StackOverflow For Any Topic 191
RobinH writes "StackOverflow, the successful question-and-answer website for programmers, is now over a year old and its top user has just passed 100,000 reputation points. Now one of the creators of StackOverflow, Joel Spolsky, and his company Fog Creek, are developing a software-as-a-service form of the StackOverflow engine called StackExchange to support any topic you want. The software is currently in private beta, but the first few beta sites have surfaced. Topics include business travel, the home, parenthood, the environment, finance, and iPhone game development."
Joel, uhg.. (Score:5, Insightful)
While I wholey appreciate the community and efforts of people involved in StackOverflow, I believe that Joel is subject to entirely too much fanfair and hero worship. I'd line him up right next to Dvorak in the grouping of "Right about as often as the sun shines on my dog's ass."
-Rick
Face it, stack* is *good* (Score:5, Insightful)
It's very well designed. Compared to anything else in the same category, it's like the iPhone to a generic WinMo phone. It's easy to use, it's intuitive, it's powerful, it's fast, it's obvious and yet nobody comes close.
I've heard many people make fun of Joel, and I would have been a bit skeptical but stackoverflow is an undeniable success.
Re:Face it, stack* is *good* (Score:4, Insightful)
I would agree entirely. But one success does not a savior make. I don't even think that much of the unique features of StackOverflow is what makes it great. I think it is the combination of community and marketing that have made it what it is.
If Joel had come up with a completely different design for the site with different functionality, yet still managed the same community activity, that project would have been just as successful.
-Rick
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Well of course a lot of the stuff Joel promotes in his articles are about building a community and marketing - and generally, pointing out that good engineering isn't all that is required to make successful software. Although of course, good engineering is required for all the other stuff to work.
The thing I like about Joel is he just has a lot of opinions. His writing style isn't telling you what to do or think - it's just saying his own beliefs. A lot of stuff I agree with, a lot I think doesn't apply
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Well, they can still make fun of Joel, the software was written and implemented by Jeff Atwood (who is also dead wrong on his blog, but usually has the grace to accept when his readers put him right).
Jeff Atwood's blog is http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/ [codinghorror.com]
I believe Joel was involved more in the marketing and design stages, but its interesting how everyone has assumed stackoverflow is all down to him. Like how lots of people think Bill Gates wrote all that Microsoft software.
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Compared to anything else in the same category, it's like any other phone to a generic WinMo phone. It's easy to use, it's intuitive, it's powerful, it's fast, it's obvious and yet nobody comes close.
Fixed that for you. Because there are other phones than just the Iphone, believe it or not. Not only does the Iphone get mentioned at every opportunity, but we now have bizarre analogies between a website to a phone, just so you can push your personal POV that your phone is the best, or get in an off-topic jab
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The iPhone brought the smartphone concept to the masses. Sure, powerusers have had access to Blackberries for a long time and it's probably true that many of the features of the iPhone are not particularly revolutionary and have been available in some form or another in other phones for years. However, the average person had no
I don't have an iPhone you moron (Score:2)
Because I use only Linux and it's a bitch to sync with an iPhone.
The fact remains that the iPhone is simply twice as good as the next best phone OS I've tried, which is Android. And it in turns is 10x better than CrapBerry I have from work or any crashy kludgy clanky winmo phone. The Palm Pre is supposedly coming very close to the iPhone but I haven't tried it yet.
I'm talking from a usability point of view. How easy it is to get shit done, how easy it is to understand, how confused or not you get when you'r
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With Stack Exchange? A THOUSAND DOLLARS A MONTH.
Wow. Just wow. Really, Joel? You think your software is worth that much?
Or hey, you could use it on your own server. If you're wi
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Personally, what I got the biggest laugh at is that, just like Fog Creek's other software, they're wanting ridiculous amounts of money for this code. Hosted? On a shared server? 10 million page views a month (Random page on Stack Overflow, 20KB, so in other words, about 200GB)? How much would you pay? For this forum / QA software?
With Stack Exchange? A THOUSAND DOLLARS A MONTH.
Wow. Just wow. Really, Joel? You think your software is worth that much?
Or hey, you could use it on your own server. If you're willing to pay TWO AND A HALF THOUSAND DOLLARS A MONTH...
Wow, that is rediculous. Why, it's almost as much as a single MSDN subscription [microsoft.com] or an Oracle license [oracle.com] (assuming I actually read that mess properly).
