I briefly conducted an experiment with participating in programmer-targeted website "StackOverflow". I have concluded that it sucks and I'm not wasting my time there anymore.
StackOverflow is a website that encourages people to ask "programming related" questions.
The problem is that the site's content Nazis take a very narrow definition of what questions are "programming related".
For example, I asked reasonable questions, and the site's content Nazis censored them. I asked "What do you recommend for purchasing hosting?" and "What's a good brand of external hard drive to buy?" Those are both questions that someone who works as a computer programmer would reasonably want to know. (In case you're wondering, I decided to use Linode for hosting, and my next external HD is probably going to be a Seagate. My current Western Digital 0.5TB external hard drive sucks! It makes weird noises, but hasn't died yet.)
However, the site's content Nazis deemed those questions inappropriate for the website.
When the content Nazis censor a question, then *ALL FURTHER DISCUSSION OF THAT QUESTION IS TERMINATED*. If someone else sees my question, but is sincerely interested, they are barred from answering.
What has my user experience been on StackOverflow? Quite a few questions I asked, that I thought were reasonable, were censored as "not programming related". If the site's content Nazis are stupid, then I exercise my right to say "**** you! I'm not visiting your lousy website anymore!"
This is an excellent illustration of how lousy engine design leads to abusive behavior by members of an online community.
Another defect of their website is their karma system. Certain powers, such as closing topics, are only offered to long-term users. If I feel my question was inappropriately closed, then I have no recourse. This leads to self-selecting behavior in the community. Any person who takes a broader definition of appropriate site content gets disgusted and leaves.
Any site that has a "karma" rating that is a unique global score is inherently defective. This rewards long-term users at the expense of newer users. It rewards people who do nothing but hang out on that site, over people who just came by for a quick visit. If you want a successful site, you have to target the casual user, and not merely diehard idiots.
Another annoying bit I noticed is that there's no way for me to delete my account on StackOverflow.
When I write my own forum engine, I will take into account the mistake that sites like Digg, Wikipedia, Slashdot, Reddit, Hacker News, and StackOverflow made. The more I see how much these other sites suck, the more I realize "I could write a decent forum engine!"
If I get 5-10 active seed users, then it should grow over time. In this manner, my blog is useful for promoting other potential online business. I'm bootstrapping via my AdSense revenue. If some of my regular readers give my forum engine a try (knowing it's beta initially), it could be successful.
That's one nice thing about the Internet. If a site's administrators are ****heads, then you can say "**** you! I'm leaving!" It's very easy for me to buy hosting and start my own online community. If government employees are being unreasonable, it's very hard/illegal to say "**** you! I'm starting a competing government!"
I'm also curious to see how high this post can rank in web searches for "StackOverflow". My "Ruby on Rails Sucks!" article is #1 in Google for that search phrase!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
StackOverflow Sucks!
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All internet social sites and forums have been overrun with douchbags.
From slashdot to random obscure topics, its the stupidest of the stupid who rule the roost and generally have powers over others.
Forums tend to have an inner circle which bans or drives out anyone who doesn't engage in group think.
These are the vanguard of the socialist utopia!
TO underscore your point; here is an excellent example; http://stackoverflow.com/questions/575812/what-if-i-need-a-programmer-immediately
Hey FSK,
When you move over to your domain. Just wanted to say that one thing that made a big difference in ad revenue for me was putting the small square or rectangle right at the top of your post.
MUST you say Nazi to make a point?
Yahoo Answers is much more fun.
Good luck on writing your own engine though, I love new stuff. Make sure to show it off at KillerStartups.com
How long has your hard drive been making strange noises? A really long time (like, since the beginning when you bought it) or somewhat more recently, like over a period of weeks?
I'm sorry to scare you, but I wanted to warn you that funny noises coming from a hard drive is what I would describe as a life-or-death emergency, and you should salvage everything from the drive immediately onto some kind of backup. I'm extremely paranoid about that, because my hard drive started clicking and then it died, and I'm in the process of getting someone to help me try to salvage what's on it right now. I think that funny noises on a hard drive are an urgent problem. Yours might die soon! :( Sorry for freaking out about it, I just don't want you to lose your data.
