2mo ago

did user engagement drop significantly in programming forums?

There was a lot of engagement in the communities I participate up until a couple of years ago. People were interested and actively discussing a lot of topics. There were a lot of newbies asking questions and people proposing different ways for tasks.

Is it just me or did it reduce a lot? LLMs? Company forums? Other forums I did not move to (e.g. discord)? Reduced interest? Or is it just subjective?

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The more time passes, the more information can already be found on the web (including forum threads) and the less need there is to post new threads to these kinds of forums.
- generative AI "helps" with this too
  why deal with stackoverflow when you can brainstorm with a chatbot that replies instantly
  
  And doesn't insult you, and gives you an answer far more tailored to your issue.
  
  And to the end user who doesn't know what they're doing, the end result is the same or the AI one will get them "further".
  I say this because if you're following forums, chances are you're following guides, which means you don't understand what it is you're doing. Which is fine, I typically don't either, which is why I have a harder time with Linux.
  But realistically, following the guide of Stackoverflow will hit a hiccup and you will be stuck. Following AI, things might not work and need to be troubleshooted, but it will continue answering questions until the two of you put together something that sort of works.
  Not because of AI, but because the person kept trying. AI only made it so they didn't need to understand.
  
  I find working with AI to help me understand way better.
  Using Linux as an example. If I search for "give me the size of each subdirectory in the current directory" the stack overflow answer will be "just type du -h --max-depth=1" so you copy and paste it and, voila!, it's exactly what you want. Except I have no idea what any of it means.
  However, I ask chatgpt, and it will explain that du means disk usage, -h gives a human readable form, and --max-depth=1 will only go down 1 level, without showing all of the subdirectories.
  So now I've learned something.
  Additionally, with coding, it's a lot like rubber duck debugging for me. Just formulating my question will often lead to an answer, or trying to explain what went wrong with the AI solution helps me get to the proper answer.
  
  AI does give more reasoning than a forum might, that's true.

53 comments