I haven't taken it because I am on a 99% boycott of Stack Overflow and have been for a couple of years now. This article by April Wensel gives a good overview of why: medium.com/@Aprilw/suffering-on-st...
I realise, though, that things change and the culture problems highlighted might have improved - if people here think that they have I'm keen to hear about it in case I should consider re-engaging with the site.
I have the feeling that I couldn't afford to boycott Stackoverflow even if I wanted to - there is so much useful and indispensable info there, I'd seriously hurt my productivity big time. Stackoverflow is just collective crowd-sourced knowledge to the max, I couldn't live or code without it.
I do obtain answers from blogs or github issues as well, but Stackoverflow gives me an order of magnitude more. In many cases the only alternative way to get answers would be to study ALL of the docs of software products from begin to end, which would be nigh impossible and prohibitively costly for a solo freelance dev like myself ... in other words SO is a lifesaver and indispensable.
Regarding the toxicity, it could be me but I haven't seen it that often ... I think in those cases when people really cross a line I'm pretty sure they get called out by others. I've seen others mention this, but I have the idea that it's a tad overblown (but I hasten to add that in every single case where it does happen it's of course unacceptable ... bullying is unacceptable, always).
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
We're a place where coders share, stay up-to-date and grow their careers.
I haven't taken it because I am on a 99% boycott of Stack Overflow and have been for a couple of years now. This article by April Wensel gives a good overview of why: medium.com/@Aprilw/suffering-on-st...
I realise, though, that things change and the culture problems highlighted might have improved - if people here think that they have I'm keen to hear about it in case I should consider re-engaging with the site.
I have the feeling that I couldn't afford to boycott Stackoverflow even if I wanted to - there is so much useful and indispensable info there, I'd seriously hurt my productivity big time. Stackoverflow is just collective crowd-sourced knowledge to the max, I couldn't live or code without it.
I do obtain answers from blogs or github issues as well, but Stackoverflow gives me an order of magnitude more. In many cases the only alternative way to get answers would be to study ALL of the docs of software products from begin to end, which would be nigh impossible and prohibitively costly for a solo freelance dev like myself ... in other words SO is a lifesaver and indispensable.
Regarding the toxicity, it could be me but I haven't seen it that often ... I think in those cases when people really cross a line I'm pretty sure they get called out by others. I've seen others mention this, but I have the idea that it's a tad overblown (but I hasten to add that in every single case where it does happen it's of course unacceptable ... bullying is unacceptable, always).