StackOverflow is a machine designed to do one thing: make it so that, for any given programming question, you will get a search engine hit on their site and find a good answer quickly. And see some ads. That’s really it. Everything it does is geared toward that, and it does it quite well. I have some SO points. If you think points exist to prove merit, that’s bad. But if you think points exist to show “this person makes the kind of content that brings programmers to our site and makes them happy”, it’s good. The latter is their intent.

There were too many repeating questions/themes, poorly worded, too many “homework” questions, and extremely few meaningful, thought provoking questions. I’ve always said that I answer stackoverflow questions not because I know all the answers, but because I know a little more about the subject than the person asking. And those seemed to give way (in terms of percentage) to “null pointer exception”, “how to fix this [40 lines pasted] code” and “Is it better to have X than Y [in a context that only I know and I’m not telling you]”. (And here’s why I don’t agree that “it’s too hard to provide an answer on time”. If it’s not one of the “obvious” questions, you have plenty of time to provide an answer).