Hi FSK,
Sorry to hear you had a bad experience on Stack Overflow. A few comments
1) We have now moved to a vote based closing system. So 5 users (of 3k+ rep) have to agree your question is off topic before it is closed. At the time you posted the 2 examples, it only took a single user. This was a mistake in retrospect..
2) We have an IT-centric site coming soon. This would be a fine place to ask your hardware and hosting related questions (they weren't strictly *programming related*). We believe it's important to stay somewhat on topic, otherwise the community is overrun and destroys itself. Gotta be programming related, though we admit, it is a grey area.
3) We'll be tweaking the close/open mechanics a bit more in the future. One thing I want to do is make it harder to close posts with many upvotes.
4) If you need your account deleted, just email us via the link at the bottom of every http://stackoverflow.com page. We can do it no problem.
Jeff
Hmmmmm, Allthough I agree your questions are reasonable, you must see there not withing the rules of the site.
I'm interested to know in what way you thought questions about hardware were at all "programming related"
Someone who works as a professional programmer would reasonably be interested in "What's a good brand of external HD?" and "What's a good vendor for purchasing webhosting?" I believed such questions are appropriate.
(In case you're wondering, I decided my next external HD will be a Seagate. I'm going to use Linode for hosting when I move off Blogger. I'm waiting for my first AdBrite check to arrive before I move.)
My complaint about StackOverflow is that it's defective engine design. The "inappropriate" topics are closed and censored. All further discussion is barred.
A better solution would be to have an "offtopic" folder, rather than outright censorship.
StackOverflow is a classic example of "Defective engine design leads to abusive behavior by a website's users."
You have to admit that your questions weren't programming related. Saying that a programmer would be interested in external HD is like saying a programmer is interested in what's for dinner tonight. They affect programmers, but aren't programming questions.
I also must disagree about your suggestion for an "off-topic" folder. If you want to discuss something off topic, you can go anywhere else on the Internet. Stack Overflow is for programming questions. Period. No one's being a "nazi", they're just following the basic rules as outlined on the site.
I claim the reverse is true. StackOverflow's users are the ones with sticks up their asses, and I am the one being reasonable.
Anyway, that's the whole point of the Internet. StackOverflow's users have the right to behave like jerks. I have the right to say "**** you! I'm not visiting your stupid website anymore."
FSK, your posts were completely off topic. It's rather clueless of you to debate that.
"A better solution would be to have an "offtopic" folder, rather than outright censorship."
I agree completely - it's a BIG no-no to be rude to users, and closing a post is very rude. Every effort should be made to avoid this. An off-topic section which is not promoted and noone ever reads is a much more diplomatic solution.
StackOverflow is going to learn the hard way about the effect of psycho users if they don't take care about things like this.
There are plenty of websites out there to ask your blatantly non-programming questions.
Please do not try to justify that your question about your external HDD has anything to do with programming.
I don't understand why people keep trolling on this post.
I believed my questions were appropriate for StackOverflow.
StackOverflow's censors determined that my questions were inappropriate.
You aren't going to convince me my questions were inappropriate. I'm not going to convince StackOverflow's censors that my questions were appropriate.
I decided that StackOverflow is a stupid website and I'm not wasting time there anymore.
I have followed the advice of "If you don't like StackOverflow, then leave!" I'm not wasting time on StackOverflow anymore, which was the point of the post.
Once *ANY* website or forum adopts a censorship policy, then there are always arguments over "Is this appropriate?" Over time, the people with the most liberal attitude towards "What is appropriate site content?" get disgusted and leave.
Here, the only comments I filter out are obvious spam. I do ridicule stupid comments, but I don't censor them.
The remaining StackOverflow users are those who take the narrowest possible definition of "appropriate site content". Anyone more openminded would have gotten disgusted and left like me.
StackOverflow's users have the right to behave like jerks. I have the right to say "I'm not wasting time on your stupid website anymore."
For LAMP questions (my current interest), Google provides better answers than StackOverflow. I've also gotten useful answers on the Linode forum for other questions.
It isn't immoral for me to complain "StackOverflow sucks!" on my own personal website. By definition, everything I write about here is on-topic.
There's really nothing further to say about this issue, but some jerk will probably post another comment justifying StackOverflow's stupid censorship policy.
