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Ask HN: How Would You Improve Stackoverflow?
- _random_ 12y agoFind a way of having re-occurring persistent subjective discussions that would still be a part of SO. Chat is a rubbish idea for this because it's transient. Find a way to dis-encourage posting a first question and then disappearing without accepting the answer. Mandatory registrations? It's popular enough already. Allow accepting multiple answers. Make answering questions worthwhile even if a decent points outcome is not likely (new user, specific question). Mods awarding extra points? Fix the problem of fastest answer typically getting the most attention: "the post-first then improve if popular" strategy. Make points more meaningful, like reddit gold maybe. Reward not just total reputation (there is no catching up with some early members) but reputation spikes as well. So many things to improve, but some could be risky.
- 1123581321 12y agoI would allow small edits to fix typos. Right now, SO will not allow you to make only small changes.
- nickthemagicman 12y agoRequire finer grained categorization of questions. The data explosion must be immense and every time I ask some noob question Im sure its already been asked.
- MalcolmDiggs 12y agoI'd make search better. I consistently get better/more-relevant stackoverflow results when I start at Google than by using their internal search bar.
- 27182818284 12y agoIt is very difficult to contribute as a new user. I try to upvote, I can't. I try to downvote, I can't. I wanted to reply to something, I couldn't. shrug
- sarciszewski 12y agoYeah. The usability sucks until you hit 100 points.
- DanBC 12y agoFind a different site. Ask and answer questions. Go back to the first site and you're awarded some points.
- general_failure 12y agoHere's a killer feature: I would want to chat with the other people landing on the same page at that instant so that I can discuss the problem. If no one is there, I can always wait for sometime before someone shows up. In some way, it's like a dynamic irc channel.
- JikkuJose 12y agoThats brilliant!! I really wish for this.
- misrab 12y agolol I made something like this a while back :P interlude.im needs polishing though (i.e. XSS screening etc...), did it over an evening :)
- general_failure 12y agoThis is actually very cool! Thanks for the link. Are you planning to sell it?
- nickthemagicman 12y agoI know it's a prototype but you're passing the password as a plaintext parameter in the URL.
- gesman 12y agoFind questions with at least 100 upvotes and active replies that been: - "closed as off topic by ..." - "locked by ..." - Compile a list of people who are closing and locking questions that are of great benefits to community. - Make each of these people to start from zero at Stackoverflow to prove their worthiness.
- sarciszewski 12y agoHah! Yeah, I'd like to see that happen.
- gravypod 12y agoI've seen this so many times that it is upsetting. This would make it a place I would love contributing to.
- JikkuJose 12y agoImprove design and usability. Perhaps a dark theme can be great.
- keeto1234 12y agoI would get rid of jerks
- pestaa 12y agoI would replace the homepage with featured questions. Currently there are more questions with negative scores than positive ones, and most of them are not even voted on. It's too easy to ask questions, so most people don't bother trying to understand what they don't know. As a professional developer, it has not been satisfying to contribute to SO for a long time (this includes asking questions) because the whole site feels like a massive content farm (to me anyway.) With the massive community effort SO has, it could very well be a beautiful garden instead of a montage of jungles it became. Not saying I could coordinate the effort, though...
- _RPM 12y agoI would fire all the moderators.
- anubhabb 12y agoHealthy moderation - just because someone has points doesn't imply he/she is God and has the right to troll others. Better tagging!