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StackOverflow has lost 77% of new questions compared to 2022. Lowest # since May 2009.
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this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2025
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It doesn't help that some of the duplicates aren't duplicates at all but some SO admin or mod hasn't read or understood the question properly and points the asker at something that's actually only vaguely related or irrelevant.
I'm pretty sure I've also heard of askers providing links to other questions that are similar to but not quite what they're interested in, explained why their question is different and yet it's one of those linked questions that ends up being identified as being identical to the asker's question.
There may also be at least one pair of questions that each point back at the other as being the original, and there's no useful information in either. (I don't know why this idea is in my head though, so maybe it was a joke I read somewhere.)
Either way, the admins and mods there do not like to be told they are wrong and will shut things down fast if it starts looking like they've made a mistake. Unfortunately for them, stories like this get out anyway.
Petty little overlords of the toxic waste dump of their own making.
See this is what I'm talking about. You're saying you've heard stories. I bet some of them are legitimate criticism, but I'm also positive many of them are from people that couldn't put on the bare minimum of effort when asking for help from strangers on the internet.
My favorite thing about SO is when a valid "solution" (workaround) stops working because the functions used get depreciated, and you're left with the original problem four years later, fucking MySQL.
I once had a person ask a question on a library I made. They asked how to unit test the library. I answered it and got downvoted because my answer wasn't the accepted answer.
That takes reading from existing users.
Also not all answers are perennial for a question. So it makes sense to ask them again. In that case, closing a question as duplicate is absurd.
I think it's far less of a problem when users can't put in the bare minimum
compared to mods who can't even put in the bare minimum and provide a link when they belive they found a duplicate.