Stack overflow is almost dead \ stacker news ~tech

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Stack overflow is almost dead blog.pragmaticengineer.com/stack-overflow-is-almost-dead/

961 sats \ 13 comments \ @k00b 9 Jun tech

This might not be that bad if LLMs didn’t hallucinate. At least SO had a community to audit fraudulent answers.

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121 sats \ 1 reply \ @cointastical 16h

That measures "questions asked" (i.e., new question posts). Why ask a question when a search returns the answer?

It's not just AI that made Stack Overflow die, it's

having to press the "Accept Cookies" prompt,
the "Are you a human being?" CAPTCHAs
the Questions showing the Green Checkmark (i.e., Answered) and the answer was: "Figured it out, guys .... thanks" (and nothing more).

42 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b OP 16h

Great points. I had similar thoughts about the "corpus" of questions/answers already being formed and naturally leading to a tapering of new ones.

226 sats \ 4 replies \ @kepford 9 Jun

I have a feeling the answer to LLM making stuff up is the same as how StackOverflow. People correcting it. These companies and chatbots have to use feedback to fix the mistakes. I have watched different chatbots make stuff up and when I call it out it admits it. It's pretty comical to watch.

98 sats \ 1 reply \ @SimpleStacker 9 Jun

The problem with this is that the chatbots can be gaslit into agreeing with you even if they're right and you're wrong

Some crusty old dude on stack overflow would never be gaslit like that

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @istealkids 9 Jun

exactly, they are better manipulators than Geobbels

132 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b OP 9 Jun

I have a friend that asks ChatGPT stuff and goes into a rage based on the answers. When I’m like “I’m not sure that’s true” he’s like “well it’s hallucinating less now” and goes on being upset.

31 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 9 Jun

36 sats \ 1 reply \ @sox 22h

Something that's really sad is that not only LLMs are decreasing Stack Overflow's popularity, they're also decreasing its posts quality. You have to search before 2023 to have more chance to find quality answers.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @teemupleb 19h

The GPT-fication eats and dumbs down all online content and it’s like a cancer trying to kill original creativity but in the end, it’s all cyclical and humanity will prevail.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @WeAreAllSatoshi 9 Jun

This makes me very sad

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @istealkids 9 Jun

ngl, stackoverflow does have some meritorious people who do have potential. But earlier, I used to see gpt answers in only english, story and bug fixes sites, now noobs are getting into places like infosec and AI, with their gpt-fied answers

don't know whom to trust and whom not to. the only space I know that these AI-noobs have still not captured fully is Quora probably.

84 sats \ 0 replies \ @nathanael 9 Jun

To be fair, the decline had already begun before ChatGPT launched. LLMs likely accelerated this decline, and COVID-19 only paused it temporarily.

I think it's more important than ever to ask ourselves: Is this true? How do I know? What are my sources? However, most people probably don't have time to ask these questions and must rely on trusted sources—as we all do at some point.

I hope SN doesn't meet the same fate as SO. I'm here on SN for now, though who knows what the future holds.

15 sats \ 0 replies \ @realBitcoinDog 9 Jun

“The good old days”