13 ms·

Five years ago, Stack Overflow launched

519 points by df07 13y ago

richardlblair 13y ago
I've learned so much from stack overflow. Thank you so much for making this product.
ck2 13y ago
Stackexchange is getting impressive. http://stackexchange.com/sites?view=grid http://stackexchange.com/sites?view=grid
- Fuzzwah 13y ago
  I was not aware of the LEGO related SE site: http://bricks.stackexchange.com http://bricks.stackexchange.com
- staunch 13y ago
  http://stackexchange.com/sites?view=list#traffic http://stackexchange.com/sites?view=list#traffic I had the opposite reaction, that it has not grown outside of its original niche at all.
  - PeterisP 13y ago
    The niche sites are comparatively tiny, but they are useful - I've found answers I needed, and if they weren't there (since the post count is low, as you say), I got great, rapid answers when I asked them.
  - d0m 13y ago
    I think programmers are always very trendy concerning new services. Think about how reddit was mostly programmers/startups at first or how facebook evolved from being a very specific audience. It'll take some time but in a few years everyone will be as quick as programmers to "google it". And when that happens, the other stackoverflow will certainly get a big bump. Also, I think for some stackoverflow, it's not enough to tweak the colors.. Some of them might need a real disruptive tool to make it happen. For instance, the cooking one could have a hardware adapters to be used in the kitchen. Ok, that was a silly example, but I hope you get the idea.
  - adventured 13y ago
    It's not likely to ever produce another massive category product hit like Stackoverflow. Such success requires very high levels of specialization and dedication (not to mention a category big enough to begin with; all of which are already dominated by very large competitors, eg cooking / recipes). Why would cooking experts or financial pros be drawn to Stack Exchange? They won't be. They'll stick to sites dedicated to those things that possess a very narrow focus, where the quality of content is likely to be higher. It was an interesting attempt on Stack's part to spread out, but who really thought the end result would be them taking over every category? Just take a look at Personal Finance / Money. That's a huge category that is very lucrative. Yet they're getting a whopping 5 questions per day for a three year old site, and a mere 7,200 visits per day. Why? Because "money.stackexchange.com" can never be promoted properly as a brand, it can never carry any kind of reputation as a separate product. An average person isn't going to buy into the notion that that site possesses authority on personal financial matters.
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  - dfbrown 13y ago
    They may not drive the traffic of Stackoverflow, but from what I've seen most of them are great sources of information for their particular topics. There are several other Stackexchanges I personally have found quite useful (ubuntu, tex, cooking, gaming, and homebrew mainly). I also enjoy just reading popular questions and answers from various sites as they can be quite interesting. Some examples: http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/19941/one-foot-in-belgium-and-the-other-in-the-netherlands http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/19941/one-foot-in-... http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/1216/what-is-the-factual-basis-for-pirate-speech-did-pirates-really-say-things-li http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/1216/what-is-the-... http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/75459/why-do-chimneys-have-these-spiral-wings http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/75459/why-do-chim... http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/17578/did-9-11-lead-to-many-deaths-due-to-car-accidents-dwarfing-the-attacks-themsel http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/17578/did-9-11-l...
  - r00fus 13y ago
    Guess it's a different viewpoint. Does everything need to dominate other areas? Why not focus on one thing (in this case question-answer) and simple become the best in that area? I prefer if companies and sites focus on becoming the best in their area rather than continually pivoting to seek more eyeballs/profit.
  - InclinedPlane 13y ago
    The problem stackexchange faces now isn't failure, failure is easy to spot and often straightforward to fix. Instead they risk not living up to their potential, and not by a small amount but by orders of magnitude. With enough effort they could be the new backbone of q&a and forums on the entire web, but they've instead settled into a much smaller niche where they feel more comfortable.
- ggpurehope 13y ago
  Wow this is really great. Didn't know Stackoverflow grew so much lately. Incredible!
austinstorm 13y ago
Beautiful - cheers for Stack Overflow.
soemarko 13y ago
... today, I can't imagined programming without it.
jacquesm 13y ago
StackOverflow took the place of news/dejanews for me. It's a first place to stop whenever I have trouble with just about any piece of software or writing software, usually the answer is right there on the first place in a fairly easy to digest form. Along with wikipedia and the Khan academy it is a fantastic resource. Amazing it is only 5 years old, it feels like it has been around forever, I recall coming across it for the first time while still in Canada and thinking 'this is neat'. I never contributed which is really a miss on my part but I try to keep the number of accounts that I have to an absolute minimum and stackoverflow is plenty useful as it is today. I really should do some community service there one of these days, it is only fair. Hard to imagine that even google could not rescue usenet (or rather, dejanews) from the spam and the trolls.
- lukev 13y ago
  Google obviously didn't even try; Even I could write a bayesian filter to eliminate 90% of the spam that shows up in their web interface, but apparently they didn't bother.
- brandall10 13y ago
  Wholeheartedly agree about the "feels like it has been around forever", which to me is the mark of a product which has changed the game. I simply can't recall what life was like before it. Conservatively speaking, I'm probably a good 2-3x as productive as I was pre SO.
  - drbawb 13y ago
    The only Q&A I can recall before StackOverflow was finding answers on a message board _or_ finding the answers hidden behind a pay-wall. (e.g: ExpertsExchange, which I believe has been around since the 90s.) StackOverflow was definitely a game-changer.
    - ccozan 13y ago
      the EE answers were never really behind a paywall, simply they were so hidden at the bottom of the page that a normal user did had the idea to scroll fully. After all, they needed to present the information to the google bot.
FigBug 13y ago
A lot of people like to hate on Stack Overflow for closing questions and editing questions / answers, bit I really like it. It's much better than anything that came before.
- edraferi 13y ago
  I think the editing features are great. There are plenty of questions where the right answer changes as technology evolves.
conradfr 13y ago
Only five years, wow. I remember at first I was confusing it with Experts-exchange and would avoid clicking to it from Google's results.
scotty79 13y ago
StackOverflow is the website that changed my life the most. It's second only to Google Search. Google Maps is third. Facebook and Twitter could die tomorrow for all I care.