It makes me sad just how dumb you are. :(
The irony of having a blog and deciding to start a discussion site, while picking on the last one done by a different blogger. :-)
On the SO thing, I don't understand the attitude. You used it in the less than 10% use case (most people find the answer from a web search on the question). You seem abusive and grumpy, swearing, invoking 3rd Reich analogies. I suspect you would be the kind of user they'd prefer to stay away.
But, if you have *programming* questions, I guess you can avoid a useful resource because they made you feel bad about an off-topic question or two. I think your taking it too personally. It's there, use it if it's useful, don't if it's not. At least it's not experts-exchange :-).
Did you guys saw the Chelsea vs Barcelona match? oh i loved it! it must sucked for the british fans to be defeated in the last minute though.
In the other side i hope the Lakers can overcome the Rockets in the 5th game of the series today, they should come right at them in the post now that Yao is out for the playoffs.
Oh wait... is this offtopic?
Want to know what a good hard drive to buy? Go to a freakin' hardware site already or read some reviews on CNet. The link to programming is pathetically slim.
Of course, that wasn't your point though was it? Clearly you are just trolling for AdSense traffic.
Can't wait to read your next "Site XYZ Sucks!" post. Twitter maybe? That should really bump up those page hits.
I got here by searching Google with "stackoverflow sucks". That whole peer pressure ratings system is garbage. You get "reputation" by rating answers, you can only rate answers if you have "reputation", but you can only get "reputation" from someone else who already has "reputation". It's the worst part of human nature, trying to make yourself look good in order to impress other people and climb the ladder, and nothing gives people the right to publicly assign numerical value to other people's opinions.
"nothing gives people the right to publicly assign numerical value to other people's opinions"
-1
Let me also add, that it annoys me how these douchbags somehow seem to down vote good answers.
I use stackoverflow to get answers, because it really does get you a quick response.
But...
I f-ing hate stackoverflow, because of the Nazi's and because if any question you might have doesn't fit into the perfect little box these a-holes had in mind, then you can expect to get flamed, this site is not about freedom, but about box thinking, and overrun with douch bags.
FSK - You rock dude. I have realised something else.
Only 3% of the worlds population have an IQ above 130. People in this bracket think differently.
I don't think the stackoverflow users realise they have broomsticks up their asses, they're just of a lower IQ bracket, so can't understand your logic, take that Nick guy in your comments. Perfect example
Getting a removable HDD - IS Programming related, because:
(1) A developer should have one in his collection. Especially a traveling consultant.
(2)A developer needs to run virtualization technologies, these run better on separate drives than the drive which an OS is installed.
(3) Lots of other reasons
The people who think otherwise are the same people who belong on stackoverflow, basically shallow minded bitches that are only happy with 1+1=2 logic. They simply can't see that the field of programming involves a whole lot more than simply "coding".
Stackoverflow should really change their rules to specifically state :
ONLY RAW CODING QUESTIONS.
In my opinion, a question like:
Which zip compression will give you the best file size for compressing .doc formats? Is programming related, because you might be programming a system that archives .doc.
A question like this would never fly on stackoverflow, and some Nazi would just pattern scan, see no sample code and shut it down...
Now you all stackoverflow lovers, please bite me.
Check this:
this is the kind of problem I have with online sites - full of douchebags...
OP writes this post:
Cleaned out the company kitchen fridge.Found some jars in there that had expiry dates from 2007.
Thats why they pay me the big bucks, keep everything ship shape.
I write this:
I don't get the point of this post.
Are you actually in need of some advise on what to do on a friday afternoon? Is your life that boring, or did you just want to share with us that you cleaned our the company kitchen???
either way I don't get your post.Maybe you think people actually care about this mindless crap?
Some one posts this :
I don't get the point of your post, [me]. Is your life so boring that you have to comment on what gives another person a reason to write?
This proves that the world is full of douche bags.
You post is a few months old but I, too, wasted time on stackoverflow.com and had the exact same reaction you did.
Actually it's worse than that: I asked a question, specifically stating what our software was doing, what it was not doing, and asked a question.
