What is the real advantage of Sololearn Q&A for programming related questions over a search on Google or Youtube?

Question

... or more specifically over a forum like Quora or Stack Overflow for that matter .. unless the answer can't be found out using the other sources mentioned? Personally I prefer to use SL Q&A for app and community related questions.

Answer 1

I would say Sololearn is more beginner friendly than say Stack Overflow, I couldn't even imagine the response one would receive there by asking about basic fundamental topics.

Answer 2

Responses on sololearn are on par with the questions. Because on SoloL
It's people talking to people and not a databases like Google For instance if you ask newbie level questions you get newbie level answers.
Sololearn is the best.

Answer 3

SO is much stricter and less permissive compared to solo, it also has higher peer pressure--everyone trying to increase reputation.

To ask a question you have to make sure there are no similar posts, it must be well formatted, clear & answerable, not obvious. The asker must do sufficient amount of prior research before posting.

Meta posts, posts which are programming related but not a programming question will get deleted-- this one won't be allowed there.

You can not ask questions in languages outside english. SL, lets you ask/post in other langs like russian, spanish, hindi.

Outside this SO wins in that it's a better accesible forum with quality of answers being generally higher.
It has better posting tools like embed pic, markdown, comments for answers, higher char limit & better search! Which are lacking here.

I do not mention quora because it's more closed than either of above, requiring sign up to view more answers, full-screen banners, lots of ads, which i consider user hostile.

Answer 4

jay I think you have a good point!

Answer 5

Well that's a great question and a HUGE conversation starter Sonic.

An in-house forum or some kind of Q&A discussions is a must have for any reputable establishment nowadays. I mean, you don't go ask your neighbours about your spouse, I hope 😀.
So the advantage seems to be obvious: why go somewhere if you can get help here. Simple, right?
But I see quite a discussion here regarding variety of issues. So let me make my own brief list of advantages and disadvantages.

➕ Positive Aspects.

📌 Human to human interaction.

📌 Beginner friendly community.

📌 Rewards for questions and answers.

➖ Negative aspects alas are applicable to all Internet services.

🚩 Bad behaviour (trolling, harassing, etc.). It is something we cannot fight or prevent 100% effectively Jamie💐 .

🚩 Idiocy or being lazy to think before doing something.

🚩 "THEY WONT READ IT!"
So I had a small talk with one of my followers who had chatted with other users but never read the rules. She thinks everything is "normal" (OK).

Answer 6

An advantage huh.. hmm.
Here on SL every question answered is meaningful and unique.

GOOGLE.
Ask a question and your given over a thousand answers to choose from which is btw stressful for me.😫😫 But it's really good and helpful.

SOLOLEARN
Ask a question and you get a direct answer concerning the question. No twisting whatsoever.

Every answer here on SL is programming related but that of Google 😂😂 the whole world has an answer concerning that question even if it is programming related.
So I'd prefer Sololearn for programming related issues.

Thank you Sonic

Answer 7

Decimis † 𝕯𝖊𝖈𝖎𝖒𝖎𝖘 that's true. I would be very surprised if someone knew about the Sololearn App but didn't know how to do a Google search. One advantage here I think though is that you can tag specific people from whom you would like to get an answer from.

Answer 8

Decimis † 𝕯𝖊𝖈𝖎𝖒𝖎𝖘 well sure, it would be lovely if some people did a tiny bit of independent research before asking certain questions.

But wouldn't you agree that this is a wider issue than just a Sololearn thing.

Example: Just yesterday when I was reading the comments section of a news article (about a vegan McDonald's 'hack') majority of comments said "oooh but the buns have milk" when it literally took 2 minutes to find go to the nutritional info on the McDonald's site and see that the standard buns infact do not contain dairy.

Answer 9

Having said that, it probably takes some experience for someone to determine if a search result on Google is from a reliable source. At least we have moderators here.

Answer 10

Nah Jamie💐 they don't. Everybody wants a shortcut to solving their problems. They find it stressful/fatigue doing research

Answer 11

It will be interesting to hear people's answers because there is an awful lot of questions here you think people would have just Googled such as: Who invented Java? What game engine do I use to make games? What is gravity? 😆 Which language is used for Web development? How do I make apps? What is Python used for?

All questions that are very general.

Answer 12

Sololearn with its focus on mobile is great for short questions and short answers and the occasional brain teaser. It also has great basic content. This makes it perfect for beginners with its nice and (most of the time) warmhearted community or for more experienced coders learning a new language. The Q&A reflects that.

I also think it is very important to give people the chance to explain stuff with their own words. That is a good way of testing if you have really understood it yourself and it is actually the main reason why I am active here (or in other forums like in edx-courses). You can't do that on stackoverflow.

On the downside SL lacks the capacity of a real IDE. So if you would want to discuss longer code, you have to link other platforms. So this might be something SL wants to change in the future. Just having "mobile" as a business strategy might be too risky in the long term.

If I myself have got any problems to solve, I can usually solve them faster by reading them up in the docs or on SO. I am just too impatient to wait for anyone answering in any q&a.

Answer 13

Really valid reasons there Denise Roßberg and almost everyone.

Answer 14

jay 😆 Yes I can definitely agree that it is a wider issue than just something here.

Answer 15

Whatever the platform it is , it is upto our level of understanding ,
"Where there is a will there is a way".If any body wants to know about a particular topic , it's totally depends on his\her presence of mind , vision of a person , priority they given.

Answer 16

Thanks for the response Vitya and sorry for the delay but I was just visiting my neighbour asking about my spouse 😂. That's not true. There are days I think that SL is my spouse but I still ask my neighbour Google about stuff. SL is a great experience. It's more like Hotel California - I can never leave this place, it seems. Metaphors always confused me but back to the point.

You're so right about a reputable educational platform requiring its own Q&A, not to mention its own QA (quality assurance) via Moderators. And the beginner-friendly nature of the forum may be what sets it apart from the others. Focusing on beginners is a great thing for SL even if the only thing it did was give SL a larger customer base.

Personally I have always managed to find general technical programming related answers outside and through experimentation and only asked the community at lazy times. My questions here are more App related but I shouldn't let a closed mind suppress the diversity of opinion here. Thanks again.

Answer 17

jay For asking a question, sure, but I believe Sonic was thinking more along the lines of searching on those sites first before asking here.

Answer 18

To my mind, Q&A acts as filter specific to your interest. It also serves as a 'divining-rod' that leads you to more interesting discussion

Answer 19

Sonic On SO you can't ask post typed code and ask "what output this?" as gets done so often here 😆.

What are they, kids' homework questions? 🤦‍♂️ They are not asking how a code works or why the output is what it is but rather I see so many that ask what the output itself is...

Answer 20

As I have always said, understanding control & data structures concepts is key in appreciating algorithms. I have two pending submissions with lesson factory and will spend time completing it