Stack Overflow Blog
stackoverflow.blog · Company blog · on HN since 2008
Stack Overflow's company blog covers developer surveys, language trends, community policy, engineering practice, and the company's own infrastructure.
What HN saysHN links it for language popularity data, posts on the company's servers and datacenter exit, and technical write-ups like the one on number inputs.
1.1KHN people shared it
416linked it in comments
1.4Kstories submitted
34Kstory points
3 months agolast shared
2008people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1The Incredible Growth of Python18 people · 56 points · first shared 2017 · 2 comments on HN
- 2Helping a Million Developers Exit Vim14 people · 927 points · first shared 2017 · 473 comments on HN
- 3Developers who use spaces make more money than those who use tabs12 people · 1.1K points · first shared 2017 · 663 comments on HN
- 4Stack Overflow Creative Commons Data Dump12 people · 66 points · first shared 2009 · 14 comments on HN
- 5Stack Overflow Isn’t Very Welcoming – It’s Time for That to Change11 people · 561 points · first shared 2018 · 695 comments on HN
- 6Generative AI Is Not Going to Build Your Engineering Team for You11 people · 30 points · first shared 2024 · 3 comments on HN
- 7What Was Stack Overflow Built With?9 people · 22 points · first shared 2008 · 22 comments on HN
- 8My Most Embarrassing Mistakes as a Programmer (So Far)9 people · 21 points · first shared 2019 · 4 comments on HN
- 9Open source has a funding problem9 people · 11 points · first shared 2021 · 1 comments on HN
- 10Attribution required9 people · first shared 2009
- 11We still believe in private offices (2015)8 people · 226 points · first shared 2017 · 277 comments on HN
- 12Gorilla vs. Shark = Python v. Perl8 people · 2 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 13Podcasts8 people · first shared 2010
- 14Why We Still Believe in Working Remotely7 people · 351 points · first shared 2013 · 111 comments on HN
- 15Why We Still Believe in Private Offices7 people · 222 points · first shared 2015 · 73 comments on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
DarkContinent · 2026-08-11
I was going off this for popularity: https://stackoverflow.blog/2023/01/26/comparing-tag-trends-with-our-mo…
bachmeier · 2026-01-07
https://stackoverflow.blog/2012/08/21/stack-exchange-machine-learning-…
They were on it in 2012! And no, it didn't help. The site's value was in providing users with answers to their questions, but that was never on the radar of the folks running SO. I guess they just assumed the free labor of the people that built the place would continue forever.
Edit: I even told them at the time that this was not the right way to proceed. They had no reason to close questions or even review them. All they needed was a holding pen where first-time questioners posted questions, and they needed to be promoted by users viewing them as worthy of an answer.
Guess what. They deleted my comment.
robocat · 2026-01-04
Recently they've chucked out their own servers:
https://stackoverflow.blog/2025/12/24/the-great-unracking-saying-goodb…
Twirrim · 2025-07-28
> For example Stack Overflow used to handle all their traffic from 9 on-prem servers (not sure if this is still the case). Millions of daily users. Power consumption and hardware cost is completely insignificant in this case.
They just finished their migration to the cloud, unracked their servers a few weeks ago https://stackoverflow.blog/2025/07/16/the-great-unracking-saying-goodb…
Zarel · 2025-06-17
<input type="number"> is famously really flawed and not worth using even if what you want is semantically a number and not just numeric:
https://stackoverflow.blog/2022/12/26/why-the-number-input-is-the-wors…
Tables have a whole bunch of flaws, like not letting you turn an entire row or cell into a link. (Some things are semantically tabular data!)
<button disabled> doesn't trigger various DOM events, forcing you to use <button aria-disabled="true"> if you need them.
These are the ones that come to mind immediately. I wouldn't be surprised if there are others.
sph · 2025-05-28
From a quick search:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-writing-by-hand-is-bett…
https://stackoverflow.blog/2022/11/23/why-writing-by-hand-is-still-the…
Writing by hand definitely is better for a squirrel brain like me. And searching is overrated, most note-taking is write-only and tends to accumulate without anyone ever reading it back. So optimize for memory retention so you can later form better mental associations with the material, rather than how searchable on a computer it is. Notes on a PC are inert, what you want is to integrate their contents into your brain so you can actually do something with it.
jmyeet · 2025-05-10
That's like asking the foxes how the farmer should manage his chickens. Kagi is a (wannabe) competitor. Likewise, YC's interest here is in making money by having viable startups and having them acquired.
I also don't think crawling the Web is the hard part. It's extraordinarily easy to do it badly [1] but what's the solution here? To have a bunch of wannabe search engines crawl Google's index instead?
I've thought about this and I wonder if trying to replicate a general purpose search engine here is the right approach or not. Might it not be easier to target a particular vertical, at least to start with? I refuse to believe Google cannot be bested in every single vertical or that the scale of the job can't be segmented to some degree.
