4 ms·

I left stack overflow about a year ago when they banned my account for a week for spamming. I posted a similar answer to a few similar question (like 3 honest)

by foxhop 14y ago

I left stack overflow about a year ago when they banned my account for a week for spamming. I posted a similar answer to a few similar question (like 3 honest) and they banned me. I was so outraged I quit the site completely. That being said I thought about building a site to compete, but stackoverflow basically owns the market. I have no way of collecting users like they do.

genwin 14y ago
If they keep it up you'll have a ready & sizable market.
CamperBob2 14y ago
Stackoverflow took their market directly out of the hands of expertsexchange. They're a lot better than expertsexchange in every respect I can think of offhand, but they do have weaknesses, and I agree with the submitter that one of those is the moderation culture. I'm surprised more users aren't bothered by it. The Internet is not going to run out of space. Just as with Wikipedia, "deletionism" is inevitably an attempt to fix some other problem that could better be addressed some other way. If there's a problem with duplication of questions, that's because the UI doesn't do enough to make the older questions easier to find. (Hint: let users vote on tags, and give karma to users who surf through the suite adding good tags to existing questions.) Marginally-offtopic questions are especially harmless; if there's a problem with those, let the users police the site by downvoting. If that isn't enough, again, it's indicative of some other problem, such as the lack of some sort of gateway between different Stack Exchange sites. Ultimately, the mere fact that a site like stackoverflow needs third-party moderation means there is room for improvement at the design level. It may seem that stackoverflow is the craigslist of Q&A sites, but I don't think so. It will be easier to dislodge than Facebook, I think.
- recursive 14y ago
  The internet running out of space is a red herring. The concern is a dilution of focus of Stack Overflow.
  - foxhop 14y ago
    The answers and questions were both on topic and related to the sites purpose connecting common programming problems with great programming answers.
    - recursive 14y ago
      From the faq: Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page.
      - CamperBob2 14y ago
        If you don't like open-ended questions, software development may not be the career for you.
        recursive 14y ago
        Maybe so. And Stack Overflow may not be the site for you either.
  - CamperBob2 14y ago
    The internet running out of space is a red herring. The concern is a dilution of focus of Stack Overflow. I see you have the same bad habit I do, which is to hit 'Reply' and start typing after having read the first third of a comment.
    - recursive 14y ago
      I am often guilty of that. In this case, I actually read the whole comment. Apparently I'm not comprehending something.
      - CamperBob2 14y ago
        I followed the red-herring comment with a couple of attempts at identifying the underlying issue and correcting it without engaging in excessive censorship.
viraptor 14y ago
Just curious - what was your username? I'd like to see the answers.
- foxhop 14y ago
  russellballestrini or foxhop You cannot delete your account on stackoverflow without writing to the administrators via email. It is a manual process for them,and they don't delete your account they just rename it and prevent you from logging in. The questions do persist. I'm pretty sure they also deleted my "spam" questions when they banned me. edit: the stack overflow account is the only one they deleted/renamed. Here are my related accounts: http://superuser.com/users/28269/russellballestrini http://superuser.com/users/28269/russellballestrini http://serverfault.com/users/27551/russellballestrini http://serverfault.com/users/27551/russellballestrini I was active, honest, helpful and used my real name. on stackoverflow my username was renamed to user221014 or https://www.google.com/#q=user221014&oq=user221014 https://www.google.com/#q=user221014&oq=user221014
  - viraptor 14y ago
    Not trying to offend, but from the answers I see, a number of them are just not right for SO. They're either very opinionated, or not answering the question itself. The first couple of questions from new users go to the moderators' queue automatically, so they will get more attention than stuff from others... then again, that's done exactly so that new users get the feel for what's acceptable and what isn't. If you want to try again, stick around for some time. Add justifications / context to your answers. Some of your answers were of good quality and got appreciated. I wouldn't stop because some posts got closed. It is a community site after all and the big idea is that others can rewrite most of your post and if it gets improved that way, it's better if it stays around forever.
    - foxhop 14y ago
      I have not logged in since they banned me. I am not going to provide free user generated content to a website that bans active and real users for spamming.

by foxhop 14y ago

genwin 14y ago

If they keep it up you'll have a ready & sizable market.

