
Dear StackExchange: Thank You - darxius
http://maxmackie.com/2012/05/10/Dear-Stack-Exchange:-Thank-You/
======
simonsarris
I participate in the SO community a lot (I'm top answer-er for the Canvas tag
and HTML5 tag). It's not quite a "community", though, because while I have a
lot of respect for the other answer-ers I don't really get to interact with
them very much, aside from complimenting a novel solution and the like. I sort
of wish there were more methods for interaction (the chat channels don't help
that much for niche tags).

And while my interaction with askers is always fleeting, I'd really like to
thank them for all their support. At the end of the day their words are the
only encouragement I need:

<http://i.imgur.com/POZmt.png>

~~~
bp_
The problem is mainly that chat.SO sucks in a lot of ways and probably should
be reduced to a single room where all SO regulars who have time to chat do
chat - together. That's the way pretty much all other sites do chat (including
MSO) and it's... saner. I just don't know how much it'd scale.

~~~
shurane
That doesn't work for interest-specific communities. HTML5-ers, Java-ers, and
haskell-ers will probably not talk about the same topics with each other as
they would with other people that share their interests, as in their own
interest-specific community.

Isn't that why on freenode, you have communities based around particular
langauges? #java, #haskell, #html5, etc. etc? Not to mention social versions,
like #haskell-blah and what have you.

------
reidmain
StackOverflow is a watershed website. There are very few websites I can go
without and StackOverflow is, without a doubt, one of them.

It is difficult to remember the dark ages where every question I typed into
Google would link to Expert Exchange and it was a coin flip on whether you'd
find your answer.

Very much like GitHub was the tipping point for social coding, StackOverflow
was the tipping point for social problem solving about programming.

StackOverflow and GitHub weren't the first websites of their kind but they
were the ones that executed it almost flawlessly.

~~~
Jimmie
Do you mean "can't go without"?

Except for your second sentence you are praising StackOverflow.

~~~
reidmain
Yup you are correct Jimmie. Unfortunate that I cannot go back and edit it.

------
4ad
No thanks from me. The no discussions rule means the only questions on the
site are the trivial questions that could be answered by reading some
documentation. If questions are broad or open ended, the value lies in the
discussion, not in any particular answer. I also found that many accepted
answers are blatantly wrong, or encourage very poor practice. Sure, the
StackExchange network is better than experts-exchange or quora, in the sense
that's a much better implementation of a concept, but I believe there's just
very little value in that concept.

~~~
EvilTerran
Likewise. I usually only end up searching the web-in-general for answers when
the product documentation doesn't help. When that's led me to stackexchange,
more often than not the threads asking my exact question have been closed as
"too general" or similar.

The most recent example, in my case, was:

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10166086/good-examples-
of...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10166086/good-examples-of-php-code-
for-an-intermediate-phper)

 _"Can anybody recommend some [PHP] programs for me to look at, that promote
best practises, but are simple enough for me to understand?"

"closed as not a real question; It's difficult to tell what is being asked
here._ [no it's not] _This question is ambiguous_ [nope] _, vague_ [no] _,
incomplete_ [er, no] _, overly broad_ [no] _, or rhetorical_ [still no] _and
cannot be reasonably answered in its current form_ [no again] _. See the FAQ
for guidance on how to improve it_ [mmm, passive-agression] _."_

... er, WTF guys? Given the minefield that is trying to write good PHP, it's a
very good question. A couple of good answers had, I note, already been given,
which puts the lie to the mods' reasoning -- but they killed it off anyway,
even though it was showing promise? Really?

Reeks of power-tripping or jobsworthy moderation to me.

~~~
robbles
In my opinion, that IS an ambiguous question. Not in the sense that it's hard
to understand approximately what you're looking for, but that it's not obvious
how to choose the right answers. I agree that this kind of moderation can be a
bit heavy-handed, but I think one of the goals of SO is to have provably
correct solutions to questions, not an "answer wiki" like Quora. You can't
really "accept the right answer" to this question in any fair way.

~~~
EvilTerran
I wouldn't say "ambiguous". I'll grant you "subjective".

Does stackexchange forbid questions where there's an element of opinion,
because the system's set up only for questions with "one right answer"? That
seems awfully restrictive in the name of a system limitation.

Especially as, as 4ad observed, the asker chooses an incorrect answer
annoyingly often -- so the "best answer" isn't always actually the best. As
such, it's advisable to at least flick through the other answers anyway,
despite this rule.

~~~
bp_
No, opinion is welcome (on Stack Exchange, not necessarily on Stack Overflow)
but it needs to be backed up by research or fact.

That's not the problem on the sample question.

------
babarock
I can definitely relate with the feeling described. I too got the "prize" from
Unix&Linux.SE. The hand signed letter by Spolsky definitely had a strong
effect. I felt proud like a child receiving a gold star in kindergarden.

A piece of advice for all the startup/business founders here on HN. When you
send personalized communication to your users, be it a personal email, or
something as superficial as putting your handwritten signature on a bunch of
papers, you make us very happy.

As a frequent user of the general WWW, I could not recommend enough you do
this.

~~~
ashovlin
The same goes for recruiting.

I'm a student at Penn State which is a ranked CS school, but not necessarily
Stanford or MIT. I noticed a stack of Fog Creek recruiting pamphlets in the
lobby to our CS building. Inside each one was a signed letter from Joel.
Students are inundated with literature at career fairs and events, but this
was the only one I read entirely and then saved.