[1]: https://stackoverflow.blog/2009/06/16/the-perfect-web-spider-storm/
rererereferred · 2024-09-07
I'd like a tool that marks stale comments so I can delete them. If the comment is duplicating what the code does get rid of the comment. Comments that explain "why" the code does something might not need updating that often, but could need removal when the associated code is removed, for example when a library fixes something and you don't need your workaround anymore. Here's some more cases: https://stackoverflow.blog/2021/12/23/best-practices-for-writing-code-… If the tool could automatically add comments for #5, explain unidiomatic code, and #9, mark incomplete implementations, that would be great.
n4r9 · 2024-06-14
This article is little more than a bunch of quotations from the linked article, which is worth reading instead: https://stackoverflow.blog/2024/06/10/generative-ai-is-not-going-to-bu… .
It's a compelling read for engineers, but I suspect it's not the kind of thing that managers will take note of.
logifail · 2024-02-05
Appreciate this may not be what the HN audience wants to hear, but there is evidence that writing things down helps you remember information better than typing things out on a computer.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2414241-writing-things-down-may-h…
https://stackoverflow.blog/2022/11/23/why-writing-by-hand-is-still-the…
paulmd · 2023-07-27
Yeah, the CEO nailed the problem 5 years ago and tried to fix it. The community was having absolutely none of it - meta overflow more or less had a collective “are we so wrong? no, it’s the questionmakers who are wrong…” and then went right back to it.
https://stackoverflow.blog/2018/04/26/stack-overflow-isnt-very-welcomi…
What do you do with the fact that your core contributors are toxic manchildren who love the ability to push buttons at people for daring to ask a question? Build something new where they’re not the core contributors.
flat-pluto · 2023-07-10
I'd also consider myself to be a direct communicator and always think twice when reviewing someone's PR / doing code review. My team is completely remote and things can get awkward at times. Often, it may come off as unnecessarily harsh or may make it seem like I'm telling them what to do. Like it or not, the tone of the review can greatly influence the morale of the team.
I found this[1] to be a good resource. Another thing that has helped me is adding a prefix to my review. Classifying it as: suggestion, nitpick, props, etc. More about this here[2].
[1] - https://stackoverflow.blog/2019/09/30/how-to-make-good-code-reviews-be…
[2] - https://emmer.dev/blog/code-review-comment-prefixes/
LordDragonfang · 2023-03-09
>You don't embrace SO overlords though
I mean, don't we? The number of times I've heard SWE humorously defined as "people who copy and paste from Stackoverflow"...
(My favorite: https://stackoverflow.blog/2021/03/31/the-key-copy-paste/)
legerdemain · 2023-02-14
"Most-loved" has definitely been measured. It's a direct finding from StackOverflow's developer survey.
https://stackoverflow.blog/2020/06/05/why-the-developers-who-use-rust-…
FlyingSnake · 2023-02-06
The allure of our industry to mime FAANG leaders might be one of the reasons we're at this stage. Most products could be safely run on simpler setups.
I suspect that VendorOps and complex tools like kubernetes are favored by complexity merchants which have arisen in the past decade. It looks great on resume and gives tech leaders a false sense of achievement.
Meanwhile Stackoverflow, which is arguably more important than most startups, is chugging along on dedicated machines.
1: https://stackoverflow.blog/2016/02/17/stack-overflow-the-architecture-…
topologie · 2023-01-13
It's freaking awesome is what it is.
Seriously, one of the most fascinating games ever.
I'd recommend checking the following articles to get a good overview of the whole thing:
- https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/the-brilliance-of-dwarf-fo…
- https://stackoverflow.blog/2021/12/31/700000-lines-of-code-20-years-an…
Zababa · 2021-10-23
> Is that a high-quality article? It feels like yet another clueless hype with arguments stretched to make a point.
Honestly, most articles on the stackoverflow blog feel like that. They are usually shallow. See for example the recent articles about design patterns https://stackoverflow.blog/2021/10/13/why-solve-a-problem-twice-design… and REST APIs https://stackoverflow.blog/2020/03/02/best-practices-for-rest-api-desi…
franciscop · 2021-09-29
Yes it is, IIRC I've given bounties to answers from long ago just to donate points to an answer that was really good. In fact it's in part exactly for this reason, since you can pick as one of the official reasons:
"Reward existing answer. One or more of the answers is exemplary and worthy of an additional bounty." - https://stackoverflow.blog/2011/09/23/bounty-reasons-and-post-notices/
lioeters · 2021-09-21
Well, it was (kind of) a joke about "sane and reasonable" because everyone seems to have their favorite reasons for preferring one way or another.
I agree about it being aesthetically pleasing. For me it's the easiest spacing to read and scan code horizontally and diagonally.
