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After seeing a couple of posts like this, I'd like to provide an alternative perspective: I no longer actively answer questions on StackOverflow, because it is

by nikic 11y ago

After seeing a couple of posts like this, I'd like to provide an alternative perspective: I no longer actively answer questions on StackOverflow, because it is too hard to find worthwhile questions between all the noise. If someone specifically asks me to answer something, I will do it, but trying to find interesting questions on StackOverflow has become impossible due to the high influx of very low quality material. There was a period where I'd try to help moderation by closing an deleting questions, but at some point you just realize it's a loosing battle and give up.

deleted 11y ago
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detaro 11y ago
What is SO "noise" for you? E.g. would the question debated here be "noise", and why? (To me, it appears to be clear what information the person asking wants, and it isn't already answered elsewhere) I don't think many people are arguing against moderation of questions in general.
- nikic 11y ago
  I wouldn't consider that particular question to be noise, even though it does not really fit the SO format. By "noise" I'm mainly referring to exceedingly simple questions, which could have been solved by even minimal research or debugging. Questions that have already been asked many, many times and only vary in your precise code. My point here is that, in my experience, the main problem of StackOverflow is too little or ineffective moderation, rather than the other way around.
  - detaro 11y ago
    Thanks for clarifying.
deleted 11y ago
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alextsc 11y ago
Same here. I used to answer a lot of android stuff when android was new and eventually it got too big and a lot of lazy questions got pretty much spammed. I loved helping people (I think out of ~400 posts two were my own questions) but eventually you get tired of "my toast isnt showing" or any other question like that. I gave people the benefit of the doubt as much as possible, but in some instances I could copy the question title, paste it as-is into google and the first hit was the answer. Eventually I just deleted my account and left since my motivation to answer stuff over there was a bit more than "I'd like to help people". I also liked to find questions I can't answer and figure out how to solve them on my own. Those became buried under lazy questions to a point where I had to dig for hours to find one. Maybe android was/is a bit of an extreme case, but still I see the same pattern more or less when I occasionally browse SO after finding an answer to my own problems over there. As for the OP, I think a lot of people don't get the SO format. Yes, that post contains a lot of very useful information. That's great, but: No it's still not a good fit for SO, SO is for specific questions with a clear answer and that post isn't that. It's overly broad in scope and has no right answer. One can argue about whether deleting really helps anybody (don't think so personally), but closing it seems appropriate considering how the site is supposed to work.

by nikic 11y ago

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

detaro 11y ago

What is SO "noise" for you? E.g. would the question debated here be "noise", and why? (To me, it appears to be clear what information the person asking wants, and it isn't already answered elsewhere) I don't think many people are arguing against moderation of questions in general.

nikic 11y ago
I wouldn't consider that particular question to be noise, even though it does not really fit the SO format. By "noise" I'm mainly referring to exceedingly simple questions, which could have been solved by even minimal research or debugging. Questions that have already been asked many, many times and only vary in your precise code. My point here is that, in my experience, the main problem of StackOverflow is too little or ineffective moderation, rather than the other way around.
- detaro 11y ago
  Thanks for clarifying.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

alextsc 11y ago

Same here. I used to answer a lot of android stuff when android was new and eventually it got too big and a lot of lazy questions got pretty much spammed. I loved helping people (I think out of ~400 posts two were my own questions) but eventually you get tired of "my toast isnt showing" or any other question like that. I gave people the benefit of the doubt as much as possible, but in some instances I could copy the question title, paste it as-is into google and the first hit was the answer. Eventually I just deleted my account and left since my motivation to answer stuff over there was a bit more than "I'd like to help people". I also liked to find questions I can't answer and figure out how to solve them on my own. Those became buried under lazy questions to a point where I had to dig for hours to find one. Maybe android was/is a bit of an extreme case, but still I see the same pattern more or less when I occasionally browse SO after finding an answer to my own problems over there. As for the OP, I think a lot of people don't get the SO format. Yes, that post contains a lot of very useful information. That's great, but: No it's still not a good fit for SO, SO is for specific questions with a clear answer and that post isn't that. It's overly broad in scope and has no right answer. One can argue about whether deleting really helps anybody (don't think so personally), but closing it seems appropriate considering how the site is supposed to work.