- kamjam 13y ago
  For me, Twitter is actually very usual tool for keeping up to date on industry news, blog posts, articles etc, I use it ONLY for work and not for personal stuff. Using TweetDeck, I find it invaluable (and I never thought I would before I started using it) since it let's be keep a watch on specific hashtags.
  - durzagott 13y ago
    Do you mind if I ask how you are able to use Twitter to keep on top of stuff? I only really have HN and Reddit to keep up with work related news. I've never been able to figure out how to use Twitter for anything useful. It's total gibberish to me.
    - Karunamon 13y ago
      Not the guy you asked, but it's all about who you follow. You can't use Twitter like Facebook (i.e. "friending" everyone you tangentially know) without getting a useless flood of information overload. Twitter is literally only as good as who you follow. You know the types that deride twitter as "Morons posting what they had for lunch" or similar? The answer is "don't follow people who post moronic food-based tweets". Treat it more like an RSS feed with incidental two-way communication and you'll have a grand time.
    - cynwoody 13y ago
      I don't use Twitter the way it's supposed to be used. However, I've found its search function useful for tracking breaking news. E.g., you can get to see the perp's mug shot an hour before the world does. Or pull up his LinkedIn before it gets deleted. Or find his Facebook page without doing the spadework yourself. You'll also come across random factoids that you can use to sharpen up your Google searches. It's also useful for keeping up with certain technical areas. E.g., you can do a search on golang, scan through the results and happen upon stuff you might not come across otherwise.
jedireza 13y ago
Stack Overflow fills the void all the other ranking sites couldn't or didn't. They put the people and content first and grew an amazing network in a short amount of time. I'm even concatenating `stackoverflow` to the end of my searches sometimes when I know the format I want my answer in.
- volokoumphetico 13y ago
  yes, I don't even bother clicking on search results that doesn't have stackoverflow in it! It's very amazing what they've done but I fear that the community has peaked, seeing the growing number of frustrated new comers.
ianstallings 13y ago
It basically killed experts-exchange, which I think was it's intention. Expert sexchange is still around, but irrelevant. Good riddance IMHO.
- pixie_ 13y ago
  Here here!
  - RobotCaleb 13y ago
    Just a note. It's short for "Hear him! Hear him!" Therefore, "hear".
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- andy_adams 13y ago
  I'm sure this won't get me any love, but I worked at Experts-Exchange at one point, and it's not the horrible place SO and Jeff Atwood have painted it as. Spammy marketing tactics? Sure. Is SO better? Absolutely. But in the process of building SO, Jeff and company have basically trashed EE's name, and after seeing EE from the inside I'm one of the rare few who don't think EE is evil incorporated.
  - ianstallings 13y ago
    When it first arrived on the scene it was much like quora is now and I loved that. But then they started trying to trick people into signing up, etc. It just went from awesome to dagnabbit quickly. So when there was one place to find a bunch of other programmers that popped up, I jumped on it.
    - andy_adams 13y ago
      EE's business model was built in the early days of the internet, and before SO came around they had lots of paying customers. "Tricking people to sign up" was really just their attempt at monetizing content. It clearly did not pan out to be the best long-term strategy, but when you already have thousands of paying customers, it gets pretty difficult to "open up" to the general public vs. a company like SO which started open and monetized in other ways (Careers).
jsnk 13y ago
StackOverflow is my stickiest website. I visit it everyday. Heck, I visit it several times a day. I feel like this website will outlive Facebook and Twitter. It's such an indispensible tool in my life.
meshko 13y ago
Stackoverflow is my favorite example of how crappy I am at predicting things. When Joel announced it, I had 0 doubt that it will be a flop. I think 2 months later I visited it and it was completely clear to me that I was wrong. Rare case when I am super happy to be wrong. Happy Birthday!
darkchasma 13y ago
The only complaint I have about Stack Overflow is when you're looking for a library or toolchain and want to get a feel for some of the pros and cons of each of the tech currently being used. I understand the argument of why these questions are killed. But I also have to think that there is value in these conversations.
- lelandbatey 13y ago
  I share that feeling, but I also have to restrain it in the face of the fact that Stack Overflow doesn't seem like it's about discussion, or at least not open-ended discussion. It's about getting expert answers to focused questions, not polling for data or asking opinions. However, I really wish someone would build and maintain a "Stack Overflow" for open-ended discussion. It'd basically be a classic forum (in terms of content) but with a different layout.
  - mathattack 13y ago
    Yes, the distinction between discussion and expertise killed some of my enthusiasm as a contributor. In the end I decided to just enjoy the service as a user.
  - termain 13y ago
    This sounds like a clever comment about Discourse. http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/02/discourse/ http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/02/discourse/.
    - lelandbatey 13y ago
      Well, once again I've learned that someone is always thinking about what I'm thinking, and in this case, doing a much better job implementing it.
  - slig 13y ago
    Maybe you're looking for http://www.discourse.org/about/ http://www.discourse.org/about/
  - 13y ago
volokoumphetico 13y ago
Stackoverflow has been immensely useful for someone who is curious or stuck on coding related topics. I have asked close to 500 questions over the course of 3 years having checked it almost daily with some months of hiatus. The amount of knowledge gained from questions alone is immense. I have answered about 20 questions but I found it a lot less attractive as I'd rather learn new things than recite from memory solutions. The questions are growingly become more and more strict in terms of moderation and for new comers it's frustrating experience to have your questions closed because existing members like to taunt newbies. I don't see SO taking off anymore, rather finding on news.ycombinator means it has peaked. The very people that flock to SO are shunned for asking questions that are not clear. Rather than aid them, questions are closed. This leaves a very bad taste in a newbies mouth. The massive traffic is from the previous accumulation of users but again the overly zealous moderators have ruined the welcoming community image. Long ago someone asked about intended meaning vs literal meaning in questions. This received massive amount of downvotes (existing gurus) but I saw this is something critical that SO founders have completely missed. Remember in Pakistan, during the 1971 war with India. The civilians that have put Bhutto in power have become so alienated from socialist policies of the leader, failing to see that it's the people that put an individual in power. He was ousted by the CIA but it wouldn't have been possible without the general animosity and betrayal from the public.
