IDK what shitoverflow gets out of being so fucking toxic. I asked one dumb question and I'm basically banned from posting on the website.
It feels like they're trying to be a sort of "wikipedia" of every programming problem and solution. The problem is that eventually everything will be posted, and everyone will be banned from the website.
Most of the comments here seem to be arguing whether it's better to get help now from SO or ChatGPT, but this is a pretty short-sighted mindset.
What happens when the next new standard comes out that ChatGPT hasn't been trained on? If SO tanks and dies, where will you go?
I'm not saying use a lesser resource, I'm saying this is kinda tragic and I hope they can sustain themselves; AI is propped up by human input and can't train itself.
SO is a shithole, just like Reddit. All the work is done by volunteers. When it was time to cash out with the platform, they also did several things to fuck with their community. I've contributed quite a bit to the trilogy sites, and served as a moderator. I regret every second of it. But at least a few people got rich in the process.
This doesn't tell us much without also including the quality of the posts. Are we sure this isn't just idiots who ask stupid question that can be found on Google over and over not doing that now that they have chatgpt
I am not sure when this started, but google searches now sort by paid content first rather then relevant content first, so Stack Overflow started to drop down into page 2 or more.
I really like using code.whatever.social as an alternative frontend to Stack Overflow. It has way less distractions and allows me to only look at the question and the answers and nothing else.
Also, if you are a technical person I urge you to start a blog where you document problems you solve. It's a great ressource for others and a resumé for you.
I used to mod on SO and a few SEs, but deleted my accounts a few years back. It's just a mix of low-quality submissions, over-bearing moderators/admins, and bad culture & etiquette. I still regularly use SO when looking up questions, but I haven't participated on there in a long while. I've mostly gone back to smaller forums and mailing lists.
I really hope it burns to the ground. One of the most toxic dev "forums" I've seen. I made a point of never clicking their site when looking for answers even if it took me longer.
Not arguing with the other possible reasons given, but it can be really hard to get started with SO as anything other than a reader. Gaining enough points to comment, answer, or even answer a comment feels really hard now that so many questions are already answered well.
A lot of my answers I get answered with ChatGPT. And I can always ask ChatGPT to tell me where I can look to verify the answer. I find myself on stack overflow for very specific or very technical topics.
It's funny how if everyone just went and "read the documentation" like they tend to obnoxiously tell you to do.. stackoverflow wouldn't exist. Personally I go and look for things I can answer if someone asks a question that I know will get obliterated but I can tell they just need some help. I'll try to answer it before it gets downgraded and they get banned
This tracks with my own experience of relying more on ChatGPT for coding assistance rather than searching Google (which would then lead to me to StackOverflow). ChatGPT has just been a faster way to get to the answer I’m looking for. StackOverflow is still a fantastic resource, though.