--- title: Failing after Success | daily.dev description: Stack Overflow's decline in question volume — from hundreds of thousands per day to under a thousand — is framed not as failure but as mission accomplished:... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/failing-after-success-nih6fp9wt twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Failing after Success | daily.dev og:description: Stack Overflow's decline in question volume — from hundreds of thousands per day to under a thousand — is framed not as failure but as mission accomplished:... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/failing-after-success-nih6fp9wt og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/nih6Fp9Wt.png og:image:alt: Failing after Success og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Failing after Success **[Ibrahim Diallo](https://daily.dev/sources/idiallo)** · 3 min read · 9 upvotes · 3 comments ## Summary Stack Overflow's decline in question volume — from hundreds of thousands per day to under a thousand — is framed not as failure but as mission accomplished: the internet's programming problems are largely documented. The real failure is Stack Overflow's inability to leverage its unique asset (a massive, permissively licensed Q&A dataset) to build the next big developer tool. The author argues SO was perfectly positioned to build a developer-centric AI coding assistant that credits contributors, but instead has only minor AI features tucked in sidebars. The piece ends as a half-joking product pitch for what SO could still become. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How many questions does Stack Overflow receive per day now compared to its peak? Stack Overflow went from receiving hundreds of thousands of programming questions per day at its peak to fewer than a thousand per day. The drop reflects how AI tools and existing documentation have reduced the need to post new questions, rather than a collapse in the platform's usefulness as a reference resource. _Developers tracking the state of developer tooling and Q&A platforms follow shifts like this on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@kramer** · 1 upvotes > I think it too late for SO to build their own IDE. There's no real advantage for their Q&A content corpus. It has been fully used for pre-training of LLMs long time ago. They had this opportunity 24 months ago (maybe) **@agustinbarrientos** · 0 upvotes > Will each answer show the contributing authors, not just the model that stitched it together? **@elmarchavez** · 0 upvotes > I get your point. Even Reddit's database is being bought out just for the data. If Stack Overflow implements this kind of feature and at the same time removes unhelpful solutions, that would be the dream. Real people helping other people and AI does the boring automation stuff. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [AI is causing developers to abandon Stack Overflow](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-is-causing-developers-to-abandon-stack-overflow-9nz5cjyz4) · InfoWorld · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Dramatic drop in Stack Overflow questions as devs look elsewhere for help • DEVCLASS](https://daily.dev/posts/dramatic-drop-in-stack-overflow-questions-as-devs-look-elsewhere-for-help-devclass-kwyo1g6gh) · DEVCLASS · 0 upvotes · 1 comments - [Stack Overflow: When We Stop Asking](https://daily.dev/posts/stack-overflow-when-we-stop-asking-ctjc1higa) · CSS-Tricks · 3 upvotes · 2 comments --- Tags: [#devtools](https://daily.dev/tags/devtools), [#community](https://daily.dev/tags/community) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/failing-after-success-nih6fp9wt) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Failing after Success","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/failing-after-success-nih6fp9wt","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/failing-after-success-nih6fp9wt"},"datePublished":"2026-08-10T07:00:22.829Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T19:18:45.723Z","description":"Stack Overflow's decline in question volume — from hundreds of thousands per day to under a thousand — is framed not as failure but as mission accomplished:...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--2-1xRawN--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2011","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--2-1xRawN--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2011","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Ibrahim Diallo","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Ibrahim Diallo","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--UBuPzW64--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774960037/logos/idiallo?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/idiallo"},"commentCount":3,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/failing-after-success-nih6fp9wt","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":9},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}],"keywords":"devtools,community","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ibrahim Diallo","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/idiallo"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Failing after Success"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/failing-after-success-nih6fp9wt","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"I think it too late for SO to build their own IDE. There’s no real advantage for their Q&A content corpus. It has been fully used for pre-training of LLMs long time ago. They had this opportunity 24 months ago (maybe)","datePublished":"2026-08-10T11:58:40.697Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/nih6Fp9Wt#c-0IYwzivVm","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Nimrod Kramer","url":"https://daily.dev/kramer","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/v1682322243/avatars/avatar_1d339aa5b85c4e0ba85fdedb523c48d4.jpg"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Will each answer show the contributing authors, not just the model that stitched it together?","datePublished":"2026-08-10T19:57:33.080Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/nih6Fp9Wt#c-KEMZsVeVj","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Agustin Barrientos","url":"https://daily.dev/agustinbarrientos","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--5ayxQnqn--/f_auto/v1788281802/avatars/avatar_wQYYVe5Tbj0NJ7C7qPoa8?_a=BAMAMicg0"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I get your point. Even Reddit’s database is being bought out just for the data. If Stack Overflow implements this kind of feature and at the same time removes unhelpful solutions, that would be the dream. Real people helping other people and AI does the boring automation stuff.","datePublished":"2026-08-11T11:12:20.532Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/nih6Fp9Wt#c-YWk3BPCym","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Elmar Chavez","url":"https://daily.dev/elmarchavez","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--7PjH979T--/f_auto/v1780994221/avatars/avatar_bK85rJb2OXXID2LX2wi5y?_a=BAMAMiWQ0"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/failing-after-success-nih6fp9wt#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How many questions does Stack Overflow receive per day now compared to its peak?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Stack Overflow went from receiving hundreds of thousands of programming questions per day at its peak to fewer than a thousand per day. The drop reflects how AI tools and existing documentation have reduced the need to post new questions, rather than a collapse in the platform's usefulness as a reference resource. Developers tracking the state of developer tooling and Q&A platforms follow shifts like this on daily.dev."}}]} ```