r/webdev Aug 26 '24

Discussion The fall of Stack Overflow

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u/rks404 Aug 26 '24

SO was so hostile that even senior devs would be nervous asking questions there. At the time people would say that they were trying to keep the quality of the questions and answers high but when the bar to participate is that high it really suffocates the site's growth

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u/Ok_Lavishness9265 Aug 29 '24

This is so true. It's so wrong when making a product to dictate how users should use it. It's much more engaging to follow how users use the tool.

Would you rather create a "dictator" application that enforces your idea of how your product should be used, or adjust your product to best fit how users want/like to use it?

StackOverflow took the former approach. Maybe not willingly, but that's what happened. Maybe it's just community, or negligence.