The Fall of Stack Overflow

BenLloydPearson@programming.dev to Programming@programming.dev – 647 points –

Stack Overflow has seen a substantial decline in traffic over the last year that appears to be accelerating. https://observablehq.com/@ayhanfuat/the-fall-of-stack-overflow

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Yeah but will people still care about contributing that information if they're not going to be compensated for it in any way? Like people get something out of contributing to stack overflow, even if it's just recognition. This is gone with ChatGPT.

Isn't that the FOSS model since ever?

With the FOSS model you get credited at least, so you are getting something out of it even if it's not monetary. With ChatGPT you don't even get that. You're feeding an AI that's being monetized by someone else, what possible incentive could people have to contribute anymore?

Not everyone is motivated by money and recognition, are you aware of that? Since humans were humans, cooperation has been an integral part of society and still is today.

Some people will always try to monetize everything, but still, people continue to develop FOSS.

ChatGPT will be no different in that regard.

When a single entity reaps all of the rewards of that cooperation, people are much less motivated to do that.

Some people are politically motivated, there are tons of reasons, but it's a two way interaction in all of these cases.