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did user engagement drop significantly in programming forums? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 weeks ago by GravitySpoiled@lemmy.ml to c/programming@programming.dev

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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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[–] EatATaco@lemm.ee 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

[–] averyminya 3 points 2 weeks ago

AI does give more reasoning than a forum might, that's true.