The sweet spot is hard to find.
It shouldn't be. People should just answer the damn question or say nothing at all. "Why?" should never be an "answer" as I find people start debating the why instead of the actual question asked.
That post seems to be missing.
onlinepersona 6 points 3 years ago
hascat 4 points 3 years ago
"why" is a perfectly valid question to ask
onlinepersona 0 points 3 years ago
Context is important. If a business decision has to be made, or it is important to get it right because there's some real-world value attached to it. Otherwise, on the internet, it rarely ever matters why and is in most cases just a reason to detract and go on a tangent.
This is most often seen on HackerNews. Someone creates something like Harder Drives, or asks how to put Doom on a toaster and people respond with "why?". It doesn't matter why. Just let people have fun, learn in their own way, discover new things, or do things differently.
It shouldn't be necessary to defend yourself over such trivial matters.
moonpiedumplings 4 points 3 years ago
I used to spend a ton of time helping people on reddit with linux and related things, and the "why" matters immensely in that case.
XY problem was extremely common, where someone was trying to achieve a goal through "incorrect" means.
I also saw many, many people's issues where they wanted something, but were referring to it by a different name, ending up confused and lost. All I had to do was say "you actually want Y" and point them on their way, and they would be happy.
And then of course, sometimes people try to do something that's simply not possible (or more usually, not implemented in software.).
But in general, it's very difficult to help people who don't make it easy for you to help them, and part of that is explaining the "why", in addition to their issue.
amio 1 point 3 years ago
That, or you’re met with “why on earth do you want to do that?”
To be fair, the XY problem is huge in anything coding related. Newbie wants to do X, has a vague and terribly wrong idea about how to do it (Y), then asks how to do Y instead. To give a "correct" answer to Y, assuming the question makes enough sense to have a correct answer, is less helpful than trying more or less tactfully to figure out what the actual goal was.
abhibeckert 16 points 3 years ago
Yep - I'm also looking for the same thing. Stack Overflow used to be the most amazing website on the internet... it's not that anymore.
LLMs are working pretty well for me and I'm not sure if anything like Stack Overflow will ever exist again. That ship has sailed in my opinion.
onlinepersona 7 points 3 years ago
Heapoverflow?
onlinepersona 5 points 3 years ago
Was it an opensource stackoverflow?
otl 11 points 3 years ago
@CoderSupreme The founder of StackOverflow went on to work on Discourse (https://discourse.org). There’s actually an ActivityPub plugin available nowadays, so apparently people can contribute from whatever fediverse server they’re coming from. For example see Go Bridge (https://forum.golangbridge.org)
wargreymon2023 4 points 3 years ago
codidact is open source, otherwise very similar to stackoverflow.
cozy_agent 4 points 3 years ago
I wish. Maybe create one, be the change and all that.
TropicalDingdong -28 points 3 years ago
I asked ai to give me an image for a super hero for the fediverse and got this:
Honestly, it seems like a federated solution is in order, since this seems to be the most effective way we can have content on the internet that isn't 'owned'. Its not a perfect solution, but I completly commiserate with your issue. I've come across reddit threads for arcane GIS or programming issues and found the comments deleted.
Its only a matter of time before the walls go up around stack overflow and github. We should be thinking about the future and what its going to take to maintain an open and accessible web. A bit part of that is having the tools and resources available to learn. Theres a generation of learning that has the potential to be lost because some one 'owns' it.
Some other considerations. Most platforms as a resources 'work' because they've reached some critical mass. Focusing on niche programming tasks or languages and building a small but robust community is more effective than trying to go very wide, but very shallow. Compare the success of the programming communities here . Most are empty. Most have no posts and no activities. But that's because we're conditioned to the granularity an extant critical mass supports. Instead, just like you are doing, you can post to more general communities like this one.
There is also the strategy of focusing on more 'diy'/ self supported projects that are based in open source. For example, QGIS, I think belongs on the fediverse. They are a phenomenal project and embody that open and free spirit.
TropicalDingdong 0 points 3 years ago
nah.
abhibeckert 5 points 3 years ago
Compare the success of the programming communities here . Most are empty. Most have no posts and no activities
Lemmy also lacks the ability to edit someone else's post. The best answers (and even the best questions) on Stack Overflow had multiple authors. It's very rare to find one person who can comprehensively understand a problem, but several people can do that.
Distinct posts by several people can never be as good as a single post. There's too much repetition, too many stale posts that are out of date or have errors that the author didn't come back to fix, etc.
thanks for using Leebra!
go to feed...
Toxic communities have existed long before Stack Overflow was a thing.
Either you’re asking a question that’s too basic, which people will respond with “RTFM!!!”, or “Just Google it you moron! It’s literally the first result”.
Or you’re asking a too technically advanced question nobody has a direct answer to. That, or you’re met with “why on earth do you want to do that?”
The sweet spot is hard to find.
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