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Answers.OnStartups.com -- StackOverflow for startups

98 points by smartbear 17y ago

vaksel 17y ago
i was gonna register, until I saw that you only take openid.
- dshah 17y ago
  I agree, that's a bit irritating. I'll reach out to Joel/Jeff and see if they're open to adding other options. But, you can't argue with the success of Stack Overflow (despite being only OpenID, it's done pretty well)
  - vaksel 17y ago
    stackoverflow doesn't just use openid, they give you like a hundred different options. It's pretty surprising that they don't have it for stackexchange.
    - dshah 17y ago
      I just rechecked. StackOverflow does support a bunch of different providers -- but they're all based on OpenID. No support for Facebook or a "standard" username/email/password model. I think for the SO userbase, it's likely fine. But, for other more mainstream audiences, OpenID is not ideal. Too much friction in the process.
    - mhp 17y ago
      StackOverflow does just use openid. It just happens that yahoo, google, facebook, etc are all openid providers. But SO only accepts openid as a login method. (Hence SE is the same currently, but that will change.)
  - sefner 17y ago
    For what it's worth someone asked Joel this after the first DevDays in Boston and he said adding a normal username/password login was at the top of their list.
- kylec 17y ago
  I used to be very against StackOverflow's stance of only using OpenID as the login system. However, with the sheer multiplication of the StackExchange-powered sites, the initial investment in setting up an OpenID has, in my opinion, paid off.
- justlearning 17y ago
  I am genuinely curious - why are you (and some others) against openid? (apart from the trust factor)
  - zaidf 17y ago
    It is a pain to use and understand, even for a techie like me. When it works, it's magic. And often I don't mind--especially since facebook's implementation of it. When it doesn't work, I've no freakin idea what is going on. And it really makes me miss the plain ol login/pass.
    - justlearning 17y ago
      i can relate to that - with logging with openid here in HN. I had to post an "ask hn" to catch attention of pg - who resolved it. I couldn't make head or tail of what was happening and strongly assumed that clickpass was at fault. Then pg said he had to fix some code.
      - mcav 17y ago
        Oh. I, too, had an issue logging in with OpenID here. I finally gave in and reset my password so I could log in with that.
    - JimmyL 17y ago
      I have had no problems (or difficulties) with OpenID - set up an account on myopenid.com, pasted two lines into the source of the root page of my domain that delegates to myopenid, and then I just use that.
    - kniwor 17y ago
      I haven't come across a scenario where openid did not work. Care to elaborate? I think of openid as the git of the login systems. Elegant in it's simplicity but comes with a minor learning curve and the benefits of climbing the learning curve far outweigh the cost of doing so. And very much like git, it takes 15 minutes to get over the learning curve if you are good with google and/or have some guidance.
- jerome_etienne 17y ago
  this leads to a "who do you like/dislike openid"... but i think it is irrelevant. it is more "why such application force you on this ?" this application is not about promoting openid, it is about ask/answering question on startup. So the identification and authentication should remain mainstream, not to uselessly disturb the user. openid is an option, username/password, google, facebook and co provides others
- chris123 17y ago
  I don't particularly like the OpenID either. It's crap security and crap usability, at least in all the implementations I've seen so far. I would love to see a great example of a great implementation. Anyone? :)
whirlycott1 17y ago
dharmesh++
sachinag 17y ago
Is this essentially the Ask MeFi for HN? I'm confused.
- abossy 17y ago
  I can see his motivation for this -- I was thinking of this exact idea today. There are simply so many rudimentary questions new entrepreneurs ask that can be easily answered. Two examples that I've recently sought answers for are "how do I negotiate for domain names," and "how do I set up a credit card payments system on my website." These are two of many, many more. I've been a reader of HN since the beginning and have found it an invaluable question/answer database. All my questions have likely been answered before (I've found some really obscure stuff!). Most queries can be answered by searchyc.com or a Google search prepended with "site:news.ycombinator.com." It'd be nice to have unfiltered access to entrepreneurial questions, ranging from the broad to the very obscure. StackOverflow works beautifully, IMO, and I hope this blossoms into an excellent complement to HN.
  - ahoyhere 17y ago
    Hey. Regarding the "how do I set up a credit card payments system", you might like this free little ebook I put together when I was going through that particular hell: http://jumpstartcc.com http://jumpstartcc.com
    - sachinag 17y ago
      That's actually a pretty wonderful e-book. I would change "credit card processor" to "payment gateway" in the subhed on page 14 to match the language throughout the rest of the book. Also, why no love for PayPal's Payflow Pro as a small business gateway?
- petercooper 17y ago
  Yeah. I'd personally prefer to see such a site using the same software as Hacker News, just on a subdomain. ask.ycombinator.com or something.. *Overflow is icky.
proee 17y ago
Does anyone know what license is used for the stackoverflow code and where/if it's currently available? From reading the article is sounds like Jeff and company are making the software available to the public in some form. I'd really like to learn more about this.
- terpua 17y ago
  http://stackexchange.com/ http://stackexchange.com/
davidw 17y ago
Ugh, that site makes me recall why I found stack overflow so annoying until you get a few points. "Dave, I'm sorry, I can't let you (upvote|comment|put links in answers|do much of anything)"
- dshah 17y ago
  Agreed. It takes a bit for new sites to have enough users with sufficient reputation to get things going. The good news is that it does seem to keep a lot of the spammers out because building up a reputation takes too much energy.
- joe_the_user 17y ago
  Well, uh... there is a price admission. To get something you've got to give something. Considering stackoverflow provides tremendous resources once you get a few points AND it is not that hard to get the points, stackoverflow seems like far less of a pain than expertexchange or the various link-popup-polluted archives. It's kind of a way out of the whole total-leaching thing. I'd imagine the hn news community would be excited.
  - allenbrunson 17y ago
    i don't think that's the whole story. there is a question/answer thread on stackoverflow that revolves around a post i made on my blog. seeing that the answers weren't reflecting as much as i personally know about the subject, i figured out how to log in to stack overflow. then i discovered i didn't have enough karma or whatever to leave a comment. i don't care enough to stick around however long it would take to get however much karma it would take to do that. so, too bad stackoverflow users, you're not getting the benefit of my knowledge.
    - joe_the_user 17y ago
      SO isn't oriented around debate but around solving specific problems. I've asked many questions whose answers I needed. I've often gotten answers but not always. In this sense, "threads" or debates on some external issue are already a fail for SO's intent. I'm sure they're there but they're the exception. Also - it takes 0 karma to answer a question and you get unlimited space. It takes 50 karma to leave a comment and you get about 200 words. If you've got lots of knowledge, you should have answered the question rather than tried to leave a comment on someone else's answer.
kpanghmc 17y ago
Am I the only one who's getting sick of the StackExchange sites? I like StackOverflow, but all of the StackExchange sites fall right into the uncanny valley for me.
- davidw 17y ago
  Uncanny valley? What's that got to do with these sites? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
- mattmanser 17y ago
  Isn't that a bit like saying you're getting sick of wiki sites? Or phpbb? They've come up with a new way to do Q&A sites which works. All power to them. And there will be open source clones soon enough. Already was one posted here I seem to remember.
jlees 17y ago
I think this is the third such site I've seen this week. Guess there's a need!
- petercooper 17y ago
  That remains to be seen. I've seen quite a few systems come out over the years - MetaFilter clones and open source Reddit, to name just two - where a lot of new sites are created but then fail to thrive. A year or two later, hardly any exist anymore even though the original site is still doing fine. Technology isn't community, long term.
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98 points by smartbear 17y ago

