

Stack Overflow Private Beta Begins - raganwald
http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2008/07/stack-overflow-private-beta-begins/

======
cbetz
Jeff Atwood has said that stackoverflow.com is partially a response to the
massive suck factor of sites like Experts Exchange. One of the most annoying
things about researching programming topics is trying to find something on
google and accidentally clicking an Experts Exchange link. I really wish that
site would just go away.

~~~
river_styx
What's the problem with Experts Exchange, exactly? I'm speaking from mainly a
.Net point of view, but I've found solutions to many, many problems there.

~~~
tfinniga
My problem with the site is twofold.

One, they're deceptive. Top of every page says you to pay to join to see the
answer, shows scrambled answers, etc. Bottom of the same page shows the actual
answer.

Two, the ratio of crap to goodness on their page is astoundingly high. If I
counted pixels, it's like 20:1. Painful to use.

Stackoverflow is also trying to tackle issues like out of date answers, the
anonymous user experience, etc.

~~~
axod
Also who picked the name ExpertSexChange. I mean come on....

~~~
jrockway
It's better than an amateur sex change.

------
jimbokun
"I’m sure it’ll still suck at the end. But with your help, less. Much, much
less! With any luck, we might even flirt with.. wait for it.. not sucking! A
man’s gotta dream."

Cuil probably should have had text resembling this in all their press
releases. Nothing like setting expectations where you have a chance to exceed
them.

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michaelneale
Their weekly podcast on it is good fun to listen to. Nothing earth
shatteringly technical, but an interesting view of things.

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prakash
[http://blog.stackoverflow.com/wp-
content/uploads/stackoverfl...](http://blog.stackoverflow.com/wp-
content/uploads/stackoverflow-beta-design-large2.png)

~~~
icey
Is it just me, or does this look like a cleaner version of DZone, if DZone
were .net focused?

~~~
johns
From what I've heard from the podcasts, two points. First, it's not a link
submission site, it's question/answer with digg-like voting for questions and
answers. Second, the mockup has all .NET content, but it is not specifically
.NET-focused.

~~~
icey
Thank you for the clarification - I'd not listened to the podcasts, and was
judging just based on that screenshot.

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babul
It is fantastic to see a programming community venture between Joel Spolsky
and Jeff Atwood take off.

I am so looking forward to this and my expectation is already very high which
is amazing considering there is no hype (yet).

~~~
jrockway
_It is fantastic to see a programming community venture between Joel Spolsky
and Jeff Atwood take off._

Why? Because they talk about themselves a lot?

~~~
davidw
I think Spolsky often has interesting things to say about the business of
programming. Atwood... well... not my cup of tea.

~~~
jrockway
I agree completely. Spolsky's essays are pretty enjoyable.

But neither are necessarily qualified to actually write software anymore.

~~~
tfinniga
Well, proof is in the pudding - apparently Atwood is doing a good chunk of the
coding on stackoverflow.com.

Joel seems useful for funding, business advice, his community, and to tell
Atwood that he really should learn C.

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ashleyw
Damn didn't sign up for the beta....looks good though, cant wait for it to go
live!

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drewr
Ack. Trebuchet everywhere.

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ajkirwin
Is this some kind of peculiar blend between Digg and Yahoo! Answers?

