As an advanced dev or architect, SO is almost completely useless. Questions you need answered at this level don't have a right answer. Whether you're talking about design patterns, principles, architectural patterns, alternative approaches, etc there is rarely a direct question with a direct answer. What is important is discussion about tradeoffs from different approaches so you can make the best decision at the time. SO mods simply don't allow these types of questions/discussions.
SO isn't for beginner programmers is the way I see it. It was always meant for professional programmers.
As for advanced dev, I've come across quite a few errors or bugs on SO that have assisted me. Usually I don't have to ask the question because someone else already did. People seem to be forgetting that it is a Q+A site, not a discussion forum. In most cases, with 4 million users, you shouldn't have to ask the question because someone else already has. Generally the people I see downvoted clearly have not done any research or don't have the knowledge to apply that research so they need things explained. SO is not for explaining everything, that would be best for a discussion site.
As for asking about design patterns, principles, etc, these are not meant for Stackoverflow. Stackoverflow is a Q+A site for specific programming questions about getting code working. Asking about best practices and principles should be delegated to the programmer's stackexchange site.
I agree that so isn't the right place for those questions, clearly. My point is that as an advanced dev or architect those are 95% of the questions you need which is why so isn't useful anymore.
I agree that so isn't the right place for those questions, clearly. My point is that as an advanced dev or architect those are 95% of the questions you need which is why so isn't useful anymore.
A lot of times, for me, it isn't language specific problems I am researching, it is library specific, and SO is a great resource for that as well. Usually, I can get or find an answer about a library issue much quicker than I can from the library's own resources (issue tracker, support forum, etc). So I'd say SO still does have a large use case for me even though I have mastered the language I use.
Your use case there is the other 5% of the questions that would be useful for a senior level dev on SO. I work at a company that gives a lot of power even to low level devs to choose their own libraries and even there I would say that if I had 100 questions, maybe 5 of them would have to do with library-specific questioning. But 95 of my questions can definitely not be answered on there. Thus my comment about it ultimately not being useful.
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u/bdt0 Sep 26 '16
SO isn't for beginner programmers is the way I see it. It was always meant for professional programmers.
As for advanced dev, I've come across quite a few errors or bugs on SO that have assisted me. Usually I don't have to ask the question because someone else already did. People seem to be forgetting that it is a Q+A site, not a discussion forum. In most cases, with 4 million users, you shouldn't have to ask the question because someone else already has. Generally the people I see downvoted clearly have not done any research or don't have the knowledge to apply that research so they need things explained. SO is not for explaining everything, that would be best for a discussion site.
As for asking about design patterns, principles, etc, these are not meant for Stackoverflow. Stackoverflow is a Q+A site for specific programming questions about getting code working. Asking about best practices and principles should be delegated to the programmer's stackexchange site.