Ask HN: Has Stackoverflow Been Good or Bad for Programming Communities? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Has Stackoverflow Been Good or Bad for Programming Communities?

11 pointsgitgud5 comments

Stackoverflow lowered the bar for learning programing, so the communities have arguably increased because of Stackoverflow.

On the other hand, people are much more disconnected from the actual programming communities, as it's so easy to simply Google a question and copy the best Solution from Stackoverflow. Rather than actively participate in forums... Like the good old days

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I'd say it's been good for programming communities. It's improved productivity by a significant amount, meant far less hair pulling over tiny bugs and oddities and prevented a lot of wheels from being reinvented.

That's especially good in less technical companies or ones with less expertise in general, since it means they can get more done without having to rely on third party developers or hiring extra employees.

(it's also been pretty good for non programmers too, since the non programming Stack Exchange sites are filled with some rather fascinating questions and answers. Like the world building one).

"Good"? "Bad"? How could one possibly make such a decision for something as huge and diverse as Stackoverflow? Lists of positives and negatives? Sure. Sweeping judgements? No.

Well, one could express an opinion, and reasons for it. Why not. Incidentally, questions like this that ask for opinion are not welcome on SO and the SE sites, although it's hard not to notice that most of the best, most useful questions ask for opinion (e.g. best books on a certain topic) and are rapidly closed for not being appropriate. e.g.

https://mathoverflow.net/questions/43690/whats-a-mathematici...

Question 'with no right answer' not closed because asked by a famous mathematician i.e. Thurston.

https://mathoverflow.net/questions/38639/thinking-and-explai...

I like those examples.

Another downfall is when you want a more modern answer to a previously posted question. It will no doubt be marked as a duplicate, even though the original from 8 years ago doesn't have any answers useful in 2018.

It improves discoverability of technology or related issues in a very natural way (Human Q&A), so it plays an important role in the community.

It allows us to get our work done without wading through piles of bullshit, and really that's what matters at the end of the day.

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