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I don't think that it's a foregone conclusion that Area51 generates niche sites, just because it generates niche site proposals. I for one believe that it's the
by spolsky 16y ago
I don't think that it's a foregone conclusion that Area51 generates niche sites, just because it generates niche site proposals. I for one believe that it's the big blockbuster stackoverflow-size sites that will actually make it to the end of the Area 51 process and will actually get created.
And, if I were a betting man, I wouldn't bet against StackOverflow's monthly 7 million users. In fact I would be betting on the statistics Stack Exchange site launching in the next couple of weeks and getting critical mass very very quickly.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- blasdel 16y agoNot without an existing community to build off of you won't. You'll fail miserably. The people in the Area51 proposals are generally meeting there for the first time — they didn't know each other already. MetaOptimize is building on top of an existing well-targeted community like MathOverflow did. Really, just like you did originally with your and Jeff's blog communities. AskMetafilter is successful because it was an outlet for an existing community — it wasn't attempt to start a new one. Area51 is scavenging small clumps of people that happen to overlap with your existing main sites. That your sites are so QA-focused makes it very difficult for an actual community to grow within it — there's no outlet for chat and friend-making, for fucks sake even your moderation site is the same QA format! At least you've integrated it a bit more so that Meta isn't a completely separate community with it's own account system…
- TalGalili 16y agoI also wonder when will they incorporate more "social network" features into SO. I feel how it is needed...