Stack overflow is almost dead
Stack overflow is almost dead
Today, Stack overflow has almost as few questions asked per month, as when it launched back in 2009. A recap of its slow, then rapid, downfall.
Four months ago, we asked Are LLMs making Stack Overflow irrelevant? Data at the time suggested that the answer is likely "yes:"
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Ever ask a question on SO? I tell my students to search there but never, ever ask a question. The unmitigated hostility is not what new developers need or deserve. ChatGPT won't humiliate you for asking a question that someone else has already asked.
If LLMs just copied stack overflow they'd respond to every question with "Closed as duplicate. Question already answered."
and link a slightly similar question, which's answers can't be used in your case, because of the small difference. also, it's outdated since four years.
or 13 in case of python questions, and they are about python2
Problem being that someone else asked the question 10 years ago and the answer is now irrelevant due to version changes. People with high scores are just early adopters who answered all of the easy questions. Hostile users generally can't understand the question. The issue with llms answering your question is that they are going to be stuck in the current time period. In the future their answers will also be irrelevant due to version changes.
Earlier today I googled how to toggle full screen in dosbox-x and the AI-generated answer said to use alt+enter. Tried it and it didn't work, so I look in the documentation and it turns out that they changed it to F12+f a while ago (probably to avoid interfering with actual dos input).
This is definitely already a problem.
Every LLM is shit at dealing with version changes. They don't understand it as a concept, despite all their training data.
I mean that is already a problem, if you ask a question you have to be ready for the answer to be a mismatch of version conflicts.
But that is ok. ChatGPT is a tool that can either help you or hurt you. I like to think of it like a power hammer. If you are doing a roofing job, it can help you get things done faster compared to a manual hammer, but you still need to know how to build a roof to get started.
ChatGPT is great at helping you organize your thoughts or finding an answer to some error message buried in some log file, but you still need to know what questions to ask and you need to be ready for it to give you a stupid answer and how to get around that.
I forget where I heard the quote, but:
Stack Overflow is a great place to find answers. Stack Overflow is a terrible place to ask questions.
Their moderation approach is a big part of why it's a great place to search for answers.
But if it results in edge issues that're similar to another problem but not to the point of having the same solution being closed for being a duplicate, is it really helpful to the overall quality of the answers on Stack Overflow?
ChatGPT won't humiliate you for asking a question that someone else has already asked.
I don't know, being told what a good question that was and what a good boy I am everytime I ask a stupid question feels pretty humiliating.
(Still better than SO)
That's a pretty recent development, isn't it? I remember ChatGPT being a lot more matter of factly earlier on.
Yep, old ChatGPT was much more blunt and factual.
Don't really like the recent trend of every LLM talking to me like I'm in kindergarten.
For me, strict rules are what make this website useful. No threads named "help me" is why I like reading it.
For newcomers there is https://stackoverflow.com/staging-ground
Even for non newcomers, having threads marked as duplicates for problems introduced by version changes that aren't considered in the original question/answers is a major issue.
Said the same thing
is giving marked-as-duplicate vibes
That's why I only post questions for bleeding-edge languages and code libraries. I have to answer them myself.