After ChatGPT disruption, Stack Overflow lays off 28 percent of staff::The popular developer forum is still hunting for a “path to profitability.”
After ChatGPT disruption, Stack Overflow lays off 28 percent of staff::The popular developer forum is still hunting for a “path to profitability.”
I can also ask basic, repetitive questions framed exactly to my use case without getting yelled at that the question has been asked and answered before.
and then be provided with a solution of a 10 years old tech that is barely applicable today. But if you read all the answers you may find an up to date suggestion in the comments of a non-accepted answer.
Honestly this is not bad, if it solves your problem and it took less than 10 minutes of reading overall.
Plus you gain some understanding along the way, about why the other answers aren’t going to solve your problem, which is also valuable.
I’m not against learning or understanding the nature of the issue so that I’m in position to form a correct solution. But I find it kinda funny that topics are locked with “duplicate”, and the question linked has for example an accepted answer written in PHP5. I believe that SO should invent a way that such cases can be updated without the current “hacks”. Now, even if somebody puts the effort to write an up-to-date answer, it will be at the end of answers and it will take a lot of time, if ever, to reach a higher position. Also the “accepted” answer will always be the old one.
Another issue is that in some cases, the accepted answer becomes a wiki. Edit upon edit by users with required reputation adding new up-to-date info. In the end the answer is nothing close to what the original answer was, but it keeps the originally acquired score. So it can reach to a case that you see a +100 upvoted answer, which in fact has only been proof-read by 2-3 people, the ones that are needed to accept the edited answer.
Then if you try to provide a modern solution, get yelled at because ‘not everyone is using the latest version’ even though the modern solution works on everything newer than about 8 years.
The answers on SO are from unpaid contributors.
As if that excuses their behavior on a forum dedicated to learning and solving problems?
Everyone gets annoyed at oft-repeated questions. But the answer is moderation, which is also unpaid.
Not vitriol and skullduggery.
I have never even considered asking a question for that reason.