I think it depends on how you use it. If you’re just there to demand answers and show no effort to research or share your work, then you may find the community less welcoming. I also notice a lot of folks now delete their questions when they have been answered, which is against the spirit of the site.
Back in the day it used to be way more toxic that it is right now. I think community has taken many steps to make it more welcoming place for newcomers. The initial hostility towards "newbie" questions could have been rooted in the underlying goal of SO to build a largest knowledge base. Even today, questions revolving around general language/framework/technology-oriented topics, like How do I achieve X in Y or X is giving me some very specific error message. What can I do? are more welcomed than questions specific to a single user issue, like My code doesn't compile or Why do I get exception in this code?.
There is no simple answer, but here are some thoughts:
Stack Overflow was definitely founded on some highly elitist notions about the nature of software development. I think some things we'd consider to be the most toxic parts of Stack Overflow were really the views of the early project. I went back and listened to some of their really early podcasts, and I've read blog posts of those involved early that give me this feeling. Not that they are not smart people with lots of wisdom, but their view of software development at the time was the foundation for what we have today.
The delicate balance of Stack Overflow as a resource makes it challenging to change. I think the company is still highly concerned about alienating their power users, so attempts to make things better have to be really really subtle. This is my perception anyway.
It promotes a "stifling" format in general, IMO. Certain rules are much harsher then they practically need to be. I think this dates to a notion of software development which was way more rooted on notions of absolute correctness than I think are still useful. I don't think this is great for the library that is SO, but also just not great for people's feelings. Getting shut down for a random rule you didn't realize you broke is pretty demoralizing.
I don't fault people who feel that it isn't toxic in their experience, unless they are being completely pigheaded in their assertion. But yes, Stack Overflow is particularly toxic in certain ways.
StackOverflow is still my main source of information (though I use google for browsing it) when it comes to quick questions for daily programming. They have answers for many common problems/things a beginner/intermediate would stumble upon.
I do not hate their rules, because I think at least 1/3 of them are necessary (otherwise the place would be a real war on opinion).
But I do not see StackOverflow competing with e.g. dev.to, because they have different intentions, one providing a solution snippet database, the other gathering valuable opinions of developers.
Some wise words there. But a lot of people would say that StackOverflow has not been concerned enough about alienating their power users, and has gone chasing eyeball quantity at their expense and that of quality in the questions and answers. It probably indicates what a difficult balance they have to strike.
Totally depends on how it's used, I think there's a baseline level of question that's expected (which is probably key to its success) and is a bit sensitive to those who ask duplicate questions or come across as lazy.
Personally I've not found it particlarly useful for a few years now, I've found github issues more applicable normally.
It’s important to ask what is the actual purpose of the platform. Is it to help resolve tricky issues? Is it a code writing service? Is it code review and suggestions? People aren’t usually hostile if the person asking the question made a legitimate effort to resolve it with code examples and detailed explanations. Yes people can be hostile when someone is asking to help do their computer science homework or obviously didn’t make any effort. Also how can a person asking for help on how to best structure their full stack application actually receive assistance in a mostly short form question/answer interface. You can’t explain end to end cloud native infrastructure best practices in a concise answer nor should you. I believe also deep down some of this driven by resentment and/or envy. If they see someone who in their bio is a lead/principal/staff engineer and can barely add two numbers together but somehow has that position, some may feel off because many have worked with those people. That being said depending on the language/stack, definitely can be much more hostility even with well formed questions.
Yes, SO is toxic to lazy people that write bad and/or off-topic questions while feeling entitled to have those questions answered by random volunteering strangers.
No, SO is not toxic to people that write good questions that have specific answers and generally try to use the place for the purpose it was created.
More often than not, if you feel SO is toxic, then it's you, not SO, that is the problem.
Congrats! You're one of the people who makes SO a toxic place. Actually, the way you express yourself clearly shows you're a bully online and IRL. I pity the poor souls that surround you. Hopefully you're very very alone and not causing harm to others. Sociopath.
I think there are a few toxic individuals/contributors on StackOverflow.
Their focus on Q&A format is helpful. Their policy against conversation is stifling, since some topics warrant discussion. I think they could be a better forum if they allowed a better mechanism for open discussion. There current "offline/out-of-band chat" (and hide it away and make it effectively inaccessible) is where conversations go to die.
