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I'm interested in the history and evolution of the Stack Overflow community to make some expectations on the future of it.

I've used Stack Overflow a lot, for years, hundredfold googling for specific programming questions landed here over my career.

After I had switched from 'read-only' to 'contributor' mode, I could not get rid of the feeling that Stack Overflow (being the primary landing of the Stack Exchange network) is overwhelmed by thousands of opportunists, on two sides:

  • Some are looking for quick and easy solutions to obvious problems, too lazy to Google it, let alone to read the manual;
  • Lots on the other side take it as a challenge to write some answer, in pursuit of reputation points.

Both are looking for fast and easy profit: an ad hoc solution for a momentary problem, and self-esteem, correspondingly.

Thereafter some really challenging and useful questions and answers are sunk within the flood of repetitive newbies posts.

I can and I do understand the reasons why it happens; the world evolving, and my shifting in the direction of an old fart.

Was it like this a few (3-5-7) years ago? (I doubt it.) When and why did things become the way they are now. Is it just the world and Internet evolving, or something else?

Have Stack Exchange administrators advanced somehow to prevent or support this over the years? Are the old-timers aware of some actions made by Stack Exchange Inc. to prevent or develop the issues mentioned (like changing permission reputation points limits, simplifying registration, denying community enforcement of question restrictions, et cetera);

What are reasonable and realistic options to handle it or live with it? How did these mentioned issues affect the community, and what are their perspectives?

While few interesting links worth reading on the subject were suggested, my question is more of retrospective and time-aware kind. Not about how to fix or resolve it, being a realist. I'm not a total dummy, so please do not post any obvious and trivial notes.

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    A partial answer is in What is the goal of Stack Overflow?
    – Jongware
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 9:53
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    @RadLexus Sure thing. Yet it seems it turn into library of useless crap filters last years
    – agg3l
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 9:54
  • 2
    Stack Overflow exploded in the recent 3-2 years. All I feel left to do here is mostly moderation to keep that site clean. The only reason to gain reputation is making you enabled for this. All others can be neglected as being silly people caught up in the gaming the engine provides.
    – πάντα ῥεῖ
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 9:56
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    @agg3l "useless crap filters"?? Do you really think these are useless?
    – πάντα ῥεῖ
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 9:57
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    @πάνταῥεῖ not useless crap filters, but useless crap filters. Moderators and advanced members of community has to handle all the mess
    – agg3l
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 9:59
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    @πάνταῥεῖ And, questions like "what does asterisk stands for in xyz[9]*" (being a typo) - just came along this one today - are definitely useless crap
    – agg3l
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 10:00
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    @agg3l Ahh, OK now I got you. Well, we're an intelligent community and some of us managed to develop bots to help us a bit. Feel welcome to participate at the SOCVR.
    – πάντα ῥεῖ
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 10:01
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    @rene I'm half way there already. Will take a look over the discussion as soon as I reach the filter milestone (if I don't forget it). Thx for your suggestions
    – agg3l
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 10:04
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    @agg3 Need a 500 rep bounty? Present me your best answer you have contibuted.
    – πάντα ῥεῖ
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 10:05
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    @πάνταῥεῖ I doubt I have had contributed something worth 500 rep points so far. Yet, thank you for your offer
    – agg3l
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 10:06
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    @ManojKumar Surely this depends on point of view, speciality, knowledge, scope of interest et cetera... I was not referencing questions on Meta.SO, as you can guess. For example, this one is both challenging and interesting for me, as I plan to resolve it myself in next few days stackoverflow.com/questions/40180811
    – agg3l
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 10:12
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    @ManojKumar Let's say, the question you cannot google answer for within 5 minutes can be challenging for someone. I tend to ask the community for answers on questions I cannot find answer within days, at least (but that's about myself)
    – agg3l
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 10:15
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    @ManojKumar I'd say ~30-50% of questions within most active tags are answered on SO already, and the answer can be found via google or built-in SO search engine within 30-60 seconds. Seems like questioner had never tried to do so
    – agg3l
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 10:19
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    Ahh, found the image I was looking for: meta.stackoverflow.com/q/258663/2564301. It may be the definitive answer to the main question you are posing here.
    – Jongware
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 10:43
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    meta.stackoverflow.com/a/296166/17034
    – Hans Passant
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 17:49

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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This is just my opinion. Only anecdotal stories to back them up.

