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While everyone else was busy bitching about ExpertsExchange, a few people got together, built a much better alternative, and now dominate Google search results.

by alex_c 16y ago

While everyone else was busy bitching about ExpertsExchange, a few people got together, built a much better alternative, and now dominate Google search results. As far as I can tell, these guys are dismissing that option because it's too much work.

rwaldron 16y ago
I'm dismissing it because the information is wrong. I also contribute to https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/ https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/ in support of the http://promotejs.com/ http://promotejs.com/ initiative. So as far as I can tell, you're making comments that are wrong because you're not informed.
- alex_c 16y ago
  I think you might have missed my point. ExpertsExchange was useful because it had a broad range of obscure technical information, and the ability to get specific questions answered, but it was spammy and a pain to use. StackOverflow came along, took the good parts of that model, combined them with a clean interface and an open community, and won. W3Schools is useful because it's a good barebones reference that assumes zero prior knowledge of the subject, but it's somewhat shady in how it represents itself, and the information isn't always accurate/complete/up to date. X came along... As far as I can tell, neither of the two sites you linked, or the parent article, are a good reference for absolute beginners, which is the only thing that will either beat W3Schools or force them to improve.
danheberden 16y ago
Yeah, I spend my time on an open-source library used by thousands of people and supported said library, helping users with problems and contributing to documentation. So dumb to link to already available, good resources instead of building a better alternative. I wish I wasn't so lazy! </sarcasm>
- alex_c 16y ago
  Out of curiosity, can you link to one of those good resources, and to an equivalent w3schools page? Setting aside questions of Google rank and discoverability, I suspect the "good resource" will have much more information, will be more correct, but will also be more verbose, may assume more prior knowledge from the reader, and will be less likely to provide instant gratification. There's a big difference between a good resource for an experienced developer and a good resource for an absolute newbie, and I haven't seen that addressed yet.

by alex_c 16y ago

rwaldron 16y ago

I'm dismissing it because the information is wrong. I also contribute to https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/ https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/ in support of the http://promotejs.com/ http://promotejs.com/ initiative. So as far as I can tell, you're making comments that are wrong because you're not informed.

alex_c 16y ago
I think you might have missed my point. ExpertsExchange was useful because it had a broad range of obscure technical information, and the ability to get specific questions answered, but it was spammy and a pain to use. StackOverflow came along, took the good parts of that model, combined them with a clean interface and an open community, and won. W3Schools is useful because it's a good barebones reference that assumes zero prior knowledge of the subject, but it's somewhat shady in how it represents itself, and the information isn't always accurate/complete/up to date. X came along... As far as I can tell, neither of the two sites you linked, or the parent article, are a good reference for absolute beginners, which is the only thing that will either beat W3Schools or force them to improve.

danheberden 16y ago

Yeah, I spend my time on an open-source library used by thousands of people and supported said library, helping users with problems and contributing to documentation. So dumb to link to already available, good resources instead of building a better alternative. I wish I wasn't so lazy! </sarcasm>

alex_c 16y ago
Out of curiosity, can you link to one of those good resources, and to an equivalent w3schools page? Setting aside questions of Google rank and discoverability, I suspect the "good resource" will have much more information, will be more correct, but will also be more verbose, may assume more prior knowledge from the reader, and will be less likely to provide instant gratification. There's a big difference between a good resource for an experienced developer and a good resource for an absolute newbie, and I haven't seen that addressed yet.