4 ms·

StackOverflow has become nearly useless because they don't mandate version numbers on questions and answers. I never start searches on SO and walk away empty ha

StackOverflow has become nearly useless because they don't mandate version numbers on questions and answers. I never start searches on SO and walk away empty handed probably 95% of the time I find my way there.

Aachen 4y ago
I was actually part of a study on improving that. They selected for some criteria that I'm not privy to, but part of it was being active on the site. Iirc only a few hundred meeting invites went out in total. Some of the questions I was asked were also geared towards validating the problem so they could present it to management and get more manpower on solving it. Since then I've seen sorting by 'recently most voted' being used by default sometimes, but I still have to read up on the actual results. They're somewhere on meta SO or meta SE.
- heretogetout 4y ago
  Part of the problem is the attitude that questions are duplicates of questions posted 10 years ago, so they get closed without answers. I am not sure recently most voted is enough. I think the culture needs to change substantially, maybe figure out some way to discourage closing as duplicate (cost N*5 points where N is the age of the supposed duplicate in months or years). Make it really expensive.
  - TheCapn 4y ago
    Maybe my attitude is wrong, but I've always felt the onus is on the Question asker to dictate that they've found the old answers and provide explanation to why they're no longer relevant to the problem. "I've already tried solutions from <x>,<y>, and <z> but they use functions depreciated in 2.1 and I'm using 3.0." I do recognize the problem you're describing though. I think I've developed this mindset because I stopped helping out in StackOverflow a lot due to the low quality of many questions. I did a bit of time moderating with the intent to teach new users how to improve their questions, but ultimately the amount of users who want quick answers outpaces my patience so I just moved on. I follow two niche categories now that I consider myself an expert in and that's about all I help out with anymore.
    - heretogetout 4y ago
      Yeah, questioners should be encouraged to include version numbers. Ideally there would be a specific mandatory field for a version number. I'm honestly shocked there isn't one, it seems so obvious there's no way I'm the first to think of it.

Aachen 4y ago

I was actually part of a study on improving that. They selected for some criteria that I'm not privy to, but part of it was being active on the site. Iirc only a few hundred meeting invites went out in total. Some of the questions I was asked were also geared towards validating the problem so they could present it to management and get more manpower on solving it. Since then I've seen sorting by 'recently most voted' being used by default sometimes, but I still have to read up on the actual results. They're somewhere on meta SO or meta SE.

heretogetout 4y ago
Part of the problem is the attitude that questions are duplicates of questions posted 10 years ago, so they get closed without answers. I am not sure recently most voted is enough. I think the culture needs to change substantially, maybe figure out some way to discourage closing as duplicate (cost N*5 points where N is the age of the supposed duplicate in months or years). Make it really expensive.
- TheCapn 4y ago
  Maybe my attitude is wrong, but I've always felt the onus is on the Question asker to dictate that they've found the old answers and provide explanation to why they're no longer relevant to the problem. "I've already tried solutions from <x>,<y>, and <z> but they use functions depreciated in 2.1 and I'm using 3.0." I do recognize the problem you're describing though. I think I've developed this mindset because I stopped helping out in StackOverflow a lot due to the low quality of many questions. I did a bit of time moderating with the intent to teach new users how to improve their questions, but ultimately the amount of users who want quick answers outpaces my patience so I just moved on. I follow two niche categories now that I consider myself an expert in and that's about all I help out with anymore.
  - heretogetout 4y ago
    Yeah, questioners should be encouraged to include version numbers. Ideally there would be a specific mandatory field for a version number. I'm honestly shocked there isn't one, it seems so obvious there's no way I'm the first to think of it.