Today, Stack overflow has almost as few questions asked per month, as when it launched back in 2009. A recap of its slow, then rapid, downfall.

Four months ago, we asked Are LLMs making Stack Overflow irrelevant? Data at the time suggested that the answer is likely “yes:”

  • aesthelete@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    My experience with SO is somewhat the same, but sometimes (actually maybe most times) you’re trying to use a hammer to screw in a screw… If you read the suggestions and take them into account you can often find the actual question, and then the actual answer.

    • immutable@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      6 months ago

      I’ve decided the best way to deal with someone asking an XY question is the following.

      1. Answer it. I don’t know what this person is doing, maybe they do really need to do some super weird thing and they are 4 weeks deep into “getting this project to work” and they don’t need me giving them the idea they also immediately thought of and can’t do for a bunch of reasons they are too exhausted to go into.
      2. See if this is an XY problem.

      I have found this to be infinitely more well received. I think because by answering the question upfront without any annoying back and forth about why exactly they need to OCR a pdf in JavaScript, they are much more likely to be willing to have a dialog if their immediate question has been met.

      The only danger is that some noob might stop reading after the answer and not engage with the deeper design issue, but by gatekeeping the answer behind a “you must convince the council of elders that you are doing something reasonable first” all we’ve done is push those people into ChatGPTs cheery answer first even if you have to make it up hands.