
Why I no longer contribute to StackOverflow - Ashuu
http://michael.richter.name/blogs/why-i-no-longer-contribute-to-stackoverflow
======
DanBC
The blog post contains a contradiction.

The author says many questions are simple and could be answered by a simple
web search.

The author then complains that easy questions get very many upvotes.

But those upvotes come from people doing a simple web search.

That's one of the aims of StackExchange - to create a website that has good
quality answers for questions, and to have those answers show high in search
engine results.

EDIT: " This is not the way a community of mature users acts." Well, it is,
because it clearly happens on any site that has mature users and voting. It
happens on SE; it happens on HN; it happens on Reddit (event the sub-reddits
that have older readers). It's probably not useful to think about what an
ideal adult will do with vote buttons.

------
leni536
If there is a pointing system there will be people who abuse it. You can't
create a "perfect" pointing system (at least it never worked out). Look at
impact factors in science, page rank or anything else.

Having said that I really like StackOverflow. I didn't contribute to them ever
but whenever I google some difficult question it's really often that a
StackOverflow link is the first or second result. It may not be perfect but it
is really a step forward compared to tech forums.

 _Nvm, I fixed it_

 _I sent the solution in pm_

 _Download this script from megaupload_

Thread derailed / answers one or multiple different questions

etc.

 _edit:_

[http://xkcd.com/979/](http://xkcd.com/979/)

~~~
DanBC
Further to the XKCD is when there is an answer to that post, saying JFGI.

~~~
k__
Or simply "use the search function" in every thread that posted this
question...

------
simonblack
I don't do SO any more because of the attitude of the moderators. Time and
time again, there is the 'This is not a suitable question and so we are
closing it.' statement on questions.

If somebody has a query, they need an answer. There is an old saying "There
are no stupid questions, only stupid answers." I evaluate 'This is not a
suitable question' as a stupid answer.

At one point all the scores and accounts were lost due to poor backups, mine
included. I never bothered to rejoin.

~~~
jeremysmyth
This isn't entirely accurate. The "not a suitable question" response is
generally "This is not a suitable question _for Stack Overflow_ ".

Stack Overflow is unashamedly narrow in the questions it permits. If it's for
a different topic, there are probably other Stack Exchange sites that cover
that topic. If it's not a question _with a possible definitive answer_ , then
it's just not suited to this format. Stack Overflow is _not_ the place to have
technical discussions with smart people, despite the fact that your question
will have a smart audience.

------
amitkgupta84
This blog post is painfully stupid. His point #1 is that posting answers to
trivial questions one could easily answer themselves with a Google search is
detrimental to good pedagogy. He then goes on to claim that most of his points
came from doing this very thing. What's the logic here? Behaviour x is bad, I
do x on StackOverflow, therefore StackOverflow is bad? No, SO in itself is not
the problem, the author of that post is the problem, and judging by his score,
one of the biggest contributors to said problem.

His second point is on the poor reward system. There is no reward system,
there are only fake Internet points (and maybe a few things like additional
posting or moderation privileges, but nothing of any consequence). Any
"reward" system you feel there to be is what your imagination makes of the
fake Internet points. The gripe about the "cool kids table" just demonstrates
a basic ignorance of supply and demand. The complaint that he's scored many
points after being inactive on the site is just as inane; if your "work" has
value to people even years after producing it, why should you not be
"rewarded" for it?

Last is his prediction that his 14k reputation would be diminished by the
"petty children" who make up the SO community, presumably after they read and
became angry with his blog post. Well, his reputation is now over 19k, so... I
suppose it's possible that his current score is actually the work of petty
children up-voting his questions and answers out of spite for him and his
prediction.

------
_random_
SO heavily rewards:

\- asking questions that on the spike of industry interest;

\- answering those kind of questions good enough but very quick and then
expanding the answer.

Example (please don't up-vote):

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24003918/does-swift-
have-...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24003918/does-swift-have-access-
modifiers)

------
MrDom
The post is over a year old. Previous discussion[0].

[0]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6990570](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6990570)

------
bbody
He does have a point about difficult/time consuming questions not being worth
the effort but only if you are just looking to increase your SO score.

------
restlessmedia
it's a 'don't hate the player, hate the game' scenario. Sure, I've been on the
receiving end of school corridor 'where's your tie?' antics but as a source
for finding out how x can do y, it's the best we've got. Remember experts
exchange?