Then someone with mod point completely changed my post (not an edit, a full-rewrite), by changing the question and saying that my software was doing something unethical, which I specifically stated it wasn't doing.
So it simply wasn't the same question at all anymore.
I re-edit, got the topic locked, complained in meta.stackoverflow.com, got insulted with a "shut up" and apparently got my account reset/locked.
I felt exactly like yourself and your comparison with nazi-editing.
It's sad, I was helping people there, but such a behavior from a mod, George Stocker to name it, it simply unethical.
This stackoverflow.com thing is a joke.
Usenet may be spammed but a good killfiles takes care of that and, at least, people are engaging into revisionism on Usenet.
stackoverflow sucks and it's a shame.
Everywhere there are mod points there are little gangs of douches doing silly things with their mod points.
So sad.
No doubt, it's a truly lousy site. The 'point' system just encourages group think, retaliation, and rewards conformity and wasting all your time on the site.
The ability for random people to edit your posts and questions is just crazy. What other forum-like site allows people to take over your words and change them? It's a terrible idea.
If you try to post a really short and true answer on SO. You will be banned for 5 days. True story
I ran into the content nazis on stackoverflow recently. It reminds me of your typical newsgroup nanny, or hyperactive wikipedia moderators. Agree with many of the criticisms, I think it is in the process of jumping the shark. The latest realignment of the point system was a total mistake too, just change the award system but leave the old points. I miss dejanews for programming info, google ruined it completely.
I wonder how many of these anonymous comment-posters are alts of the same person?
Anyway I'm aware of at least two ongoing operations in the chans to troll SO. Some of the operatives are mods.
With that in mind, please don't get your panties in a twist. There are plenty of douchebags in SO as it is, but in all likelihood if you've run into something that goes above and beyond what a typical douche would do, chances are you've run into an agent provocateur from 4chan. :P
If the design of a website makes it susceptible to "trolls from 4chan", then isn't that proof that the website has a stupid design?
One of the things on my "todo" list is "Make a troll-resistant forum/wiki/reddit/Digg engine."
Yeah, that's pretty retarded dude. Those questions are certainly not programming related. Drawing numbers in the sand is more programming related that harddisks.
Here is the real reason why SO sucks: It's because morons like you get rep and then do as they please. It's almost a totally useless site not.
StackOverflow is a website designed by and for evil people. If you aren't evil, you agree with my analysis. If you're evil, you disagree. That's the reason for strong opinion on both sides.
Anyway, I don't use StackOverflow anymore.
@FSK
"If you aren't evil, you agree with my analysis. If you're evil, you disagree"
Great example of how open-minded you are... Dude, I'm so glad you left Stack Overflow.
Actually, that's my impartial unbiased opinion.
Let's review. I know StackOverflow sucks. I haven't made a contribution there in more than a year.
Yet, lusers from StackOverflow keep coming here to defend StackOverflow. Which is evil?
If I'm so obviously wrong, then why are you wasting time commenting here? What kind of pathetic loser does that make you.
This is my blog. My morality applies here. If you don't like it, don't read it.
I wrote this post almost 2 years ago! Why are people still giving me a hard time? In a sense, that proves I'm right!
BTW, this "StackOverflow sucks vs. not sucks" debate is an excellent illustration of the Matrix.
LOL @ "This is my blog. My morality applies here. If you don't like it, don't read it"
You have made your blog accessible to the public.
If you can't handle public opinion then make it private. Out here, your morality is simply an opinion.
SO used to be a great web site, but lately it's been overrun with elitist nitpickers. I posted a programing related question about calling stored procedures in Oracle database from asp.net code and my question got closed. I emailed SO team and got a reply that my question was not fit for the SO. WTF? I like the site and would have to leave it, but really - if I can't get an answer why would I visit/post there? It's a waste of time.
Back to the Original Post. You are right. SO sucks dead bears. As others have posted:
• the problem with the "community" is that it suffers the lowest common denominator syndrome
• people who talk nice and post technical crap get votes
• people who post good technical answers are downvoted because it is "too hard"
• therefore the questions are shallow; the answers are shallow; and the good questions and good answerers are gone
• bird-brains get up voted
• bird-brains can vote for themselves (yeah, really!)
