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Ask HN: Would you pay for someone to answer your StackOverflow question?
EDIT: Just to be clear. It would not be happening on StackOverflow but on a different external site.
If so how much?
Would you consider paying more if she/he would personally help you fix it by modifying your code?
Do you think this kind of service is needed?
Update:
There are many unanswered questions on StackOverflow. I wonder if money was involved maybe a large part of them would have been answered. The question is, if these questions were important to their askers, and why people haven't answered them.
I agree that adding real money into StackOverflow may ruin the whole eco-system, though I wonder if maybe there's a place for it somewhere else.
- WesleyThurner 13y agoI think it would depend on how fast/important the question was to me. But I might pay up to $20 depending on what it is.
- objclxt 13y ago> "Would you consider paying more if he would personally help you fix it by modifying your code?" He or she, really. Personally, I find the "please fix my code [paste large amount of code here]" questions on StackOverflow to be of little value to the community as a whole. I don't mind answering them, but if I look at my own profile (which is a fairly high ~17k rep) my answers that have been most well received/up-voted are almost universally problems that have been abstracted away from "fix teh code" type questions. In a way, bounties are already a kind of payment, if you consider reputation to be a currency of sorts (and I would).
- drorco 13y agoFixed. :) Bounties provide a bigger incentive, however it doesn't always work. Do you think that if instead of 50 points of bounty it was replaced with $50, more people would be getting answers for these questions?
- aniketpant 13y agoStackOverflow is one of the most helpful community I have come across the Internet and I am an active user. I ask questions at times and try to answer whatever I can. Most of my doubts are answered on SO because someone might have already hit that bump before. When I answer questions on SO, I never think about earning via my answer because it doesn't make sense. Most people answer on the website for the simple reason of helping someone out. If I don't answer thinking that I won't get anything out of it, then someone else will answer for sure. I feel that monetizing a part of SO will take away a lot of fun for people like me.
- kolinko 13y agoAs a pro programmer - if I have a problem that I didn't manage to find/google a solution, then it's probably something crazy tough and that only a person in my specific niche can help with. It would probably be too expensive for a service to find such a person & to pay him or her for a reply. On the other hand, I can imagine novices finding use with this site.
- drorco 13y agoAnd if it was costing a few tens of dollars, would it be reasonable?
- s3b 13y agoHow would you react if I tell you I'll only answer if you pay me? (Especially if I know you've paid in the past)
- drorco 13y agoDepends on how bad I need your solution. Another question, would you answer a question for money which otherwise you wouldn't have been answering?
- s3b 13y agoYou probably won't motivate me with small amounts. As they say, "I don't get out of bed for less than $10000". :) However if you offer to donate to charity, I'll probably be inclined to help you.
- jamesjguthrie 13y agoI think if SO suddenly became a pay-for-an-answer website it would quickly die and be replaced with something else that's still free.
- geffchang 13y agoExperts-Exchange is still alive.
- drorco 13y agoIn Experts-Exchange you pay for membership, not pay-per-answer. Actually their business model is quite awkward imo. If you answer enough questions, you don't need to pay which is a weird incentive for supporters imo.
- kohanz 13y agoThe Experts-Exchange UI, last time I saw it, is a catastrophe.
- ivanaj 13y agoWell, I have seen few times in user's profile that write "If you think I was helpful feel free to send something from my Amazon's wishlist."
- 6thSigma 13y agoI think a new Stackoverflow-like site with money involved would be near impossible to take off.
- chrisbennet 13y agoStackOverflow does such a good job now I don't think you could compete. S.O. won't do your homework for you so that's unserved market. If your service was called "Help Me Cheat On My Homework" it might work. ;-)
- jlengrand 13y agoIsn't it already the kind of thing bountify is doing https://bountify.co/ https://bountify.co/? I have been really happy with the service so far, even though people tend to really put low tips compared to the amount of work required
- wturner 13y agoI think it's a question as to whether someone who has a degree of expertise has any reason to be motivated by money when the payments are so small. In a weird way I think software engineers would be doing the internet a service by accepting small amounts instead of doing stackoverflow exclusively.This way the trend can nudge back toward people getting paid for information - even if it's just little amounts. On the flip side I wouldn't mind paying small amounts for my questions that would otherwise be answered on stack overflow. But it would be very small. $1 here, $10 there.