Stack Overflow is a Necessary Evil
Photo by Alex Haney on Unsplash
When mentoring Juniors I’ve been more than happy to recommend Stack Overflow. Then one day one of my colleagues in a bar mentioned something.
I’ve been banned from Stack Overflow
I had to suppress my reaction.
I haven’t thought about Stack Overflow for some time. The website always seemed to be the perfect answer to the problem “Who can I ask my stupid question about programming”. A platform to share coding expertise is something I could get on board with.
So, how did my colleague manage to be so bad that the experts of Stack Overflow decided he had no place on the site?
Let’s look at where Stack Overflow came from, the dubious sale, managed decline, and the uncertain future of the site.
Initial hope
Stack Overflow started as a natural extension of the world of blogs in 2008. Googling around isn’t the best way to solve programming issues, and the founders of Stack Overflow sped the trial-and-error approach that hangs around the discipline of programming.
Users got:
Up-to-date content
Participation by voting on solutions
Rewards in terms of rep
“What could possibly go wrong?”
Early decline
Most of those answering Stack Overflow questions are far from experts themselves. This means much gaming of the reputation system goes on in order to gain that reputation.
Not only that. My colleague needed to have multiple accounts and emails in order to ask their (simple) questions. The reason given was that many of their questions were duplicated, despite the founders encouraging this use of Stack Overflow.
Still. Reddit didn’t provide a decent alternative to Stack Overflow. So the programming community continued with the platform.
Warning: In it for the money
Stack Overflow sold in 2021 for $1.8 billion and this counts as a big deal. Yet this didn’t mark the end of the decline. Who is a Q and A website for if not the question askers? We soon found out: it’s for the $.
Managed decline
After the big money sale, Stack Overflow hasn’t gotten better.
Complex questions simply don’t get answered. Make the mistake of including a toy version of your problem and the mob will be on you.
We need more context
Why do you want this answered?
Put your broken code on GitHub and nobody will download it.
Add context to the question and be astounded that nobody will read it.
“The list goes on.”
Has it really come to this?
If you didn’t have Stack Overflow I’d set up such a site.
“Actually I wouldn’t. I’d direct our juniors to ChatGPT and then they can get wrong answers from there.”
So, few workplaces give Junior developers a chance, let alone provide any support. Having a website (now chatbot) to support *silly* questions is a great idea.
“I think it’s a shame our lead developers don’t provide that support.”
The underlying problem is clear. Other professions have a Body of Knowledge developed by their professional body which professionals study and have a baseline of knowledge. How many programmers do you know who are members of a professional body, or have a degree? Compare that to the doctors you know.
Stack Overflow has had its day and sure, for now, some will use it. When it disappears few will mourn its passing apart from those who benefited from its elitism.
“Can I write a blog post about how much I hate ChatGPT now?”
Conclusion
The Secret Developer has another rant about Stack Overflow even though it has been pretty much replaced by AI.
“At least AI doesn’t seem AS arrogant as Ben on SO”