Dan Gillmor

Stack Overflow joins Twitter and Reddit in demonstrating control-freak contempt for the people who made the platform what it is.

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/stack-overflow-bans-users-en-masse-for-rebelling-against-openai-partnership-users-banned-for-deleting-answers-to-prevent-them-being-used-to-train-chatgpt

The company will probably get away with it, because people seem unable to fight back in effective ways, at least in numbers that make a difference.

Stack Overflow bans users en masse for rebelling against OpenAI partnership — users banned for deleting answers to prevent them being used to train ChatGPT

Stack Overflow is overflowing with salt.

Tom's Hardware
May 8, 2024 at 9:19pmWeb
Show threadLuka RubinjoniMay 8, 2024
@dangillmor Slop Overflow™
Show threadjsjMay 8, 2024
@dangillmor We need legislation that rolls back all those Terms of Services everyone has clicked through for decades now, granting the platforms ownership of content and the unrestricted right to use it as they wish. People should own their content.
Show threadJohn BreenMay 8, 2024
@dangillmor I will kick in $100 to the GoFundMe for a Federated replacement for Stack Overflow, running on non-proprietary platform, owned by those who post content and maintain the infrastructure. Collectively the people who post to and read SO could get this done in about 3 days.
Who's with me ?
Show threadrugkMay 8, 2024

@jab01701mid @dangillmor Well… we already have something like #Discourse that can be perfectly used for the basic needs of SO…

Thing is, asking questions ans answers in the Q2A format in different communities is really something basic. And the most important "feature" probably is "just" #SEO – one needs to find the answer directly.
One does not really need advanced stuff like a federation here, it's fine if different communities are separated, as it's actually the case in #Stackexchange.

Show threadmirek kratochvilMay 8, 2024

@jab01701mid @dangillmor

+1

Show threadMastodon MigrationMay 8, 2024

@dangillmor

Perhaps this is the lesson these platforms have learned from Elon Musk's actions with Twitter. Once the base is sufficiently invested in the platform, they will endure most any deprivations and not leave.

Show threadOcéaneMay 8, 2024
@dangillmor IMHO, because the use case was crap from the beginning – from my point of view it's mostly used to manage bad documentation and to get new skills in the most ineffective way.
Show threadferricoxideMay 8, 2024
@dangillmor

Everyone login and mass down-vote all of the accepted answers (that can't be deleted, now)?
Show threadJoeMay 8, 2024
@dangillmor At least the users who made the platform what it is can withhold further contributions, which will mean that the value will rapidly stagnate. Fewer people will contribute new answers, and since AI submissions are now allowed, new answers will be low quality or wrong. Many existing answers will soon be out of date. But perhaps the Stack Overflow owners don't care; they can get a payout now, and if what they are selling turns rapidly into a lemon that's a future problem, or someone else's problem.
Show threadMister Moo 🐮May 8, 2024
@dangillmor After the subreddit blackouts ended and the exodus turned out to be a nothingburger, I realized I can only control what I do. Except for through a few Google searches, I haven't been back to reddit since they killed Apollo and never will. But I have to accept that the platform is likely to thrive. I can only control what I do.
Show threadLenMay 9, 2024

Time to switch to Codidact.

https://software.codidact.com/

It's the same thing as StackOverflow, only run by a not-for-profit.

Show threadcameronbosch May 9, 2024
@dangillmor We'll.see... Maybe not!
Show threadRaphaelMay 9, 2024

@dangillmor Under the license we agreed to posting our answers under, Stack Overflow can just hand OpenAI a data dump (IANAL). Deleting posts is thus ineffective towards the stated goals and harms only normal site operations.

Banning users for self-vandalism has been part of the community rules since roughly forever on the Stack Exchange network. As a community moderator, I have enforced that rule before.

Show threadRaphaelMay 9, 2024

@dangillmor If some people only now realise that they've been giving away their work under CC-BY-SA, and that, yes, that others can earn money with their content wihtout their consent under that license ... well, too bad.

That all said, Stack Overflow has shown concerning conduct for years now. Giving content to OpenAI, be it in cooperation or by not actively preventing it, is, quite frankly, my least concern.