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Forget Quora, New York's Stack Overflow Is Killing It

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Re: Forget Quora, New York's Stack Overflow Is Killing It

#31

Post by spolsky »

ergo98 wrote: post #28
kqueue wrote: post #9

I'd also like to point out that Stack Overflow's database is available to the public under the creative commons license. Quora's database is not.

SO made available a CC'd database during a period when many -- including many on here -- were arguing that there should be an open-source, wikipedia-like alternative, coupled with a lot of nonsensical "I could make that on a weekend" claims. That movement disappeared once SO started making the DB available for download.

Historically untrue. Stack Overflow promised that its data would belong to the users from the very beginning. The data was created by its users and belongs to its users. We saw what happens when a commercial entity starts to try charging for content generated by its users (mostly experts-exchange, but also imdb and cddb) and wanted to ensure that could never happen. Our creative commons data dump is a promise to the community that the content they've created can never be locked behind a paywall.

Re: Forget Quora, New York's Stack Overflow Is Killing It

#32

Post by kijinbear »

Go to StackOverflow.com and you can instantly see what kind of questions are being asked and answered. The UI may feel a little cluttered, but the information is there. Hang out for a few more minutes and you can appreciate the value of this service. You might as well sign up and start using it.

Go to Quora.com and you're asked to log in or create an account. No idea what's behind that login. Not even a search bar. Since there isn't any useful page that I can browse to, I might as well just contribute to their bounce rate. Why would I create yet another online account without even knowing what the benefits are?

Re: Forget Quora, New York's Stack Overflow Is Killing It

#34

Post by moultano »

"If a proposed site doesn't have critical mass, we just won't create it. Even if it does get created, it has to maintain a certain level of traffic and quality or we'll close it down,"

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for making the web a better place.

Re: Forget Quora, New York's Stack Overflow Is Killing It

#35

Post by hasenj »

I thought Quora was a Stackoverflow clone.

I never really understood wtf is the point of Quora. I go the main page and it wants me to sign up. Really? No, I'm not gonna sign up just because you say you're awesome. How about you prove to me that you're awesome by showing me the real homepage that registered users see, huh?

Re: Forget Quora, New York's Stack Overflow Is Killing It

#37

Post by simonw »

leon_ wrote: post #30
spolsky wrote: post #11

To be honest I don't really think Stack Exchange and Quora are the same thing. Or, to be jargonny, "we're not in the same space." Quora is Yahoo!Answers done really well... it's more social and bloggy, and it's for chat and subjective questions. It's kind of like Twitter in a Q&A format with long, blog-type answers. It's full of VCs and tech journalists, unlike Yahoo!Answers which is full of teenagers asking question…

I'm from Europe and I know SO. I didn't know Quora until I forced myself to click on one of the Quora links on HN. To me it looked like a SO knockoff and I guess it looks that way to most people.

Look deeper. Quora's magic sauce is that it only shows you questions that either your contacts have interacted with or that correspond to topics you are tracking. As a result, every time you visit you get stuff that you are genuinely interested in.

Re: Forget Quora, New York's Stack Overflow Is Killing It

#38

Post by ergo98 »

spolsky wrote: post #31
ergo98 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SO made available a CC'd database during a period when many -- including many on here -- were arguing that there should be an open-source, wikipedia-like alternative, coupled with a lot of nonsensical "I could make that on a weekend" claims. That movement disappeared once SO started making the DB available for download.

Historically untrue. Stack Overflow promised that its data would belong to the users from the very beginning . The data was created by its users and belongs to its users. We saw what happens when a commercial entity starts to try charging for content generated by its users (mostly experts-exchange, but also imdb and cddb) and wanted to ensure that could never happen. Our creative commons data dump is a promise to the…

Historically untrue.

What's untrue about it? While SO had a CC policy since the early days, the actual CC database, which was the subject of my post, was made available well over a year later, coinciding with a outpouring of foolish developers claiming that they could recreate the site on the weekend. I recall the timing simply because it was interesting seeing how that momentum disappeared.

Re: Forget Quora, New York's Stack Overflow Is Killing It

#39

Post by chucknthem »

kijinbear wrote: post #32

Go to StackOverflow.com and you can instantly see what kind of questions are being asked and answered. The UI may feel a little cluttered, but the information is there. Hang out for a few more minutes and you can appreciate the value of this service. You might as well sign up and start using it. Go to Quora.com and you're asked to log in or create an account. No idea what's behind that login. Not even a search bar. S…

Part of the reason for quora to do that might be to limit their user base to people who already know what it is (people who are referred)

Exposing what it is and making it really easy for anyone to sign up will make it degrade into yahoo answers in no time.

Stack overflow on the other hand embraces new programmers asking and finding answers to questions because they're all going to be related to programming (if not it gets modded down really quickly). Quora doesn't have that niche/topic restriction and is much easier to troll.

Re: Forget Quora, New York's Stack Overflow Is Killing It

#40

Post by Helianthus16 »

chucknthem wrote: post #39
kijinbear wrote: post #32

Go to StackOverflow.com and you can instantly see what kind of questions are being asked and answered. The UI may feel a little cluttered, but the information is there. Hang out for a few more minutes and you can appreciate the value of this service. You might as well sign up and start using it. Go to Quora.com and you're asked to log in or create an account. No idea what's behind that login. Not even a search bar. S…

Part of the reason for quora to do that might be to limit their user base to people who already know what it is (people who are referred) Exposing what it is and making it really easy for anyone to sign up will make it degrade into yahoo answers in no time. Stack overflow on the other hand embraces new programmers asking and finding answers to questions because they're all going to be related to programming (if not i…

It's wasting its buzz time, then. If (that is, When) this hubbub blows over and we think of Quora as "that thing that never caught on" it will already be too late to gain traction.
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