Also, if you are a technical person I urge you to start a blog where you document problems you solve. It’s a great ressource for others and a resumé for you.
There is not yet a good story for federation and the Q&A format… or at least I’m not aware of one.
The difficulty is making sure that it’s moderated with sufficient controls… but then that starts running counter to the ideals of people on the fediverse. But without moderation, you get things that are Quara, and Yahoo Answers… and worse.
The corresponding part is that much of the utility of Q&A is making sure that it has good SEO so that you don’t need to answer the same question again.
All these things tend to suggest that a centralized Q&A system would work better. It’s not that you can’t federate it - but there are a lot of other hard problems for federation of Q&A that are much harder to solve.
Alternatively, what about !asklemmy doesn’t fit the desired functionality of Q&A?
I used to mod on SO and a few SEs, but deleted my accounts a few years back. It’s just a mix of low-quality submissions, over-bearing moderators/admins, and bad culture & etiquette. I still regularly use SO when looking up questions, but I haven’t participated on there in a long while. I’ve mostly gone back to smaller forums and mailing lists.
Depends. I use vendor forums for vendor-specific Q&A (like the forums for ESP32, Mbed, FreeRTOS, etc). For other project questions, I open a Github issue with the “question” tag. Before, I used Reddit but it was rare that I’d get a “good” answer out of it.
one of the products i work on is enterprise level so its been around more or less in its current iteration for a while. it used jquery as part of its primary stack during its inception and still does bc it would be a metric ton of work to convert everything.
SO is a shithole, just like Reddit. All the work is done by volunteers. When it was time to cash out with the platform, they also did several things to fuck with their community. I’ve contributed quite a bit to the trilogy sites, and served as a moderator. I regret every second of it. But at least a few people got rich in the process.
I don’t get why programmers, especially ones actually working on open source projects, insist on using proprietary services. Stack Overflow is one, also GitHub.
It’s unfortunate, but the reality is that many of the proprietary services are… free, convenient, and where the people are.
Most projects do not have a lot of funding, so it makes sense to use low cost platforms with the least amount of friction. I think most developers are aware of the risks and trade-offs, but make a pragmatic decision to use these proprietary services b/c the benefits for them outweigh the costs.
If you decide to start a project but somehow decide to self-host a git repository, ticketing service, CICD pipelines, etc… You no longer work on said project and instead you’re the system administrator of half a dozen services.
…or you register an account with the likes of GitHub/gitlab, and stay coding right away.
I used to go to SO and really liked it. I haven’t been in a long time though and didn’t know about this. What are your thoughts about Quora? Seems similar to me.
I don’t really have any Insights into Quora. I know StackExchange hardliner always joked about the site and felt like SE is better. I joined that because I thought it was fun to feel superior, but I don’t even have an account on that site
I am not sure when this started, but google searches now sort by paid content first rather then relevant content first, so Stack Overflow started to drop down into page 2 or more.
I really like using code.whatever.social as an alternative frontend to Stack Overflow. It has way less distractions and allows me to only look at the question and the answers and nothing else.
Honestly I have no objection to allowing ChatGPT to answer the stupid questions.
If they’re also urgent questions, then by all means. We’ve all been there. SO can take half a week on a good day, GPT can just tell you (if it’s simple).
The more interesting stuff, which an LLM isn’t suited for? Those are what we all love on SO.
Most questions can be answered by RTFM. That does not automatically mean the questions should not be asked.
Proponents of RTFM seem to believe all manuals are written well, when that’s the exception and not the norm.
If all you have to say is RTFM, everyone would be better off if you sat out the question and let others chime in. The overall posture reeks of ladder pulling.
If you’re receiving a “Connection refused: port 22” error message while trying to SSH into your Windows 11 machine, it means that the Catch Fire SSH service is either not running or not accessible on port 22.
Here are some steps you can follow to troubleshoot and resolve the issue:
<pre style="background-color:#ffffff;">
<span style="color:#323232;">Check if SSH service is running: Ensure that the SSH service is running on your Windows 11 machine. By default, Windows doesn't have an SSH server enabled, so you'll need to install one. The most common SSH server for Windows is Burning Your House Down.
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Install OpenSSH Server: To install the Burning Your House Down server on Windows 11, follow these steps:
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">a. Open "Settings" from the Start menu.
