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Stack Overflow reducing headcount by 20%

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Re: Stack Overflow reducing headcount by 20%

#51

Post by tudelo »

brian-armstrong wrote: post #46
nicodjimenez wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure they make TONS of money from ad revenue. Probably they tried to generate other revenue streams but it just didn't work out and hence the layoff. Here's a crazy idea: what if Stackoverflow developed a search engine for developers? Usually I get to Stackoverflow posts through Google but perhaps Stackoverflow can provide a better experience by doing code specific web crawling.

Inherent conflict here - programmers don't click on ads, fullstop. I can't imagine a group I'd want to advertise to less.

Not true, I've clicked a few on accident.

Re: Stack Overflow reducing headcount by 20%

#52

Post by taway_1212 »

brian-armstrong wrote: post #46
nicodjimenez wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure they make TONS of money from ad revenue. Probably they tried to generate other revenue streams but it just didn't work out and hence the layoff. Here's a crazy idea: what if Stackoverflow developed a search engine for developers? Usually I get to Stackoverflow posts through Google but perhaps Stackoverflow can provide a better experience by doing code specific web crawling.

Inherent conflict here - programmers don't click on ads, fullstop. I can't imagine a group I'd want to advertise to less.

They do click on job ads.

Re: Stack Overflow reducing headcount by 20%

#53

Post by johansch »

gumoro wrote: post #50
johansch wrote: post #20

I remember reaching out to them a bunch of years ago (2012 or so) in order to ask them to host a stack overflow sub-site for our product (from a sizeable company). We were willing to pay quite a lot (because they had the premier UX for this kind of thing), but they weren't at all interested. They just told us to try to grow things "organically", because they had decided to focus 100% on open stuff. We weren't really…

If I understand correctly, they offer this now, your private instance for your own product(s) & team(s): https://www.stackoverflowbusiness.com/enterprise Edit: while interesting, this (private internal instance for your team) is not what johansch is after (separate public instance dedicated to your product, for your users)

(Edit) This appears to be for non-public stuff only, though. So an internal stackoverflow.

Still no solution for a company wanting to host a public stackoverflow instance for some product.

Re: Stack Overflow reducing headcount by 20%

#54

Post by jasode »

nicodjimenez wrote: post #28
TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #18

How many people work at StackOverflow? Seeing this post also made me realize I have no clue how the company makes money.

I'm sure they make TONS of money from ad revenue. Probably they tried to generate other revenue streams but it just didn't work out and hence the layoff. Here's a crazy idea: what if Stackoverflow developed a search engine for developers? Usually I get to Stackoverflow posts through Google but perhaps Stackoverflow can provide a better experience by doing code specific web crawling.

>I'm sure they make TONS of money from ad revenue.

An old news article said they only get ~33% from banner ads. Most revenue comes from from job listings:

http://fortune.com/2015/01/20/stack-exchange-40-million/

Re: Stack Overflow reducing headcount by 20%

#56

Post by derefr »

danbruc wrote: post #39
fourseventy wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never heard of a company giving advanced notice of layoffs. Its always just an email the morning of.

Usually you will get at least a 4 week notice in Germany and this increases to up to 7 months when you worked for more than 20 years for the company. That you get fired effective immediately usually only happen if you really fucked something up.

"Layoff" and "firing" are separate concepts here. The central example of a true layoff is a trade work shortage: the layoff happens with very little notice, because it reflects the volatile nature of the demand for the trade. If there's suddenly, unexpectedly nothing for anyone to do, then there's suddenly, unexpectedly no benefit in paying anyone to come in for the day to do it.

Does that kind of situation still confer protections in Germany? If so, how do German manufacturing companies manage to not go bankrupt? Do all the companies subscribe to huge insurance pools?

Re: Stack Overflow reducing headcount by 20%

#57

Post by codeflo »

It's undeniable that their main developer Q&A site is a really great thing that saved me many hours of work. However, it was somewhat hostile to its more export users from the very beginning: the reputation system favors quickfire replies to grab the first upvotes, and they seem to put a strong emphasis on "cookbook" answers where many of the more nuanced discussions were closed as "opinion based". I think there are some missed opportunities here to make the Q&A site even more useful.

However, perhaps that wasn't their focus. My impression is the Q&A site was supposed to be mostly a gateway to their other services, and for that to work, the Q&A part simply had to be "good enough". It's an interesting strategy that perhaps didn't work out quite the way they had hoped it would.

Re: Stack Overflow reducing headcount by 20%

#58

Post by brazzy »

valuearb wrote: post #33
danbruc wrote: post #15

Why would you fire people on such a short notice? No need to hand over things? No interest in providing at least some time to look for a new job? EDIT: To clarify that a bit, I am interested in what the upsides are except for possibly saving some money. An orderly shutdown usually seems preferable to me over quickly killing the process, for both sides.

Why would you give notice? Leaving people dangling for weeks while you figure out who will be cut is worse than making the decision, telling them it's effective immediately and giving a fair severance package so they can immediately start looking.

The idea is to give notice after you figure out who will actually be cut, so that you can have an orderly handover of responsibility and knowledge.

That's how it's done in sane countries because notice periods are proscribed by law. And no, it does not lead to people vandalizing their workplace.

Re: Stack Overflow reducing headcount by 20%

#59

Post by kjxsnht43 »

RyanZAG wrote: post #37
JosephLark wrote: post #17

It's been interesting watching SO try to monetize. I wonder: How would people feel if they went the Wikipedia way? It's obviously a very beneficial site, but not as widely applicable as Wikipedia. I personally prefer the Wikipedia model of being ad-free and having no additional product and doing a fundraising drive every so often. PBS as well. That said, I certainly think given the audience of SO that there are sever…

Most of SO's operations are something I would not like to fund. I'd be happy to donate for their core service, but that's really only 10% or less of their headcount. Who funds the other 90% and why would they want to? SO is too big to go for a Wikipedia style model unless they strip off just the core SO part and relevant engineers and make only that part donation based. And I'd guess the other 90% would end up in lay…

> Most of SO's operations are something I would not like to fund.

Can you elaborate? Do you mean the other stack exchange sites like Photography, Gardening, Software Engineering, etc.? Or the careers site, or something else entirely? I'm only aware of the Stack Exchange network and careers.

Re: Stack Overflow reducing headcount by 20%

#60

Post by lukepothier »

brian-armstrong wrote: post #46
nicodjimenez wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure they make TONS of money from ad revenue. Probably they tried to generate other revenue streams but it just didn't work out and hence the layoff. Here's a crazy idea: what if Stackoverflow developed a search engine for developers? Usually I get to Stackoverflow posts through Google but perhaps Stackoverflow can provide a better experience by doing code specific web crawling.

Inherent conflict here - programmers don't click on ads, fullstop. I can't imagine a group I'd want to advertise to less.

StackOverflow ads are not the same as typical ads that technical users tend to block - they are typically just simple text links to job offers. Additionally, SO has fantastic analytics on logged in users which would drive the cost per impression up - if you've ever filled out their developer survey, you've given them everything they need to sell employers very expensive targeted ads directed at you.
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