I hate Stackoverflow

1yr ago

10 replies

I'm trying to find an answer to a code problem. As any proactive dev I search if a similar question was already answered. I find something but it's not really what I'm looking for. Hopeful, I post my code seeking an answer. And what do I get? "let me help you google that -- " I can't remember a single time when I posted on SO without fearing that I might make some dev somewhere scoff when seeing my question. Coding is fun and I have a good time learning on other platforms, but SO, as much as it is useful, can be a cesspool of arrogant purists. I wanted to get this off my chest 😅 I've gotten used to people thrashing my products, that's part of the startup world, but treating someone who's trying to learn like this is toxic and should be shamed. If you know any devs that are doing this, make sure you call them out on this behavior.

Replies

Rosie Higgins

Software engineer and entrepreneur

I can relate! I never post on Stack Overflow for that reason. I really hope we see less and less of this kind of toxicity in software engineering in the future

Share 1yr ago

Ste

dev/designer

@rosie_higgins_grapevine I hope so too. Luckily there are many other places to learn that are great. I'll be staying as far as possible from the bad vibes on SO, I'm done with brogrammers who think they're better.

Share 1yr ago

Michael Silber

Product Lead at Product Hunt

@rosie_higgins_grapevine @stelian_dobrescu1 What are some of the other communities that you've found to be more helpful than SO?

Share 1yr ago

Rosie Higgins

Software engineer and entrepreneur

@stelian_dobrescu1 @product_at_producthunt I use stack overflow to find answers I just never post on it. Other than that I mainly use documentation, specific forums and sometimes refer to blog posts for problem solving.

Share 1yr ago

Ste

dev/designer

@rosie_higgins_grapevine @product_at_producthunt Subreddits work way better for me. Any r/ that's framework specific or more general places like /learnjavascript or /learnprogramming. Much nicer folk. Also some discord groups, although there it tends to get more messy.

Share 1yr ago

Rosie Higgins

Software engineer and entrepreneur

@stelian_dobrescu1 Those sound great, I definitely need to get more into Reddit!

Share 1yr ago

Stefan Morris

I fight for the users

Interesting... that has not been my experience. However, if I'm posting on Stack Overflow, its because I have exhausted every possible avenue.

Share 1yr ago

Jonathan Massabni

Product Enthusiast. Travel & Fintech

Interesting to know! it used to be my main reference to find solutions, but often surprised that some topics had not been addressed for years. Knowing this now, it probably plays a role. Glad to have switched to documentation. Will try subreddits as well

Share 1yr ago

Mohammed Ali

Programmer and seo expert

I think stackoverflow is a community full of persons not all of them is developer. some of them get answers from google then post it to stackoverflow as an answer. I'm an Engineer in programming languages decided to make a website to find any answer real beacuse of that I started with a blogger Al-Ariqi (www.alariqi.com) I wish that I could give more for starters and also developers with my wishes Al-Ariqi Al-Ariqi

Share 1yr ago

Erdinc

Founder @ iftrue.co

"I can't remember a single time when I posted on SO without fearing that I might make some dev somewhere scoff when seeing my question." Just don't give a fck. SO business model and existence depends on your questions. Most of the time juniors reply as you mentioned, this is because they are juniors. "let me help you google that -- " this is not about you. forget this. if the answer is that simple, instead of giving a link to search engine than make you find that answer yourself, whole point of SO is gone. so just don't give a fck and ask. you are not the question you ask :)

Share 1yr ago