StackOverflow is the best and worst website for getting help at the same time

Maybe a decade ago it was extremely useful? But now it feels like it’s just a race to get pixel points with the least amount of effort put in.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve asked a question only to get an answer so completely off topic, it leaves me wondering where they got confused in my question. Or just getting the dumb little comments that add nothing, like “don’t do it like that” ok then how?Do?I?Do?It?

Most recent example I can think of is that I had a string that contained some HTML, and I needed to filter out all HTML tags except for the <li> tags. Keep the content of everything, just no tags (except for li).

So I opt to go for some good ol regex. The particular flavor of regex I was using was JavaScript, and after wasting more time than I should have trying to get the regex correct, I went to stack overflow for help. What a fucking mistake that was

Title: how do I filter out all html tags except for Li using regex

Body: I describe that I have a string, and I am using JavaScript flavor of regex. I just need to filter out every html tag except for li. Give them the regex I had so far, some examples, and expected output

What do I get? 6 comments saying “don’t parse HTML with regex”, all with some sassy variation like “1. Don’t do that. 2. Use Javascripts DOM. 3. don’t do that”
Wow fuckin useful thanks

That’s totally what I was asking, how is the best way to parse out HTML, obviously I should make a JavaScript DOM and feed it my string. If only I had access to JavaScript and wasn’t using a JavaScript flavor of regex.
And what do I get when I point it out?

“Provide more context, we can’t tell what you’re trying to do with the information you gave us”

What context do you fucking nerds need? Is your reading comprehension that fucked that you read “how to filter all html except li with regex”, are given a sample, and expected output

And you can’t figure out what the question is about and what I’m specifically trying to accomplish?

Like, stack overflow shouldn’t be giving me second thoughts whenever I can’t figure something out on my own

I shouldn’t have to think, “am I going to have to tell John JavaScript who has 6942069 points and 666 top answers that he’s a fuckin moron today” because I know that my question is going to be seen as an easy point target

And on the flip side, I shouldn’t have to lament posting some obscure question like, “why is Deno not resolving this CDN but it works fine if I put it in my html” (why is that even obscure) , wait 6 days and only get “downvotes” with no information as to why?