• now they support working around licence restrictions, so the big boys will be after them
• just another bulldust site for non-programmers trying to program
• run by Nazis who worked their way up being clueless but nice
• days are numbered
Thanks for your post
Completely agree with your post. I just emailed So to close and remove my account and all associated data.
I wonder how much runaround I will get or if they will completely ignore my request.
I don't ever want to bother with any online forums whatsoever. They are all the same corporatist mentality.
The fact that there is a need for programming forums is a TELL-TALE sign of the industry's weakness. Learning software and web development is still a nightmare.
Schools don't teach you enough, books aren't worth a rusty penny, articles are written by people who can barely read and couldn't spell to save their life - forcing you to spend nine-tenths of your time on research and putting up with ignorant backward moron programmers who think their shit doesn't smell but are incapable of tying their shoes without help.
This actually describes 99% of the planet's population. We live in a world where social conditioning, indoctrination and brainwashing has become the way of life. What could we possible expect???!
"I believed my questions were appropriate for StackOverflow."
That is because you are retarded, when are you going to realize it?
There are many things wrong with SO, but like most of your "sucks" post, you completely miss them.
Two years after the original blog and things aren't much better across the SO range of sites. I've just asked a totally on-topic question about reprogramming the BIOS of a RAID controller on a Windows 2003 server and had it closed as off-topic. Instantly hacks me off. They way it should work is that the moderator emails me to explain why he's considering removing it to give one a chance to edit/explain. But no, instant closed, like within a minute.
Ha! According to Google Analytics, someone posted a link to this blog post on StackOverflow. Naturally the censors deleted it!
I haven't been back to StackOverflow since I quit in frustration. People from StackOverflow keep coming here to comment about why I'm such a loser. This post is 2 years old!
Who's a pathetic loser:
1. FSK, who didn't like StackOverflow, quit, and never went back.
2. People from StackOverflow, who see this post, get offended, and leave a negative comment on a 2 year old post.
Stack overflow completely sucks. It Ubersucks. It _is_ full of Nazis, that's a fact. (Is this editorializing?)
Anyone who uses the word "editorializing" to describe someone else's behaviour is an idiot. Jeff from SO (SuckOff.com) criticized my post that I had been "editorializing." In fact, they don't even know what it means.
The word means "to state an opinion so that it is a fact." I merely said, "if you're a glutton for punishment, then go ahead and do X." Frankly, that's clearly expressed as an opinion, and not a statement of fact. It's not "unprofessional," it's not "editorializing," it's called "hyperbole."
You can read about hyperbole here: hyperbole. I think it's pretty clear that "if you're a glutton for punishment" really means "it's difficult..." and is a manner of speech, is not rude, and is clearly not editorializing.
So not only do SuckOff.com's users suck, but so do the people who moderate and write the site. They don't have a handle on anything but marketing English and probably think think that the stock market really is "impacted" by their share price. Their primary goal is to make money, not to be any sort of social site. They want you to donate your intelligence and labor to their empire. You can write and answer questions and they get you to write a giant encyclopedia. What do you get? An occasional spanking and maybe some points. And maybe someone will invite you to send your resume to their elite programmer's job site. That's the primary reason why they are Nazis- they are trying to protect their encyclopedia, to protect their intellectual property, which you so graciously bestow them. This is their business model.
If you don't think they are out to rip your ass off like the financiers, why do they have StackExchange???
I call to BOYCOTT STACKOVERFLOW and the rest of their empire!
Did you make your forum engine yet? I'm hoping it's open source. I'd like to see it.
No, I never got around to it.
With Righthaven-style legal extortion, running a forum is risky (unless you register a DMCA takedown agent).
I'm hoping to expand my services offered when I move off Blogger to my own domain.
Just realised how true your original quote is.. This website is controlled by douchbags, ****ing idiots who just decide a lot for themselves.. anyway.. i have used the site for good, but never try to help others and gain some reputation, basically others just decide you should not grow..
Really idiotic website.
1. if you type fast, are looking to solve problems, who cares where the answer comes from?
2. stack overflow:
Question: How do I ...?
Answer: Just out of curiousity why do you wanna do THAT?!?!?
So here is the secret to all programming related web searches.
