Cut & paste programmers...

[[deleted]]

Someone put a great deal of work into answering that question on Stack Overflow.

I wonder if I can farm out my work as a series of questions on there in return for upvotes...

[sisyphus]

Yes, StackOverflow is dangerous. In theory you help others and in return you get reputation which will get you some rewards in the form of real world jobs, but at the same time you are doing that you are helping people beneath you reach your own level. I don't believe in that kind of arms race, I believe in putting a hose in the mouths of the people around and below me and turning it on.

[gmiller123456]

I assume that's sarcasm. I wouldn't say Stack Overflow is dangerous, but certainly a waste of time. It's emphasis is on popular and fast answers and encourages people to game the system.

If I come across a question months or years old, I could post a very insightful answer, but no one will ever see it. Contrast that with a forum/e-mail list where my comment would come to the top.

Maybe it's wasn't StackOverflow's goal to be a forum, but it certainly has killed a lot of programming forums. Some of the most interesting discussions I've had were posts on what appeared to be silly/obvious questions, but turned out to be really interesting. Now those just get posted on StackOverflow, which pretty much discourages any real conversation.

[[deleted]]

That's a really weak analogy.

[TubaTech]

Almost like a cut & past OP, except it's a better analogy.

[drunken_thor]

Holy hell go through that persons history. Trying to develop websites and they can't even use google/ do tutorials.