Graduated in Digital Media M.Sc. now developing the next generation of educational software. Since a while I develop full stack in Javascript using Meteor. Love fitness and Muay Thai after work.
Oldest comments (50)
Nope not really. StackOverflow is a lifesaver for so many developers 😁
Well... it's not always sunshine and roses. 😅
I think it depends on how you use it. If you’re just there to demand answers and show no effort to research or share your work, then you may find the community less welcoming. I also notice a lot of folks now delete their questions when they have been answered, which is against the spirit of the site.
Back in the day it used to be way more toxic that it is right now. I think community has taken many steps to make it more welcoming place for newcomers. The initial hostility towards "newbie" questions could have been rooted in the underlying goal of SO to build a largest knowledge base. Even today, questions revolving around general language/framework/technology-oriented topics, like How do I achieve X in Y or X is giving me some very specific error message. What can I do? are more welcomed than questions specific to a single user issue, like My code doesn't compile or Why do I get exception in this code?.
There is no simple answer, but here are some thoughts:
I don't fault people who feel that it isn't toxic in their experience, unless they are being completely pigheaded in their assertion. But yes, Stack Overflow is particularly toxic in certain ways.
StackOverflow is still my main source of information (though I use google for browsing it) when it comes to quick questions for daily programming. They have answers for many common problems/things a beginner/intermediate would stumble upon.
I do not hate their rules, because I think at least 1/3 of them are necessary (otherwise the place would be a real war on opinion).
But I do not see StackOverflow competing with e.g. dev.to, because they have different intentions, one providing a solution snippet database, the other gathering valuable opinions of developers.
I agree with all of that
there's a stackoverflow rival named 'Grepper' btw.
I use it more than S.o.
Some wise words there. But a lot of people would say that StackOverflow has not been concerned enough about alienating their power users, and has gone chasing eyeball quantity at their expense and that of quality in the questions and answers. It probably indicates what a difficult balance they have to strike.
Totally depends on how it's used, I think there's a baseline level of question that's expected (which is probably key to its success) and is a bit sensitive to those who ask duplicate questions or come across as lazy.
Personally I've not found it particlarly useful for a few years now, I've found github issues more applicable normally.
It’s important to ask what is the actual purpose of the platform. Is it to help resolve tricky issues? Is it a code writing service? Is it code review and suggestions? People aren’t usually hostile if the person asking the question made a legitimate effort to resolve it with code examples and detailed explanations. Yes people can be hostile when someone is asking to help do their computer science homework or obviously didn’t make any effort. Also how can a person asking for help on how to best structure their full stack application actually receive assistance in a mostly short form question/answer interface. You can’t explain end to end cloud native infrastructure best practices in a concise answer nor should you. I believe also deep down some of this driven by resentment and/or envy. If they see someone who in their bio is a lead/principal/staff engineer and can barely add two numbers together but somehow has that position, some may feel off because many have worked with those people. That being said depending on the language/stack, definitely can be much more hostility even with well formed questions.
Yes, SO is toxic to lazy people that write bad and/or off-topic questions while feeling entitled to have those questions answered by random volunteering strangers.
No, SO is not toxic to people that write good questions that have specific answers and generally try to use the place for the purpose it was created.
More often than not, if you feel SO is toxic, then it's you, not SO, that is the problem.
Congrats! You're one of the people who makes SO a toxic place. Actually, the way you express yourself clearly shows you're a bully online and IRL. I pity the poor souls that surround you. Hopefully you're very very alone and not causing harm to others. Sociopath.
Obviosuly, every social platform - or any social construct of considerable size will have toxicity, the magnitude is what's at quesiton.
I do not think StackOverflow itself is toxic.
I think there are a few toxic individuals/contributors on StackOverflow.
Their focus on Q&A format is helpful. Their policy against conversation is stifling, since some topics warrant discussion. I think they could be a better forum if they allowed a better mechanism for open discussion. There current "offline/out-of-band chat" (and hide it away and make it effectively inaccessible) is where conversations go to die.
If you think SO is toxic then please go ask a question on softwareengineering.stackexchange....
Sorry, but your question was closed....