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This may be a controversial take based on the last few years of SO discourse, but the strictness in SO was part of what made it a good resource. For a question

by jjice 9mo ago

This may be a controversial take based on the last few years of SO discourse, but the strictness in SO was part of what made it a good resource. For a question asker, it could be really toxic. I've had toxic responses as well. The problem is, there are _a lot_ of bad questions that would pollute that site otherwise. For a case study into what it would look like if it invited all questions, look at many subreddits. I'll occasionally go on /r/ObsidianMD to see if there are interesting product updates, but instead I just see questions that get re-asked _constantly_. There's a very bad culture around searching for previous thread for info on many subreddits. People also ask questions unrelated to the sub at all. I've seen so many times people asking questions about some Android specific problem unrelated to the issue. While ideally I'd like to help these people, it pollutes real questions, discussion, and most valuably to future users, the ability to properly search for previous discourse. SO best acts as library of information. I will say, people on there could benefit from removing the rude tone (this is a trait I see in software engineers frequently, unfortunately). But closing activity when it's inappropriate or duplicate (which despite many testimonials, I have seen is more common than not) is a good habit IMO.

ACS_Solver 9mo ago
StackOverflow was great because it's not like a support forum or a mailing list. It's more like a repository of knowledge. It's been extremely helpful to me when arriving from Google, and I've gotten a couple useful responses to my own questions either. Awesome resource. Where SO started failing in my opinion is when the "no duplicate questions" rule started to be interpreted as "it's a duplicate if the same or very similar question has ever been answered on the site". That caused too many questions to have outdated answers as the tech changes, best practices change and so on. C# questions have answers that were current for .NET Core 1.0 and should be modified. I have little webdev experience but I know JS has changed rapidly and significantly, so 2012 answers to JS questions are likely not good now.
- luma 9mo ago
  This echoes my own experience. The very few times I attempted to post a question it was later flagged as duplicate, pointing to some other question which matched the keywords but didn't at all match the actual use case or problem. I don't know if this was the result of an automated process or zealous users, but it certainly put me off ever trying to engage with the community there.
  - zahlman 9mo ago
    Please show examples. I'll be happy to try to explain what happened.
- jjice 9mo ago
  The duplicate flagging is definitely the most common bad moderation I saw on SO, for sure. Good point.
- zahlman 9mo ago
  > Where SO started failing in my opinion is when the "no duplicate questions" rule started to be interpreted as "it's a duplicate if the same or very similar question has ever been answered on the site". What else could it mean? The entire point is that if you search for the question, you should always find the best version of that question. That only works by identifying it and routing all the others there. > That caused too many questions to have outdated answers as the tech changes You are, generally, supposed to put the new answer on the old question. (And make sure the question isn't written in a way that excludes new approaches. Limitations to use a specific library are generally not useful in the long term.) Of course, working with some libraries and frameworks is practically like working in a different language; those get their own tags, and a question about doing it without that framework is considered distinct as long as everyone is doing their jobs properly. The meta site exists so that that kind of thing can be hashed out and agreed upon. > C# questions have answers that were current for .NET Core 1.0 and should be modified. No; they should be supplemented. The old answers didn't become wrong as long as the system is backwards-compatible. The problem is mainly technical: Stack Overflow lacked a system to deprecate old answers, and for far too long the preferred sort was purely based on score. But this also roped in a social problem: high scores attract more upvotes naturally, and most users are heavily biased against downvoting anything. In short, Reddit effects.
  - gushie 9mo ago
    > You are, generally, supposed to put the new answer on the old question If you're asking the question, you don't know the new answer. If you're not asking the question, you don't know the answer needs updating as it is 15 years old and has an accepted answer, and you didn't see the new question as it was marked as a dupe. Even if you add the updated answer, it will have no votes and so has a difficult battle to be noticed with the accepted answer, and all the other answers that have gathered votes over the years.
zahlman 9mo ago
> For a question asker, it could be really toxic. I've had toxic responses as well. The problem is, there are _a lot_ of bad questions that would pollute that site otherwise. There were tons and tons of them anyway. If only we had the Staging Ground in 2012.
tstrimple 9mo ago
> I'll occasionally go on /r/ObsidianMD to see if there are interesting product updates, but instead I just see questions that get re-asked _constantly_. There's a very bad culture around searching for previous thread for info on many subreddits. My favorite is when searching for something I land on a thread where the only reply is "just search for the answer!"

by jjice 9mo ago

ACS_Solver 9mo ago

StackOverflow was great because it's not like a support forum or a mailing list. It's more like a repository of knowledge. It's been extremely helpful to me when arriving from Google, and I've gotten a couple useful responses to my own questions either. Awesome resource. Where SO started failing in my opinion is when the "no duplicate questions" rule started to be interpreted as "it's a duplicate if the same or very similar question has ever been answered on the site". That caused too many questions to have outdated answers as the tech changes, best practices change and so on. C# questions have answers that were current for .NET Core 1.0 and should be modified. I have little webdev experience but I know JS has changed rapidly and significantly, so 2012 answers to JS questions are likely not good now.

luma 9mo ago
This echoes my own experience. The very few times I attempted to post a question it was later flagged as duplicate, pointing to some other question which matched the keywords but didn't at all match the actual use case or problem. I don't know if this was the result of an automated process or zealous users, but it certainly put me off ever trying to engage with the community there.
- zahlman 9mo ago
  Please show examples. I'll be happy to try to explain what happened.
jjice 9mo ago
The duplicate flagging is definitely the most common bad moderation I saw on SO, for sure. Good point.
zahlman 9mo ago
> Where SO started failing in my opinion is when the "no duplicate questions" rule started to be interpreted as "it's a duplicate if the same or very similar question has ever been answered on the site". What else could it mean? The entire point is that if you search for the question, you should always find the best version of that question. That only works by identifying it and routing all the others there. > That caused too many questions to have outdated answers as the tech changes You are, generally, supposed to put the new answer on the old question. (And make sure the question isn't written in a way that excludes new approaches. Limitations to use a specific library are generally not useful in the long term.) Of course, working with some libraries and frameworks is practically like working in a different language; those get their own tags, and a question about doing it without that framework is considered distinct as long as everyone is doing their jobs properly. The meta site exists so that that kind of thing can be hashed out and agreed upon. > C# questions have answers that were current for .NET Core 1.0 and should be modified. No; they should be supplemented. The old answers didn't become wrong as long as the system is backwards-compatible. The problem is mainly technical: Stack Overflow lacked a system to deprecate old answers, and for far too long the preferred sort was purely based on score. But this also roped in a social problem: high scores attract more upvotes naturally, and most users are heavily biased against downvoting anything. In short, Reddit effects.
- gushie 9mo ago
  > You are, generally, supposed to put the new answer on the old question If you're asking the question, you don't know the new answer. If you're not asking the question, you don't know the answer needs updating as it is 15 years old and has an accepted answer, and you didn't see the new question as it was marked as a dupe. Even if you add the updated answer, it will have no votes and so has a difficult battle to be noticed with the accepted answer, and all the other answers that have gathered votes over the years.

zahlman 9mo ago

> For a question asker, it could be really toxic. I've had toxic responses as well. The problem is, there are _a lot_ of bad questions that would pollute that site otherwise. There were tons and tons of them anyway. If only we had the Staging Ground in 2012.

tstrimple 9mo ago

> I'll occasionally go on /r/ObsidianMD to see if there are interesting product updates, but instead I just see questions that get re-asked _constantly_. There's a very bad culture around searching for previous thread for info on many subreddits. My favorite is when searching for something I land on a thread where the only reply is "just search for the answer!"