Today, Stack overflow has almost as few questions asked per month, as when it launched back in 2009. A recap of its slow, then rapid, downfall.

Four months ago, we asked Are LLMs making Stack Overflow irrelevant? Data at the time suggested that the answer is likely “yes:”

  • TomMasz@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    19 days ago

    Ever ask a question on SO? I tell my students to search there but never, ever ask a question. The unmitigated hostility is not what new developers need or deserve. ChatGPT won’t humiliate you for asking a question that someone else has already asked.

    • Domi@lemmy.secnd.meEnglish
      1·
      18 days ago

      ChatGPT won’t humiliate you for asking a question that someone else has already asked.

      I don’t know, being told what a good question that was and what a good boy I am everytime I ask a stupid question feels pretty humiliating.

      (Still better than SO)

      • stephen01king@lemmy.zipEnglish
        0·
        17 days ago

        That’s a pretty recent development, isn’t it? I remember ChatGPT being a lot more matter of factly earlier on.

        • Domi@lemmy.secnd.meEnglish
          1·
          17 days ago

          Yep, old ChatGPT was much more blunt and factual.

          Don’t really like the recent trend of every LLM talking to me like I’m in kindergarten.

    • OhNoMoreLemmy@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      19 days ago

      If LLMs just copied stack overflow they’d respond to every question with “Closed as duplicate. Question already answered.”

      • lurch (he/him)@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        0·
        19 days ago

        and link a slightly similar question, which’s answers can’t be used in your case, because of the small difference. also, it’s outdated since four years.

  • ramble81@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    19 days ago

    So here’s what I don’t get. LLMs were trained on data from places like SO. SO starts losing users ,and thus content. Content that LLMs ingest to stay relevant.

    So where will LLMs get their content after a certain point? Especially for new things that may come out or unique situations. It’s not like it’ll scrape the answer from a web page if people are just asking LLMs.

    • db0@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      19 days ago

      The need for the service that SO provided won’t go away. Eventually people will migrate to new places to discuss. LLM creators will either constantly scrape those as well, forcing them to implement more and more countermeasures and GenAI-poison, or the services themselves will enshittify and sell our content (i.e. the commons) to LLM-creators.