It seems clear that their efforts to optimize for future readers have had a lot of success. It's a big part of why they are so popular and valuable. But I'd also be the first to agree they are far from perfect. So I'd think you'd want to sharpen or reform the rules they use, rather than uniformly push them in any one direction. And so I wouldn't agree with blanket criticism of the idea of an information repository.

there's a place for freenode/gitter/matrix.org's '#programming' room and there's a place for 'correctness of the information repository' that SO provides

An information repository that is badly out of date with no effort at curation?

you think there is no value in an open question with upsie/downsie on SO? On freenode the answers are very much dependent on the time the question is asked.

Those questions invite lengthy discussion, which SO is totally not optimized for. A software like Reddit (not necessarily Reddit itself) would be more appropriate, in my opinion.

Personally I don't see how Reddit really differs. They both have up/down they both support markdown. SO doesn't have a frontpage or specific subreddits (although it does have tags).

Reddit allows for long, threaded discussions. On SO you just have Answers, and then those limited comments below. There's no space for back-and-forth.

That's a fair point but I find SO much better indexed. Now when I want an opinion on tech my options are:

* Ancient SO post

* Whoever is kicking around in freenode

* Marketing fluff pieces