• Re: =?utf-8?Q?=E2=80=9CThe?= Pulse #134: Stack overflow is almost =?ut

    From Ar Rakin@3:633/280.2 to All on Wed May 28 02:27:40 2025
    Subject: Re: =?utf-8?Q?=E2=80=9CThe?= Pulse #134: Stack overflow is almost
    =?utf-8?Q?dead=E2=80=9D?=

    Sam <sam@email-scan.com> writes:

    Lynn McGuire writes:

    “The Pulse #134: Stack overflow is almost dead
    https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pulse-134

    “Four months ago, we asked Are LLMs making Stack Overflow
    irrelevant? Data at the time suggested that the answer is likely
    “yes:”

    “June 2021: Stack Overflow sold for $1.8B to private equity
    investor, Prosus. In hindsight, the founders – Jeff Atwood and Joel
    Spolsky – sold with near-perfect timing, before terminal decline.

    Unreal.

    It's not the LLM or AI that made Stackoverflow jump the shark. They
    simply failed to achieve sufficient mind share to be able to withstand
    the natural factors that work to collapse every social media platform
    that employs content moderation. Stackoverflow's content moderation
    policies pissed off their most productive contributors, so they all
    left, and there wasn't enough garbage left to support what's left
    behind.

    If SO grew big enough before their loss of mindshare they might've had
    a chance to carry on by inertia, as a steaming pile of flaming
    crap. Case in point: Facebook. But they didn't. Goodbye.


    Absolutely. I have had painful experience with StackOverflow every time
    I asked a question. I understand they have to moderate it to make sure
    the questions are not garbage, but they kinda went too far. Their
    aggressive moderation often kills the enthusiasm of newbie programmers.
    It is easier to either just ask an LLM, a person you know, or just shut
    up about it.

    I had a feeling someday people *will* move away from StackOverflow.
    And, here we are. Most of the answers that are on StackOverflow are
    years old, often not even relevant anymore. I usually just ignore
    search results from StackOverflow for this reason.

    --
    Rakin

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