4 ms·

w3schools getting bumped down to number two source of outdated, inaccurate results. Impressive.

Larrikin 2y ago
What are the issues with them in 2024? Like actual examples. I don't do webdev but the answers never seemed completely wrong whenever I had to look something up and I know I've read praise in recent years about how they completely revamped and the old "wrong?" Information was fixed. I know some people like to recommend other docs over them but that's not saying they're wrong or bad, just not as good.
- VHRanger 2y ago
  It's not "wrong", it just has an awful signal/noise ratio.
- wccrawford 2y ago
  It's really hard to fix a damaged reputation. And for a long time, the large majority of their information was horrible. It's going to take a rather long time for people to stop completely blacklisting them.
  - pc86 2y ago
    Why should we? If you poison the well long enough, nobody's going to drink from it regardless of whether or not you can test the water and prove that it's clean.
    - UncleEntity 2y ago
      Yeah, like sourceforge. I just googled them and the top sub-result is for "AutoClicker download" which, I assume, is intended for click fraud. Luckily "Forge Auto Clicker comes with no ads or malware making an amazing user experience!"
- astrodust 2y ago
  That's just the thing. You don't know if it was fixed or not, so you really can't trust the information given. Their old PHP database material used to be utterly rife with SQL injection. Perhaps they've fixed some of that, but a single injection bug can ruin your day, so it's not something you can take as casually as they seem to.
- Repulsion9513 2y ago
  Usually the answers were "right" in that they worked but also wrong in that they had issues or were otherwise less-than-ideal. But I haven't used them in over a decade so lolidk
1123581321 2y ago
I think w3schools should still be ranked highly. MDN seems better organized for people who understand how web development works and just need good reference, but there are a lot of people, possibly many more than there are skilled developers, who don't understand web development but need to make something anyway. Anecdotally, I watched someone learn front-end web development from scratch last year with a ton of googling. This person didn't understand the concepts at all (still doesn't) but w3schools seemed to help them the most to keep going and get their app made. I suggested MDN but they found it to be confusing, not even in the "I'm not ready for this yet" sense, but in the "yeah this doesn't answer the question" sense. It did answer the question and they would've been greatly helped by taking the content seriously, but they were still far from knowing what they didn't know. I have to respect that kind of user needs to use google, too.

What are the issues with them in 2024? Like actual examples. I don't do webdev but the answers never seemed completely wrong whenever I had to look something up and I know I've read praise in recent years about how they completely revamped and the old "wrong?" Information was fixed. I know some people like to recommend other docs over them but that's not saying they're wrong or bad, just not as good.

VHRanger 2y ago
It's not "wrong", it just has an awful signal/noise ratio.
wccrawford 2y ago
It's really hard to fix a damaged reputation. And for a long time, the large majority of their information was horrible. It's going to take a rather long time for people to stop completely blacklisting them.
- pc86 2y ago
  Why should we? If you poison the well long enough, nobody's going to drink from it regardless of whether or not you can test the water and prove that it's clean.
  - UncleEntity 2y ago
    Yeah, like sourceforge. I just googled them and the top sub-result is for "AutoClicker download" which, I assume, is intended for click fraud. Luckily "Forge Auto Clicker comes with no ads or malware making an amazing user experience!"
astrodust 2y ago
That's just the thing. You don't know if it was fixed or not, so you really can't trust the information given. Their old PHP database material used to be utterly rife with SQL injection. Perhaps they've fixed some of that, but a single injection bug can ruin your day, so it's not something you can take as casually as they seem to.
Repulsion9513 2y ago
Usually the answers were "right" in that they worked but also wrong in that they had issues or were otherwise less-than-ideal. But I haven't used them in over a decade so lolidk

1123581321 2y ago

I think w3schools should still be ranked highly. MDN seems better organized for people who understand how web development works and just need good reference, but there are a lot of people, possibly many more than there are skilled developers, who don't understand web development but need to make something anyway. Anecdotally, I watched someone learn front-end web development from scratch last year with a ton of googling. This person didn't understand the concepts at all (still doesn't) but w3schools seemed to help them the most to keep going and get their app made. I suggested MDN but they found it to be confusing, not even in the "I'm not ready for this yet" sense, but in the "yeah this doesn't answer the question" sense. It did answer the question and they would've been greatly helped by taking the content seriously, but they were still far from knowing what they didn't know. I have to respect that kind of user needs to use google, too.