ploum

I added the followingt to ublock origin:
https://github.com/alvi-se/ai-ublock-blacklist

It is helpful when I’m searching for technical stuff. Technical contents are plagued with SEO spam and now slop.

So I make my search using @kagihq , I open in new tabs the 5 or 6 results that look useful. Out of those, one or two are usually blocked, which means I don’t even need to parse its content.

The bad news is that the remaining 4-5 tabs are often not useful either.

Best are StackOverflow posts from the 201* era.

GitHub - alvi-se/ai-ublock-blacklist: Websites I personally found that are completely generated by AI. Pull requests welcome.

Websites I personally found that are completely generated by AI. Pull requests welcome. - alvi-se/ai-ublock-blacklist

GitHub
3:24pmWeb
Show threadploum7h ago

In the end, I realize that reading official documentation and the source code of the tool you want to use is the best way to go. There’s always that 5 minutes dread when it seems helpless, when you think you could simply find a blog post from someone explaining exactly what you need.

But, this era is no more. You need to either blindly follow an hallucinating tool not under you control or build a real knowledge of the tools you use, through sweat.

Show threadnathan7h ago
@ploum Code never lies. Comments often do 😛
Show threadAstroBoat7h ago

@nathan @ploum The code contains many indirections and abstractions giving you a false sence of understanding.

The code is the how, comments are the why. Both are critically importent to grasp how a piece of software work and how it should be maintained.

Show threadAstroBoat7h ago
@nathan @ploum For example, I'm pretty competent at coding in JS/TS, but I cannot make or maintain a Gnome extension without the documentation. You have to know many abstractions, APIs, entrypoints, libraries provided by Gnome, integration boundaties with Gnome Shell, were to store settings or how to handle caching. Code don't lie but it doesn't tell you much.
Show threadFlorian7h ago

@ploum I agree. In this era my humble experience showed me that having the curiosity to read source code is still valuable, even in the business world.

And outside of it, well yes this will always be a good way to know how things works. And an invaluable joy.

Show threadPierre Equoy7h ago

@ploum this is a great opportunity for people who want to contribute to open source without being developers to help. Improving user facing documentation is super important!

I really don't like when developers are telling you to look into their source code though. I feel like it's a lazy answer to people looking for help.

Show threadHyde 📷 🖋 1h ago
@ploum 💯 agree !
Show threaddarius7h ago

@ploum @kagihq
Thanks for sharing this!

StackOverflow results are really great, it's a pity the site is dying. Depending on the topic, I can find similar results on Reddit nowadays, but we're progressively losing human posts documenting struggles they had and how they managed to solve the problem.

StackOverflow did have a bit of a culture issue though, seeming a bit hostile especially towards beginners at first. Nevertheless, having to dig through some replies and using critical thinking to find what you need is going away with LLMs spitting out plausible-looking code which might turn out to be utter bs.

Show threadStevan7h ago
@ploum @kagihq Thank you for this.
There's a dreadful waste of time between starting to read this slop and realising it contains nothing at all. You wait for the point to arrive, and are committed to wait forever.
Show threadCyril 🖋️📚7h ago
@ploum @kagihq je me demande comment tu trouves ces outils. Devant cette invasion je me sens helpless et je dépends de gens comme toi qui montrent une voie, une solution. J'aimerais être autonome, connaitre ton process pour ce genre de trucs.
(Pas certain d'être clair, mais bon)
Show threadploum5h ago

@arveed : y’a pas de secret. Je passe beaucoup trop de temps devant mon PC, je lis beaucoup trop de flux RSS et je suis beaucoup trop sur Mastodon ;-)

Bref, je passe trop de temps, mais je le passe dans les bons endroits ! Je crois que c’est ça: choisir là où on passe son temps.

Show threadAstroBoat7h ago

@ploum @kagihq I spend most of my time reading official docs and asking questions to collegues in our Slack channel.

We really need to thing about how we write documentation. A goal driven approach is a must.