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Leaving aside the odd choice of comparisons, "No. It ain't." A single MSDN subscription is $1,199 for the first YEAR, $799 for every YEAR after that. Running a site on StackExchange can be a thousand dollars a MONTH.
Basic math, you fail it.
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A single MSDN subscription is $1,199 for the first YEAR, $799 for every YEAR after that. Running a site on StackExchange can be a thousand dollars a MONTH.
That said, a StackExchange site likely serves more than one person.
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But this website is just like an Iphone (see above), and it's far more expensive than even the costly Iphone! You'd be much better off just getting an Iphone than this website.
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Clearly you're not very familiar with "enterprice" software. Magento, which is a solid open source e-commerce solution but nothing more, costs $8900+ a year ($11,125 for the average deployment) just to license—no hosting. That's the whole idea of free market capitalism. What something is worth doesn't necessarily correlate to how much effort was put into creating it, its material/resource costs, its usefulness, or any other inherent value it has; instead, it is simply how much you can get others to pa
Actually yes, it's easily worth that (Score:3, Interesting)
How much would you pay? For this forum / QA software?
With Stack Exchange? A THOUSAND DOLLARS A MONTH.
If I felt like I had an idea that would have a good community around it, yes. StackOverflow is simply the best forum software I have ever used for a site oriented around questions and answers (for general discussion I do not think it would work as well, for instance it could not replace Slashdot). The motivational system between badges and voting and scores is well thought out, the software works really we
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StackOverflow is simply the best forum software I have ever used for a site oriented around questions and answers (for general discussion I do not think it would work as well, for instance it could not replace Slashdot).
In programming, the correctness of an answer is easily definable and verifiable. Stack Overflow is designed to let that one best answer float to the top, and it's perfect for its purpose.
But if you were to ask "when should my 8 year old kid go to bed?", the answers aren't that clear anymore.
Just as clear as many programming questions (Score:2)
In programming, the correctness of an answer is easily definable and verifiable.
But if you were to ask "when should my 8 year old kid go to bed?", the answers aren't that clear anymore.
With a statement like that, I'd have to wonder how long you had actually been programming.
Should you use singletons? What is the "best" development process? Is test-first the best thing ever or the spawn of satan?
VI or Emacs - or IDE?
These are all easily questions as the same level as "when should my eight year old go to be
Re:Just as clear as many programming questions (Score:4, Informative)
With a statement like that, I'd have to wonder how long you had actually been programming.
Should you use singletons? What is the "best" development process? Is test-first the best thing ever or the spawn of satan?
While I would generally agree, StackOverflow is the place for immediate questions you have problems with, not general bullshit. That's why it's popular.
Here's an example from the front page: "In Perl, how can I concisely check if a $variable is defined and contains a non zero length string?"
Just as true in either case (Score:2)
While I would generally agree, StackOverflow is the place for immediate questions you have problems with, not general bullshit.
No, it is a place for both. It is just as valid to discuss the pros and cons of methodology as it is to ask how to copy a string in C. I have found over time that programming is really more about esoteric issues than practical immediate ones.
In parenting the same is true, there will be some questions needing very near term answers that others will have had prior experience with, a
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Didn't he just have another Slashdot appearance a few days ago, telling us all how great "Duct Tape" programmers (or "sloppy programmers" as I call them) are and how those stupid disciplined software designers and architects were wasting their time?
Meh... I think I'll take my software advice from someone else, thank you.
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"Right about as often as the sun shines on my dog's ass."
So... at least twice a day then? Or is your dog toilet trained? Normal people don't force their dogs to wear pants in public, or indeed at all.
Maybe he's from England... in which case his dog could be outside 24/7 and it would still be only once or twice a year. :)
They tried this with Ask Slashdot... (Score:5, Funny)
Anyone remember the short lived Ask Slashdot section on sex? No one had any answers, so they had to shut it down.
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Even then, the question wasn't asked that well. I believe it went something like:
"How is babby formed?"
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Babies are those one step on the intelligence scale above lusers.
Good job, too (Score:4, Informative)
StackOverflow is really impressive, and useful. I find myself adding "site:stackoverflow.com" to google queries when I'm troubleshooting some code problem. If there's an answer on there, it's almost always better than the answers on other sites. With none of the horrible multi-page answers, scribd paper, navigation hell that plagues other sites.
Great idea to branch this into other areas, but I wonder how many dedicated users you'll see like jon skeet when it comes to a parenthood advice website.