vaksel 17y ago

i was gonna register, until I saw that you only take openid.

dshah 17y ago
I agree, that's a bit irritating. I'll reach out to Joel/Jeff and see if they're open to adding other options. But, you can't argue with the success of Stack Overflow (despite being only OpenID, it's done pretty well)
- vaksel 17y ago
  stackoverflow doesn't just use openid, they give you like a hundred different options. It's pretty surprising that they don't have it for stackexchange.
  - dshah 17y ago
    I just rechecked. StackOverflow does support a bunch of different providers -- but they're all based on OpenID. No support for Facebook or a "standard" username/email/password model. I think for the SO userbase, it's likely fine. But, for other more mainstream audiences, OpenID is not ideal. Too much friction in the process.
  - mhp 17y ago
    StackOverflow does just use openid. It just happens that yahoo, google, facebook, etc are all openid providers. But SO only accepts openid as a login method. (Hence SE is the same currently, but that will change.)
- sefner 17y ago
  For what it's worth someone asked Joel this after the first DevDays in Boston and he said adding a normal username/password login was at the top of their list.
kylec 17y ago
I used to be very against StackOverflow's stance of only using OpenID as the login system. However, with the sheer multiplication of the StackExchange-powered sites, the initial investment in setting up an OpenID has, in my opinion, paid off.
justlearning 17y ago
I am genuinely curious - why are you (and some others) against openid? (apart from the trust factor)
- zaidf 17y ago
  It is a pain to use and understand, even for a techie like me. When it works, it's magic. And often I don't mind--especially since facebook's implementation of it. When it doesn't work, I've no freakin idea what is going on. And it really makes me miss the plain ol login/pass.
  - justlearning 17y ago
    i can relate to that - with logging with openid here in HN. I had to post an "ask hn" to catch attention of pg - who resolved it. I couldn't make head or tail of what was happening and strongly assumed that clickpass was at fault. Then pg said he had to fix some code.
    - mcav 17y ago
      Oh. I, too, had an issue logging in with OpenID here. I finally gave in and reset my password so I could log in with that.
  - JimmyL 17y ago
    I have had no problems (or difficulties) with OpenID - set up an account on myopenid.com, pasted two lines into the source of the root page of my domain that delegates to myopenid, and then I just use that.
  - kniwor 17y ago
    I haven't come across a scenario where openid did not work. Care to elaborate? I think of openid as the git of the login systems. Elegant in it's simplicity but comes with a minor learning curve and the benefits of climbing the learning curve far outweigh the cost of doing so. And very much like git, it takes 15 minutes to get over the learning curve if you are good with google and/or have some guidance.
jerome_etienne 17y ago
this leads to a "who do you like/dislike openid"... but i think it is irrelevant. it is more "why such application force you on this ?" this application is not about promoting openid, it is about ask/answering question on startup. So the identification and authentication should remain mainstream, not to uselessly disturb the user. openid is an option, username/password, google, facebook and co provides others
chris123 17y ago
I don't particularly like the OpenID either. It's crap security and crap usability, at least in all the implementations I've seen so far. I would love to see a great example of a great implementation. Anyone? :)

