Do you like to answer on Stackoverlow?

Do you like to help others on stackoverflow in your free time? And what’s your reputation on Stackoverflow? :smirk::joy::rofl:

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There’s already way too many sites that I follow and try to be somewhat active on. Stack Overflow is not one of them.

I do have a reputation of 2,405. :sweat_smile:

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I think one of if not the first thing I posted there got locked as ‘off-topic’, and I noticed that was a regular occurrence there (I was personally more interested in discussion about certain things rather than specific answers since I was just starting out) and so I found it wasn’t really useful for my needs. Over the last ten years or so I posted 2 questions there (think both were relating to Postgres database queries). Luckily most of what I needed to do was covered by things like the official Rails guides, RailsCasts, books like Rails Recipes and blog posts.

Discussions are really important for languages like Elixir since the functional paradigm is so different to what many people are used to, and I think that’s part of why people tend to prefer language-specific forums now, because a lot of the time you just want to get other people’s opinions on something. I think many people also like the more personal feel of forums :smiley:

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That’s right, forums feels more personal and we can discuss anything we want. Stackoverflow is pretty strict over the type of post. :thinking:

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I’ve answered a few time on SO.

Be aware of the incoming instant roast if you said something approximate.

That should be the H2 tag of SO, seriously.

So, no, I don’t like to answer and I don’t participate anymore. The fact that some companies ask for a SO account grind my gears.

Do you think it’s releveant of anything ? I don’t.

Furthermore, I do not use SO this much lately, I prefer finding explanations, read references or docs, even ask on the discord’s language server rather than looking on SO.

Bit of ranting here but I think it’s deserved.

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I enjoyed answering and going through new questions in the early days but I haven’t in many years.

Like @AstonJ I enjoy forums more as they foster discussions rather than Q&As only. In fact, I have always enjoyed the forum concept (since they days of dial up BBS systems) and preferred them over newer communication platforms such as IRC, Slack or Discord (even though they have their use cases and will always have a soft spot for IRC).

Mailing lists used to serve a similar purpose but these days most inboxes have been overrun by bots so I am really happy to see a resurgence of topic forums.

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:rofl:

I almost put in my post above that I saw comments that came across rude or unnecessarily harsh. It’s a shame really - especially when all people are trying to do is help.

I think forum style platforms offer the best of the lot too - they can be fast moving but not quite as ‘live’, meaning if people do speak before thinking they’re able to edit what they said (or a mod can step in if need be). This leads to far fewer interpersonal issues developing :smiley:

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I don’t really use SO, every time I’m looking for an issue I need solved I’ve had an SO post be able to help less than 2% of the time so it’s just kind of become one of those links on google I pass over with all the other spam.

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I agree there seems to be a lot of outdated stuff on there now.

At some point perhaps we could make a better Q/A type site in Elixir/Erlang :nerd_face:

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It’s not so much that it’s out of date but that it just doesn’t exist or is a question with no answers or discussion at all on SO. There’s not a lot of things I have to google for so the things I do end up being pretty esoteric. Forums are good places to find those though, lol.

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Yeah, mine is about 2200 and I never took a very special effort.

SO isn’t the dreamland many make it out to be though.

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Well, occasionally.

profile for Aleksei Matiushkin at Stack Overflow, Q&A for professional and enthusiast programmers

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