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Great idea to branch this into other areas, but I wonder how many dedicated users you'll see like jon skeet when it comes to a parenthood advice website.
If parenting websites are any indication: a lot. There are many people in knowledge domains that are as dedicated to their chosen pursuit as hard core programmers are to theirs. It's just easy for us to forget that machines can be used for other things despite our jobs being about making them do other things.
Re:Good job, too (Score:5, Insightful)
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However, the difference is programmers usually know how to -ask- questions that make sense to other programmers.
You must be new on StackOverflow... ~
Seriously, though, for about 50% of SO questions, I have to post a comment that specifically lists clarifications needed before the question can be answered - a very typical example is when people post 2 pages of (ususally incomplete) code with a comment "this doesn't work, please help!" - and no explanation of what the code is actually supposed to do, what implementation they're using (for C/C++ and the likes, where it actually matters), etc.
Ironically, sometimes it is
Good asking is key - but not key (Score:3, Insightful)
However, the difference is programmers usually know how to -ask- questions that make sense to other programmers.
That's more true than average. But it's not wholly true, as another poster noted you get plenty of ill-formed questions on Stack Overflow.
So why does stack overflow work so well? Because unlike the site you mentioned, the community can upvote good questions, and close or cancel bad ones. Users who have gained a lot of credibility with the system by way of points awarded for good questions or an
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However, the difference is programmers usually know how to -ask- questions that make sense to other programmers.
Fairly often on SO, you get badly constructed questions. Sometimes the questions go unanswered. But often something like this happens:
- users comment on the question (rather than leave an answer) asking for clarification
- the original questioner fixes up his question, based on the queries
- OR a 'senior' user (anyone who's gained enough rep points) fixes up the question
- With the question clarified, the answering can begin.
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I just wish it didn't rely on OpenID. A technology I loathe. LOATHE!
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500 passwords in my encrypted password file, with an automated program that picks the right one for the site I go to and logs me in, after having entered my encryption passphrase once each time the password daemon restarts, is very easy to handle. Now, 5000000000 passwords, that might be a bit taxing on the resources. But even so, that's just a Berkeley DB file, with the records decrypted when needed.
OpenID isn't the only solution around. It's just the one being promoted because businesses like sticking
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The main advantage of OpenID is not remembering passwords, in my opinion, but the faff of signing up for an account in the first place. If I'm just passing and want to leave a comment on a forum, blog, news article, it's annoying if I have to sign up for an account just to leave one comment - most likely I don't bother.
For people who want to use more extensive features of a site, the intention is still that people get a proper account (e.g., consider LiveJournal, which invented OpenID: OpenID users can post
A compelling need? (Score:2)
Joel Spolsky, and his company Fog Creek, are developing a software-as-a-service form of the StackOverflow engine called StackExchange to support any topic you want.
There are already many BB and wiki systems available. By the way, a little obvious on the Slashvert.
Re:A compelling need? (Score:5, Informative)
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So, how does it differ from Ask Slashdot?
Re:A compelling need? (Score:5, Funny)
The posters at Stack Overflow know what they're talking about.
Re:A compelling need? (Score:5, Insightful)
The mods at Stack Overflow know what they're talking about.
Fixed it for ya.
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Re:A compelling need? (Score:5, Informative)
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You can edit your replies, and people don't complain that you're asking them how to do your job.
Re:A compelling need? (Score:4, Informative)
So, how does it differ from Ask Slashdot?
Mostly, it's the economy of reputation points and badges (sort of like Xbox Live achievements).
People get the warm and fuzzies just from having a score, and SO uses that instinct in all sorts of ways, to promote good questions, good answers, the refinement of good answers, and the sorting of good answers to the top.
It also helps that it's very useable. For example, the post markup language is pretty much perfect for the purpose (making it very easy to include code snippets with syntax highlighting)
The average BB experience is TERRIBLE (Score:3, Interesting)
Even the commercially supported and very expensive ones are *terrible*. They're full of distracting and useless information, their design is full of lines and tables and outlines that serve no purpose whatsoever, they don't present information in a sensible manner (usually signatures, dates, names and navigation take 5 times more space than the actual messages, for instance), and they just simply suck.
Look at stackoverflow. What do you see? Pure information. Navigation is the bare minimum. There is no usele
Re:The average BB experience is TERRIBLE (Score:4, Interesting)
Looks very nice indeed (Score:2)
Thanks for the link, this looks very nice indeed. I've heard from a PHP developer that the Garden framework is great.
