Just some random musings about Stackoverflow:

SO is at its best when it’s actual error debugging IMO. When you google some specific error whoever else has the similar error it’s right there. I feel like GitHub is replacing this more and more though - I often get the GitHub ranked specific error higher than Stackoverflow these days. Usually you get better discussions on the GitHub issues too, for a multitude of reasons. Two off the top of my head:

1. all of the people working on the stuff related to the issue are very close by

2. the moderation is not nearly as heavy handed as SO.

ChatGPT is also much better than SO as well if you can give it enough context and the thing you are working on wasn’t built on stuff released after 2021

I also really like Stackoverflow for current event type stuff, like black swan type events. One recent example is when google’s Paris data center was on fire and infra guys were helping each other out trying to get systems online.

All of this combined means that StackOverflow the forum is probably on its way out though. They made the mistake of taking VC money and the model hasn’t really proven profitable so they have really made some poor decisions to please the vc overlords.

I won’t miss Stackoverflow much other than nostalgia unfortunately - better alternatives have arrived. Seeing the decline of all of the other Stackexchange sites kind of sucks though. There aren’t better alternatives for many of those

Just out of curiosity, what are the alternatives? I still find the moderation approach well made, even if it looks heavy handed. It’s important to create information for the future, not just for now

ChatGPT is not in anyway better than SO - no see the current moderation strike.

Both sides can identify ChatGPT answers as being wrong. The question is how can they be deleted. The moderators say they can delete a lot by manual inspection. SO say that AI tools were deleting wrong ones.

In my experience it’s usually often enough been right enough, and has the added benefit of adapting it’s answer to my issue.

Which is more than Google, or a previously answered StackOverflow question, can say.

But then, it’ll probably greatly vary depending on the problem you are facing.

My biggest problem with github issues is similar to the problems with SO:

Bots closing issues because someone doesn't spam the page. Closing as duplicate of (non related bug). A slew of random solutions that are only tangentially related and don't really solve the problem.