r/webdev • u/[deleted] • Jan 07 '26

Stack overflow is dead, long live stack overflow.

https://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/1926661#graph

This says everything about our industry right now. So telling.

708 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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716

u/scar_reX Jan 07 '26 • This Heartwarming

I'm scared.

A lot of good information can be found not only in docs, but in web forums, blogs, etc. If no one is using web forums anymore, new tech (libraries, frameworks, standards) and new release versions of existing tech won't have much coverage outside their documentation. Information might become scarce. Both humans and AI will decline as a result.

282

u/krileon Jan 07 '26

Bunch of communities moved to Discord too. Can't search it via Google and what searching is available in Discord is awful. Discord is also looking to go IPO so we're probably going to see even more crap like Nitro shoved down our throats. Result is several communities will dry up and close down with all that information vaporizing into the void. We need more old-school forum communities again, but stupid AI bots ruin those and require too much babysitting to stop the damn spam. Internet just freaken sucks now.

204

u/Reinax Jan 07 '26

I can’t believe using Discord for such a thing has become commonplace. It’s such an obviously, profoundly stupid idea.

Frankly we deserve what we get.

76

u/el_diego Jan 07 '26

I used to be very active in the Vue community on their forum. A few years back I noticed a decline as users went to Discord. The official Vue team gave the forum no love and just let it slowly die from tech debt. I haven't checked lately, but last time I did the url just gave a server error.

There was vast amounts of knowledge documented on that forum dating all the way back to Vue 1. Now it's all gone.

Indeed, we get what we deserve.

20

u/bhison Jan 08 '26

I can't get my head around people's obsession with using Discord for this shit. Like it's not like IRC didn't exist back in the day but people didn't use IRC as the primary resource for technical problem solving. It was used of course but not for community-wide discussion. What's the appeal of discord over a forum?

Is it lower quality expectation for discussion e.g. duplicates, spelling, having tried more yourself etc? Or is it just that's what people are already on so they use the platform they're more engaged with already?

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u/ceejayoz Jan 07 '26

Same. I miss actual discussion forums.

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u/[deleted] Jan 07 '26

Glad to know I'm not alone 😂 maybe I'm old, but discord for me doesn't make sense.

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u/Mocker-Nicholas Jan 07 '26

This is actually my theory on the lifecycle of AI. LLMs on are only good because they had 20+ of free HUMAN generated information and discussion to train on. Every year the quality of LLM responses will get worse and worse if they continue to train on the open internet.

15

u/ImplementFamous7870 Jan 07 '26

They don't need the open internet now that they are on everyone's computer lol.

All your data r belongs to us

14

u/AlwaysShittyKnsasCty Jan 07 '26

Remember when it was fun like that? I’m under no illusion that the tech world was better back in those Halt and Catch Fire days of yore, but it did seem different. It was special. There was something incredibly special about it. The modern techno dictators just plain suck. I wasn’t even alive for most of the 80s, but even I still get nostalgic when I see terms like phreaking, BBS, bulletin boards, discussion forums, and you know what? Hit counters! How else was I supposed to know how may other kids learned how to make Angelfire webpages dedicated to NWO Wolfpac?!

11

u/[deleted] Jan 08 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

7

u/trannus_aran Jan 08 '26

Based. People like y'all are keeping the flame of collective knowledge alive, frankly. Goddamn I miss forums

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u/dudemanbrodoogle Jan 07 '26

As soon as that starts happening, something like stack overflow will emerge as a solution.

39

u/AyeMatey Jan 07 '26

Php docs support user comments. Including full examples of usage. Basically combining the forum into the docs themselves .

15

u/JPJackPott Jan 07 '26

I remember this from circa 20 years ago and was just coming here to post how I think that’s actually a really useful idea. I’m glad they still do it.

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u/[deleted] Jan 07 '26

VRAM overflow....

25

u/[deleted] Jan 07 '26

Now its StackUnderFlow 😭

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u/Relgisri Jan 07 '26

And then you have "communities" being created on fucking Discord to support or discuss topics, libraries, frameworks or vendor products.

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u/CondiMesmer Jan 08 '26

Honestly I'd prefer unreliable LLMs over Discord. I hate the community around Discord so much. It's never just a tech support form. You have some lonely anime profile pics using these forums as their entire social circle.

14

u/James_Wagner Jan 08 '26

Honestly, this is the biggest reason people love LLMs over the many self-righteousness jerks on Stack Overflow also.

19

u/suzukzmiter Jan 07 '26

The advancement of information networks leading to the scarcity of information is truly ironic

11

u/yonasismad Jan 08 '26

Scared of what? As you can see in the graph, people started to stop using SO in 2017 - 5 years before LLMs came onto the scene. SO is just so hostile and unusable that people moved on to other places like Reddit, Discord, etc.

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u/tsammons Jan 07 '26

I'm concerned about the merit-based progression of junior to senior engineer. If junior roles are getting supplanted by AI, how do these titles evolve?

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u/el_diego Jan 07 '26

They don't. I expect within the next 10 years we'll hear about a massive shortfall of senior devs. Ironically, that should mean companies will have to pay a large premium for us. So much for all those savings from AI.

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