now split up on discord. SO had the opportunity to be that community and to be that helping hand, the community were willing (people like me!) but due to the attitudes of some, like yourself (j'accuse!) we closed ourselves off to that because we thought being "correct" was more important than helping. SO could have easily been both but people just overly fixated on the concept of building a perfect library of knowledge.
ProAm 6y ago
The mods are one of the reasons SO is my last resort for finding help these days (for years now). You can say it's "us" but its not, and never has been.
mathattack 6y ago
Fair enough. Strictness of the model is more accurate than nastiness of the mods.