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I wonder why they can't. SO seems to be eternally undecided about whether it's trying to be an unconventionally structured forum, a massively multiplayer onlin

I wonder why they can't. SO seems to be eternally undecided about whether it's trying to be an unconventionally structured forum, a massively multiplayer online game, or a jointly edited database of useful information. I wish it would put a bit more emphasis on the last one of those.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
DaiPlusPlus 6y ago
SO needs to find a way to accommodate “Recommendations” (for tools, libs, docs, tuts) questions/answers. They rightfully banned them early-on because they get stale, fast - but as we’re seeing now, even “good” questions for a long-standing platform like Java, Android, .NET get old before too long - it’s especially annoying when someone asked a question back in 2011-2014 about something which you couldn’t do back then but that you can do now due to recent changes in the platform (e.g. using immutable types with object-initialiser syntax in C#) so right now the “No you can’t” answer from 6 years ago gets 100+ upvotes and a helpful beginner/new/low-ranking user posts a new reply but will get ignored by SO’s algorithm unless/until a higher-ranked user comes along and gives it a boost. SO should add a “Vote to close because: Obsolete” option - which keeps the question visible but locks new answer replies and displays a very visible and prominent banner infotmjng users it’s for an old version (with the version range displayed and helpful information to find out what version you’re using).
mark-r 6y ago
It's simple, really - they're just trying to maximize the pageviews. If you have to click on 5 different Google search results to get the answer you needed, they've won. Getting the answer efficiently on the first click would be detrimental to their revenue model.
- hansvm 6y ago
  Wouldn't prioritizing short-term ad revenue be detrimental to the rest of their business model?

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

DaiPlusPlus 6y ago

SO needs to find a way to accommodate “Recommendations” (for tools, libs, docs, tuts) questions/answers. They rightfully banned them early-on because they get stale, fast - but as we’re seeing now, even “good” questions for a long-standing platform like Java, Android, .NET get old before too long - it’s especially annoying when someone asked a question back in 2011-2014 about something which you couldn’t do back then but that you can do now due to recent changes in the platform (e.g. using immutable types with object-initialiser syntax in C#) so right now the “No you can’t” answer from 6 years ago gets 100+ upvotes and a helpful beginner/new/low-ranking user posts a new reply but will get ignored by SO’s algorithm unless/until a higher-ranked user comes along and gives it a boost. SO should add a “Vote to close because: Obsolete” option - which keeps the question visible but locks new answer replies and displays a very visible and prominent banner infotmjng users it’s for an old version (with the version range displayed and helpful information to find out what version you’re using).

mark-r 6y ago

It's simple, really - they're just trying to maximize the pageviews. If you have to click on 5 different Google search results to get the answer you needed, they've won. Getting the answer efficiently on the first click would be detrimental to their revenue model.

hansvm 6y ago
Wouldn't prioritizing short-term ad revenue be detrimental to the rest of their business model?