nixCraft 🐧1d ago
I don’t know what was worse, Stack Overflow’s moderation system, which many IT communities find annoying, or AI killing the site 🤔 Both extremes seem bad for the open web…. I still think that we don’t need three chatbots controlling everything. I fear Wikipedia might be next. This is not good for the Internet
Show threadBrendan

@nixCraft There'll be few tears shed by people who were starting out with a new technology, wanted a place where they could ask a question to clarify their understanding, and then got told:

  • "read the fucken manual, it's all in there"
  • "this question has already been answered, did you bother searching? "
  • "don't do that, do this instead"
  • "this question is off topic, closed"

They could have remained relevant if they provided genuine value and true knowledge, not rewarded gatekeeping.

Jun 6 at 9:42amWeb
Show threadBrynawel1d ago

@brendan @nixCraft

I can favourite this only once, but please feel it at least 10 times stronger.

Show threadHans Hafner1d ago
@Brynawel @brendan @nixCraft this!
Show threadJamie Dowling [Dukes Ball Arc]1d ago
@Brynawel @brendan @nixCraft Amen and then some!
Show threadRumbles1d ago

@brendan @nixCraft

Your post was closed as a duplicate

You go to the duplicate only to find a 5 year old post with one matching key word which was never answered

Show threadgroxx1d ago

@rumbles @brendan @nixCraft or my personal favorite:

the top answer from 5 years ago has 637 upvotes because it solved a widespread but very temporary bug that happens to also show the same error message, without explaining anything.

below, there are 50+ "same here, tried X, idk" "answers" scattered through the years with various scores.

two thirds of the way down, the correct answer sits with 19 points, one comment that says "this is the answer", and the other says that it doesn't work on their hair dryer's WiFi.

Stack Overflow was killing itself through a decade of extreme stagnation and user hostility. do not mourn its passing.

Show threadAnthony David1d ago

@brendan @nixCraft

Where needs gathered to pool their ignorance.

Show threadGustavo1d ago

@brendan @nixCraft I contributed to Stack Overflow so much I even got a free T-Shirt from them. On the other hand, I stopped contributing because their culture was annoying me.

It makes sense that people loved LLMs: even when those were trained on those toxic comments, RLHF takes care to trim this toxicity out, leading to a "somehow better" perceived UX than SO.