And apparently:
> using spaces instead of tabs is associated with as high a salary difference as an extra 2.4 years of experience.
https://stackoverflow.blog/2017/06/15/developers-use-spaces-make-money…
papito · 2021-06-02
Recent discussion about their tech stack:
https://stackoverflow.blog/2021/03/30/roberta-arcoverde-stack-overflow…
Summary: simple as possible, maintainable, no micro-service hell - just a bunch of boxes serving with the cache and highly optimized SQL queries. Know your storage engine.
This is yet another example that not getting bogged down in cargo cults, micro-services, and instead solving problems you have will result in a smaller, more agile team, leaner infrastructure bill and burn rate, and a higher chance of a successful exit.
NobodyNada · 2020-01-14
I think it’s worth mentioning that these CMs have been on staff for almost 10 years and users for even longer than that [1] (Shog9’s user ID is only three digits). They have an impeccable track record of listening to the community and making very good decisions, and as a result they have earned a ton of respect and trust from the community. There should have been a ”thank you/farewell/tribute“ blog post celebrating their legacy.
In light of all the recent turmoil, they were among the very few SO employees that anyone still trusts, which is what makes their firing such a big deal and yet another indicator of the culture shift within the company.
[1]: https://stackoverflow.blog/2011/03/25/welcome-valued-associate-josh-he…
tsegratis · 2019-10-15
Linking this partly because I just realized every snippet on stackoverflow is effectively gpl
It requires hyperlinking each of stackoverflow, the question page, the authors, AND those links are not to be nofollow
https://stackoverflow.blog/2009/06/25/attribution-required/
Also:
""Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under cc by-sa 4.0 with attribution required.""
cc by-sa 4.0 is viral/copyleft, and gpl compatible, see:
https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/ShareAlike_compatibility:_GPLv3
SyneRyder · 2019-10-07
It looks like Jeff Atwood left in 2012 to create Discourse [1], and Joel Spolsky recently stepped down as CEO [2].
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2012/02/07/jeff-atwood-bids-adieu-to-stack-exch…
[2] https://stackoverflow.blog/2019/09/24/announcing-stack-overflows-new-c…
fernandotakai · 2019-10-01
i follow stackoverflow's definition https://stackoverflow.blog/2017/02/08/means-remote-first-company/
but i recently read circleci's blogpost on remote first, and it's really good too https://circleci.com/blog/what-almost-failing-the-gre-taught-me-about-…
godelmachine · 2019-09-14
Mandatory follow up reading -
https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/9134/jon-skeet-facts
https://stackoverflow.blog/2018/01/15/thanks-million-jon-skeet/
greymeister · 2019-03-28
Anyone else remember the "Summer of Love"? [1]
I had stopped attempting to answer or ask anything on the site due to the behavior I observed. It was pure gamesmanship for people trying to rack up their SO score and then summarily abuse it with enforcement of opaque, draconian rules. My favorite was when a question would be marked as a duplicate incorrectly, so what was the takeaway? That solution was barred from discussion on the site?
Since then I simply look at SO when it happens to come up in a search. I'm not ever logged into the site anymore. If I want to describe how I fixed something, I do it in my own space, and only reference answer when linking to SO.
1. https://stackoverflow.blog/2012/07/20/kicking-off-the-summer-of-love/
brownbat · 2018-12-19
Classic and important question. By some rights, stack overflow is a site designed to help people escape vim, and fills time between users getting trapped with off topic conversations about programming:
https://stackoverflow.blog/2017/05/23/stack-overflow-helping-one-milli…
Glad it wasn't the answer in your case, of course. :)
ryanianian · 2018-07-03
Cheaper rent is definitely the driving factor in cities like NYC and SFO. But I think small private offices like those at Stack Overflow [1] don't really eat up that much more floorspace (maybe 1.5x-2x but then you need far fewer small conf rooms).
[1]: https://stackoverflow.blog/2015/01/16/why-we-still-believe-in-private-…
Saying "toughen up and use headphones" is such a dismissive response to noise that employers use. I'm extremely sensitive to noise distractions, and music is, for me, just as bad as coworker chatter. Even white-noise apps make me feel like I'm getting barraged with sound. I want "library quiet." It's amazing that "open office" workplaces don't generally have a policy to keep the space as quiet as possible so people can get real work done.
sideshowb · 2017-12-28
Personally I get dissatisfied when over zealous mods fail to follow stack overflow's own guidelines on subjective questions. It would be a better site if, before closing a question as subjective, a user had to scroll down this and click "agree":
https://stackoverflow.blog/2010/09/29/good-subjective-bad-subjective/
pricechild · 2017-10-05
They followed up on that question with another blog post: https://stackoverflow.blog/2017/09/14/python-growing-quickly/