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{{Short description|Question-and-answer website for computer programmers}}
{{for
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox website
| name = Stack Exchange, Inc.
| logo = {{Dark mode switch|[[File:Stack Overflow DarkMode Logo.svg|250px]]|[[File:Stack Overflow logo.svg|250px]]|logo}}
| screenshot = StackOverflow.com Top Questions Page Screenshot.png
| caption = Screenshot in June 2022
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}}
'''Stack Overflow''' is a [[Question-and-answer site|question-and-answer website]] for [[computer programmers]].
|title = Stack Exchange API
|url = https://stackexchange.com/legal/terms-of-service
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|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110426013228/https://stackexchange.com/legal/terms-of-service
|url-status = live
}}</ref>
▲}}</ref> It features questions and answers on certain [[computer programming]] topics.<ref>{{cite web
|title = Secrets of social site success
|url = http://www.sdtimes.com/SHORT_TAKES_APRIL_15_2009/About_SHORTTAKES/33403
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|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190504031536/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWHfY_lvKIQ
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{{As of|
== History ==
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=== Security breach ===
In early May 2019, an update was deployed to Stack Overflow's development version. It contained a bug which allowed an attacker to grant themselves privileges in accessing the production version of the site. Stack Overflow published on their blog that approximately 184 public network users were affected by this breach, which "could have returned IP address, names, or emails".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/stack-overflow-says-hackers-breached-production-systems/|title=Stack Overflow says hackers breached production systems|last=Cimpanu|first=Catalin|website=ZDNet|language=en|access-date=2019-06-22|archive-date=7 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207032048/https://www.zdnet.com/article/stack-overflow-says-hackers-breached-production-systems/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Ferguson |first=Mary |date=2019-05-17 |title=Update to Security Incident [May 17, 2019] |url=https://stackoverflow.blog/2019/05/17/update-to-security-incident-may-17-2019/ |access-date=2022-06-11 |website=Stack Overflow Blog |language=en-US |archive-date=19 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519214227/https://stackoverflow.blog/2019/05/17/update-to-security-incident-may-17-2019/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
=== 2023 controversy over AI-generated content and moderation strike ===
{{excerpt|Stack Exchange|
== Content ==
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{{As of|2012|8}}, 443,000 of the 1.3 million registered users had answered at least one question, and of those, approximately 6,000 (0.46% of the total user count) had earned a reputation score greater than 5000.<ref name="Bosu et al.">{{cite web|last=Bosu|first=Amiangshu|title=Building Reputation in StackOverflow: An Empirical Investigation|url=https://amiangshu.com/papers/msr-challenge-preprint-bosu.pdf|publisher=Department of Computer Science, The University of Alabama|author2=Christopher S. Corley|author3=Dustin Heaton|author4=Debarshi Chatterji|author5=Jeffrey C. Carver|author6=Nicholas A. Kraft|___location=Tuscaloosa, USA|year=2013|access-date=11 February 2015|archive-date=11 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150211235444/http://amiangshu.com/papers/msr-challenge-preprint-bosu.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Reputation can be gained fastest by answering questions related to tags with lower expertise density, doing so promptly (in particular being the first one to answer a question), being active during off-peak hours, and contributing to diverse areas.<ref name="Bosu et al."/>
== Technology ==
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Stack Overflow won the [[2020 Webby Award|2020 Webby People's Voice Award for Community]] in the category Web.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Kastrenakes|first1=Jacob|date=20 May 2020|title=Here are all the winners of the 2020 Webby Awards|url=https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/20/21263445/2020-webby-awards-winners-lil-nas-x-nasa-jon-krasinski|access-date=22 May 2020|website=The Verge|language=en|archive-date=21 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200521205535/https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/20/21263445/2020-webby-awards-winners-lil-nas-x-nasa-jon-krasinski|url-status=live}}</ref>
The site's culture has been criticized in the past for being unfriendly by one research paper, especially in the context of gender differences in participation and beginners learning computer science.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Brooke |first1=Siân |title="Condescending, Rude, Assholes": Framing gender and hostility on Stack Overflow. |url=http://aclanthology.lst.uni-saarland.de/W19-3519.pdf |year=2019 |access-date=21 July 2021 |archive-date=21 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210721142719/http://aclanthology.lst.uni-saarland.de/W19-3519.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> A 2023 study by another researcher concluded that the website's new users were met with significant difficulties in obtaining help from other users in posts started by the former; an analysis from a sample of 968 posts showed that 49% experienced hurdles such as their questions being closed, receiving no response, or receiving no mention as to why their posts were being negatively scored.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last1=Kaindl|editor-first1=Hermann|editor-last2=Mannion|editor-first2=Mike|editor-last3= Maciaszek|editor-first3=Leszek A.| date = 7 July 2023| title = Evaluation of Novel Approaches to Software Engineering: 17th International Conference, ENASE 2022, Virtual Event, April 25–26, 2022, Revised Selected Papers| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=V1LKEAAAQBAJ| publisher = Springer Nature Switzerland|
A study from the [[University of Maryland]] found that Android developers that used only Stack Overflow as their programming resource tended to write less secure code than those who used only the official Android developer documentation from Google, while developers using only the official Android documentation tended to write significantly less functional code than those who used only Stack Overflow.<ref>Y. Acar, M. Backes, S. Fahl, D. Kim, M. L. Mazurek and C. Stransky, "[https://www.cs.umd.edu/class/fall2017/cmsc818O/papers/get-where-look.pdf You Get Where You're Looking for: The Impact of Information Sources on Code Security] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210214111923/https://www.cs.umd.edu/class/fall2017/cmsc818O/papers/get-where-look.pdf |date=14 February 2021 }}," ''2016 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP)'', San Jose, CA, 2016, pp. 289–305. doi: 10.1109/SP.2016.25</ref>
== Decline ==
Starting from 2023 and as of July 2025, Stack Overflow's questions have rapidly decreased due to AI-enabled solutions like ChatGPT, Deepseek and Claude AI.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stack Overflow’s decline |url=https://www.ericholscher.com/blog/2025/jan/21/stack-overflows-decline/ |access-date=2025-07-21 |website=Eric Holscher |language=en}}</ref>
== See also ==
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