BB is the reason Stack Overflow exists (Score:5, Insightful)
Jeff Atwood has said a number of times one of the reasons Stack Overflow came about is because he hated all of the BB systems around. And he was right, the existing BB systems are terrible to use, especially so for a Q&A site.
The site is also better than a wiki for Q&A, because it has really well thought out community moderation aspects. You get more duplication than you would with a wiki, but it works out because you also get heavy user moderation redirecting you to better questions. And because it's a cross between a wiki and a forum, you have a much better ability to have different viewpoints of solutions expressed - for instance a user asking a question can accept an answer as valid, but other users can all vote up other answers as being more correct and those get prominent placement too.
If BB software and wikis are all so good, why is it nothing with the popularity and update of Stack Overflow has existed until now? I've never seen a programming site with such traction and quick uptake, never mind one that covered such a gamut of subjects! It's not just at the top of the list for C# (which is to be expected given the pedigree) but also iPhone development, and is the first place I would go for Emacs elisp questions... even Java.
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How very random. (Score:5, Funny)
It is good to know that the parenting forum is asking the most important questions [stackexchange.com].
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Although, I can't help but to feel a little scorn for them for not knowing the answer in the first place
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It is good to know that the parenting forum is asking the most important questions [stackexchange.com].
What's even more funny is that there is no single answer that isn't a serious one. If it was slashdot however... let's just say the first answer would involve a man whos rectum is severly dialated.
100,000 reputation points? (Score:2, Funny)
over a year old and its top user has just passed 100,000 reputation points.
That can't be right. I've been posting on 4chan for years and I don't have 1 reputation point, let alone 100,000.
yahoo answers (Score:2)
I thought yahoo answers was where you could ask any question and get a well thought out informative response?
Yahoo! Answers (Score:2)
WOW WHAT A GREAT IDEA!
THAT WONT BE OVERRUN BY COMPLETE MORONS!1!!!
</sarcasm> morons... do they seriously think this is going to be more effective thank yahoo answers?
Re:Yahoo! Answers (Score:5, Informative)
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way to read the summary moron, the new site is generic not specific.
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Actually, I think it is you who missed the summary. No need for the name calling.
The new site is not a single site - it's the core of what makes up Stackoverflow and other, similar, sites. Think of it as an API for the site. Joel and crew are offering to sell this core (which they are calling "StackExchange") so that others can create whatever site they want - whether it is about programming, parenting, movies, or...whatever. StackExhange is just the core and provides hosting to that core (or can host o
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way to read the article, moron, the new site is a service you rent to create a specific q&a site around your own interest.
Too bad StackOverflow sucks. (Score:3, Interesting)
Seriously, what mouth-breather decided you should only be able to search tags instead of a full-text search?
It's also likely that the apparent (I've only skimmed the site) quality of the questions and answers there are because of the subject matter. What works for programming questions probably won't work for a lot of other domains -- just look at the dreck that is wiki.answers.com, yahoo answers etc.
Re:Too bad StackOverflow sucks. (Score:5, Interesting)
That'll be why it never comes up on searches.
90% of the time if I have to hit google for answers it's because something is giving a stupid error message (google for the message text) or error code (google for the number.. that can be fun..). Keywords won't cut it, because they assume I know what the problem is already (and if I knew that I'd hit the documentation and work it out myself).
Just use google (Score:2)
About the only time I don't preferentially use google to search on any site (e.g. {site:stackoverflow.com words I want to search for}) is when I want to search for all posts by a given user. That's the only case I can think of where google isn't superior.
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One with a blocked nose, I would suspect.
Site was designed for Google, but search works (Score:2)
Seriously, what mouth-breather decided you should only be able to search tags instead of a full-text search?
First of all, the site search searches on subject and question text as well. If you search for "If you're using PCRE" for example (no quotes), one question that comes up is only tagged "qt".
Secondly, what mouth-breather (hint: that's a subtle slam at your own cognitive abilities since you seem willing to belittle others) doesn't realize Google is your full text search? Honestly, when is the last tim
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The site is ugly and the usability is poor. I'll grant you that beauty is subjective, but a bad interface is not.
Now is where you tell me why it's good for reasons beyond the relative post quality (which we agree on.)
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beauty is subjective, but a bad interface is not
Hence how we all agree about vi vs Emacs, right?