- bluedino 13y ago
  >> for new comers it's frustrating experience to have your questions closed because existing members like to taunt newbies. Isn't that the entire internet?
  - volokoumphetico 13y ago
    what is the entire internet? it's a collection of servers talking to each other an agreed upon and standardized protocols that browsers running on operating systems can understand. I would SO close this question right now (pun intended) ;)
    - bluedino 13y ago
d0m 13y ago
Stackoverflow is so good.. anytime it's not stackoverflow, I'm sooo disappointed. A feature that I miss on stackoverflow would be a way to still use it on "incorrect" questions. For instance, someone asks "What's the best Linux distribution?". Obviously, it will be flagged and closed because it will most likely create a debate rather than having a strong and unique "best" answer. However, it would still be interesting to have another tab, say "Discussion", where people could shoot arguments and the best ones could still be upvoted. So, yes, there wouldn't be "one best answer", but it would still be fun to read the best answers.
- sillysaurus2 13y ago
  This. It's the only avenue that a competitor could use to subvert Stackoverflow. Make a copy of SO, but allow subjective questions, and make it easy for people who are trying to discuss them to migrate from SO to your site.
- eterm 13y ago
  If there were discussions then it wouldn't be so good for exactly what it's good for, discovering good solid answers to obscure programming problems. Where else to discover why date pickers don't always properly show up[1] or why the default printer doesn't stay in sync in VB6[2]. Discussions would quickly drown out the real content and it would degrade. I love the fact that from the start SO has been about real answers to real problems. [1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12633471/mvc4-datatype-date-editorfor-wont-display-date-value-in-chrome-fine-in-ie http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12633471/mvc4-datatype-da... [2] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/695784/how-do-you-recognize-when-the-user-has-changed-the-windows-default-printer-in-vb/695855#695855 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/695784/how-do-you-recogni...
- mbesto 13y ago
  Isn't this what Quora is? I notice a vast amount of sentiment on HN about how we need a "subjective place to discuss" and yet you already have it (quora). My reaction is - you don't. What's becomes more helpful than reading discussions about what $FRAMEWORK1 is better than $FRAMEWORK2 (that inevitably are not supposed to end) is to stop discussing and build yourself.
codegeek 13y ago
Congratulations to SO!! In addition to being a great resource for developers worldwide, I think the most powerful impact that it has made can be summed up by the following in the post: "An incredible number of people jumped at the chance to help a stranger" This. The idea that you are able to help someone across the world in a matter of seconds is incredible. In case of SO, it applies to programming and technology but imagine if we had other SOs that did the same for poverty, hunger, education and world peace. Just a thought!!
anuragramdasan 13y ago
It was around when I started coding. So it literally seems like forever to me. I have definitely hated the attitudes of a lot of people over there and also the unusual closing of questions, but its inarguable that this site is probably one of the most important things on the internet for programmers.
joelle 13y ago
As a new developer, stack overflow has been an invaluable resource. My boyfriend (who's been a developer for many years now) always tells me I don't know how nice I have it every time he sees me open stack overflow up to figure something out. "In my day... I had to walk to school in the snow, barefoot, uphill both ways..." But although I don't know from personal experience how much harder things were pre- stack overflow - I can certainly appreciate it! It's taken a lot of the headache out of learning for me and is a great safety net when I'm unsure.
ateev 13y ago
And this changed my life. Most of my programming skills have been improved from suggestions of people at stackoverflow only. it just make a programmer, a better programmer 1
dylandrop 13y ago
StackOverflow remains not only my #1 resource, but the resource I give to people when tutoring them. I encourage using it not only as a helper for bugs, but also for questions like "how best to do X". The sooner they use StackOverflow for their programming issues, the sooner they start understanding what they're doing. What really helped me out when I was first starting doing web development was that no matter the question, people had the same problem as me -- usually VERBATIM. I can't stress how nice it is to copy and paste something into Google and get back the answer. On a final note, I encourage everyone to try to give back a little into StackOverflow. I've been going for about 2 years and have around 4 thousand reputation built up, mostly on Rails questions. But at the same time, I'm starting to notice that there are a lot of rookie answers (although this might be a Rails-specific issue)... and this is coming from someone who's still in college and not a full time web dev yet. If you're good, answer a few questions.
kentbrew 13y ago
If we could just get stackoverflow results to push down w3schools results, life would be complete.
- nostrademons 13y ago
  Or just get the w3c/whatwg results ranked higher...
hackula1 13y ago
Congrats SO; continue to rot in hell expert sexchange (expertsexhange.com)! ;)
BuddhaSource 13y ago
>>In the history of the world, gamification has never gotten a single person do anything they didn’t already basically like to do. - Jay Hanlon This sums up why we use internet.
- elsurudo 13y ago
  That's not really true. Look at "grinding" in MMOs. I don't think people enjoy the process of grinding, just the end result (some virtual coins or whatever). It's really a Pavlovian brain hack.
zwieback 13y ago
Congratulations. I remember following the Joel/Jeff podcast and signing up to SO as soon as I could. Even before it started I had a feeling it would be a great place and I still think SO is one of the few places that got gamification right.
jchung 13y ago
StackOverflow and the StackOverflow community shaved years off my quest to learn to develop software. I can't express enough how much I owe to the people who made SO and make SO thrive.
danabramov 13y ago
StackOverflow killed forums for me, as I believe for many others. And I don't miss them. (Almost.)
nohuck13 13y ago
Completely agree with all the "feels like it's been around forever" sentiment. I was surprised to read this post and be reminded that it's only been five years! One of the things if feels like people have overlooked in the comments is the power of gamification. I know it's kind of a passe buzzword these days, but StackOverflow really innovated: reputation not just for questions but for everything, badges, bonuses for everything from editing your answers a lot to sticking around for a year. When I started contributing, I was surprised at how "hooked" it felt. I know I should feel a bit ambivalent about this, but it's a big part of the secret sauce that's made it a really effective community.
ilaksh 13y ago
