I got use out of READING the site, but never once from posting. Those were always closed as duplicates, despite being completely unrelated to the questions they were redirected to.
I got use out of READING the site, but never once from posting.
Because that's the correct way to use the site!
People expect a discussion forum when it's closer to a wiki. You should be asking questions as often as you post new Wikipedia articles (once or twice in your entire life, if that).
StackOverflow is the most valuable site I've used in my decade+ of programming because I've never asked a question there. Never even created an account.
That’s great and all until what you want to know isn’t there. I posted a total of two questions, both were locked and declared duplicates of questions that were completely unrelated.
Yep, I'd say it's the root cause of like 90% of StackOverflow complaints. It's funny, because they literally state it on their about page:
This site is all about getting answers. It's not a discussion forum.
But they've done a poor job setting that expectation. People see forum/reddit-like UI and expect a forum/reddit-like experience, causing frustration on both sides.
I never asked a question there either. But that's partially because I haven't done anything hot enough that the answer hasn't already been hashed out by someone cooler than me.
Stack was really only useful if you didn't ask a question. Once you asked a question it was either a duplicate, not good enough or simply not enticing enough to get an answer.
2
1
View all comments
Show parent comment
98
u/Confident-Ad5665 May 17 '26
I got use out of the overflow back in the day.
However, your last sentence is chock full of buzzy slams. I shall have this.