The Stack Overflow Culture Wars

March 3, 2019

If you’ve written code, chances are you’ve used Stack Overflow before. Stack Overflow is a question-and-answer site where anybody can ask or answer questions about programming. A lot of programming involves Googling error messages, clicking a Stack Overflow link, and seeing how other people solved similar problems before. It’s one of the most useful resources for everybody from students to hobbyists to professional engineers.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://happycoding.io/blog/stack-overflow-culture-wars

I just got my rude awakening ib StackOverflow today.
I asked whether the newish NVidia Deep Learning Super Sampling V3 (DLSS 3) algorithm might be helpful to the Deep Learning used in Stable Diffusion. I also asked why Deep Learning uses CUDA cores instead of Tensor cores and whether DL could use both for further speed improvement. My post was closed as not being about software which is baloney. Some claimed you have to only ask about coding issues with code examples. Some said you can’t ask about hardware when there are many tech questions solely about hardware. With upvotes and a lot of helpful comments to them. I ask a question about whether the DL software can use either type of hardware and I get shut down.
If I ask a question that if cut and pasted into google would give me great answer someone should abuse me. I see those questions on SO and think they are silly. I ask a legitimate question and get flack.

Is reddit better? Where is a good tech forum, I can simply ask a straightforward tech question? Not all software questions require a reproducible test cast.

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I’d probably look for a community like a Discord or forum that’s specific to some of the things you’re talking about. Folks are generally more open to conversation in places like that, whereas Stack Overflow is pretty strict about their format. I’m not really into machine learning myself so I don’t know off the top of my head, but I’m sure there’s a Discord of forum out there!

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