A. Google It papi!
B. When you get to the link hit CTRL+END.
i. That will blast you to the bottom of the page & you can FTL ascertain whether it is useful or a tardfest.
FREEDOM BABY! It's what programming's all about!
Well put! I especially like the explanation concerning "self-selecting behavior".
It seems anymore, an influx of "i.t. people" are trying more and more to create arenas for themselves so that they can practice exactly that.
Kudos!
ROFLMAO!!!! This has got to be one of stupidest rants I've ever had the good fortune of reading.
Stack Overflow (like any place that's open to the public) has it's share of fuckwads, but you can't blame the whole community.
The reason your "best hard drive" question was considered off-topic is because it doesn't have an answer. Really. What's the answer to that question? What is the best external HDD? What is the best web host? Ask a hundred people, you'll get a hundred different answers.
If SO allowed such questions it would produce so much "noise" that you couldn't find useful answers to relevant questions.
You asked completely irrelevant questions and got pissed off when no one wanted to answer them. Anyone with even 1/2 a brain who reads your rant can tell you were in the wrong even if they've never even heard of Stack Overflow.
BTW: I noticed you couldn't write superior engine you claimed you could. LMAO!!! What a douche!
Your Leave your comment box says, "Comment moderation has been enabled. All comments must be approved by the blog author."
Go ahead... censor me... Nazi!!!
Hello FSK. I too have a similar negative experience with Stack Overflow, and I had wondered if it was just me and decided to see if anybody else had similar negative experiences with the site as my negative experiences were near-continuous.
I find the users of their site, demeaning, one-line so-called 'know-it-alls' who try to insist on forcing their usually conformist and fairly obvious 'solution' down your throat if you disagree, normally followed up with downvotes or arguments (for example, trying to insist the usage of non-template functions when you really, really need a template function).
I find such treatment by other programmers actually quite unpleasant. There's a reason why I'm asking a specific function or method is possible, and I am surprised the programmers haven't given pause to common sense that maybe I considered the obvious solutions and don't want to use them.
Typically the offenders are those who post the first few (unhelpful) comments. Usually the discussion revolves around the first few unhelpful comments.
It's reaching a point where it's actually more productive for me to utilise guesswork than ask a simple question on stack overflow as I will rarely get the straight forward answer I need.
I had one user challenging me about supplying what version of OS I was using... because I mentioned time.h (standard library for C/C++ across all platforms) and they insisted it might have different applications. Who are these stupid people, seriously?
It's getting to the point where I no longer want to use stack overflow. It's actually more productive for me to use random guesswork than to ask a simple question on there.
Hi, I just wanted to add my voice to the chorus of people who have had negative experiences in StackOverflow. Perfectly reasonable questions are shot down because they're supposedly not programming-related. Postings are deleted if people affix their name at the bottom, and people are discouraged from expressing any sort of individuality via the use of non-efficient words such as "thanks." I found this post by Googling "Stack Overflow sucks," and am relieved to learn that I'm not the only person who has been turned off by the hyper-vigilant moderators. I was considering pointing students toward the forums, but have thought better of doing so. It's frustrating: StackOverflow simultaneously expresses both the best and the worst of the computing subculture.
Have to say FSK, I personally disagree with you.
If I go to a pc hardware forum and ask whether an std::list or std::vector is a better C++ container for storing X, I fully expect my topic to be closed.
I also don't think it's a very positive thing that you start to abuse those who disagree with your point.
Anyway, have a lovely day, and I hope the many months that have passed since posting your blog entry have given you plenty of time to find a relevant forum for your non-programming queries :).
Sam
It's OK to abuse people who disagree with me and are wrong. I don't censor them, but I do ridicule them, which makes me morally superior to StackOverflow.
I still say "What's a good external HD to buy?" is a reasonable question that someone who's a fulltime programmer would want to know. After having a couple of questions unfairly censored, I stopped using StackOverflow.
Any website with a karma rating system degenerates into karma whoring, rather than reasonable discussion.
Notice that there are two extreme categories of responses:
1. FSK, you're right.
2. FSK, you're wrong.
If you're intelligent, you agree with me. If you have the parasitic/psychopathic/evil personality type, then you disagree with me.
