The fall of stackoverflow: Why I Haven't Logged In for Months

I just realized I haven't been on Stack Overflow in a while. Before writing this I found a post by dev user @abdulbasithh from 2025 and it's still true today. According to Google AI (ironic I know) "Stack Overflow has experienced a significant decline in user engagement and traffic since the rise of generative AI tools like ChatGPT." The Culture Problem We’ve all seen the memes. You join the site as a junior, excited to learn, and your first question is met with: "Thread closed. Not a real question. Also, why are you using that library? You should be using this obscure C++ wrapper instead. Read the docs." Gonna add my favorite meme from that era here: Beyond the Copy-Paste Era But there is a deeper shift happening for me personally. The toxic gatekeeping that was once a "quirk" of the platform became its Achilles' heel. When better alternatives arrived, the community didn't have enough goodwill left in the bank to keep people coming back. Maybe I’ve become "entitled," or maybe I’m just