Stack overflow is great but I have mostly stopped trying to contribute to it because my questions or answers are often closed or whatever. Or some mod or someone just comes and insults me on the basis that they thought my question was stupid or not right somehow.
faraazin 13y ago
It does not matter, but i wish there was a mention of "ASP.NET" somewhere.
pavanred 13y ago
I can't believe its only 5 years old, it feels like its been there for a long time. SO has always helped me a great deal. I remember when I first started going to SO for answers, soon I had an urge to contribute back to the SO community, whatever little I could. I used to work with .net and SQL Server those days, and I used to have Linqpad open and ready right from the morning, looking for questions that I could answer. As soon as I found a question I can answer, I would verify it as quickly as possible and post it. I still remember how annoying it was to get the answer right and to realize someone posted a similar answer just seconds before I did. Good old days.
JayEnn 13y ago
I've got over 15k rep on SO and I've found more and more difficult to make an impact on there. Questions have either been asked or are answered instantly. All the time I'm getting answers and questions closed down and deleted as mods are gardening. I don't know what the answer is but its grown to the point where I find it too much effort too much. Having said all that I'm just glad that its there. I remember coding without the internet (and I don't just mean a router failure) and that had its own challenges but SO has got me answers typically with in minutes and now instantly as the Q. base has grown. It's an amazing resource. If they can work out how people can contribute easily again it will be here for years to come.
morgante 13y ago
I'm amazed that it's only 5 years old. In those years, it's redefined both how software development works and the terminology we use to describe it. Honestly, it's helped me to become a better developer in so, so many ways. What were SO-coders doing 5 years ago?
mizanrahman 13y ago
Rise of SO and time span of its rising is really amazing!! It's going to be part of classic cs literature. already recruiters ask for SO reputation before hiring.
lyndonh 13y ago
I don't like posting on SO because it doesn't matter how careful I am to word my questions I always get asked to "show your code". Even when I'm asking about general usage of an API or theory. Usually I end up posting my code and these people disappear without answering my question. People seem to be only interested in questions where they can spot missing semi colons and get some easy points.
- cynwoody 13y ago
  I agree, a lot of the time your code would be too long and involved or too confidential to post. So, what you need to do is boil your problem down to an essential few lines sufficient to make the bug happen or illustrate what you are trying to do. A lot of times, when you do that, you find your answer along the way. Sometimes it can be difficult, however. E.g., you may have a race condition that shows up in your actual code but which you can't make happen in your short example. Then you just have to explain your question as best you can.
ydeft 13y ago
Stack Overflow has been an invaluable resource for me as I learned, and continue to learn, programming. Congratulations on five years! (it feels like I've known you a lot longer)
methodin 13y ago
There's pre-so and post-so. The post-so world is much better for all developers.
hawkharris 13y ago
I appreciate Stack Overflow even more when I think about it in terms of a broader trend. A paper published earlier this year showed that online comments can affect Americans' perceptions of science. In fact, the comments posted on science articles can persuade readers more than the articles themselves. [0] This got me thinking: every year more people are turning to the Internet for advice about serious subjects — medical advice, technical advice, a basic understanding of science. This fact, combined with the findings about the persuasiveness of comments, suggests that comments are tied to a growing ethical responsibility. In other words, if you manage a website that deals with, say, health care, science or technology, you have an ethical obligation to a) recognize the potential harm that can result from misinformation in comments; b) take action to minimize that harm and facilitate a productive dialogue. This brings me to Stack Overflow, which has a responsibility to offer accurate, useful feedback about programming. The stakes can be high, considering that a malicious or misinformed user could easily convince others to execute harmful code. I think Stack Overflow is an excellent example of how sites can use rewards systems to encourage positive feedback and punish (i.e. downvote) those who disseminate misinformation or off-topic questions. The feedback as a whole seems very focused and accurate. I hope other sites that offer serious advice will become more aware of their responsibility to solicit accurate comments. Now that we know comments can seriously affect readers' perceptions, it seems that an anything-goes comment form can be unethical. Stack Overflow may be a great role model in this respect. [0]http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6115/40.summary http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6115/40.summary
maxwin 13y ago
wow, it seems like StackOverflow has been there forever.
Knacktus 13y ago
Besides all the bad things and malicious behaviour of the big players (yes, all of them) the internet has brought to us, there're still sites that have changed the world to a better place. Especially StackOverflow has contributed largely to increase the equaly of opportunities. Due to the lack of basic education and access to hardware and the internet not yet everybody, but a massivly increased number of people can become great developers. At some point you need help from the experienced. Books and online documentation don't help anymore, that's where SO comes into play. It made me a 2-3 times better developer and kept my spirit up when I couldn't solve a problem by myself.
vvsanil 13y ago
It's nice idea "Helping Others"
enscr 13y ago
My biggest pet peeve is the 'trigger happy mods' at Stackoverflow. They jump at the opportunity to lock a question. Often questions are well suited for SO & there's no better place to find a credible answer.
jbrooksuk 13y ago
I managed to get around 2.5k rep, but since my higher-level questions don't get enough attention, I offer bounties - losing the rep. Even if I then answer my own question, the rep remains gone. This never makes sense to me. I have issues with SO, but I use it almost daily.
- ygra 13y ago
  I cannot remember giving a bounty that was actually worth it (in the low six figures of rep by now). Sometimes you have a question and no answer turns up in a few days. You put a bounty up and suddenly you get answers, but they're just grasping for straws, or the bounty in that case, by simply answering anything that could be helpful. At least for my unanswered questions a bounty never turned up a good answer.
gracemo 13y ago
..and thankfully we had the most amazing alternative to Experts-exchange.com
pdknsk 13y ago
Google should learn from the SO duplicate questions finder. I have often been surprised at how good it works. In contrast to that, Google doesn't have anything like this on Google Code bug trackers (most importantly for their own products) or its support forums. The amount of unnoticed duplicate Chrome bug reports is huge.