If you don't like my ideas, why are you wasting time here? I stopped contributing to StackOverflow when I quit in frustration. Why are people still aggressively defending StackOverflow here?
Why are people still aggressively defending StackOverflow? When I see a TV show I don't like, I watch something else. When evil people see a TV show they don't like, they complain and try to get it cancelled.
This post is more than 2 years old. Why are people still actively leaving comments?
Also, I stopped contributing to the Joel on Software forum, after I had a censorship problem. When I'm the victim of censorship, I stop contributing to that website and stop reading it.
Why are people still so aggressively defending StackOverflow on a 2 year old post? If I'm so wrong, why does this post offend you?
I don't know why people do still aggressively leave comments defending SO here. To me it's a joke. I recently got a nazi-moderator insta-close a totally legit and interesting question (already upvoted and favorited by users).
The people defending SO here are probably a mix between some karma-whores and some SO shills.
I Google'd about this issue (nazi editing / modding) and found your site. You're 100% on spot. SO sucks big times and it's important that people who find that SO sucks big times have places to make themselves heard: they can silence people on their blogs (J. A. from SO being apparently famous for that), they can nazi-edit SO, but they cannot nazi edit the entire web...
I also think more and more people will post negative comments about SO because SO sucks more and more: the quality is going downhill, frontpages of the various SE sites are a joke and the mods are simply getting nuts...
In any case: thanks for that blog entry!
Make sure you check out my new blog!
Amusingly, I already rank highly in Google for node.js sucks!
The entire network of Stack Exchange sites constitute a giant social advertising scheme. But that isn't it's biggest problem.
The programming field is already rife with male inferiority complexes. Give these little men a site like SO, and they will seek power and social approval any way they can. And once they have it, they will flaunt it any chance they get.
The other problem with the field these days is if you're not a "social coder" with SO rep, a github and a blog, you're further down on the totem pole of employability, regardless of your private skills and accomplishments.
Yesterday I asked a question about patents for programming designs.., it was closed immediately.
Today I asked a question about how some dynamic languages store variables during run-time and it was immediately downvoted twice.
Additionally I've noticed on many occasions that users will receive numerous upvotes simply b/c they shared their thoughts on how great language A is compared to language B. And if you defend language B and talk about it's technical strengths you get downvoted (WTF!?).
SO has a flawed design concept that does not promote a rich exchange of useful information.
Stackoverflow is the worst programming help website I've ever visited. Hell I wouldn't even consider that crap a "forum".
- Extremely awkward way of adding [code] tags that doesn't even work half the itme
- Absolutely terrible interface, where the f*** is what?
- No way to format replies, YOU CAN'T EVEN PRESS ENTER AND LEAVE A LINE in the replies. Everything you type in replies is IN ONE LINE. Wtf? No other customizing options either, bold, italicize, highlight, code tags, none of that
- Replies are automatically at 50% alpha and squished in a tiny corner and you gotta press an unhide button to actually show replies, wtf?
- Can't add "discussions" unless you get enough "rep", lol. This means you can't follow-up on your question until you get enough "re"
Stackoverflow sucks, blows, chokes, and spits. It's not a bad source of info via Google, but participation requires a painful rite of passage which most people will just say "fuck this" to.
StackOverflow is filled with elitests now. Ask something they don't perceive ask a "professional" question and get slammed. Snobs.
It's funny to see all the stackOverflow fans chime in. They're just like the community, egotistical and fanatical about the rules as if given by god. What happened to the laid back programming communities we're known for?
It's the whole system of StackOverflow, I would not shed a tear for them if their site closed down. In fact I hope it does since it just portrays us all as egotistical know-it-alls full of pride. As a programmer it's a wart on the internet and with Reddit blossoming it's now an unnecessary wart too.
True article. StackOverflow calls itself a Q&A site, yet most questions are met with more hostility and pettiness than helpfulness. "Content nazi" is spot on. Not worth the hassle.
StackOverflow is each moment more irritating.
Far too many SO moderators close topics based on semantics and overly fanatic interpretation of the rules. If the question is useful, it's useful. It seems like some mods are just out there for the power trip. There are rules of course, but the unbending nature of so many mods is illogical and counterproductive for questions that may have helped a lot of people.
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