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Stack overflow is almost dead
(blog.pragmaticengineer.com)
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this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
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Programming
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To be honest. (although I am guilty using chatgpt way too often) I have never not found a question + an answer to a similar problem on stackoverflow.
The realm is saturated. 90 % of the common questions are answered. Complex problems which are not yet asked and answered are probably too difficult to formulate on stackoverflow.
It should be kept at what it is. An enormous repository of knowledge.
I disagree. I still easily find new questions to ask, for example this one which is a nice demonstration of why StackOverflow is dying. Or this one (which also received 4 downvotes).
Even so, I definitely go to ChatGPT first now. Now that we finally have an alternative to the toxic downvotes/closing, why would I go there unless I absolutely need to?
That is a good example. If you aren't already aware you might be interested in ntfs-3g, the GPL-2.0 licensed ntfs driver - the function ntfs_upcase_table_build in libntfs-3g/unistr.c may be of some assistance
Oo thanks!
This is a huge reason for the question decline! All the easy stuff has been answered, the knowledge is already there. But people are so used to infinite growth that anything contrary = death lol
People also blame ai, but if people are going to ai to ask the common already answered questions then… good! They’d just get hurt feelings when their question was closed as a dupe
Yeah, the article seems to assume AI is the cause without attempting to rule out other factors. Plus the graph shows a steady decline starting years before ChatGPT appeared.
exactly!
While I am indeed worried about the "wasted" energy (thats a whole other topic), thats pretty much why AI is good for.
Yet another reason why the Puzzling Stack Exchange is so interesting.
this simply an aggregator?
Stack Overflow has a whole network of Q&A sites. There’s places to post and answer puzzles, code golf, ask physics or political questions, etc. Lots of useful stuff not many people know about
Fun fact: the math "sub-stackoverflow" is owned by the American mathematical society iirc (do correct if wrong) and they reserve the right to up and leave and set root elsewhere outside the network.
no people post their own puzzles there for others to solve
I'd wager that most new questions are in cutting-edge tech. Older tech will be saturated.
This is a really good point. I joined stackoverflow after graduating university a few years ago, and found it really hard to participate. You need karma to be able to vote on stuff or add comments, but the only unanswered questions are often basically unanswerable. I did find some success with adding answers that were better than previous ones, but it was limited, because at that point the site was already declining and there was no one left to upvote my contributions.