519 points by df07 13y ago

richardlblair 13y ago

I've learned so much from stack overflow. Thank you so much for making this product.

ck2 13y ago

Stackexchange is getting impressive. http://stackexchange.com/sites?view=grid http://stackexchange.com/sites?view=grid

Fuzzwah 13y ago
I was not aware of the LEGO related SE site: http://bricks.stackexchange.com http://bricks.stackexchange.com
staunch 13y ago
http://stackexchange.com/sites?view=list#traffic http://stackexchange.com/sites?view=list#traffic I had the opposite reaction, that it has not grown outside of its original niche at all.
- PeterisP 13y ago
  The niche sites are comparatively tiny, but they are useful - I've found answers I needed, and if they weren't there (since the post count is low, as you say), I got great, rapid answers when I asked them.
- d0m 13y ago
  I think programmers are always very trendy concerning new services. Think about how reddit was mostly programmers/startups at first or how facebook evolved from being a very specific audience. It'll take some time but in a few years everyone will be as quick as programmers to "google it". And when that happens, the other stackoverflow will certainly get a big bump. Also, I think for some stackoverflow, it's not enough to tweak the colors.. Some of them might need a real disruptive tool to make it happen. For instance, the cooking one could have a hardware adapters to be used in the kitchen. Ok, that was a silly example, but I hope you get the idea.
- adventured 13y ago
  It's not likely to ever produce another massive category product hit like Stackoverflow. Such success requires very high levels of specialization and dedication (not to mention a category big enough to begin with; all of which are already dominated by very large competitors, eg cooking / recipes). Why would cooking experts or financial pros be drawn to Stack Exchange? They won't be. They'll stick to sites dedicated to those things that possess a very narrow focus, where the quality of content is likely to be higher. It was an interesting attempt on Stack's part to spread out, but who really thought the end result would be them taking over every category? Just take a look at Personal Finance / Money. That's a huge category that is very lucrative. Yet they're getting a whopping 5 questions per day for a three year old site, and a mere 7,200 visits per day. Why? Because "money.stackexchange.com" can never be promoted properly as a brand, it can never carry any kind of reputation as a separate product. An average person isn't going to buy into the notion that that site possesses authority on personal financial matters.
  - deleted 13y ago
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- dfbrown 13y ago
  They may not drive the traffic of Stackoverflow, but from what I've seen most of them are great sources of information for their particular topics. There are several other Stackexchanges I personally have found quite useful (ubuntu, tex, cooking, gaming, and homebrew mainly). I also enjoy just reading popular questions and answers from various sites as they can be quite interesting. Some examples: http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/19941/one-foot-in-belgium-and-the-other-in-the-netherlands http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/19941/one-foot-in-... http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/1216/what-is-the-factual-basis-for-pirate-speech-did-pirates-really-say-things-li http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/1216/what-is-the-... http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/75459/why-do-chimneys-have-these-spiral-wings http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/75459/why-do-chim... http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/17578/did-9-11-lead-to-many-deaths-due-to-car-accidents-dwarfing-the-attacks-themsel http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/17578/did-9-11-l...
- r00fus 13y ago
  Guess it's a different viewpoint. Does everything need to dominate other areas? Why not focus on one thing (in this case question-answer) and simple become the best in that area? I prefer if companies and sites focus on becoming the best in their area rather than continually pivoting to seek more eyeballs/profit.
- InclinedPlane 13y ago
  The problem stackexchange faces now isn't failure, failure is easy to spot and often straightforward to fix. Instead they risk not living up to their potential, and not by a small amount but by orders of magnitude. With enough effort they could be the new backbone of q&a and forums on the entire web, but they've instead settled into a much smaller niche where they feel more comfortable.
ggpurehope 13y ago
Wow this is really great. Didn't know Stackoverflow grew so much lately. Incredible!

austinstorm 13y ago

Beautiful - cheers for Stack Overflow.

soemarko 13y ago

... today, I can't imagined programming without it.

jacquesm 13y ago

StackOverflow took the place of news/dejanews for me. It's a first place to stop whenever I have trouble with just about any piece of software or writing software, usually the answer is right there on the first place in a fairly easy to digest form. Along with wikipedia and the Khan academy it is a fantastic resource. Amazing it is only 5 years old, it feels like it has been around forever, I recall coming across it for the first time while still in Canada and thinking 'this is neat'. I never contributed which is really a miss on my part but I try to keep the number of accounts that I have to an absolute minimum and stackoverflow is plenty useful as it is today. I really should do some community service there one of these days, it is only fair. Hard to imagine that even google could not rescue usenet (or rather, dejanews) from the spam and the trolls.

lukev 13y ago
Google obviously didn't even try; Even I could write a bayesian filter to eliminate 90% of the spam that shows up in their web interface, but apparently they didn't bother.
brandall10 13y ago
Wholeheartedly agree about the "feels like it has been around forever", which to me is the mark of a product which has changed the game. I simply can't recall what life was like before it. Conservatively speaking, I'm probably a good 2-3x as productive as I was pre SO.
- drbawb 13y ago
  The only Q&A I can recall before StackOverflow was finding answers on a message board _or_ finding the answers hidden behind a pay-wall. (e.g: ExpertsExchange, which I believe has been around since the 90s.) StackOverflow was definitely a game-changer.
  - ccozan 13y ago
    the EE answers were never really behind a paywall, simply they were so hidden at the bottom of the page that a normal user did had the idea to scroll fully. After all, they needed to present the information to the google bot.

