

Show HN: Realtime Coding Q&A. Stack Overflow meets IRC - bjpless
http://www.enginehere.com/

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randywatkins
It would be cool to establish a marketplace for help on top of this. i.e. I
can pay $1/min for someone's time on demand to get help.

If that existed, I would have spent a ton last winter when I was learning Obj
C.

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Ecio78
maybe they can integrate in someway with the upcoming Google Helpouts.. (using
an API that will be later on shut down by Google, of course.. :))

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unwind
As a fairly high-output Stack Overflow contributor, this is quite interesting.

It seems to say "Stack Overflow is too slow, we need something faster". I tend
to think (I'm biased, of course) that SO already _is_ rather fast; i.e. that
most questions (in tags I care about) get answered rather quickly. Not only
because of me, of course! I'm just a small part of the machinery.

So, what's the next step, a service where I can be registered as a helper and
have a computer call me on the phone to get an answer? :)

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bjpless
Hey unwind,

It's not just about speed of response. There are many programming issues that
don't fit the SO format. They are open ended in nature and call for a
conversation.

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bjpless
That being said, I created desktop notifications so that I can get
answers...NOW. I am able to see exactly when someone visits my page in
realtime, intercept, and initiate a chat.

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sailfast
I like this format a lot - the discussion / real time aspect is great and will
really help to preserve some of the problem solving that occurs within groups
and organizations. I had fun responding to a question - until I figured out
what the closed icon was and that it had been resolved hehe.

Could be my browser (FireFox ESR) but having only one line for the reply by
default is a bit cramped - I only noticed the click-box to expand the text
editor a bit later.

Nice work!

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bjpless
Thanks salifast. I need to work on the icons...

This is still very much a Beta. Going to work on the issue page formatting.

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prakster
This concept could be monetized quickly and perhaps in a big way if you can
saas it to web apps whose users need help in real time, but have to use the
old "support ticket" mechanisms and wait and hope that their ticket gets
answered quickly.

If you package your technology such that it can be embedded into any web app
that has this problem, the web app could then leverage its users (its
customers) to help each other out in real time.

Just a thought :-)

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jdefr89
This concept is really neat not to mention useful. It is sometimes annoying
the post on traditional forums like SO and have to wait for a response you may
never receive. This makes getting help seem a lot more direct and immediate.
Its sort of like E-mail and Instant messaging. SO would be like Email, still
useful of course, and EngineHere is the instant messaging platform for a more
dynamic/instant environment..

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bjpless
That was the goal. As I've built it, I've been actually posting the bitly
links to my issue pages on Stack Overflow, IRC, and elsewhere. I set desktop
notifications for myself and go about my work until someone hits one of my
pages (I then start a chat)

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jzelinskie
If they can create incentives for people to help each other (ie karma points),
it would be great. Getting help with a direct feed of your command-line is
just 2 commands away: pip install shellstream && startstream

I really like the idea and it has a lot of potential.

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bjpless
Thanks jzelinskie! Right now, a rewards system is in the works.

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jack7890
I've been beta testing this over the past few weeks, and can attest that it
kicks ass. I think of it as a sort of realtime Stack Overflow--a place I can
go to get answers interactively/immediately.

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dave_coen
Been beta testing as well -- the command line interface alone takes this up a
notch over Stack Overflow, with one command you can pipe system info and error
messages directly into a new issue.

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sluckxz
Heads up. I can't use the how it works drop down menu on android 4.2.2
Firefox. Looks good, sounds useful.

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bjpless
Thanks for that. I'll get on that

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moepstar
So, is this really based on IRC and if so, can i connect with a traditional
client?

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mataug
I wish this had a private version for conversation within an organisation

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bjpless
It does actually. If you join a group (top right profile dropdown), you can
set all group issues to be private by default

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samtheclam
What does the name mean?

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troubleden
Engineer Here?

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bjpless
Yep, pretty much