Stack Overflow started out as a fun place where people help one another. It went down-hill very fast and I think these are the reasons:

  • Popularity.
    Small is beautiful. As soon as Stack Overflow really took off and many many people visited it became a landmark on the Internet, and changed irrevocably. It became very important indeed.

  • Community.
    The original community was inherently positive and busy with a labour of love. Then the masses streamed in and the atmosphere became... average, as such things go. Once on the way down, this trend strengthened and the next forming factor took over, see below.

  • The union effect.
    Rep is the name of the game. It used to be a friendly, kindly encouraging award system for effort and time spent. But it became far too important for too many people. Now it is a commodity energetically defended and not easily gained, and it poisons the whole Stack Overflow experience.

I have second hand experience on the early days. The first rep system adaptation got the blood fired up in so many people. Fun questions and answers originally were greeted enthusiastically, but today get closed and deleted really fast. The site 'professionalised' and the community ruthlessly grooms contributions to keep the site clean.

Currently day to day happenings on Stack Overflow resemble a very fast, superficial grinder. The user experience is dismal, and there is no time for reflection. Too many people crowding. Competing to get a toe in. Slapping down-votes. No time for reflection. Rat race? I say yes.

Many discerning professionals have moved elsewhere by now. New users better be hardened souls, as they are not welcomed any more.

Stack Exchange Inc. seems to keep a very low profile, citing self-moderation as reason. The blog makes interesting reading. There are some rep changes announced and there is an early remark on edit wars dating from 2009. But it is not very illuminating in all. They do make their living off Stack Overflow, after all.

References:

Background

Blog

Early fun

Critisism

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  • @agg3l you got my upvote, for what it is worth. Somehow I get the impression that self-analysis isn't the strongest suit of the SO community.
    – Bookeater
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 12:30
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    Can your blog list be roughly divided into posts that say SO is over-moderated versus not moderated enough? Or both, in the same post. (Ah, you removed the one containing "Many new users of StackOverflow rarely ever follow the guidelines of the community. I’m not sure how to solve this, but it is annoying to see questions posted as a plea for help. Stackoverflow moderates its self as a very terse question and answer site.")
    – Jongware
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 12:39
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    I've added some separation
    – Bookeater
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 12:46
  • SO now is large enough to have BOTH too much and too little moderation.
    – Bookeater
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 12:48
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    Wait until you get enough rep to review the Close Votes Queue. There are literally thousands of one sentence questions that start "How do I build an app."
    – o-90
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 12:49
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    Some of the blog posts show they not fully understand SO. Micheal T. Richter, for example, observes "Over one third of my reputation was "earned" from me doing absolutely nothing for over two years [..] Any scoring system that allows this to happen is simply broken in my opinion."
    – Jongware
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 12:54
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    "The first rep system adaptation got the blood fired up in so many people. Fun questions and answers originally were greeted enthusiastically, but today get closed and deleted really fast." You do realize there's no rep gain for closing or deleting content, right? The only thing that people that help moderate earn are a bunch of spite downvotes and insults on meta.
    – M.A.R.
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 16:01
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    SO was never a place "to help each other"...
    – Alexei Levenkov
    Commented Oct 30, 2016 at 3:42
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    @Bookeater Somehow I get the impression that self-analysis isn't the strongest suit of the SO community maybe. Perhaps it's also a sense of tiredness about people who haven't been doing much on the sites yet armchair quarterbacking and complaining about how bad the place is apparently without appreciating the issues that a site of this nature and size is subjected to, and the huge complexities and unintended consequences any change to the system would bring - and pretty much every one of the aspects you bring up has been discussed to death previously. That's not your fault...
    – Pekka
    Commented Oct 30, 2016 at 12:28
  • ... but the result of seven years of previous existing Meta discussion.
    – Pekka
    Commented Oct 30, 2016 at 12:32
  • @Pekka 웃 It is a great shame that SO no longer is the open site it started out as. And I'm not giving up on that.
    – Bookeater
    Commented Oct 30, 2016 at 13:41
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    @Alexei Levenkov, straight from the horse's mouth: '...a programming Q&A site that's free. Free to ask questions, free to answer questions, free to read.' If that is not 'helping each other' I do not know what is.
    – Bookeater
    Commented Oct 30, 2016 at 13:48

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