FigBug 13y ago

A lot of people like to hate on Stack Overflow for closing questions and editing questions / answers, bit I really like it. It's much better than anything that came before.

edraferi 13y ago
I think the editing features are great. There are plenty of questions where the right answer changes as technology evolves.

conradfr 13y ago

Only five years, wow. I remember at first I was confusing it with Experts-exchange and would avoid clicking to it from Google's results.

scotty79 13y ago

StackOverflow is the website that changed my life the most. It's second only to Google Search. Google Maps is third. Facebook and Twitter could die tomorrow for all I care.

kamjam 13y ago
For me, Twitter is actually very usual tool for keeping up to date on industry news, blog posts, articles etc, I use it ONLY for work and not for personal stuff. Using TweetDeck, I find it invaluable (and I never thought I would before I started using it) since it let's be keep a watch on specific hashtags.
- durzagott 13y ago
  Do you mind if I ask how you are able to use Twitter to keep on top of stuff? I only really have HN and Reddit to keep up with work related news. I've never been able to figure out how to use Twitter for anything useful. It's total gibberish to me.
  - Karunamon 13y ago
    Not the guy you asked, but it's all about who you follow. You can't use Twitter like Facebook (i.e. "friending" everyone you tangentially know) without getting a useless flood of information overload. Twitter is literally only as good as who you follow. You know the types that deride twitter as "Morons posting what they had for lunch" or similar? The answer is "don't follow people who post moronic food-based tweets". Treat it more like an RSS feed with incidental two-way communication and you'll have a grand time.
  - cynwoody 13y ago
    I don't use Twitter the way it's supposed to be used. However, I've found its search function useful for tracking breaking news. E.g., you can get to see the perp's mug shot an hour before the world does. Or pull up his LinkedIn before it gets deleted. Or find his Facebook page without doing the spadework yourself. You'll also come across random factoids that you can use to sharpen up your Google searches. It's also useful for keeping up with certain technical areas. E.g., you can do a search on golang, scan through the results and happen upon stuff you might not come across otherwise.

jedireza 13y ago

Stack Overflow fills the void all the other ranking sites couldn't or didn't. They put the people and content first and grew an amazing network in a short amount of time. I'm even concatenating `stackoverflow` to the end of my searches sometimes when I know the format I want my answer in.

volokoumphetico 13y ago
yes, I don't even bother clicking on search results that doesn't have stackoverflow in it! It's very amazing what they've done but I fear that the community has peaked, seeing the growing number of frustrated new comers.

ianstallings 13y ago

It basically killed experts-exchange, which I think was it's intention. Expert sexchange is still around, but irrelevant. Good riddance IMHO.

pixie_ 13y ago
Here here!
- RobotCaleb 13y ago
  Just a note. It's short for "Hear him! Hear him!" Therefore, "hear".
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
andy_adams 13y ago
I'm sure this won't get me any love, but I worked at Experts-Exchange at one point, and it's not the horrible place SO and Jeff Atwood have painted it as. Spammy marketing tactics? Sure. Is SO better? Absolutely. But in the process of building SO, Jeff and company have basically trashed EE's name, and after seeing EE from the inside I'm one of the rare few who don't think EE is evil incorporated.
- ianstallings 13y ago
  When it first arrived on the scene it was much like quora is now and I loved that. But then they started trying to trick people into signing up, etc. It just went from awesome to dagnabbit quickly. So when there was one place to find a bunch of other programmers that popped up, I jumped on it.
  - andy_adams 13y ago
    EE's business model was built in the early days of the internet, and before SO came around they had lots of paying customers. "Tricking people to sign up" was really just their attempt at monetizing content. It clearly did not pan out to be the best long-term strategy, but when you already have thousands of paying customers, it gets pretty difficult to "open up" to the general public vs. a company like SO which started open and monetized in other ways (Careers).

jsnk 13y ago

StackOverflow is my stickiest website. I visit it everyday. Heck, I visit it several times a day. I feel like this website will outlive Facebook and Twitter. It's such an indispensible tool in my life.

meshko 13y ago

Stackoverflow is my favorite example of how crappy I am at predicting things. When Joel announced it, I had 0 doubt that it will be a flop. I think 2 months later I visited it and it was completely clear to me that I was wrong. Rare case when I am super happy to be wrong. Happy Birthday!

darkchasma 13y ago

The only complaint I have about Stack Overflow is when you're looking for a library or toolchain and want to get a feel for some of the pros and cons of each of the tech currently being used. I understand the argument of why these questions are killed. But I also have to think that there is value in these conversations.

lelandbatey 13y ago
I share that feeling, but I also have to restrain it in the face of the fact that Stack Overflow doesn't seem like it's about discussion, or at least not open-ended discussion. It's about getting expert answers to focused questions, not polling for data or asking opinions. However, I really wish someone would build and maintain a "Stack Overflow" for open-ended discussion. It'd basically be a classic forum (in terms of content) but with a different layout.
- mathattack 13y ago
  Yes, the distinction between discussion and expertise killed some of my enthusiasm as a contributor. In the end I decided to just enjoy the service as a user.
- termain 13y ago
  This sounds like a clever comment about Discourse. http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/02/discourse/ http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/02/discourse/.
  - lelandbatey 13y ago
    Well, once again I've learned that someone is always thinking about what I'm thinking, and in this case, doing a much better job implementing it.
- slig 13y ago
  Maybe you're looking for http://www.discourse.org/about/ http://www.discourse.org/about/
- 13y ago

volokoumphetico 13y ago

Stackoverflow has been immensely useful for someone who is curious or stuck on coding related topics. I have asked close to 500 questions over the course of 3 years having checked it almost daily with some months of hiatus. The amount of knowledge gained from questions alone is immense. I have answered about 20 questions but I found it a lot less attractive as I'd rather learn new things than recite from memory solutions. The questions are growingly become more and more strict in terms of moderation and for new comers it's frustrating experience to have your questions closed because existing members like to taunt newbies. I don't see SO taking off anymore, rather finding on news.ycombinator means it has peaked. The very people that flock to SO are shunned for asking questions that are not clear. Rather than aid them, questions are closed. This leaves a very bad taste in a newbies mouth. The massive traffic is from the previous accumulation of users but again the overly zealous moderators have ruined the welcoming community image. Long ago someone asked about intended meaning vs literal meaning in questions. This received massive amount of downvotes (existing gurus) but I saw this is something critical that SO founders have completely missed. Remember in Pakistan, during the 1971 war with India. The civilians that have put Bhutto in power have become so alienated from socialist policies of the leader, failing to see that it's the people that put an individual in power. He was ousted by the CIA but it wouldn't have been possible without the general animosity and betrayal from the public.

