5 ms·

Technical blogging in the era of Stack Overflow

55 points by rognjen 5y ago

lbriner 5y ago
Interesting that the article mentions SO being better for noobs but really, the quality is so variable that it is hard for a noob to tell a good answer from a workaround from a terrible answer. If they fixed the reputation system so it more accurately reflected quality, it would be easier but some people have 10K+ reputation for asking a simple question that lots of people upvoted and others who have added high quality replies to more specific questions might only have a few hundred.
- rognjen 5y ago
  > hard for a noob to tell a good answer from a workaround from a terrible answer While that's true the noob questions often have multiple answers and they're simpler to try out in sequence.
  - TeMPOraL 5y ago
    That's the thing though: you don't try out SO answers. Either you understand them and know if they address your problems, or you need to continue your research. Programming is not like baking cookies, you can't just copy a snippet and hope it'll work out OK.
    - rognjen 5y ago
      Well I don't speak for all noobs but I do know that when I was one (and still am in some ways) I did _try out_ and try to understand them. And to be frank that's kind of an elitist way of looking at someone who is still learning.
    - da_chicken 5y ago
      > Programming is not like baking cookies, you can't just copy a snippet and hope it'll work out OK. Wait, why not? Isn't the entire notion of a library or framework literally a book of common recipes? Don't most languages ship with a standard library, common classes, or a common framework? Sure, thoughtlessly mixing mismatched patterns will get you haggis or oatmeal raisin, but that really doesn't mean the method is flawed.
- da_chicken 5y ago
  > If they fixed the reputation system so it more accurately reflected quality, it would be easier but some people have 10K+ reputation for asking a simple question that lots of people upvoted and others who have added high quality replies to more specific questions might only have a few hundred. How exactly do you tell the difference?
- stemlord 5y ago
  The problem I had as a noob was posting a question. Many downvotes and nitpicks about making it more a "mimimum reproducable example" definitely felt like a form of gatekeeping. I remember spending a good hour or so at a time putting together a good question just for it to get downvoted without any mentioned reason. Then the pressure from tech-jargon-filled comments to go read up on every word they just used for another 30 mins in order to give a half witted response because if I ask them to dumb it down they'll ignore and move on, or accuse me of being lazy...
deft 5y ago
Nice to see this written out, I've came to the same conclusion just based on the things I read.
- rognjen 5y ago
  Thanks. Once you get a bit of experience Stack Overflow drops off quite quickly and it's the technical blog posts the become much more informative.
azhenley 5y ago
If you're looking for more technical blogs to follow, I just made a list of my favorites a few days ago: Technical blogs worth reading https://web.eecs.utk.edu/~azh/blog/favblogs.html https://web.eecs.utk.edu/~azh/blog/favblogs.html
- FillardMillmore 5y ago
  This is a great little collection, thank you!
- rognjen 5y ago
  Great, I'll look through that. My post was based on a comment from the refined.blog thread.
- EMM_386 5y ago
  The Old New Thing by Raymond Chen is a good one not on this list, especially for Windows developers. There are a lot of gems on there about a lot of deep topics. https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/ https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/
rukshn 5y ago
Another thing I want to mention is that other than SO Google also promotes poor content. Google results are filled with poorly written articles and medium posts that is there because of SEO spam or domain quality.
Stronico 5y ago
I've always found the "You can accomplish Task A by using Method B, but Method C is way easier and better in the long run" quite helpful, and rarely on stack overflow
cbsmith 5y ago
> Reading the docs and the source code are learned skills. This makes me sad. I'm also confused... who reads blogs but doesn't read the docs?
- yumaikas 5y ago
  Why does this make you sad?
  - cbsmith 5y ago
    Because, to me, reading the docs & source code should be skills that are learned prior to "using the code and writing code".
- ThePadawan 5y ago
  > I'm also confused... who reads blogs but doesn't read the docs? You've been spoiled by good docs ;).
  - cbsmith 5y ago
    More like I haven't been spoiled by good blogs. ;-)
- rognjen 5y ago
  Docs are often very terse and assume a lot of background knowledge. When blog posts are written effort is put in to make sure a wider range of audiences can understand them.
- monodot 5y ago
  > I'm also confused... who reads blogs but doesn't read the docs? I’d say lots of people. Most people are searching for a specific solution to a technical problem. If they see a how-to blog that fits their use case in the results, many people will prefer it over the official docs.
  - rognjen 5y ago
gjadi 5y ago
IMHO, do write technical blog if you want to, if it helps you learn and if you like to. But if you can, please try to contribute to the official documentation as well. It's not applicable in every cases, it takes longer (and may not work), it doesn't bring as much visual karma, but I believe it improves the situation for every one in the long run. Thank you.
dspillett 5y ago
Another reason to write your own technical content, even if a similar question/answer does exist on SO, especially in examples where you experiment to put together examples that show/prove a point, is that it is practise for yourself. I intend to get some of my own content out there (it may never happen, the intention has existed for quite some time!) and if I ever find time to do it some of the things I might include are expansions of things I've given as SO answers, expanding on details that might have been too much in the SO/SE context and potentially caused confusion or sliding off into tangents that would be too far off-topic from the starting point. I might not ever point people at this writing, the main point of it will be my own practise (of technical matters, and just the act or writing and organising information). If it comes to be something that feels useful then it might be the start of an online portfolio that I selectively send people to, or feed back into SO/SE (i.e. giving an answer with bits extracted from something I've already written with a “for some related tangents you might find this fuller article useful” link, as I already do for other people's articles like the very useful tomes of MS SQL knowledge at https://www.sommarskog.se/ https://www.sommarskog.se/ that I've referenced on DBA.SE before now).
- rognjen 5y ago
  That's a very good point. Blogging as practice for communicating more clearly.
  - ManuelKiessling 5y ago
    It’s also a great extension of a CV, at least I see my https://manuel.kiessling.net https://manuel.kiessling.net blog that way.
    - the_only_law 5y ago
      There was a thread somewhat related to this recently. I’m wary of having anything that’s not direct professional experience directly listed in the resume. The consensus is just that outside rare occasion or notability in your field, no one cares about your blog/project/GH/etc.

