I've always been a staunch defender of Stack Overflow's approach to moderation. I've joined every argument on social media to defend the right to close, the right to be pedantic, the right to purge any opinions and leave only pure facts.

I knew this approach had costs, but I always laughed in the face of people who were "afraid of toxicity" on Stack Overflow. They just never understood that we're building a library here, a storage of knowledge for the generations to come. Even if it's hard and painful at times, it's worth it in the end.

I've spent immeasurable time moderating, trying to get questions of schoolkids to the point of being worth being added to the library. I've joined multiple sites on Stack Exchange and have even almost become a moderator, coming fourth with three open positions.

But...

Recently...

Recently, I've tried applying my usual strategy of posting a somewhat tricky question and slapping a max bounty of 500 points on it. It always worked like a charm and was basically free thanks to passive upvote income.

Of course, a bunch of users downvoted my question, closed it, I edited it 10 times, added tons of content, removed even more, added the most complete MCVE in existence, got the question reopened — the usual stuff. It was sad to remove interesting info from the question, but whatever, I know how satisfying the downvoters is done, I'm a veteran here.

And then... no replies. People complaining about my question disappeared the moment there was nothing left to complain about.

No worries! After 2 days, I just slap my 500-point bounty and then bathe in the attention of pros flexing their knowledge, lowly rep farmers trying to get a free bite from upvotes and everyone in between... right?

After 7 days, all I got was:

• A bunch of comments saying I want wrong things because everything not yet implemented is obviously wrong and nobody in the right mind would ever want wrong things.
• A comment from a ChatGPT enjoyer saying it can't be done and that I should discuss the issue with ChatGPT for further details on the impossibility.
• One comment vaguely hinting in the right direction.

ZERO. ANSWERS.

ONE. HUNDRED. VIEWS.

NO. PROS.

NO. FARMERS.

NO-BO-DY.

Nobody has even tried to get a free half-bounty payout from 2 random upvotes. And that's with competition among maybe 2 or 3 bounties of that size and 20 bounties in total.

What's funny is that after spending one more day (on top of the previous two) trying to find the answer myself, I did find it. And any pro who's knowledgeable in that platform, could easily answer my question in like 10 minutes, because the solution is literally coming in the next release in a few months, with preview builds available.

Man, I give up.

There's no point.

This place is dead.

Just look:

It's −94% in 3 years folks, and it isn't getting better. If anything, it's somehow getting worse.

When I zoom in on the recent 4 months, it's still −36%. And with ZERO increase in September. If that's not the sign of death, I don't know what is.

It's been great to be a part of this community. But it's time to move on.

I hope whatever knowledge I've contributed to Stack Overflow is still useful to LLMs and other AIs, or whatever comes next. Humans don't seem that interested anymore, so maybe robots will be. Anybody know where to get decent brain implants?

I've always been a staunch defender of Stack Overflow's approach to moderation. I've joined every argument on social media to defend the right to close, the right to be pedantic, the right to purge any opinions and leave only pure facts.

I knew this approach had costs, but I always laughed in the face of people who were "afraid of toxicity" on Stack Overflow. They just never understood that we're building a library here, a storage of knowledge for the generations to come. Even if it's hard and painful at times, it's worth it in the end.

I've spent immeasurable time moderating, trying to get questions of schoolkids to the point of being worth being added to the library. I've joined multiple sites on Stack Exchange and have even almost become a ♦moderator, coming fourth with three open positions.

But...

Recently...

Recently, I've tried applying my usual strategy of posting a somewhat tricky question and slapping a max bounty of 500 points on it. It always worked like a charm and was basically free thanks to passive upvote income.

Of course, a bunch of users downvoted my question, closed it, I edited it 10 times, added tons of content, removed even more, added the most complete MCVE in existence, got the question reopened — the usual stuff. It was sad to remove interesting info from the question, but whatever, I know how satisfying the downvoters is done, I'm a veteran here.

And then... no replies. People complaining about my question disappeared the moment there was nothing left to complain about.

No worries! After 2 days, I just slap my 500-point bounty and then bathe in the attention of pros flexing their knowledge, lowly rep farmers trying to get a free bite from upvotes and everyone in between... right?

