

Ask HN: How Would You Improve Stackoverflow? - npguy


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gesman
Find questions with at least 100 upvotes and active replies that been:

\- "closed as off topic by ..." \- "locked by ..."

\- Compile a list of people who are closing and locking questions that are of
great benefits to community.

\- Make each of these people to start from zero at Stackoverflow to prove
their worthiness.

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gravypod
I've seen this so many times that it is upsetting. This would make it a place
I would love contributing to.

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general_failure
Here's a killer feature: I would want to chat with the other people landing on
the same page at that instant so that I can discuss the problem. If no one is
there, I can always wait for sometime before someone shows up.

In some way, it's like a dynamic irc channel.

~~~
misrab
lol I made something like this a while back :P interlude.im

needs polishing though (i.e. XSS screening etc...), did it over an evening :)

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nickthemagicman
I know it's a prototype but you're passing the password as a plaintext
parameter in the URL.

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_random_
Find a way of having re-occurring persistent subjective discussions that would
still be a part of SO. Chat is a rubbish idea for this because it's transient.

Find a way to dis-encourage posting a first question and then disappearing
without accepting the answer. Mandatory registrations? It's popular enough
already.

Allow accepting multiple answers.

Make answering questions worthwhile even if a decent points outcome is not
likely (new user, specific question). Mods awarding extra points?

Fix the problem of fastest answer typically getting the most attention: "the
post-first then improve if popular" strategy.

Make points more meaningful, like reddit gold maybe. Reward not just total
reputation (there is no catching up with some early members) but reputation
spikes as well.

So many things to improve, but some could be risky.

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pestaa
I would replace the homepage with featured questions. Currently there are more
questions with negative scores than positive ones, and most of them are not
even voted on.

It's too easy to ask questions, so most people don't bother trying to
understand what they don't know.

As a professional developer, it has not been satisfying to contribute to SO
for a long time (this includes asking questions) because the whole site feels
like a massive content farm (to me anyway.)

With the massive community effort SO has, it could very well be a beautiful
garden instead of a montage of jungles it became. Not saying I could
coordinate the effort, though...

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27182818284
It is very difficult to contribute as a new user.

I try to upvote, I can't.

I try to downvote, I can't.

I wanted to reply to something, I couldn't.

 _shrug_

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DanBC
Find a different site. Ask and answer questions. Go back to the first site and
you're awarded some points.

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1123581321
I would allow small edits to fix typos. Right now, SO will not allow you to
make only small changes.

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anubhabb
Healthy moderation - just because someone has points doesn't imply he/she is
God and has the right to troll others.

Better tagging!

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MalcolmDiggs
I'd make search better. I consistently get better/more-relevant stackoverflow
results when I start at Google than by using their internal search bar.

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nickthemagicman
Require finer grained categorization of questions.

The data explosion must be immense and every time I ask some noob question Im
sure its already been asked.

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JikkuJose
Improve design and usability. Perhaps a dark theme can be great.

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_RPM
I would fire all the moderators.

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keeto1234
I would get rid of jerks

