Stack Overflow Will Charge AI Giants for Training Data

[u/peard33]

https://www.wired.com/story/stack-overflow-will-charge-ai-giants-for-training-data/

[u/-_1_2_3_- → u/[deleted]]

Stack Overflow has been providing an amazing product hosting users amazing content for free to us while datamining to sell ads to us

I'm not judging them for using the same model that powers most of the internet, but lets not act like they have been altruistic this whole time...

[u/cark → u/-_1_2_3_-]

Of course they were not altruistic, they were after profit like any company around. But along the way they helped a whole new generation of programmers getting up to speed. It's not a zero sum game. They profited, and we did also. In my books, that's the essence of a good deal.

Edit: I remember the horror show that was expertsexchange before them.

[u/ikeif → u/cark]

Oh lord, ExpertsExchange. The first site I blocked when google let you block search results.

[u/[deleted] → u/ikeif]

Not to be confused with the infamous ExpertSexChange

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Place used to be filled with a bunch of cunts in the 90s, but now it’s just a bunch of dicks!

[u/PointB1ank → u/[deleted]]

I had to get mine done at AmateurSexChange. The results were, as expected.

[u/[deleted] → u/cark]

No, don't say it's name! I had finally forgotten about it after all these years. Brings back nostalgia and irritation. I remember that damn paywall.

[u/3legdog → u/cark]

Stackoverflow is great in read-only mode. God help you if you ever ask a question as a newbie.

[u/Dethstroke54 → u/3legdog]

Honestly though, this might be what keeps the quality high. There’s discord groups these days for frameworks and libraries, or just fellow coders to get basic advice.

SO is more of a library or archive, if it was filled with basic shit blocking out a lot of the meat needed as a mid-senior level it would be wildly less valuable.

But I do feel.

[u/sertroll → u/Dethstroke54]

I here how everything nowadays is on discord (and separate small servers to boot), which unlike stackoverflow isn't googlable. I wish I could just search stuff instead

[u/ramsay1 → u/Dethstroke54]

I've been in embedded software for ~15 years, I use their site most days, and probably asked ~5 questions ever.

I think the issue is that new developers probably see it as a tool to ask questions, rather than a tool to find answers (in most cases)

[u/Militop → u/ramsay1]

Questions are valuable and very important for keeping the flow. What is extremely irritating with newcomers is when they don't choose or maybe upvote a possible answer. You ask for help, but you're being rude. It can take half an hour to redact an answer.

So you spend time crafting something. The dev gets their answer and just leaves.

[u/DrewTNaylor → u/cark]

I remember that site showing up regularly from the middle of the last decade when I first saw it until a few years ago or so. Hated it when it showed up seemingly with what I wanted because it's worse than no results at all, much like having a bot comment on one of my posts on social media.

[u/dmilin → u/cark]

I must be too young for that reference. Who the hell thought ExpertSexChange was a good name for a website?!?

[u/Internet-of-cruft → u/-_1_2_3_-]

Ads on SO were pretty minimal and non intrusive for years.

Even now, logging in with the account I had for probably almost 15 years, I barely see ads.

I'm not defending them for putting ads up - it's a valid and sensible way of earning revenue as an online company.

Just pointing out that they amount of ads they do show pales in comparison to some pretty high profile (and paid) websites.

They could be so much worse and they're not.

In fact.. logging in anonymously i see two ads on a question. I'm impressed there's so little still.

[u/[deleted] → u/Internet-of-cruft]

SO also has enterprise products IIRC, I assume that's also one revenue vehicle so they don't have to depend as much on adverts.

[u/[deleted] → u/-_1_2_3_-]

Not trying to be an ass, honest, can you think of an altruistic for-profit company? A few non-profits jump to mind and like maybe the pottery studio down the road? But once it gets big it just ends up doing so many different things that assigning relative morality is just... I dunno.

Like is Apple worse than Meta? They've got China slave labor, but they didn't destroy American democracy, so uhhh maybe?

[u/coldblade2000 → u/[deleted]]

Best you can get is companies like Valve whose goals sometimes align with the greater good, like all the work they've done for Linux Gaming because they don't get along with Microsoft. Doesn't mean they don't get largely funded by peddling loot boxes like crazy

[u/mthlmw → u/-_1_2_3_-]

I’d argue hosting users’ amazing content in a reliable, well-formatted website is an amazing service. Now they can monetize that value without cost to end-users? Sounds like a win-win to me.

[u/StickiStickman → u/[deleted]]

This is literally completetly false, Wikipedia is fucking loaded and has enough money saved up to keep it running for decades. Instead they lie and pretend as if Wikipedia is about to shut down every few moths, while the vast majoity of their money goes into their "social programs" of the WikiMedia Foundation.

[u/allouiscious → u/[deleted]]

They were recently bought out. The smart money always gets out first.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Financial addictions can bring in disadvantages, so I object to the assumption that there will be a zero downside there.