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Bad mouthing actually works sometimes (read the plentyoffish story the other day?), but I agree it won't succeed in this audience. Would you think it could com

• Tyrannosaurs 16y ago
  I agree badmouthing can work but I also agree that this wasn't one of those times. Maybe early on IF Joel and Jeff hadn't had the sort of following among developers that they have they could have stopped SO gaining traction, but it's certainly not a good strategy now. As I say (in a recent edit), I don't know what the new business model is, just that you've got to question the old one given the changed market. If I sell beans and there is a shop next door giving them away, the fact I don't know how to compete doesn't change the reality of the situation - that sooner or later customers are going to leave me. The other issue they have to contend with is that your effectiveness as a site of this sort is proportional to the number and quality of users you have. As your users drift away, so do the chances of your being able to provide the remaining users with answers to their questions.
• prewett 16y ago
  One of the things I hated about EE in the brief time I saw it before the paywall was that it is really, really ugly. And cluttered. It's actually even worse now... SO, on the other hand is clean and the content is easy to find. Even if EE stopped being sleazy, my eyes would rather go somewhere pleasant. (And what's up with the people without eyes? It makes the site feel really impersonal. A little odd for a forum.)