While I agree with the premise, I think no one has touched on why SO has lost its crowned place among programmers. Simply put, search has gotten much better, a

While I agree with the premise, I think no one has touched on why SO has lost its crowned place among programmers. Simply put, search has gotten much better, and programmers have mass adopted blogging. I wasn't aware of StackOverflow's existence when it was first gaining traction; in fact, I think I first discovered it around the time that it ceased to be as necessary as, from what I've gathered, it once was. Nowadays, when I do a search, 80% of the time there's a blog post that gives me a detailed answer to my question with an in-depth explanation of why. StackOverflow is often useful for answering my questions, but seldom really scratches the itch of why (with exceptionally insightful answers comprising a minority). I think most programmers that have achieved mastery gain more satisfaction by blogging and having their insights centralized, publicized, and monetized to their liking than they do from accruing points on SO.