
The Hidden Power of Stack Overflow - basename
http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/03/the-hidden-power-of-stack-overflow.html
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aaronchall
> Similarly perilous is the fact that code changes very quickly. Android
> development practices, as an example, have changed drastically over the last
> few years, but the popular Stack Overflow solutions are still from 2013,
> meaning that budding developers might be learning through outdated
> solutions.

I'm a community-elected moderator on Stack Overflow, and I think this is the
biggest problem - outdated answers. Stack Overflow was founded in 2008, now
about 8 years ago. New and better answers that may be much better than sloppy
8 year old answer can take years to rise up to compete with the ranking of
those answers, as the the default sorting mechanism is by net up/down votes.

I'd like that addressed, in a way that minimizes disruption. Accepted answers
should be allowed to float in the rankings instead of being pinned at the top
after a number of years. And there should be an optional "hotness" sort that
primarily considers recent votes (say in the past year).

Until they do address it, the new, great answers will remain buried.

Others like to suggest Reddit's sorting method (
[https://redditblog.com/2009/10/15/reddits-new-comment-
sortin...](https://redditblog.com/2009/10/15/reddits-new-comment-sorting-
system/) ), but that doesn't consider recency (my main concern) - and makes
sense for them because voting is frozen after a period of time, whereas we can
still vote on 8 year old questions on Stack Overflow - so revenge-downvoting
(which, while verboten, can slip through the cracks) would have an outsized
effect.

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Safety1stClyde
This site is being overrated by search engines. Every time I do a web search
for anything related to computer programming, answers from stack overflow
always appear at the top of the search results, even if they don't contain all
of the search keywords, and I click and find something which doesn't answer my
question.

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DigitalSea
The importance of Stack Overflow cannot be understated. It literally is
underpinning every facet of development from front-end to back-end and
everything else in-between. I probably visit it at least three or four times a
day. Also, you regularly see core contributors and even owners of open source
projects answering questions on SO, which is great. The power of Stack
Overflow is only hidden from those who probably would never have a reason to
use it.

~~~
Safety1stClyde
> The importance of Stack Overflow cannot be understated.

I agree with this part of your post, but the rest of it contradicts this
statement.

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DigitalSea
What? Care to elaborate how the rest of my comment contradicts the statement?

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detaro
You probably meant to say "cannot be overstated". "Cannot be understated"
would mean that Stack Overflow is irrelevant.

~~~
DigitalSea
Ah, yes. I didn't even notice I said "understated" it won't let me edit the
comment now. Funny how a grammar mistake gets you downvoted.

