Why Stack Overflow Is Dying

https://sethops1.net/post/why-stack-overflow-is-dying/

by sethops1 • 2 years ago

4 3 2 years ago

snarbles• 2 years ago

StackOverflow has been in trouble for a while. That became obvious to me when the moderators went on strike. The site was being spammed with AI-generated questions and answers to farm reputation, and the site ownership forbade moderators from enforcing rules against AI-generated content via a secret dictate they weren't allowed to publicly reveal. The site's activity has been declining, and apparently allowing the highly problematic AI-generated content is the only available avenue for further "growth". It's like google degrading search results to artificially inflate the number of queries to create the appearance of growth. It's short-sighted, to say the least.

https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/389811/moderation-s...

The linked question isn't really a programming question. Maybe a better fit on SuperUser. But IMO it's tangential, close enough that it could be allowed. If you want real growth, relax the rules for humans, not for AI spam.

bediger4000• 2 years ago

Does this suggest that there's actually a finite limit on the number of questions?

When SO mods in the Linux/Unix stackexchange started closing questions as dupes, the questions that survived became highly focused, and I believe arrived slower. Narrow focus makes the answers less generally relevant. A culture of arrogant moderation also crept in, probably due to fatigue from dealing with dupes, and the close reading it takes to discern those dupes.

simonblack• 2 years ago

Stack Overflow has been bad for a decade or more. Of course it's dying. When people don't get answers they go elsewhere. When enough have gone elsewhere there is no one left to keep the website alive.

I never go to Stack Overflow by choice unless specifically directed there via Google.

Why Stack Overflow Is Dying

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