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What great evil did Experts Exchange do? The very question that is asked is a straw man argument. Nobody is saying that Experts Exchange did some great evil (

by 300bps 13y ago

What great evil did Experts Exchange do? The very question that is asked is a straw man argument. Nobody is saying that Experts Exchange did some great evil (ex: genocide). What they did was build a business model based on taking from many and giving to nobody. Then to preserve that unsustainable business model, they used various underhanded search engine manipulations. To me, they were jerks. When Google came out with the ability to filter domains from your personal results, they were the first (and only) domain I added. Even to this day, they will show you the answer if you scroll through 5 pages of gunk. They didn't do any "great evil". They're just slimy and I get a bad taste in my mouth anytime I think about them. But at least they added that hyphen to their name at some point because for a while I couldn't NOT see it as ExpertSexChange.com.

andy_adams 13y ago
> What they did was build a business model based on taking from many and giving to nobody I'm not sure where you get this. EE treats those answering questions really well, and nobody is forcing them to answer. Nobody forces EE's customers to pay for access to their content, either. Behind the curtain they actually have a lot of happy customers (and question answerers). They didn't fit the "open source" model programmers like, but for the people who need advanced help with Cisco routers or for the experts winning trips around the world, they're actually not such a slimy company. Thanks for your comments.
- 300bps 13y ago
  I'm not sure where you get this. EE treats those answering questions really well From Wikipedia: At Experts-Exchange, users are awarded points for answering questions Out of curiosity, what is the exchange rate between Experts Exchange points and reddit karma? Wikipedia goes on... Experts (those who have reached 10,000 points overall and maintain at least 3,000 points per month)[15] and subscribers get the benefit of using the site's search engine without limitations and no ads are shown. What's the hourly rate on this work? Please explain how "EE treast those answering questions really well". Because it seems to me these people are doing work worth in the neighborhood of $100 per hour. You tell me how much they're actually making.
  - andy_adams 13y ago
    I'm not sure I understand your point. You seem to be thinking that people answering questions deserve to be paid - as if they're being forced into answering at all. Experts on EE are answering questions for the same reason users on SO are. > Please explain how "EE treast those answering questions really well" If you're a top contributor to EE, you get flown to really nice places and are treated like a VIP by EE. Not everyone reaches this level, but those who do get a really nice perk, in addition to the benefits of answering questions in general.
    - 300bps 13y ago
      You seem to be thinking that people answering questions deserve to be paid If I may first pay you a compliment, you are very adept at twisting words and building up straw man arguments. What I actually said was: What [Experts Exchange] did was build a business model based on taking from many and giving to nobody Your response was then: EE treats those answering questions really well But we both know this isn't true. It pays the vast, vast, vast majority of question answerers in worthless or near worthless points. The average question answerer, including the ones that get flown places and "treated like a VIP" is probably actually getting less than minimum wage for their work. That's hardly being treated "really well". So we come back to my original statement. Experts Exchange built their business on taking from many and giving to nobody. If you want me to add an exception of, "giving to nobody except giving scraps to the very top of people whose time they were taking to build their business on" I would be amenable to that.
      - t50 13y ago
        I don't understand what getting paid for answers is for? They volunteer to help answer questions, most do this because they get that warm fuzzy feeling inside from doing a good deed and helping someone out, the rest for the free access to the site. No one at SO gets paid to post. so why should EE pay them to post?
        300bps 13y ago
chrismcb 13y ago
Personally I felt they made it difficult to find an answer. I get that they wanted to make money, but I felt like they could have done a better job on that end. But they were constantly filling up the first page of my search results. They were also the first (and one of few) domains I've blocked. When I did that, it made it easier to find an answer to my question. Do they deserve another look? Not really, they made a bad first impression and I've taken my business elsewhere. Those other businesses have suited my needs, so I've never needed to take a second look. I made up my mind, as did many other people, long before stackoverflow came along.

by 300bps 13y ago

andy_adams 13y ago

> What they did was build a business model based on taking from many and giving to nobody I'm not sure where you get this. EE treats those answering questions really well, and nobody is forcing them to answer. Nobody forces EE's customers to pay for access to their content, either. Behind the curtain they actually have a lot of happy customers (and question answerers). They didn't fit the "open source" model programmers like, but for the people who need advanced help with Cisco routers or for the experts winning trips around the world, they're actually not such a slimy company. Thanks for your comments.

300bps 13y ago
I'm not sure where you get this. EE treats those answering questions really well From Wikipedia: At Experts-Exchange, users are awarded points for answering questions Out of curiosity, what is the exchange rate between Experts Exchange points and reddit karma? Wikipedia goes on... Experts (those who have reached 10,000 points overall and maintain at least 3,000 points per month)[15] and subscribers get the benefit of using the site's search engine without limitations and no ads are shown. What's the hourly rate on this work? Please explain how "EE treast those answering questions really well". Because it seems to me these people are doing work worth in the neighborhood of $100 per hour. You tell me how much they're actually making.
- andy_adams 13y ago
  I'm not sure I understand your point. You seem to be thinking that people answering questions deserve to be paid - as if they're being forced into answering at all. Experts on EE are answering questions for the same reason users on SO are. > Please explain how "EE treast those answering questions really well" If you're a top contributor to EE, you get flown to really nice places and are treated like a VIP by EE. Not everyone reaches this level, but those who do get a really nice perk, in addition to the benefits of answering questions in general.
  - 300bps 13y ago
    You seem to be thinking that people answering questions deserve to be paid If I may first pay you a compliment, you are very adept at twisting words and building up straw man arguments. What I actually said was: What [Experts Exchange] did was build a business model based on taking from many and giving to nobody Your response was then: EE treats those answering questions really well But we both know this isn't true. It pays the vast, vast, vast majority of question answerers in worthless or near worthless points. The average question answerer, including the ones that get flown places and "treated like a VIP" is probably actually getting less than minimum wage for their work. That's hardly being treated "really well". So we come back to my original statement. Experts Exchange built their business on taking from many and giving to nobody. If you want me to add an exception of, "giving to nobody except giving scraps to the very top of people whose time they were taking to build their business on" I would be amenable to that.
    - t50 13y ago
      I don't understand what getting paid for answers is for? They volunteer to help answer questions, most do this because they get that warm fuzzy feeling inside from doing a good deed and helping someone out, the rest for the free access to the site. No one at SO gets paid to post. so why should EE pay them to post?
      - 300bps 13y ago

chrismcb 13y ago

Personally I felt they made it difficult to find an answer. I get that they wanted to make money, but I felt like they could have done a better job on that end. But they were constantly filling up the first page of my search results. They were also the first (and one of few) domains I've blocked. When I did that, it made it easier to find an answer to my question. Do they deserve another look? Not really, they made a bad first impression and I've taken my business elsewhere. Those other businesses have suited my needs, so I've never needed to take a second look. I made up my mind, as did many other people, long before stackoverflow came along.