Stack Overflow, the largest Q&A platform for programmers, has become an indispensable resource for developers worldwide. However, over time, the platform has also gained a reputation for being "toxic."
Many users have concerns about the platform's harsh criticism, aggressive downvotes, and sometimes unwelcoming atmosphere. Not only that, there is this competition for reputation points that can lead to a sense of superiority, discouraging newcomers or less-experienced users from fully engaging with the community.
Do you believe Stack Overflow is toxic?
Top comments (23)
It is crucial to bear in mind that Stack Overflow strives to uphold a specific standard of quality in both questions and answers. The platform also emphasizes self-learning and encourages users to research before posting questions.
Bro, there is no standart SOF site. There are guys, they are advertising their own.
The thing is, Stack Overflow is meant to be a question and answer site. They dislike questions that don't have definitive answers, and they don't tolerate any discussion.
It's not meant to be a forum, like say, Reddit. The people that dislike Stack Overflow for these reasons don't understand the purpose of Stack Overflow and they want it to be something it's not.
Well then again, there is this race for reputation points which leads to downvoting questions/answers without even reading them.
Well there's no excuse for that, of course :)
You lose a reputation point when downvoting.
I don't think you can lose reputation points by downvoting questions. You only lose reputation when you downvote answers.
StackOverflow has general rules about how to ask questions and encourages doing research first. However, what ticks me off is when mods or answers resort to mockery instead of actually helping by referring to the rules.
Let's suppose someone asks "How do I make minecraft in java?". Of course, it's not a very good question by StackOverflow standards. But then of course, someone will leave a comment like "Did you try 'import mojang.minecraft.Minecraft'?".
That's IMO what makes StackOverflow toxic. It's okay to have rules but be helpful, not a jerk.
I agree ✊
Toxic may be a stretch, but I would certainly call it swampy. I stopped contributing to that platform after several negative reactions to detailed answers I provided.
My answers were never wrong, but they didn't align with the strict perspective of the poster.
No. I do think Stack Overflow is hostile to new users. There are many rules and specific guidelines, which are enforced without any mercy. The platform has a steep learning curve as well. That said, the purpose is centered around making sure the content on the website retains a certain amount of quality, and Stack Overflow's success demonstrates that. Perhaps the site could be gentler with newcomers, but there is a reason behind it all.
I agree 🙌
I've never had a bad experience on Stack Overflow per se, but I'll always only post a question on there as a last resort, which I guess is the way it's supposed to be.
But the main reason I do that is not just because I've exhausted all my options but also because I always get the feeling I'm either going to get patronised, made to feel stupid or criticised for the quality of my code for example. It could just be down to my lack of confidence sometimes but I feel it can be a pretty harsh place, especially for newcomers. It feels like there are a lot of egos floating about there.
But for the most part people have been helpful when I've needed it.
see some comments here
I think yes. They downvote for nothing. And they do not retake downvoting after edit.
I think there is a loby here. They grow theirselves.
We cannot ignore the fact that there are a tons of low quality questions in Stack Overflow which can get hard on people who are willing to answer/ people who are looking for answers.
If the Reason is clear, no problem. But if they do not argumentize any reason, why they downvote?
Some users are, yes. But some also don't understand what the platform is about. It's not a "do my assignment for me" platform. It's all about solving specific issues, that more often than not have already been solved in the past.
I see you are a user at Stack Overflow (so am I). You have a few questions and a few answers. That is the general trend. Sometimes people have questions and expect answers. Others have answers (these are voluntary) for questions.
It takes time, experience and participation to get an understanding of any environment. If you dont like down voting, dont do it. If you dont like a comment or an answer flag it. You are free to comment what you think of a question or an answer or a comment. If you like an answer or a comment upvote it. Or, just browse questions and answers and comments - learn.
I sometimes see the newcomers (even who has used the website before) dont follow basic rules - these rules are elaborate, clear, and well documented. People sometimes post questions without proper research, no formatting, bad grammar and language, poor explanation, and flouting basic rules of the website and in general a public forum. These are toxic too. These can get hard on others - people who are looking for answers, learning, solutions, volunteers, and the web site staff.
People of all kinds of experiences, attitudes, expectations, baggage, hover and hang around over these websites. There is also a lot of volunteering there. There can be beginner, learning, learned, great, and poor quality volunteering too.
Though I dont post questions often, I find quite a few answers and solutions there. It was a great experience too.
But the newcomers are of course going to have a hard time forming a perfectly phrased question since they are new to this programming community. Most of the folks just resort to downvoting their questions aggressively instead of helping them to edit their questions so that they can find better answers.