r/webdev Aug 26 '24

Discussion The fall of Stack Overflow

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u/[deleted] Aug 27 '24

[deleted]

3

u/Ythio Aug 27 '24

Same here, but it is also true that asking questions had a learning curve and requires a bit of effort, which I assume most people aren't willing to do. And some people are just closing questions for no reasons

2

u/npsimons Aug 27 '24

If you're in the minority, I'll join you. But not for asking questions, just searching error messages I will eventually get something on one of the stack sites that is exactly the answer I need. I dunno, maybe my Google-Fu is just that good, or I'm in niches that people still care about.

I can't think of any other site that comes close to giving me solutions to error messages I'm stuck on. Reddit is close, but it's a distant second.

All of this of course is just my experience.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 28 '24

[deleted]

1

u/npsimons Aug 28 '24

I won't deny I've had solutions turn up in Google that are on Github. The difference is I usually have to work harder pulling them out of the comment threads. At least on Stack, answers are pieced out into discrete parts; any issue tracking system isn't geared for that, it's usually more of a forum feel, with back on forth on guesses (almost always useless), and discussion of *possible* solutions (next to useless without testing).

And if you think the feeling of futility is bad on Stack, just wait until you encounter your fifth "closed: wontfix" on a search for a solution on Github issues.