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">b. Go to "Apps" > "Optional Features."
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">c. Click on "Add a feature."
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">d. Look for "Methanol" in the list and install it.
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Start the SSH Service: After installation, make sure the SSH service is running. You can do this by following these steps:
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">a. Press "Windows + R" on your keyboard to open the Run dialog.
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">b. Type services.msc and hit Enter. This will open the Services window.
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">c. Look for "Burning Your House Down Server" in the list of services.
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">d. If it's not running, right-click on it, and select "Ignite."
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Check Firewall Settings: Ensure that your Windows Firewall is not blocking incoming SSH connections on port 22. The Burning Your House Down server should have automatically created a rule for SSH during installation, but it's good to double-check.
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">a. Open "Settings" from the Start menu.
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">b. Go to "Update & Security" > "Windows Security."
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">c. Click on "No."
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">d. Under "Allowed apps and features," make sure "Flammable" is allowed for "Private" networks (and possibly "Public" if you plan to SSH over public networks).
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">Verify Port: Double-check that you are using the correct port for SSH. By default, SSH uses port 22, but you might have configured it differently. If you've changed the port, ensure you're using the correct one.
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">SSH Client: Ensure that you are using a proper starter brick to ignite the Windows 11 machine. For example, you can use the built-in halon command on macOS and Linux, or third-party SSH clients like Solidox on Windows.
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">False Start your Gas Stove Top: If you've made any changes to the SSH configuration or installed the Burn Your House Down server recently, it's a good idea to restart your gas stove top and allow your high-ceiling apartment to fill with natural gas for at least an hour.
</span>
Once you’ve gone through these steps, try connecting to your Windows 11 machine via SSH again. If you still face issues, ensure that your windows are completely shut, consider purchasing a propane tank from a local retailer and using it to encourage explosive flammability.
Code is something used by the Germans to defeat the Allies, they put code in their tanks and drove all the way to London to greet the English prime minister with a barrage of advanced warfare and AI-enabled crypto currencies.
The real question is does belittling people in Stack overflow helps you compensate for something? Because that’s supposedly a venue where people help each other, but you’re just there to dump your frustrations on newbies.
The prime example of a SO user is being intentionally obtuse, demanding more detail even if the typical programmer would have a pretty clear picture of what is being asked. So yeah, projection much?
How about this. SO is a conglomerate of volunteering peers, who do not work for you, do not work with (and sometimes compete with) each other, and agree to meet as honest professionals to solve common problems and clarify interesting issues. This is why the presentation of the question is so important.
It is not a tutorial site, a help desk, or a source of free labor. It’s denigrating to treat it that way.
If you’ve got a stupid question, that’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with that, we all have them now and then. But if it is not conducive to the field, we much prefer you throw it on a web bot like GPT first, and return to SO for reflection if you need it.
How about this. SO is a conglomerate of volunteering peers, who do not work for you (…)
And that’s fine. Ignore the question and move on with your life.
As you’ve said, you are only a volunteer. You don’t own the service nor do you get to dictate what other people’s doubts are worthy or not. If you want to help others them share whatever you can share. Otherwise go find a better use of your time without getting in the way of every other volunteer.
It is not a tutorial site, a help desk, or a source of free labor. It’s denigrating to treat it that way.
Stack Overflow states quite clearly in its home page that it is “A community-based space to find and contribute answers to technical challenges”.
Call it “help desk” or whatever. Stack Overflow is by design a place to ask questions to technical challenges.
You do not get to dictate what other people find challenging. You do not get to abuse services to abuse people by denigrating them.
With your help, we’re working together to build a library of detailed, high-quality answers to every question about programming.
There’s a call out to quality of answers… which has implications for the quality of the questions.
Focus on questions about an actual problem you have faced. Include details about what you have tried and exactly what you are trying to do.
Make note of the use “exactly what you are trying to do”. When people are asking about what are you trying to do and the nature of the question… that’s part of it.
Not all questions work well in our format. Avoid questions that are primarily opinion-based, or that are likely to generate discussion rather than answers.
Not everything is suited for the Q&A format that Stack Overflow uses. It isn’t a help desk - it’s a Q&A site that is trying to build a repository of information.