whirlycott1 17y ago

dharmesh++

sachinag 17y ago

Is this essentially the Ask MeFi for HN? I'm confused.

abossy 17y ago
I can see his motivation for this -- I was thinking of this exact idea today. There are simply so many rudimentary questions new entrepreneurs ask that can be easily answered. Two examples that I've recently sought answers for are "how do I negotiate for domain names," and "how do I set up a credit card payments system on my website." These are two of many, many more. I've been a reader of HN since the beginning and have found it an invaluable question/answer database. All my questions have likely been answered before (I've found some really obscure stuff!). Most queries can be answered by searchyc.com or a Google search prepended with "site:news.ycombinator.com." It'd be nice to have unfiltered access to entrepreneurial questions, ranging from the broad to the very obscure. StackOverflow works beautifully, IMO, and I hope this blossoms into an excellent complement to HN.
- ahoyhere 17y ago
  Hey. Regarding the "how do I set up a credit card payments system", you might like this free little ebook I put together when I was going through that particular hell: http://jumpstartcc.com http://jumpstartcc.com
  - sachinag 17y ago
    That's actually a pretty wonderful e-book. I would change "credit card processor" to "payment gateway" in the subhed on page 14 to match the language throughout the rest of the book. Also, why no love for PayPal's Payflow Pro as a small business gateway?
petercooper 17y ago
Yeah. I'd personally prefer to see such a site using the same software as Hacker News, just on a subdomain. ask.ycombinator.com or something.. *Overflow is icky.

proee 17y ago

Does anyone know what license is used for the stackoverflow code and where/if it's currently available? From reading the article is sounds like Jeff and company are making the software available to the public in some form. I'd really like to learn more about this.

terpua 17y ago
http://stackexchange.com/ http://stackexchange.com/

davidw 17y ago

Ugh, that site makes me recall why I found stack overflow so annoying until you get a few points. "Dave, I'm sorry, I can't let you (upvote|comment|put links in answers|do much of anything)"

dshah 17y ago
Agreed. It takes a bit for new sites to have enough users with sufficient reputation to get things going. The good news is that it does seem to keep a lot of the spammers out because building up a reputation takes too much energy.
joe_the_user 17y ago
Well, uh... there is a price admission. To get something you've got to give something. Considering stackoverflow provides tremendous resources once you get a few points AND it is not that hard to get the points, stackoverflow seems like far less of a pain than expertexchange or the various link-popup-polluted archives. It's kind of a way out of the whole total-leaching thing. I'd imagine the hn news community would be excited.
- allenbrunson 17y ago
  i don't think that's the whole story. there is a question/answer thread on stackoverflow that revolves around a post i made on my blog. seeing that the answers weren't reflecting as much as i personally know about the subject, i figured out how to log in to stack overflow. then i discovered i didn't have enough karma or whatever to leave a comment. i don't care enough to stick around however long it would take to get however much karma it would take to do that. so, too bad stackoverflow users, you're not getting the benefit of my knowledge.
  - joe_the_user 17y ago
    SO isn't oriented around debate but around solving specific problems. I've asked many questions whose answers I needed. I've often gotten answers but not always. In this sense, "threads" or debates on some external issue are already a fail for SO's intent. I'm sure they're there but they're the exception. Also - it takes 0 karma to answer a question and you get unlimited space. It takes 50 karma to leave a comment and you get about 200 words. If you've got lots of knowledge, you should have answered the question rather than tried to leave a comment on someone else's answer.

kpanghmc 17y ago

Am I the only one who's getting sick of the StackExchange sites? I like StackOverflow, but all of the StackExchange sites fall right into the uncanny valley for me.

davidw 17y ago
Uncanny valley? What's that got to do with these sites? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
mattmanser 17y ago
Isn't that a bit like saying you're getting sick of wiki sites? Or phpbb? They've come up with a new way to do Q&A sites which works. All power to them. And there will be open source clones soon enough. Already was one posted here I seem to remember.

jlees 17y ago

I think this is the third such site I've seen this week. Guess there's a need!

petercooper 17y ago
That remains to be seen. I've seen quite a few systems come out over the years - MetaFilter clones and open source Reddit, to name just two - where a lot of new sites are created but then fail to thrive. A year or two later, hardly any exist anymore even though the original site is still doing fine. Technology isn't community, long term.

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