bluedino 13y ago
>> for new comers it's frustrating experience to have your questions closed because existing members like to taunt newbies. Isn't that the entire internet?
- volokoumphetico 13y ago
  what is the entire internet? it's a collection of servers talking to each other an agreed upon and standardized protocols that browsers running on operating systems can understand. I would SO close this question right now (pun intended) ;)
  - bluedino 13y ago

d0m 13y ago

Stackoverflow is so good.. anytime it's not stackoverflow, I'm sooo disappointed. A feature that I miss on stackoverflow would be a way to still use it on "incorrect" questions. For instance, someone asks "What's the best Linux distribution?". Obviously, it will be flagged and closed because it will most likely create a debate rather than having a strong and unique "best" answer. However, it would still be interesting to have another tab, say "Discussion", where people could shoot arguments and the best ones could still be upvoted. So, yes, there wouldn't be "one best answer", but it would still be fun to read the best answers.

sillysaurus2 13y ago
This. It's the only avenue that a competitor could use to subvert Stackoverflow. Make a copy of SO, but allow subjective questions, and make it easy for people who are trying to discuss them to migrate from SO to your site.
eterm 13y ago
If there were discussions then it wouldn't be so good for exactly what it's good for, discovering good solid answers to obscure programming problems. Where else to discover why date pickers don't always properly show up[1] or why the default printer doesn't stay in sync in VB6[2]. Discussions would quickly drown out the real content and it would degrade. I love the fact that from the start SO has been about real answers to real problems. [1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12633471/mvc4-datatype-date-editorfor-wont-display-date-value-in-chrome-fine-in-ie http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12633471/mvc4-datatype-da... [2] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/695784/how-do-you-recognize-when-the-user-has-changed-the-windows-default-printer-in-vb/695855#695855 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/695784/how-do-you-recogni...
mbesto 13y ago
Isn't this what Quora is? I notice a vast amount of sentiment on HN about how we need a "subjective place to discuss" and yet you already have it (quora). My reaction is - you don't. What's becomes more helpful than reading discussions about what $FRAMEWORK1 is better than $FRAMEWORK2 (that inevitably are not supposed to end) is to stop discussing and build yourself.

codegeek 13y ago

Congratulations to SO!! In addition to being a great resource for developers worldwide, I think the most powerful impact that it has made can be summed up by the following in the post: "An incredible number of people jumped at the chance to help a stranger" This. The idea that you are able to help someone across the world in a matter of seconds is incredible. In case of SO, it applies to programming and technology but imagine if we had other SOs that did the same for poverty, hunger, education and world peace. Just a thought!!

anuragramdasan 13y ago

It was around when I started coding. So it literally seems like forever to me. I have definitely hated the attitudes of a lot of people over there and also the unusual closing of questions, but its inarguable that this site is probably one of the most important things on the internet for programmers.

joelle 13y ago

As a new developer, stack overflow has been an invaluable resource. My boyfriend (who's been a developer for many years now) always tells me I don't know how nice I have it every time he sees me open stack overflow up to figure something out. "In my day... I had to walk to school in the snow, barefoot, uphill both ways..." But although I don't know from personal experience how much harder things were pre- stack overflow - I can certainly appreciate it! It's taken a lot of the headache out of learning for me and is a great safety net when I'm unsure.

ateev 13y ago

And this changed my life. Most of my programming skills have been improved from suggestions of people at stackoverflow only. it just make a programmer, a better programmer 1

dylandrop 13y ago

StackOverflow remains not only my #1 resource, but the resource I give to people when tutoring them. I encourage using it not only as a helper for bugs, but also for questions like "how best to do X". The sooner they use StackOverflow for their programming issues, the sooner they start understanding what they're doing. What really helped me out when I was first starting doing web development was that no matter the question, people had the same problem as me -- usually VERBATIM. I can't stress how nice it is to copy and paste something into Google and get back the answer. On a final note, I encourage everyone to try to give back a little into StackOverflow. I've been going for about 2 years and have around 4 thousand reputation built up, mostly on Rails questions. But at the same time, I'm starting to notice that there are a lot of rookie answers (although this might be a Rails-specific issue)... and this is coming from someone who's still in college and not a full time web dev yet. If you're good, answer a few questions.

kentbrew 13y ago

If we could just get stackoverflow results to push down w3schools results, life would be complete.

nostrademons 13y ago
Or just get the w3c/whatwg results ranked higher...

hackula1 13y ago

Congrats SO; continue to rot in hell expert sexchange (expertsexhange.com)! ;)

BuddhaSource 13y ago

>>In the history of the world, gamification has never gotten a single person do anything they didn’t already basically like to do. - Jay Hanlon This sums up why we use internet.

elsurudo 13y ago
That's not really true. Look at "grinding" in MMOs. I don't think people enjoy the process of grinding, just the end result (some virtual coins or whatever). It's really a Pavlovian brain hack.

zwieback 13y ago

Congratulations. I remember following the Joel/Jeff podcast and signing up to SO as soon as I could. Even before it started I had a feeling it would be a great place and I still think SO is one of the few places that got gamification right.

jchung 13y ago

StackOverflow and the StackOverflow community shaved years off my quest to learn to develop software. I can't express enough how much I owe to the people who made SO and make SO thrive.

danabramov 13y ago

StackOverflow killed forums for me, as I believe for many others. And I don't miss them. (Almost.)

nohuck13 13y ago

Completely agree with all the "feels like it's been around forever" sentiment. I was surprised to read this post and be reminded that it's only been five years! One of the things if feels like people have overlooked in the comments is the power of gamification. I know it's kind of a passe buzzword these days, but StackOverflow really innovated: reputation not just for questions but for everything, badges, bonuses for everything from editing your answers a lot to sticking around for a year. When I started contributing, I was surprised at how "hooked" it felt. I know I should feel a bit ambivalent about this, but it's a big part of the secret sauce that's made it a really effective community.

