Why is StackOverflow so pedantic?

This post is a little bit of a personal rant. But it might resonate with some of you.

Research

I'm doing some research for a game I'm creating, where I need a full Spanish dictionary. I've been looking all over the place for a free API or some JSON/CSV containing all words in the Spanish dictionary with no luck.

Most dictionaries, more so official ones, are all under quite strict licenses. And I'm unable to find a free/open alternatives.

StackOverflow Question

When I found myself unable to find a good dictionary to download or API, I, as many of us do, went to StackOverflow (in spanish) and asked to see if anyone knew about some alternative or pointed me in the right direction.

I asked (in Spanish):

"Where can I find a full Spanish dictionary in JSON or CSV?"

And the description is (in Spanish):

Does anyone know where I can download the complete Spanish dictionary in CSV / JSON? Or some free API that you can use?

The RAE seems to have everything under license and does not allow access to their API. Something that seems unethical to me, dictionaries should be free.

StackOverflow Answers/Comments

After 1-2 minutes somebody commented with this:

• If it's licensed, and the API is not public, any attempt to bypass that license is illegal. This question should be deleted because you are requesting information to bypass current law. Whether you consider this law immoral or not is irrelevant

WTF??? When did I ask to bypass the law?

After 5 minutes another comment appeared:

• The RAE dictionary is not free, ergo, downloading it from somewhere without paying the license is illegal. You say that the RAE has everything under license and it seems illegal, but it doesn't seem illegal to download material without paying the license. Anyway, question of points of view. The question will end closed anyway. Regards

OK, Jesus!!! I didn't even mention downloading pirated stuff or bypassing the license. Enhance your calm.

Here is a screenshot from the question (in spanish):

PD: I removed a part of the description, so they stop saying I want to bypass a license...

What I take from this

From this, I'm learning that StackOverflow is mostly (not everyone of course) full of egoist people that just want to inflate their ego even more. Answering questions without even understanding it, so they get the reputation and badges.

It's a shame that a platform made for sharing information and helping people accomplish something can be so toxic and so uninformative.

I'm starting to dislike SO, and will not be using it in the future if I can. I'll be using DEV and similar.

Now, why is StackOverflow like this?

I have used stack overflow for quite some time now and understand more or less the need to curate and remove useless questions or duplicates. But the ego and god-like attitude some people on stack overflow have should not be acceptable either.

Flagging a question as "trying to bypass the law" without even asking for that is not correct IMHO.

If the question didn't fit into stack overflow scope, they could have said that instead. But they should not attack somebody just because they didn't understand the question.

Now it's your turn:

• What do you think about this behavior?
• Should this behavior be acceptable?
• Do you guys think my question asked how to bypass the law? Or asked how to download licensed software or data illegally?

If you are interested in the topic of free/open dictionaries, I would appreciate it if you could share your point here:

Should Dictionaries Be Free/Open?

Manolo Edge Jul 27 1 min read

#discuss

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