
Five years ago, Stack Overflow launched - df07
http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2013/09/five-years-ago-stack-overflow-launched-then-a-miracle-occurred/
======
jacquesm
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.

~~~
bluedino
>> I never contributed which is really a miss on my part

I love StackOverflow. However, I think the worst part of Stack Overflow is how
hard it is to contribute as a new member. You need to build up reputation
points and they can be very hard to get. Questions get 'sniped', answers get
deleted or buried, and very often when you help another new user out, they
never return to the site to accept your answer. It's very frustrating to take
the time to answer a question and not receive any feedback.

~~~
eterm
The best way "in" as a newcomer is to have some knowledge that no one else
has. In my case my first good answer (although it took months to get any rep
at all) was an obscure bit of paypal sandbox knowledge. I actually came across
the knowledge first, and since the problem I had hadn't been solved via
StackOverflow I searched SO for the same problem I had been having and updated
the old question with my new found solution.

That has since earned me 50 rep. This along with a few other bits took me to
the 200 threshold which then gives 100 rep across all stackexchange sites.
(Enough to upvote/comment.)

But the fact that "newbies" can't contribute what in all honestly is largely
going to be misinformation or "me too" answers is also part of the genius, it
gives real answers breathing room and keeps spam out.

My question asking has been less successful. I've asked 2 questions, one of
which had no response whatsoever, and the other had an answer which answered
the question in the community's mind but because I had been slack with my
terminology didn't answer the issue I was really having.

~~~
mcv
I don't get much rep for answers. I get it for asking the right questions. My
rep still isn't fantastic (a few hundred), but it's good enough to give a
bounty when I need it.

~~~
nine_k
Try giving more general, more in-depth answers. Such answers, if correct, get
dug up by search and keep bringing upvotes months, or even years, after having
been written.

~~~
mcv
I don't get much rep for answers because usually someone else has already
given a better answer than I'm able to give. I'm just saying you don't
actually have to know anything to get rep. You can get it for asking good
questions too. (But first search to check if someone else has already asked
the same thing.)

------
darkchasma
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
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.

~~~
termain
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
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.

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

~~~
andy_adams
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
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
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).

------
d0m
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.

~~~
mbesto
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.

~~~
GFischer
Quora looks and sounds great, but it's gathered a lot of ill will with its
tactics - which Stack Overflow pointedly does not use, and so, me (and
probably others) would like a Quora site with Stack Overflow-like openness.

------
scotty79
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
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
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
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.

------
nohuck13
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.

------
joelle
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.

------
FigBug
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
I think the editing features are great. There are plenty of questions where
the right answer changes as technology evolves.

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

~~~
nostrademons
Or just get the w3c/whatwg results ranked higher...

------
ck2
Stackexchange is getting impressive.

[http://stackexchange.com/sites?view=grid](http://stackexchange.com/sites?view=grid)

~~~
staunch
[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.

~~~
adventured
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.

------
meshko
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!

------
dylandrop
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.

------
ilaksh
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.

------
conradfr
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.

------
codegeek
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!!

------
lyndonh
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
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.

------
hawkharris
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)

------
JayEnn
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.

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

------
Knacktus
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.

------
zwieback
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.

------
pavanred
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.

------
enscr
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.

------
jsnk
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.

------
pdknsk
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.

------
jedireza
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.

------
anuragramdasan
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.

------
richardlblair
I've learned _so much_ from stack overflow. Thank you _so much_ for making
this product.

------
morgante
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?

------
jbrooksuk
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
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.

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

------
hackula1
Congrats SO; continue to rot in hell expert sexchange (expertsexhange.com)! ;)

------
jchung
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.

------
mizanrahman
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.

------
BuddhaSource
>>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
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.

------
ydeft
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)

------
austinstorm
Beautiful - cheers for Stack Overflow.

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

------
danabramov
StackOverflow killed forums for me, as I believe for many others.

And I don't miss them. (Almost.)

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

------
vvsanil
It's nice idea "Helping Others"

------
maxwin
wow, it seems like StackOverflow has been there forever.

------
volokoumphetico
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.

~~~
smsm42
>>> have your questions closed because existing members like to taunt newbies

I don't think anybody likes to taunt newbies. However, people that donate
their time to SO want their time to be used efficiently, and usually fixing
badly written question is not the most efficient use of one's expert knowledge
and time. People want common investment - you invest in good question, they
invest in good answer, everybody wins. Of course, newbies may not know what
"good question" is, and experts may have seen so many bad questions over their
tenure that their temper has been worn thin, thus sometimes misunderstandings
happen. But I think approaching it with understanding that it is a common
investment, and asker has to invest first to get their investment back with
sizeable profit of a good answer may be helpful here.

