I always found SO really slow. Often I would get stuck on something, ask a question and then have to wait an hour for a response (which would often become a back and forth of comments with large periods of time between them). Even on discords for less popular languages/libraries you generally get an answer in minutes.
I think this is likely due to the incentives SO creates. I have never actually answered a SO question because it feels like you need to answer perfectly or get torn apart. I will often contribute to a discord question even if I don't full know the answer just because I think I can add something useful.
> I have never actually answered a SO question because it feels like you need to answer perfectly or get torn apart.
IME, this is heavily dependent on the language and, therefore, the subcommunity. For example, for Clojure and R I've found the SO communities to typically be kind and positive, whereas I've found the JS folks there to be dismissive and aggressive, but YMMV.
I think this is likely due to the incentives SO creates. I have never actually answered a SO question because it feels like you need to answer perfectly or get torn apart. I will often contribute to a discord question even if I don't full know the answer just because I think I can add something useful.