The number of questions on Stack Overflow fell by 78 percent in December 2025 compared to a year earlier. Developers are switching en masse to AI tools in

The number of questions on Stack Overflow fell by 78 percent in December 2025 compared to a year earlier. Developers are switching en masse to AI tools in their IDEs, making the popular developer forum increasingly irrelevant.

  • wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    31·
    3 days ago

    Beyond AI tools in IDEs, the reputation of the site’s attitude towards new question posters definitely doesn’t help. Neither does the site’s pivot towards AI that alienated a bunch of the power users. The reputation issue isn’t new though, and I’m not sure of when the AI pivot started.

    I’m also not sure if it’s a great metric. Personally, anything complicated enough for me to want outside help with is usually so far into the specifics of my work environment that it’s not safe to ask about online. It’d either be too revealing or devolve into the classic “I refuse to answer your question because I refuse to believe your starting scenario and limitations”. Otherwise it tends to be stuff I can sort out by piecing together stuff from blogs, documentation, and tangentially related stackOverflow answers. Not always easy, but easy enough that I’d rather work through it myself instead of asking the internet for help.

    • dev_null@lemmy.ml
      8·
      2 days ago

      And to add on to your experience, I find I’m also too impatient to ask the internet for help. The harder and more annoying an issue is, the more motivated I am to finally solve it, meaning having to wait for someone to potentially answer, maybe the next day if ever, is not very appealing. I’d rather spend hours on the issue and solve it myself, which still means it’s solved faster.

    • Feyd@programming.dev
      717·
      2 days ago

      the reputation of the site’s attitude towards new question posters

      Waaah I copy pasted my homework question and the expert that donates his time for free was mean to me

      • pivot_root@lemmy.world
        11·
        2 days ago

        Yeah, ok. Now explain these:

        • Closed as duplicate. Question is barely related to the supposed duplicate.
        • Ask question about library X. Get answers for library Y, with demeaning remarks about having used library X instead of library Y.
        • Newcomers have a solution. Can’t post it or even comment because minimum reputation requirements.
        • Accepted answer is wrong. The useful advice is in another answer or its comments.
        • Feyd@programming.dev
          56·
          2 days ago

          While I’m sure you can find examples of those, the reality is that mods are right the vast majority of the time. The truth people don’t want to acknowledge is that the strict moderation keeping up the quality of the answers is the reason stack overflow was so popular.

          • [deleted]@piefed.worldEnglish
            8·
            2 days ago

            Was so popular. Past tense.

            It was popular before the current ridiculous moderationlevels. Now people just go there for the older content, since all of the newer stuff gets closed as ‘duplicate’ despite not being a duplicate.

            • Feyd@programming.dev
              49·
              2 days ago

              That’s a ridiculous assertion. The moderation and complaints were the same a decade ago.

      • andioop@programming.devEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        I never even thought of using Stack Overflow to cheat when doing my homework. Still heard of its reputation during college and decided I should never ask a question there (even now after I’ve graduated so it absolutely would not be homework help), lest someone, yes, be mean to me.