55 points by rognjen 5y ago

Interesting that the article mentions SO being better for noobs but really, the quality is so variable that it is hard for a noob to tell a good answer from a workaround from a terrible answer. If they fixed the reputation system so it more accurately reflected quality, it would be easier but some people have 10K+ reputation for asking a simple question that lots of people upvoted and others who have added high quality replies to more specific questions might only have a few hundred.

rognjen 5y ago
> hard for a noob to tell a good answer from a workaround from a terrible answer While that's true the noob questions often have multiple answers and they're simpler to try out in sequence.
- TeMPOraL 5y ago
  That's the thing though: you don't try out SO answers. Either you understand them and know if they address your problems, or you need to continue your research. Programming is not like baking cookies, you can't just copy a snippet and hope it'll work out OK.
  - rognjen 5y ago
    Well I don't speak for all noobs but I do know that when I was one (and still am in some ways) I did _try out_ and try to understand them. And to be frank that's kind of an elitist way of looking at someone who is still learning.
  - da_chicken 5y ago
    > Programming is not like baking cookies, you can't just copy a snippet and hope it'll work out OK. Wait, why not? Isn't the entire notion of a library or framework literally a book of common recipes? Don't most languages ship with a standard library, common classes, or a common framework? Sure, thoughtlessly mixing mismatched patterns will get you haggis or oatmeal raisin, but that really doesn't mean the method is flawed.
da_chicken 5y ago
> If they fixed the reputation system so it more accurately reflected quality, it would be easier but some people have 10K+ reputation for asking a simple question that lots of people upvoted and others who have added high quality replies to more specific questions might only have a few hundred. How exactly do you tell the difference?
stemlord 5y ago
The problem I had as a noob was posting a question. Many downvotes and nitpicks about making it more a "mimimum reproducable example" definitely felt like a form of gatekeeping. I remember spending a good hour or so at a time putting together a good question just for it to get downvoted without any mentioned reason. Then the pressure from tech-jargon-filled comments to go read up on every word they just used for another 30 mins in order to give a half witted response because if I ask them to dumb it down they'll ignore and move on, or accuse me of being lazy...

