StackOverflowReviews 76

These people don't know what they're doing and transparently reflects on them personally. They sloppily write up anything that they believe has minor relevance to their members questions. They focus on points when they claim the site is suppose to have accurate answers to all programming questions, pretending to be knowledgeable when more than half of their solutions don't actually work. I've tested them out myself. If you wanna be an amateur, this is the place to be, otherwise I'd seek actual professional help for your programming advice. Big waste of time and highly recommend you find assistance elsewhere. This site is doing more damage to the programming society than helping it.

I contributed to one of the Stack Exchange (Stack Overflow) communities, mostly by answering questions and commenting frequently. My account was suspended immediately after I challenged someone (high in the ranks) with a provocative question. I asked why I was suspended and was not given an answer. I asked a second time, still no answer. I finally contacted their main office, asking what the policy was because I was never given a warning. A community member (someone that posts regularly and is friendly toward the moderator that banned me) wrote me back to that my suspension was applied correctly, that normally they warn people but they didn't warn me. Their findings were subjective.

I like the Q & A format of the site, I like that it moves fast. I don't like the retaliation and bullying that occurs as a result of the ability to up and down vote and I don't like the way the moderators play into the bullying. I don't like that most questions are answered with opinions even though the site says it prides itself on being opinion-free. I don't like that most of the questions are answered poorly.

Don't trust stackoverflow. Be very careful when you copy and paste code from stackoverflow.

There are so many people on this website who don't deserve their score. They aren't knowledgeable at all.
1. Many posts don't answer the technical issue but they get well ranked which is a nonsense When it is technical it should be easy. Step 1, step 2, step 3. For example, when it comes to programming. Pieces of code can answer any questions.
2. Some contributors are rude and they answer "read the manual", however they get thumbs up. How is it possible?
3. Here is the most important, people who share brilliant ideas and answers are not rewarded. It is not normal to see brilliant answers at the bottom of the page.
4. Some people are arrogant and try to argue rather than being pro and get straight to the point.
5. There are -1 that are given to good questions and good answers. You may see people receiving minus one for no reasons.
6. The moderators are stupid nazis. If the moderation of stackoverflow was efficient, there would not be so much garbage on Stackoverflow.
7. People only copy / paste pieces of official documentation like php.net
8. People paraphrase the official documentation without understanding it.
9. Some people talk philosophy while we expect to see code. So, after reading 4 responses you discover that you learned nothing.
10. Some pieces of code can be dangerous and don't blindly trust this code.

I would love for stack overflow to be this ideal, democratic system, in which people who have questions can ask them, and people who have answers can answer them.

Unfortunately, there are a million little illogical rules that make it a very complicated struggle to "simply" ask or answer questions on this website, as most users will spend a lot of time tediously criticising your questions instead of actually giving answers to it, and also because since you're new, you can't really do anything on the website like comment or vote whenever you feel it would not only help your situation, but also help other users.

From what I understand, it's because of the "points" system that they invented, whose only purpose is to create some sick hierarchy between "good" law-abiding users who spend hours on the website everyday, and "bad" users (the people who just want an answer to their questions. Bad people!).

I'm sorry, but giving "rewards" to people just because they use your website and blocking newcomers is probably the worst strategy in the internet age.

As some have stated, their site is or has become a site for tech snobs.

From the beginning, you are limited in what you can do and if you find a question similar to your own, you are unable to make any comments asking people about your specific problem. So you make your own question and then they claim that you have duplicated the question, when the previous question didn't address your specific issue.

If you ask a question and it isn't formatted perfectly, they will refuse to help you. Just stay away from this site.

I hardly ever do this, but today StackOverflow really just made me so mad. I used to enjoy getting helpful answers to questions, but I don't know when the so called "tech geniuses" decided to use the site and ended up making it so snobby. Here is how to use the site:

USE BIG FANCY WORDS THIS WAY PEOPLE THINK YOU ARE ACTUALLY A CODER.

MAKE SURE YOU ASK QUESTIONS THEY DEEM TO BE GOOD.

LASTLY, MAKE SURE YOU FIND OUT HOW MUCH THEY WANT POSTED.
Some will say the minimum, while others say post everything.

Seriously, they told me I can't "contribute" (in other words ask questions, which is what the site was meant for), because my previous questions apparently weren't good enough. Basically they just insulted my intelligence as someone who is in school learning how to code. HELLO! I am not going to know everything. That's what I was there for.

Also, about 99% of the "help" you will get, is people fixing your grammar and spelling. Didn't know that the site was for English teachers to go in and fix that, instead of REAL coders coming in and helping you with a problem. WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE A COMMUNITY AS CODERS AND THIS SITE DOESN'T REFLECT THAT!

I have been asking and answering questions now for about a year. Recently I asked a question just to get a critical answer. Someone else jumped in and told the guy that he should not be criticizing me as my question was legitimate. Later I got an irrelevant answer. Finally the first guy jumped back on and gave me a downgrade saying that I had not done enough research. How could he tell? I always research as much as I can before asking a question. If research could have given me the answer then why didn't he provide an answer?

A good forum would either not answer the question or ask for more information.

I have seen complaints about stackoverflow.com on other forums.