~~~
georgemcbay
Based on various stories that popped up due to this blog post I'm starting to
suspect either Joel has an Autopen or an intern that does nothing but sign his
name on things.

Could he really be signing letters sent out in "stacks"? One would assume that
many more schools than just Penn State got such stacks. And then on top of
that he's sending out hundreds of these hand-signed letters to top members of
all the different new SE sites?

Even if he isn't _really_ signing each personally, there's still a good
message here, but I'm now curious as to whether or not he's really signing all
that stuff.

------
gyaresu
I just signed up to <http://math.stackexchange.com> today to ask a question
and ended getting a lesson from a guy who had answered my question but invited
me into chat to fully explain it.

So awesome.

------
m_myers
I received a similar package from my participation in the English Language and
Usage site (I was a temporary moderator there while the site was in beta). The
letter that came with it had several intentional mistakes noted with copy-
editing marks, which I thought was a nice touch.

The T-shirt, however, _un_ -intentionally misspelled the site's name (see
<http://meta.english.stackexchange.com/q/1926>); they sent out another batch
of shirts several weeks later, so I now have both a good shirt and a special
limited-edition shirt.

------
16s
They are the best programming and general technology questions and answers
anywhere by far. Discussions are not tolerated, nor are open-ended questions,
but if you need to know the most efficient way to do X in language Y, then
look no farther than stackoverflow.

~~~
pilgrim689
A bit off-topic but: what are good discussion/open-ended questions sites
(software development specific)?

~~~
haasted
I believe that <http://programmers.stackexchange.com/> was introduced for
this.

A lot of questions were migrated from SO to programmers when it started.

~~~
yrizos
Nah, they don't like discussions there either... Check out the FAQ:
<http://programmers.stackexchange.com/faq>

------
rmATinnovafy
Yes, thank you.

SO opened up programming to the masses by treating knowledge as something to
be shared and not something to be hidden.

Again, thank you.

------
pknerd
Stack Overflow helped me to finish up a facebook app. Prior to that project I
had never worked on Fb apps. After having initial requirements by clients, I
googled about the main features of the project and found answers about their
implementation. I gave a demo to the client and he approved my bid. The rest
of the project also completed by posting a few questions.

Without SO It was not possible for me to earn a project. Thanks Joel!

------
chaostheory
Yeah StackOverflow is a Godsend that helps people. It's really great that good
people set out to fix the formerly closed door landscape that was dominated by
companies like ExpertExchange.

------
ZanderEarth32
I seriously doubt I would have had as much progress with trying my hand at
programming if it hadn't been for the SE community. Very helpful.

~~~
FuzzyDunlop
I found it particularly valuable for iOS development. Even if it didn't solve
my problem straight away, it pointed me in the right direction.

------
dbecker
You can pay $300/hour to a statistics consultant, and you would be lucky if
the consultant gave you the quality of responses I frequently see for free on
stats.stackexchange.com.

------
tferris
> 41 different SE sites

Wow, didn't know that there are so many different SE sites, thought there's
just one.

Anyway SE, its Q&A system and the community are just incredible.

~~~
m_myers
There's a complete list on <http://stackexchange.com/sites>; there are
actually way more than 41 sites in the SE network.

~~~
tferris
So is SE the better Quora?

~~~
_delirium
It's much more focused on: 1) specific technical questions; that 2) plausibly
have a good answer. Quora is a more general Q&A site, where you can ask
questions on pretty much any subject, and can ask open-ended/discussion type
questions as well.

------
philipbjorge
I received a portfolio from stackoverflow careers yesterday!

I'm a college student and was in _dire_ need of a portfolio for future
interviews (the SO logo on the front is an awesome touch). The surprise
package made my day.

<http://twitpic.com/9kjx03>

------
DanWaterworth
Hand signing, the real-world equivalent of proof of work.

------
diminish
I suddenly expected something like a financial package as present somehow; am
too naive. that said, stack exchange is really life saver.

~~~
stan_rogers
There can be a bit of that as well. I got the swag from both english.SE (both
the "stackchange" and "stackexchange" tee-shirt as mentioned elsewhere in this
thread) and photo.SE (logo tee-shirt and a logo Spudz lens cloth), along with
the two Joel-signed letters, a bunch of stickers and Sharpies and such, but
that's not always where it ends.

Photo.SE, for instance, has a program where one can be reimbursed for
equipment rentals if you write a review/how-to of the equipment for the blog
(with prior approval). Of course, only one person gets the nod for any given
item, but it's a great way to try a new lens or piece of studio equipment at
little or no cost, and provides an educational resource for the community at
the same time. It's not a program that scales well—very few of the other SE
sites are nearly as focused on tools (pardon the pun)—but it's definitely the
kind of touch that makes SE different. Others will (partially) reimburse for
conference attendance and that sort of thing, provided that you've made a
significant contribution to the site and come back with the goods.

It's just token stuff in the grand scheme of things (the odd fifty bucks here
or a hundred bucks there, and not very often) but those are the kinds of
tokens that make a difference.

------
eagsalazar
WTF?? No clawhammerbanjo.stackexchange.com??? No thanks from me, stackexchange
sux!

------
stesch
[closed]