deft 5y ago

Nice to see this written out, I've came to the same conclusion just based on the things I read.

rognjen 5y ago
Thanks. Once you get a bit of experience Stack Overflow drops off quite quickly and it's the technical blog posts the become much more informative.

azhenley 5y ago

If you're looking for more technical blogs to follow, I just made a list of my favorites a few days ago: Technical blogs worth reading https://web.eecs.utk.edu/~azh/blog/favblogs.html https://web.eecs.utk.edu/~azh/blog/favblogs.html

FillardMillmore 5y ago
This is a great little collection, thank you!
rognjen 5y ago
Great, I'll look through that. My post was based on a comment from the refined.blog thread.
EMM_386 5y ago
The Old New Thing by Raymond Chen is a good one not on this list, especially for Windows developers. There are a lot of gems on there about a lot of deep topics. https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/ https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/

rukshn 5y ago

Another thing I want to mention is that other than SO Google also promotes poor content. Google results are filled with poorly written articles and medium posts that is there because of SEO spam or domain quality.

Stronico 5y ago

I've always found the "You can accomplish Task A by using Method B, but Method C is way easier and better in the long run" quite helpful, and rarely on stack overflow

cbsmith 5y ago

> Reading the docs and the source code are learned skills. This makes me sad. I'm also confused... who reads blogs but doesn't read the docs?

yumaikas 5y ago
Why does this make you sad?
- cbsmith 5y ago
  Because, to me, reading the docs & source code should be skills that are learned prior to "using the code and writing code".
ThePadawan 5y ago
> I'm also confused... who reads blogs but doesn't read the docs? You've been spoiled by good docs ;).
- cbsmith 5y ago
  More like I haven't been spoiled by good blogs. ;-)
rognjen 5y ago
Docs are often very terse and assume a lot of background knowledge. When blog posts are written effort is put in to make sure a wider range of audiences can understand them.
monodot 5y ago
> I'm also confused... who reads blogs but doesn't read the docs? I’d say lots of people. Most people are searching for a specific solution to a technical problem. If they see a how-to blog that fits their use case in the results, many people will prefer it over the official docs.
- rognjen 5y ago

gjadi 5y ago

IMHO, do write technical blog if you want to, if it helps you learn and if you like to. But if you can, please try to contribute to the official documentation as well. It's not applicable in every cases, it takes longer (and may not work), it doesn't bring as much visual karma, but I believe it improves the situation for every one in the long run. Thank you.

dspillett 5y ago

Another reason to write your own technical content, even if a similar question/answer does exist on SO, especially in examples where you experiment to put together examples that show/prove a point, is that it is practise for yourself. I intend to get some of my own content out there (it may never happen, the intention has existed for quite some time!) and if I ever find time to do it some of the things I might include are expansions of things I've given as SO answers, expanding on details that might have been too much in the SO/SE context and potentially caused confusion or sliding off into tangents that would be too far off-topic from the starting point. I might not ever point people at this writing, the main point of it will be my own practise (of technical matters, and just the act or writing and organising information). If it comes to be something that feels useful then it might be the start of an online portfolio that I selectively send people to, or feed back into SO/SE (i.e. giving an answer with bits extracted from something I've already written with a “for some related tangents you might find this fuller article useful” link, as I already do for other people's articles like the very useful tomes of MS SQL knowledge at https://www.sommarskog.se/ https://www.sommarskog.se/ that I've referenced on DBA.SE before now).

rognjen 5y ago
That's a very good point. Blogging as practice for communicating more clearly.
- ManuelKiessling 5y ago
  It’s also a great extension of a CV, at least I see my https://manuel.kiessling.net https://manuel.kiessling.net blog that way.
  - the_only_law 5y ago
    There was a thread somewhat related to this recently. I’m wary of having anything that’s not direct professional experience directly listed in the resume. The consensus is just that outside rare occasion or notability in your field, no one cares about your blog/project/GH/etc.