After 7 days, all I got was:

• A bunch of comments saying I want wrong things because everything not yet implemented is obviously wrong and nobody in the right mind would ever want wrong things.
• A comment from a ChatGPT enjoyer saying it can't be done and that I should discuss the issue with ChatGPT for further details on the impossibility.
• One comment vaguely hinting in the right direction.

ZERO. ANSWERS.

ONE. HUNDRED. VIEWS.

NO. PROS.

NO. FARMERS.

NO-BO-DY.

Nobody has even tried to get a free half-bounty payout from 2 random upvotes. And that's with competition among maybe 2 or 3 bounties of that size and 20 bounties in total.

What's funny is that after spending one more day (on top of the previous two) trying to find the answer myself, I did find it. And any pro who's knowledgeable in that platform, could easily answer my question in like 10 minutes, because the solution is literally coming in the next release in a few months, with preview builds available.

Man, I give up.

There's no point.

This place is dead.

Just look:

It's −94% in 3 years folks, and it isn't getting better. If anything, it's somehow getting worse.

When I zoom in on the recent 4 months, it's still −36%. And with ZERO increase in September. If that's not the sign of death, I don't know what is.

It's been great to be a part of this community. But it's time to move on.

I hope whatever knowledge I've contributed to Stack Overflow is still useful to LLMs and other AIs, or whatever comes next. Humans don't seem that interested anymore, so maybe robots will be. Anybody know where to get decent brain implants?

I've always been a staunch defender of StackOverflow's approach to moderation. I've joined every argument on social media to defend the right to close, the right to be a pedantic prick, the right to purge any opinions and leave only pure facts.

I knew this approach had costs, but I always laughed in the face of people who were "afraid of toxicity" on StackOverflow. They just never understood that we're building a library here, a storage of knowledge for the generations to come. Even if it's hard and painful at times, it's worth it in the end.

I've spent countless time moderating, trying to get questions of schoolkids to the point of being worth being added to the library. I've joined multiple sites on StackExchange and have even almost become a ♦, coming 4th with 3 open positions.

Of course, a bunch of users downvoted my question, closed it, I edited it 10 times, added tons of content, removed even more, added the most complete MCVE in existence, got the question reopened — the usual stuff, you know. It was sad to remove interesting info from the question, but whatever, I know how satisfying the downvoters is done, I'm a veteran here.

What's funny is that after spending one more day (on top of the previous 2) trying to find the answer myself, I did find it. And any pro who's knowledgeable in that platform, could easily answer my question in like 10 minutes, because the solution is literally coming in the next release in a few months, with preview builds available.

It's −94% in 3 years guys, and it isn't getting better. If anything, it's somehow getting worse.

I hope whatever knowledge I've contributed to StackOverflow is still useful to LLMs and other AIs, or whatever comes next. Humans don't seem that interested anymore, so maybe robots will be. Anybody knows where to get decent brain implants?

I've always been a staunch defender of Stack Overflow's approach to moderation. I've joined every argument on social media to defend the right to close, the right to be pedantic, the right to purge any opinions and leave only pure facts.

I knew this approach had costs, but I always laughed in the face of people who were "afraid of toxicity" on Stack Overflow. They just never understood that we're building a library here, a storage of knowledge for the generations to come. Even if it's hard and painful at times, it's worth it in the end.

I've spent immeasurable time moderating, trying to get questions of schoolkids to the point of being worth being added to the library. I've joined multiple sites on Stack Exchange and have even almost become a moderator, coming fourth with three open positions.

Of course, a bunch of users downvoted my question, closed it, I edited it 10 times, added tons of content, removed even more, added the most complete MCVE in existence, got the question reopened — the usual stuff. It was sad to remove interesting info from the question, but whatever, I know how satisfying the downvoters is done, I'm a veteran here.

What's funny is that after spending one more day (on top of the previous two) trying to find the answer myself, I did find it. And any pro who's knowledgeable in that platform, could easily answer my question in like 10 minutes, because the solution is literally coming in the next release in a few months, with preview builds available.

It's −94% in 3 years folks, and it isn't getting better. If anything, it's somehow getting worse.

I hope whatever knowledge I've contributed to Stack Overflow is still useful to LLMs and other AIs, or whatever comes next. Humans don't seem that interested anymore, so maybe robots will be. Anybody know where to get decent brain implants?