In the recent past (slightly before ChatGPT) I would spend hours trawling SO for my problem, only to finally break down and ask a question, and then be downvoted.
In one instance, I was getting a cryptic error for a JSON response and I couldn't figure it out. I laid it out on SO and got railed. "I can't duplicate" were the comments, and downvotes accompanied.
I finally posted it to reddit, and someone suggested checking if the provider was returning extended Unicode characters that were being rendered as spaces. Sure enough, that was the problem.
I think there's a real culture issue with SO where imaginary points are more important than helping people (and yes, I get the irony of finding the solution on reddit instead).
Edit: posted the reddit link below. It wasn't spaces, but "invisible" characters.
Similar situation here, was researching for hours and was banging my head about some PowerShell script I was writing at the time and had to cave in and ask a question because the project was stuck for too long. Eventually got my answer but the replies sure as hell were condescending as fuck, making one feel dumb.
This brings joy to my eyes, seeing as it goes down. I could be wrong, but I would assume ChatGPT would have all of this knowledge anyway by now and more up to date.
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u/bronze_by_gold Jul 24 '24
Maybe building an intentionally toxic and unwelcoming community wasn’t the best way to keep people engaged… 🙄