CamperBob2 14y ago

Stackoverflow took their market directly out of the hands of expertsexchange. They're a lot better than expertsexchange in every respect I can think of offhand, but they do have weaknesses, and I agree with the submitter that one of those is the moderation culture. I'm surprised more users aren't bothered by it. The Internet is not going to run out of space. Just as with Wikipedia, "deletionism" is inevitably an attempt to fix some other problem that could better be addressed some other way. If there's a problem with duplication of questions, that's because the UI doesn't do enough to make the older questions easier to find. (Hint: let users vote on tags, and give karma to users who surf through the suite adding good tags to existing questions.) Marginally-offtopic questions are especially harmless; if there's a problem with those, let the users police the site by downvoting. If that isn't enough, again, it's indicative of some other problem, such as the lack of some sort of gateway between different Stack Exchange sites. Ultimately, the mere fact that a site like stackoverflow needs third-party moderation means there is room for improvement at the design level. It may seem that stackoverflow is the craigslist of Q&A sites, but I don't think so. It will be easier to dislodge than Facebook, I think.

recursive 14y ago
The internet running out of space is a red herring. The concern is a dilution of focus of Stack Overflow.
- foxhop 14y ago
  The answers and questions were both on topic and related to the sites purpose connecting common programming problems with great programming answers.
  - recursive 14y ago
    From the faq: Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page.
    - CamperBob2 14y ago
      If you don't like open-ended questions, software development may not be the career for you.
      - recursive 14y ago
        Maybe so. And Stack Overflow may not be the site for you either.
- CamperBob2 14y ago
  The internet running out of space is a red herring. The concern is a dilution of focus of Stack Overflow. I see you have the same bad habit I do, which is to hit 'Reply' and start typing after having read the first third of a comment.
  - recursive 14y ago
    I am often guilty of that. In this case, I actually read the whole comment. Apparently I'm not comprehending something.
    - CamperBob2 14y ago
      I followed the red-herring comment with a couple of attempts at identifying the underlying issue and correcting it without engaging in excessive censorship.

viraptor 14y ago

Just curious - what was your username? I'd like to see the answers.

foxhop 14y ago
russellballestrini or foxhop You cannot delete your account on stackoverflow without writing to the administrators via email. It is a manual process for them,and they don't delete your account they just rename it and prevent you from logging in. The questions do persist. I'm pretty sure they also deleted my "spam" questions when they banned me. edit: the stack overflow account is the only one they deleted/renamed. Here are my related accounts: http://superuser.com/users/28269/russellballestrini http://superuser.com/users/28269/russellballestrini http://serverfault.com/users/27551/russellballestrini http://serverfault.com/users/27551/russellballestrini I was active, honest, helpful and used my real name. on stackoverflow my username was renamed to user221014 or https://www.google.com/#q=user221014&oq=user221014 https://www.google.com/#q=user221014&oq=user221014
- viraptor 14y ago
  Not trying to offend, but from the answers I see, a number of them are just not right for SO. They're either very opinionated, or not answering the question itself. The first couple of questions from new users go to the moderators' queue automatically, so they will get more attention than stuff from others... then again, that's done exactly so that new users get the feel for what's acceptable and what isn't. If you want to try again, stick around for some time. Add justifications / context to your answers. Some of your answers were of good quality and got appreciated. I wouldn't stop because some posts got closed. It is a community site after all and the big idea is that others can rewrite most of your post and if it gets improved that way, it's better if it stays around forever.
  - foxhop 14y ago
    I have not logged in since they banned me. I am not going to provide free user generated content to a website that bans active and real users for spamming.