ilaksh 13y ago

Stack overflow is great but I have mostly stopped trying to contribute to it because my questions or answers are often closed or whatever. Or some mod or someone just comes and insults me on the basis that they thought my question was stupid or not right somehow.

faraazin 13y ago

It does not matter, but i wish there was a mention of "ASP.NET" somewhere.

pavanred 13y ago

I can't believe its only 5 years old, it feels like its been there for a long time. SO has always helped me a great deal. I remember when I first started going to SO for answers, soon I had an urge to contribute back to the SO community, whatever little I could. I used to work with .net and SQL Server those days, and I used to have Linqpad open and ready right from the morning, looking for questions that I could answer. As soon as I found a question I can answer, I would verify it as quickly as possible and post it. I still remember how annoying it was to get the answer right and to realize someone posted a similar answer just seconds before I did. Good old days.

JayEnn 13y ago

I've got over 15k rep on SO and I've found more and more difficult to make an impact on there. Questions have either been asked or are answered instantly. All the time I'm getting answers and questions closed down and deleted as mods are gardening. I don't know what the answer is but its grown to the point where I find it too much effort too much. Having said all that I'm just glad that its there. I remember coding without the internet (and I don't just mean a router failure) and that had its own challenges but SO has got me answers typically with in minutes and now instantly as the Q. base has grown. It's an amazing resource. If they can work out how people can contribute easily again it will be here for years to come.

morgante 13y ago

I'm amazed that it's only 5 years old. In those years, it's redefined both how software development works and the terminology we use to describe it. Honestly, it's helped me to become a better developer in so, so many ways. What were SO-coders doing 5 years ago?

mizanrahman 13y ago

Rise of SO and time span of its rising is really amazing!! It's going to be part of classic cs literature. already recruiters ask for SO reputation before hiring.

lyndonh 13y ago

I don't like posting on SO because it doesn't matter how careful I am to word my questions I always get asked to "show your code". Even when I'm asking about general usage of an API or theory. Usually I end up posting my code and these people disappear without answering my question. People seem to be only interested in questions where they can spot missing semi colons and get some easy points.

cynwoody 13y ago
I agree, a lot of the time your code would be too long and involved or too confidential to post. So, what you need to do is boil your problem down to an essential few lines sufficient to make the bug happen or illustrate what you are trying to do. A lot of times, when you do that, you find your answer along the way. Sometimes it can be difficult, however. E.g., you may have a race condition that shows up in your actual code but which you can't make happen in your short example. Then you just have to explain your question as best you can.

ydeft 13y ago

Stack Overflow has been an invaluable resource for me as I learned, and continue to learn, programming. Congratulations on five years! (it feels like I've known you a lot longer)

methodin 13y ago

There's pre-so and post-so. The post-so world is much better for all developers.

hawkharris 13y ago

I appreciate Stack Overflow even more when I think about it in terms of a broader trend. A paper published earlier this year showed that online comments can affect Americans' perceptions of science. In fact, the comments posted on science articles can persuade readers more than the articles themselves. [0] This got me thinking: every year more people are turning to the Internet for advice about serious subjects — medical advice, technical advice, a basic understanding of science. This fact, combined with the findings about the persuasiveness of comments, suggests that comments are tied to a growing ethical responsibility. In other words, if you manage a website that deals with, say, health care, science or technology, you have an ethical obligation to a) recognize the potential harm that can result from misinformation in comments; b) take action to minimize that harm and facilitate a productive dialogue. This brings me to Stack Overflow, which has a responsibility to offer accurate, useful feedback about programming. The stakes can be high, considering that a malicious or misinformed user could easily convince others to execute harmful code. I think Stack Overflow is an excellent example of how sites can use rewards systems to encourage positive feedback and punish (i.e. downvote) those who disseminate misinformation or off-topic questions. The feedback as a whole seems very focused and accurate. I hope other sites that offer serious advice will become more aware of their responsibility to solicit accurate comments. Now that we know comments can seriously affect readers' perceptions, it seems that an anything-goes comment form can be unethical. Stack Overflow may be a great role model in this respect. [0]http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6115/40.summary http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6115/40.summary

maxwin 13y ago

wow, it seems like StackOverflow has been there forever.

Knacktus 13y ago

Besides all the bad things and malicious behaviour of the big players (yes, all of them) the internet has brought to us, there're still sites that have changed the world to a better place. Especially StackOverflow has contributed largely to increase the equaly of opportunities. Due to the lack of basic education and access to hardware and the internet not yet everybody, but a massivly increased number of people can become great developers. At some point you need help from the experienced. Books and online documentation don't help anymore, that's where SO comes into play. It made me a 2-3 times better developer and kept my spirit up when I couldn't solve a problem by myself.

vvsanil 13y ago

It's nice idea "Helping Others"

enscr 13y ago

My biggest pet peeve is the 'trigger happy mods' at Stackoverflow. They jump at the opportunity to lock a question. Often questions are well suited for SO & there's no better place to find a credible answer.

jbrooksuk 13y ago

I managed to get around 2.5k rep, but since my higher-level questions don't get enough attention, I offer bounties - losing the rep. Even if I then answer my own question, the rep remains gone. This never makes sense to me. I have issues with SO, but I use it almost daily.

ygra 13y ago
I cannot remember giving a bounty that was actually worth it (in the low six figures of rep by now). Sometimes you have a question and no answer turns up in a few days. You put a bounty up and suddenly you get answers, but they're just grasping for straws, or the bounty in that case, by simply answering anything that could be helpful. At least for my unanswered questions a bounty never turned up a good answer.

gracemo 13y ago

..and thankfully we had the most amazing alternative to Experts-exchange.com

pdknsk 13y ago

Google should learn from the SO duplicate questions finder. I have often been surprised at how good it works. In contrast to that, Google doesn't have anything like this on Google Code bug trackers (most importantly for their own products) or its support forums. The amount of unnoticed duplicate Chrome bug reports is huge.