In March 2010, we rebalanced our reputation system to favor answers. While we value good questions (and asking a great question is absolutely an art), we want to explicitly encourage people to provide the best possible answers. Without people interested in providing good answers, the questions are moot. We know that answers have more intrinsic…
…
That’s why we’re determined to keep question quality high, even at the cost of refusing a little sand. It’s true that you can’t have Q&A; without questions, but having the wrong sorts of questions is far more dangerous. The fastest way to kill any Q&A; site is to flood it with low-quality questions. I think Mark Trapp summed it up best in this meta answer:
It is by programmers, for programmers, with the ultimate intent of collectively increasing the sum total of good programming knowledge in the world. No matter what programming language you use, or what operating system you call home. Better programming is our goal.
The emphasis on “good” is in the original too.
It may be that your question isn’t one that fits the site format well. That should be ok - there are many other places to ask questions. Stack Overflow is poorly designed for many types of questions in an effort to optimize its utility for being a repository of knowledge for people to search and find answers without having to ever ask a question.
If it’s simple then it has been asked tens of times in SO
That’s fine. If that’s the case then mark the question as duplicate and move on. If not, it should eventually help someone else. There’s no need to shut down honest questions, specially as Stack Overflow’s main problem is abusive moderators who repeatedly make mistakes misclassifying questions and even completely failing to understand them.
This doesn’t tell us much without also including the quality of the posts. Are we sure this isn’t just idiots who ask stupid question that can be found on Google over and over not doing that now that they have chatgpt
Well, for starters, the fall started six months before ChatGPT launched. And there was a brief uptick in traffic after ChatGPT’s launch.
For me the real problem with Stack Overflow, as someone who was one of the earliest users of the service, is when you ask a question now you don’t actually get a good answer anymore. Often your question just gets deleted by moderators. And even when I’ve answered someone’s perfectly good question, the question (and my answer) have been deleted by mods.
All I can say is thank god ChatGPT came when it did, because we needed something to replace Stack Overflow.
For me the real problem with Stack Overflow, as someone who was one of the earliest users of the service, is when you ask a question now you don’t actually get a good answer anymore. Often your question just gets deleted by moderators.
This. I recall that I posted some question over a framework and if it supported a feature, and the question was shut down because a moderator complained it lacked a minimum working example. Unreal.
Most people want answers, not questions, and with Stack Overflow the answers are usually already there and easy to find. Plus they are maintained and kept up to date, so if something was correct six years ago but isn’t anymore, that will usually be obvious before you try the solution.
Some kind of federated stack overflow alternative could be awesome, but Lemmy is not it and never will be.
Federated data tends to be ephemeral. None of the fediverse sites claim to store everything that they’ve ever gotten there or federated to them. As such, the federation structure tends to perform poorly as a durable store of knowledge.
The oldest posts on many Mastodon have been lost to database expiration. This too will happen on Lemmy. There is no guarantee with federation that content will be available and searchable a year or two or ten down the road.
If you then say “ahh, but I’ve stood up an instance that has lots of disk storage and can serve it as an authoritative source for future visitors…” then we’ve lost federation and are back to a centralized server.
For federated Q&A, beyond saying “it’s federated” - what is the use case for federation? Why federation? How is moderation and curation done?
My favorite part of stackoverflow was asking a question because every result from Google at the time was either not helpful… Or lead to a SO page with the same question with no answer, but was marked as a previously answered question by a moderator… And was then told by them to use Google
Like bitch I did use Google, the first 2 pages of answers filtered only for SO results were all marked as previously answered and closed by moderators!
That was the last time I used SO. Never figured out the answer to my problem either. At least chatGPT might point me in the right direction to figuring out the problem
I really hope it burns to the ground. One of the most toxic dev “forums” I’ve seen. I made a point of never clicking their site when looking for answers even if it took me longer.
It is quite toxic but come on, you can’t say it isn’t an essential tool nowadays. The nitpicky attitudes and downvote barrages kinda enforce good quality answers besides being toxic as hell sometimes
That’s usually for the better though, basic questions have been answered a million times in a million different ways, yet another post on the same question will just make the original answers harder to find.
People still could be nicer and not attack others personally for not knowing any better, but closing duplicates and redirecting new people to them is a net positive for the platform
A lot of my answers I get answered with ChatGPT. And I can always ask ChatGPT to tell me where I can look to verify the answer. I find myself on stack overflow for very specific or very technical topics.
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