this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2023
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Stack Overflow has seen a substantial decline in traffic over the last year that appears to be accelerating. https://observablehq.com/@ayhanfuat/the-fall-of-stack-overflow

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[–] abhibeckert@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Well, for starters, the fall started six months before ChatGPT launched. And there was a brief uptick in traffic after ChatGPT's launch.

For me the real problem with Stack Overflow, as someone who was one of the earliest users of the service, is when you ask a question now you don't actually get a good answer anymore. Often your question just gets deleted by moderators. And even when I've answered someone's perfectly good question, the question (and my answer) have been deleted by mods.

All I can say is thank god ChatGPT came when it did, because we needed something to replace Stack Overflow.

[–] Citizen@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do we have a community on lemmy to ask questions like stackoverflow?

[–] abhibeckert@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It wouldn't be very good.

Most people want answers, not questions, and with Stack Overflow the answers are usually already there and easy to find. Plus they are maintained and kept up to date, so if something was correct six years ago but isn't anymore, that will usually be obvious before you try the solution.

Some kind of federated stack overflow alternative could be awesome, but Lemmy is not it and never will be.