Here’s the thing - Stack Overflow replaced existing non-corporate less shitty places on the Internet where we experts shared knowledge for free. Stack Overflow quickly got so bad that many experts stopped sharing, but only after disrupting existing sharing communities.
People who remember what came before have a right to be angry that SO embraced and extinguished the free (and advertising free) forums and IRC channels that came before it.
(I admit SO was better in many ways. But it also killed off something more resilient. I hope we can someday rebuild some of what we had, outside of the long corporate line-must-go-up shadow. I don’t know if we will or not.)
People who remember what came before have a right to be angry that SO embraced and extinguished the free (and advertising free) forums and IRC channels that came before it.
This is true, but also not what the vast majority of people that complain about SO are complaining about.
Here’s the thing - Stack Overflow replaced existing non-corporate less shitty places on the Internet where we experts shared knowledge for free. Stack Overflow quickly got so bad that many experts stopped sharing, but only after disrupting existing sharing communities.
People who remember what came before have a right to be angry that SO embraced and extinguished the free (and advertising free) forums and IRC channels that came before it.
(I admit SO was better in many ways. But it also killed off something more resilient. I hope we can someday rebuild some of what we had, outside of the long corporate line-must-go-up shadow. I don’t know if we will or not.)
This is true, but also not what the vast majority of people that complain about SO are complaining about.
Fair point.