Why Did I Leave Stack Overflow?
Stack Overflow can be a great site if you can ignore the perplexing administration of it. There’s no opportunity for new users to make things better. The site makes it very evident that it is not to help people, but to create a database of knowledge for people to help themselves (I guess). However, it’s very poorly archived. When you search in google, the pages that get the most hits might be a decade old. So, to get a useful query from google without having a ton of garbage posts from StackOverflow, you need to use the tools feature in google and filter for relevant material updated in the last year. Sadly, the Meta community thinks that the same technology lasts forever and that posts that are 10 years old should not be archived, but the decade old content should be reverse engineered and/or updated for no relevant purpose. My advice is to Get rid of the content, at least in an SEO sense, that is a decade old. Quality over quantity might be the best approach. There’s little reason for worthless answers to hit the top of the google search list.
However, I will say that one of the great things about StackOverflow.com is that you do not need to be part of the community to gain access to the knowledge. There’s no splash screen forcing me to register to join the ranks. I will also say that the content can be useful if it’s cleaned up.
StackOverflow Meta reminds me of Daniel and the Lions Den; however, Daniel never wins. It’s a killer of good spirits, where a large number of modern ideas are thrown out. Perhaps, this is due to the personality traits of many technical experts not having people skills.
How Can Stack Overflow Do Better
Don’t let technical experts answer questions that would be better fielded by customer service representatives who have people skills. Meta is really wasteful, because techies are techies, not marketing gurus. Don’t let them field questions related to marketing, until they have shown some form of people skills. As was asked in a down voted (by non-personable techies), allow for a niceness rating in Stack Overflow. Maybe “niceness” is not the right word, but a personable rating would be sufficient.
How Can You Force Stack Overflow to Do Better (If you wanted to)
-
Remove your account.
-
Block their sites on your LAN firewall, so you will not accidently increase their SEO rating for content they don’t have a desire to filter. Perhaps, add -stackoverflow.com to all your Google searches.
-
Send requests to Stack Overflow outside of Meta (if possible). Maybe that’s a long shot, but getting into a discussion with them in Meta isn’t helpful. It‘s like talking with a robot, and not one with great artificial intelligence. You’re better off getting yourself a puppy, or something you’ll feel good about, right before it pees on the floor.
-
Start your own blog (One way better than mine :)) to pass your time. You can put your own information on your own site, without a social media thumb pressing down on your soul.
-
Try a different site for your coding support if you need help. Maybe a site where you’re not beat down for the types of questions asked.
In Summary
I proved I can play the game of earning reputation on Stack Overflow, but I chose to leave due to misalignment with my personal viewpoints and what I feel makes answering questions for people great. A knowledge database, in and of itself, does not provide enough for continued involvement. Vendor websites provide better documentation 99.9% of the time. A better human touch is required for me to play the game again.
AND YES, I might absolutely be so much like those techies that I just can’t deal with it.