I like SO's interface. What do you find wrong with it? Especially, the markup language is terrific.
What is ugly and poorly usable? (Score:2)
What are you talking about?
Web Karma (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm still trying to figure out if this would be make for a utopian or dystopian internet.
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If OpenID allowed each site to assign users a reputation, and had an opt in to advertise that reputation, and sites could opt in (after receiving requests, etc) to use reputation from other sites, two sites would be allowed to peer with each other (shared rep), and there would need to be some sort of exponential scaling to adding and removing site opt-ins, and random delays on how long it would take effect (1-24 hours.)
That would prevent these abuses:
* A user would not be forced to have site's that abused t
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Obviously this system would require a revision to the OpenID system, whereby the authentication provider maintains the database, and the site is allowed to query it based on an identifier, assuming the user has allowed the site to do so.
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The reason you would keep it private is to avoid one site from being overly abusive to that information. For the same reason we worry about facebook having too much data on their users, or google having this massive profile...
That is why the associated data would be opt-in for user -> site, and site -> site. It allows the potential benefactor of that information to make the decision. Whether they make it well or not, we cannot decide in advance.
None of this, by the way, is in the specification. As far
So is it like the Yahoo Answers of programming? (Score:2)
Or will it become like Yahoo Answers?
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It's a reaction to Yahoo Answers and Experts Exchange - with the difference that it doesn't suck.
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/09/15.html [joelonsoftware.com] ... is Joel's introduction to the site, which explains their motivation.
I like Stack Overflow (Score:2)
I really like their site and have used it for a number of questions in the past, so I'm happy they're branching out and using their engine to generate revenue. Isn't what they're asking, though, a bit too much? The minimum price point is $130 a month! When there are a dozen open source CMS packages, and countless other sites charging nothing or very little for monthly fees for similar functionality, I can't imagine someone using Stack's engine at that price.
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When there are a dozen open source CMS packages, and countless other sites charging nothing or very little for monthly fees for similar functionality
Show me
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I have to agree with you, ChienAndalu - I haven't seen anything with the kind of functionality that StackOverflow has. I mean, there are moderation sites, but they don't have nearly the functionality or the usability.
Great (Score:2)
I know slashdot likes to fling poo every new internet phenomenon, but I am really excited by this and wish Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky good luck. StackOverflow is amazing and their mission to destroy those shitty phpBB-forums with their clean and organized interfaces is very noble to say the least.
idjits (Score:2)
Linux site! (Score:2)
Someone please start one of these sites for Linux questions, particularly with regard to questions about install, graphics, sound, and drivers. It could actually make the Linux experience much smoother for someone just getting started.
I appreciate sites such as LinuxQuestions.org [linuxquestions.org], but the StackOverflow approach could really bring some improvements. Looking at the highest ranked answer is a much nicer approach than scanning through 14 pages of comments.
linuxquestions is horrible (Score:2)
I've blacklisted it from my google results along with sex change expert. It's so ugly and hard to read, the superfluous cognitive load is too much too bear when you're already trying to solve a complex problem.
Jon Skeet (Score:2)
Jon Skeet - the "top user who just passed 100k" - is an awesome guy, and that score is well-deserved. I had a pleasure of discussing things with him back when he was inhabiting microsoft.public.dotnet.* newgroups, before he moved on to StackOverflow, and he was already very helpful back then. On SO, with his nigh-unreachable (and steadily growing) score, he quickly got a kind of a cult following [stackoverflow.com].
An interesting background, too. He's working in Google (mostly developing in Java, so far as I know), and at the
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Re:The Karma-Whoring Generation (Score:4, Informative)
You would have a point, except StackOverflow provides dumps of their databases in XML format and under a public license.
Re:The Karma-Whoring Generation (Score:5, Informative)
But, hey! What happens when StackOverflow folds (which it will, eventually)?
Then, suddenly, all the knowledge contracts and contracts to a single point until it goes "POOF!" - nada, zero.
Actually, all the content on StackOverflow is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-Wiki license. They make monthly dumps of the entire question and answer database available. If SO ever folds, it would be quite easy to use the data dump to put up a new site with all the accumulated knowledge
Re:The Karma-Whoring Generation (Score:4, Insightful)
Is it true what they say about under-30s in America, thinking they are so smart when in fact, they're not?
That's true of everyone everywhere.
