Interesting article: [Wayback/Archive] Stack Overflow’s forum is dead thanks to AI, but the company’s still kicking… thanks to AI – Sherwood News. with this important quote: The complex…
In a smaller or larger degree, any internet environment where you can ask questions has the same problem, attrition. It looks like this:
[First thread] Alice: “How do I shot web?” Bob: “You just HDGLKSKTR the DLASFD in the SKSTGA”. Alice: “Thanks, Bob. What’s HDGLKSKTR?” Charlie: “Please do not ask separated questions in the comments. Open another thread to do it.”
[Second thread] Alice: “What’s HDGLKSKTR? I need it to shot web.” Dan: “It’s the FGDJ of the DSKFD. You config it through SFDH.”
[Third thread] Alice: “Whats FGDJ?” Ed: “why do you want to know it? lol lmao.” Alice: “I asked how to shot web. Then someone told me I need to HDGLKSKTR the DLASFD in the SKSTGA. Then I asked what’s HDGLKSKTR. They told me it’s the FGDJ of the DSKFD, configured through SFDH. I don’t know any of those acronyms, I just want to shot web.” [Radio silence]
[Fourth thread] Alice: “Whats FGDJ? I need it to shot web.” Fran: “You don’t need FGDJ to shot web lol lmao.” Gerald: “Such basic question lol lmao. Use the search.” ***⟨blink⟩Jean Niteur⟨/blink⟩*** ==[MOD]==: “Your question was removed as duplicate.”
Then Alice spends two days searching the site for “FGDJ”. No other thread about the topic pops up, except her own. But in the meantime, she notices someone else answered the second thread.
[Second thread, again] Fran: “Actually it’s «shoot», not «shot».” Alice: “OK. And what’s HDGLKSKTR? I need it to «shoot» web.” [Radio silence]
[Fifth thread] Alice: "Why is this site so fucking shitty? I’ve been trying to shoot web for three days, some people tried to help me (thank you, Bob and Dan!), but when asking follow-up questions it’s like everyone went out of their way to waste my time without helping me. Gerald: “entitled lol lmao X-D” Hector: “toxic” ***⟨blink⟩Jean Niteur⟨/blink⟩*** ==[MOD]==: “Your question was removed as not-a-question. Additionally, you’ve been banned for 3d for incivility. Make sure you read the FAQ, the Code of Conduct, Posting Guidelines and Commenting Guidelines.”
It’s just awful moderation. There is a certain kind of moderator who feels that they need to take action all the time to justify their title, even when the best course of action is to do nothing.
You need to be a calm steady person to do nothing and feel fine with it.
Yup, pretty much. It’s that dumb enforcement of the rules for the sake of the rules, instead of what they were made for: to ensure the community thrives. In the meantime they turn a blind eye to behaviour that technically doesn’t violate rules, but harms the community — it’s Charlie mini-modding, Ed showing disdain with “lol” and “lmao”, Fran adding noise with that “ackshyually” without addressing the matter at hand…
In Stack Overflow, large subreddits, and some old-fashioned BBC forums all this shit compounds, until the only users “surviving” there sound like pieces of shit.
I wish English had “placeholder names” like Portuguese (Fulano, Beltrano, Sicrano — they work like a charm for situations like this, where you want to represent some random nobodies).
I’m aware of that list. I mean names used exclusively as placeholders. Like “thingamajig” or “ACME” but for people.
Because, for example. Let’s say I told you a story about “Alice”. Without “Bob”, “Charlie” etc. to offer you context, it’s ambiguous if I’m talking about a real person called Alice, or if it’s just a placeholder name. The same wouldn’t happen with PT “Fulano” — because it isn’t a personal name like Alice, it’s used exclusively as a placeholder.
Some also use John Doe, I guess. Or John Smith. But the same issue. (Or perhaps I’m just babbling about language as usual, sorry.)
In a smaller or larger degree, any internet environment where you can ask questions has the same problem, attrition. It looks like this:
[First thread]Alice: “How do I shot web?”
Bob: “You just HDGLKSKTR the DLASFD in the SKSTGA”.
Alice: “Thanks, Bob. What’s HDGLKSKTR?”
Charlie: “Please do not ask separated questions in the comments. Open another thread to do it.”
[Second thread]Alice: “What’s HDGLKSKTR? I need it to shot web.”
Dan: “It’s the FGDJ of the DSKFD. You config it through SFDH.”
[Third thread]Alice: “Whats FGDJ?”
Ed: “why do you want to know it? lol lmao.”
Alice: “I asked how to shot web. Then someone told me I need to HDGLKSKTR the DLASFD in the SKSTGA. Then I asked what’s HDGLKSKTR. They told me it’s the FGDJ of the DSKFD, configured through SFDH. I don’t know any of those acronyms, I just want to shot web.”
[Radio silence][Fourth thread]Alice: “Whats FGDJ? I need it to shot web.”
Fran: “You don’t need FGDJ to shot web lol lmao.”
Gerald: “Such basic question lol lmao. Use the search.”
***⟨blink⟩Jean Niteur⟨/blink⟩*** ==[MOD]==: “Your question was removed as duplicate.”
Then Alice spends two days searching the site for “FGDJ”. No other thread about the topic pops up, except her own. But in the meantime, she notices someone else answered the second thread.
[Second thread, again]Fran: “Actually it’s «shoot», not «shot».”
Alice: “OK. And what’s HDGLKSKTR? I need it to «shoot» web.”
[Radio silence][Fifth thread]Alice: "Why is this site so fucking shitty? I’ve been trying to shoot web for three days, some people tried to help me (thank you, Bob and Dan!), but when asking follow-up questions it’s like everyone went out of their way to waste my time without helping me.
Gerald: “entitled lol lmao X-D”
Hector: “toxic”
***⟨blink⟩Jean Niteur⟨/blink⟩*** ==[MOD]==: “Your question was removed as not-a-question. Additionally, you’ve been banned for 3d for incivility. Make sure you read the FAQ, the Code of Conduct, Posting Guidelines and Commenting Guidelines.”
It’s just awful moderation. There is a certain kind of moderator who feels that they need to take action all the time to justify their title, even when the best course of action is to do nothing.
You need to be a calm steady person to do nothing and feel fine with it.
Yup, pretty much. It’s that dumb enforcement of the rules for the sake of the rules, instead of what they were made for: to ensure the community thrives. In the meantime they turn a blind eye to behaviour that technically doesn’t violate rules, but harms the community — it’s Charlie mini-modding, Ed showing disdain with “lol” and “lmao”, Fran adding noise with that “ackshyually” without addressing the matter at hand…
In Stack Overflow, large subreddits, and some old-fashioned BBC forums all this shit compounds, until the only users “surviving” there sound like pieces of shit.
I love the fact that even for ranting about internet forums you chose alice and bob for the example😭.
I wish English had “placeholder names” like Portuguese (Fulano, Beltrano, Sicrano — they work like a charm for situations like this, where you want to represent some random nobodies).
It’s not used much outside computer science, but there is a list; Alice and Bob are both on it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_and_Bob
Scroll down for the full cast of names
I’m aware of that list. I mean names used exclusively as placeholders. Like “thingamajig” or “ACME” but for people.
Because, for example. Let’s say I told you a story about “Alice”. Without “Bob”, “Charlie” etc. to offer you context, it’s ambiguous if I’m talking about a real person called Alice, or if it’s just a placeholder name. The same wouldn’t happen with PT “Fulano” — because it isn’t a personal name like Alice, it’s used exclusively as a placeholder.
Some also use John Doe, I guess. Or John Smith. But the same issue. (Or perhaps I’m just babbling about language as usual, sorry.)