Timeline for What’s on your mind?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
22 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 16 at 4:47 | comment | added | Slate StaffMod | @NoDataDumpNoContribution Good framing imo. I'll put a pin in this and come back to it soon enough | |
| Jan 15 at 23:58 | comment | added | NoDataDumpNoContribution | @Slate yeah, sounds like everyone is trying it but not everyone is achieving it. There might be different definitions of what best really means and it might depend on the compromises that must be taken on the way. Maybe it's worthwhile to discuss where and when SO lost a bit its advantage. I mean, is the overall quality and experience of SO still the best and if not, why not? I guess that's what you are asking for here. | |
| Jan 15 at 23:44 | comment | added | Slate StaffMod | @NoDataDumpNoContribution Tbh, it's a close enough approximation to the truth for working purposes. There are obviously cases where it's wrong but they're situational, hard to produce on purpose, and ... really, let's be honest. Success with a service of 2nd-tier quality would be a strange goal to adopt. Really, we're going to want to be the best service we can be for the future. It's hard to imagine choosing to do otherwise. | |
| Jan 15 at 23:23 | comment | added | NoDataDumpNoContribution | .. I believe that people aren't only looking for glitter and that quality will always prevail in the end. Given multiple services for the same topic, the one with the highest quality of its service will survive. People will always prefer it. Might not be true, but that's what I believe. | |
| Jan 15 at 23:21 | comment | added | NoDataDumpNoContribution | @Slate My recollection of 2014 may not be faithful, I remember a flood of questions, kind of like a new one every second, and the general notion that more curation effort is needed but also that there is an army of curators available and that every decent question has a chance to an answer, for visitors that SO is the place to go, the only place with high quality knowledge. And it was kind of true I think. You could indeed get your questions answered, I think. I understand that the times have changed that SO might not be seen as the cool place to be now and that alone makes a difference but.. | |
| Jan 15 at 22:51 | comment | added | Slate StaffMod | But honestly? I'm not sure impressions and reality were in agreement in 2014. Perhaps the reason those rumblings began at that point was because Stack Overflow was undergoing its first inflection point in activity, after an "easy" five years. | |
| Jan 15 at 22:48 | comment | added | Slate StaffMod | @NoDataDumpNoContribution It's an interesting q but I think I'd turn it around in two questions: What did people believe about Stack Overflow in 2014? How does it compare to the reality of Stack Overflow in 2014? Importantly, were they in agreement? Because if the answer to that is "no," then the lesson from that time is probably not useful to us: the most we can say is that when one's impressions of reality diverge from reality itself, cynicism is the eventual result. But if the answer is "yes," then we can proceed to ask what worked. | |
| Dec 23, 2024 at 21:22 | history | edited | starballMod | CC BY-SA 4.0 | added 394 characters in body |
| Dec 23, 2024 at 21:17 | history | edited | starballMod | CC BY-SA 4.0 | added 394 characters in body |
| Dec 23, 2024 at 21:10 | history | edited | starballMod | CC BY-SA 4.0 | added 394 characters in body |
| Dec 23, 2024 at 20:55 | comment | added | V2Blast StaffMod | This is a great articulation of the problem(s). At least some of these are solvable, if the company and the community have the will and ability to make them happen. | |
| Dec 23, 2024 at 20:55 | history | edited | V2BlastStaffMod | CC BY-SA 4.0 | fixed spelling |
| Dec 14, 2024 at 16:00 | comment | added | NoDataDumpNoContribution | @Slate "..the pipeline is simply so leaky that people just don't come out the other side too often." First such worries I remember are from around 2018, then under the "new user attrition" topic. I think Tim Post brought it forward then. There was a discussion about welcome-ness and friendly comments. What makes me wonder is that in the years before, say 2014, when askers flogged to SO in the hundred thousands per month, and the experience wasn't any better, why did they keep in doing it? Was it only because there was no alternative? | |
| Dec 14, 2024 at 0:39 | history | edited | starballMod | CC BY-SA 4.0 | added 275 characters in body |
| Dec 12, 2024 at 22:14 | comment | added | Slate StaffMod | @AndrasDeak It's a fair point, but it's only useful to the extent it helps us think about and plan for the future. No matter why and how trust was lost, we still need to think about what comes next. It's context - very important context - but cannot get in the way of thinking and planning. Inform: yes. Aid: yes. Block: no. | |
| Dec 12, 2024 at 22:09 | comment | added | Andras Deak -- Слава Україні | @Slate to state the obvious: it's only hard because the company has made it hard for itself, through blatantly abusing the community's trust again and again and again. There have been many cases of things looking hopeful, with maybe the leadership now effecting positive change, only to end up being burnt. Again. And again. We're way past "fool me twice", and as you know trust is generally a non-renewable resource. | |
| Dec 12, 2024 at 20:10 | comment | added | Slate StaffMod | But it's for that ^ reason that I think, if there's anything that rattles me in your answer, it's this: "I no longer worry that that trend will continue downward. I have silently and unconsciously come to expect it to." And it's because I know you're far and away not alone in that. So the work of creating a reason to believe in where we're going will be hard. Dunno. Lot to chew on here. | |
| Dec 12, 2024 at 20:07 | comment | added | Slate StaffMod | "I'm worried that new people will see all the shouty, angry, or just generally annoyed voices on meta and think they need to be like that to fit in." - this is a fun problem. I say fun, because I enjoy community management, and that makes things like this fun somehow. But honestly? I tend to think it's a problem that sorts itself out, once a vision is presented that makes people hopeful or excited for the future. The natural enemy of communal angst is a reason to believe in where we're going. But it may take some purposeful work, too. | |
| Dec 12, 2024 at 20:02 | comment | added | Slate StaffMod | "I have a vague but strong feeling that it's unnecessarily difficult for a new person who wants to help out to discover and learn how. That worries me." - this is an interesting point, particularly in light of how you crossed that threshold. It seems like crossing the threshold from "new here" to "serious contributor" is quite a labor of love for a lot of people. Lots to learn, lots of friction to push through. I'd honestly say that worries me, too. I wonder if it's a general experience, and the pipeline is simply so leaky that people just don't come out the other side too often. | |
| Dec 12, 2024 at 2:01 | history | edited | starballMod | CC BY-SA 4.0 | added 739 characters in body |
| Dec 11, 2024 at 17:18 | history | edited | starballMod | CC BY-SA 4.0 | added 36 characters in body |
| Dec 11, 2024 at 16:58 | history | answered | starballMod | CC BY-SA 4.0 |