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I didn't know karma-whoring could be so powerful. Weee! 100.000 points! I must be *great!* (My mom loves me...)
This looks a bit like a troll, but I'll bite. The person on Stack Overflow with over 100,000 reputation is Jon Skeet [stackoverflow.com] who also happens to write technical books [amazon.com] which is part of the reason he has so much reputation on the site. There are a lot of questions on Stack Overflow relating to C# that were answered by Jon Skeet which is where all of those reputation points came from.
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a lot of those repp points are there because of his reputation.
Not to take anything away from Jon, as he's an intelligent and helpful fellow (but confused when confronted with something in .NET that is crap), but take a look at a few of his answers where someone else has given a better answer - Jon will still get a mass of points.
The community seems eager to self-promote (especially for fanboi answers) rather than moderate 'fairly'.
eg. I've answered a few questions now, all my top-scoring ones were bullshit
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Never seen it come up in a google search.. maybe it's got its niche..
Usenet beats any of these sites anyway - there's decades of experience on that.
Re:I don't get it (Score:5, Insightful)
Never seen it come up in a google search.. maybe it's got its niche..
Usenet beats any of these sites anyway - there's decades of experience on that.
No, it doesn't always come up in Google search (try searching with site:stackoverflow.com in your programming searches, though), because that is Google's algorithm. As far as a programming/technical site, though, Stackoverflow (and its sister sites; serverfault.com (for admin/IT questions) and superuser.com (for general computer use questions)) is a *wonderful* resource. Don't knock it until you try it.
As for your comment about Usenet, I do agree that there is a myriad of experience on there. Nowhere else are you going to see the beginnings of Linux and quite a bit of discussion on other technologies. BUT - Stackoverflow is current, its well moderated (by a user-community) and has some extremely knowledgeable and thoughtful people on its site to help out.
I disagree with the GP post that is simply a Slashvertisement. I wish someone had told me about the site sooner.
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But looking closer, it seems to be a showcase for their business selling the software to run the site.
StackOverflow has been running for over a year, long before Jeff and Joel thought about selling hosted version. StackExchange is basically a way to shut up everyone who kept asking for a "Stack Overflow on Topic X".
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Yes, it's popular, and yes, you must be out of the loop.
Post any technical question and you'll normally get a number of very useful replies within 24 hours.
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First, I never heard of the site before. Is it really popular? Am I just out of the loop?
Well, it made slashdot, I can't decide if that's popular or unpopular.
How many nerds does it take to make something popular? It's got to be a few orders of magnitude more than how many hot babes... toughy. If only there was a place where I could ask that question.
Actually it comes up a lot (Score:2)
First, I never heard of the site before. Is it really popular?
Yes, there are a lot of people that go there now, for just about any language you can name there are a decent set of users there (take a look at the tags).
It's not come up in my daily searches for technical info.
That is strange, as I have seen it come up a number of times. It's not always at the top but often on the first page.
The next time you have a question search there (you can try google site specific, or the site has a search bar that looks
For Example (Score:2)
The original search term "cvs branch advice" did not yield a Stack Overflow hit, but there's a lot of good looking questions when you search StackOverflow via google:
Stack Overflow Results [google.com]
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This is the most obvious Slashvertisement I've ever seen.
So much so that my company's 'Smartfilter' spam filter has it listed as spam already!
"You cannot access the following Web address:
http://www.stackexchange.com/ [stackexchange.com]
The site you requested is blocked under the following categories: Spam URLs"
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Slightly offtopic, but does anyone else read expertsexchange as Expert Sex Change?
Yes, that's why they hyphenated the name. They did that was a while ago, I think slightly after Pen Island [penisland.net] sprang up.
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TherapistFinder [therapistfinder.com] decided to use CamelCase on their name ... I do have to wonder how many inquiries they get from stupid police offiers hoping it's TheRapistFinder.com
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Don't consider it an issue, consider it an opportunity - have a person or a roster of people assigned to looking at Stack Overflow for instances where package XYZ is mentioned, and be quick and accurate to respond, providing a link to a more specific forum if necessary. It serves as a profile-raising exercise, and gives a big tick for attentiveness in the mind of the person who raised the issue, as well as any who happened to see it.
This isn't an idle in-theory suggestion; it's worked well on the Whirlpool.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Umm, stackoverflow is free; and doesnt bomb Google with it's completely obnoxious results.
Re: (Score:2)
More illiterates too apparently, you can't even copy and paste the URL correctly.