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From the comments: > Stack Overflow will make both Spolsky and Atwood enormously wealthy, based upon the volunteer efforts of others. Who will get nothing. Th

From the comments: > Stack Overflow will make both Spolsky and Atwood enormously wealthy, based upon the volunteer efforts of others. Who will get nothing. The others won't get nothing. They'll get whatever rewards go along with participating in a forum: the opportunity to demonstrate prowess and be recognized for it, the chance to have specific questions answered in a peer-reviewed medium, and so on. Don't discount the value that people place in these things, even if they aren't being compensated financially.

jrockway 17y ago
I thought there was value in Stack Overflow until I accidentally visited the site with Adblock turned off. Now I don't answer questions there anymore.
- coriander 17y ago
  You could always turn Adblock back on. I think it's fair for them to make some money to support the site.
  - jrockway 17y ago
    It's OK to charge people money to answer questions for free? OK, sure...
    - confuzatron 17y ago
      Huh? The advertisers are the ones paying money to place ads, they aren't the ones answering questions.
      - jrockway 17y ago
        I am the one answering questions. I have to pay (i.e., look at ads) for the privilege of doing so. Then, my work is used to lure in eyeballs that look at the ads. Just sayin', it's not sustainable. Why shouldn't I get a cut? What do I get for continuing to answer questions on Stack Overflow (instead of on free mailing lists, or on my own blog, or in a magazine)? Karma is nice and all, but the only reason I bother writing here is because there are no ads.
        confuzatron 17y ago
        Oh come on. You're not 'paying money' because a bitmap is rendered in part of an html page. Get over yourself.
        jrockway 17y ago
        Why show me said bitmap then?
        confuzatron 17y ago
        You've lost me. At what point are you charged money?
- tocomment 17y ago
  It doesn't seem that bad at all. I don't see any ads actually.
- pchristensen 17y ago
  They wouldn't have made it if they couldn't make a living off of it. Relax.
- djb_hackernews 17y ago
  I believe once you reach a certain point threshold, the ads disappear. So, answer more questions!
coriander 17y ago
Agreed. StackOverflow provides tremendous value to the tech community. However, the idea of charging participants in that community $100 per year for the privilege of having their resumes searchable by employers seems like a bit of a slap in the face. Especially since the Careers site doesn't even seem to try to distinguish between employers and recruiters.
- pchristensen 17y ago
  Spolsky has said that every job that gets posted requires the company name, ditto for companies using Careers. Ergo, it's no use to recruiters because they can go around the posting straight to the company. He (correctly) believes that recruiters destroy value for job seekers and companies and keep markets from working. About the slap in the face, it's necessary to filter out bad developers who won't get value from posting their CV. The best price isn't always free.
  - dschobel 17y ago
    How exactly does willingness to pay $100 correlate to developer ability? Edit: and it's funny that Spolsky would complain about recruiters when that's exactly when he's trying to become on a larger scale. A middleman by another name would smell so foul...
    - confuzatron 17y ago
      Recruiters (where I come from) take a big chunk of salary. Stackoverflow are charging $100 p/a. Not directly comparable, but depending on the salary, getting a job through SO will be thousands of dollars cheaper. So I wouldn't agree SO is trying to be a recruiter on a larger scale.
  - coriander 17y ago
    ->"About the slap in the face, it's necessary to filter out bad developers who won't get value from posting their CV." The willingness to pay $100 to post your resume could just as easily correlate to lower ability since someone who can't find a job through any other avenue might be willing to pay for additional exposure to employers.
HeyLaughingBoy 17y ago
That's a very good point. I hang out on few online electronics forums ( http://forum.sparkfun.com http://forum.sparkfun.com for example) and answer a fair amount of questions, help people with electronics problems, and provide simple designs. Occasionally I think about how much value I'm giving away (even here in the Midwest, EE consulting rates are around $100/hr) for free and how much value the site owners get from having others like me on their board. Then I remember that it's really fun and that I enjoy helping people and seeing what creations their minds come up with. Once in a while someone pays me to design/build something, but most of the benefit I get from it is in no way financial.

jrockway 17y ago

I thought there was value in Stack Overflow until I accidentally visited the site with Adblock turned off. Now I don't answer questions there anymore.

coriander 17y ago
You could always turn Adblock back on. I think it's fair for them to make some money to support the site.
- jrockway 17y ago
  It's OK to charge people money to answer questions for free? OK, sure...
  - confuzatron 17y ago
    Huh? The advertisers are the ones paying money to place ads, they aren't the ones answering questions.
    - jrockway 17y ago
      I am the one answering questions. I have to pay (i.e., look at ads) for the privilege of doing so. Then, my work is used to lure in eyeballs that look at the ads. Just sayin', it's not sustainable. Why shouldn't I get a cut? What do I get for continuing to answer questions on Stack Overflow (instead of on free mailing lists, or on my own blog, or in a magazine)? Karma is nice and all, but the only reason I bother writing here is because there are no ads.
      - confuzatron 17y ago
        Oh come on. You're not 'paying money' because a bitmap is rendered in part of an html page. Get over yourself.
        jrockway 17y ago
        Why show me said bitmap then?
        confuzatron 17y ago
        You've lost me. At what point are you charged money?
tocomment 17y ago
It doesn't seem that bad at all. I don't see any ads actually.
pchristensen 17y ago
They wouldn't have made it if they couldn't make a living off of it. Relax.
djb_hackernews 17y ago
I believe once you reach a certain point threshold, the ads disappear. So, answer more questions!

coriander 17y ago

Agreed. StackOverflow provides tremendous value to the tech community. However, the idea of charging participants in that community $100 per year for the privilege of having their resumes searchable by employers seems like a bit of a slap in the face. Especially since the Careers site doesn't even seem to try to distinguish between employers and recruiters.

pchristensen 17y ago
Spolsky has said that every job that gets posted requires the company name, ditto for companies using Careers. Ergo, it's no use to recruiters because they can go around the posting straight to the company. He (correctly) believes that recruiters destroy value for job seekers and companies and keep markets from working. About the slap in the face, it's necessary to filter out bad developers who won't get value from posting their CV. The best price isn't always free.
- dschobel 17y ago
  How exactly does willingness to pay $100 correlate to developer ability? Edit: and it's funny that Spolsky would complain about recruiters when that's exactly when he's trying to become on a larger scale. A middleman by another name would smell so foul...
  - confuzatron 17y ago
    Recruiters (where I come from) take a big chunk of salary. Stackoverflow are charging $100 p/a. Not directly comparable, but depending on the salary, getting a job through SO will be thousands of dollars cheaper. So I wouldn't agree SO is trying to be a recruiter on a larger scale.
- coriander 17y ago
  ->"About the slap in the face, it's necessary to filter out bad developers who won't get value from posting their CV." The willingness to pay $100 to post your resume could just as easily correlate to lower ability since someone who can't find a job through any other avenue might be willing to pay for additional exposure to employers.

HeyLaughingBoy 17y ago

That's a very good point. I hang out on few online electronics forums ( http://forum.sparkfun.com http://forum.sparkfun.com for example) and answer a fair amount of questions, help people with electronics problems, and provide simple designs. Occasionally I think about how much value I'm giving away (even here in the Midwest, EE consulting rates are around $100/hr) for free and how much value the site owners get from having others like me on their board. Then I remember that it's really fun and that I enjoy helping people and seeing what creations their minds come up with. Once in a while someone pays me to design/build something, but most of the benefit I get from it is in no way financial.