Expert Exchange gets narky after snub from Q/A site review

#1

Post by dolphenstein » Wed, Feb 16, 2011, 12:53 AM UTC

Expert Exchange gets narky after snub from Q/A site review
experts-exchange.com

Re: Expert Exchange gets narky after snub from Q/A site review

#2

Post by harold » Wed, Feb 16, 2011, 1:14 AM UTC

From the article: "One of the big things that makes Experts Exchange unique is a patented system that requires askers to select their best answer."

A great example of how broken the patent system is.

Re: Expert Exchange gets narky after snub from Q/A site review

#3

Post by ncavig » Wed, Feb 16, 2011, 1:19 AM UTC

harold wrote: post #2

From the article: "One of the big things that makes Experts Exchange unique is a patented system that requires askers to select their best answer." A great example of how broken the patent system is.

I'm pretty sure that's how Yahoo! Answers works as well, no?

Re: Expert Exchange gets narky after snub from Q/A site review

#4

Post by sibsibsib » Wed, Feb 16, 2011, 1:23 AM UTC

ncavig wrote: post #3

harold wrote: post #2

From the article: "One of the big things that makes Experts Exchange unique is a patented system that requires askers to select their best answer." A great example of how broken the patent system is.

I'm pretty sure that's how Yahoo! Answers works as well, no?

and stack overflow...

Re: Expert Exchange gets narky after snub from Q/A site review

#5

Post by treeface » Wed, Feb 16, 2011, 1:24 AM UTC

Q: What makes Experts Exchange different from other Q&A sites on the Internet?

A: Most of our nearly 3 million solutions revolve around specific technology questions, and the majority of those have a sense of urgency to them.

Huh? How does this differ from StackOverflow? Other than, of course, that those answers are hidden behind a paywall.

We switched to a premium model to keep out of the Venture Capital business (been there, done that, got the t-shirt). Companies like StackExchange couldn't do it without the VC cookie jar. Where's the model? Huh, Spolsky? (I’m sorry. Did that slip out?)

Maybe he hasn't noticed the ads running on every SO page? Or perhaps he doesn't know anything about how careers.stackoverflow.com's billing works (https://careers.stackoverflow.com/billing/checkoutnew)?

I hate saying things like this because it puts me into a position where it looks like I'm saying too much sooth, but it kind of looks like the EE guys are starting to miss the paradigm shift that's occurred and probably will continue to occur in "long-tailed" question and answer sites.

Re: Expert Exchange gets narky after snub from Q/A site review

#6

Post by erik_p » Wed, Feb 16, 2011, 1:26 AM UTC

I plan on asking quora what "narky" means

Re: Expert Exchange gets narky after snub from Q/A site review

#7

Post by juddlyon » Wed, Feb 16, 2011, 1:27 AM UTC

Experts Exchange is borderline spam, to put it mildly. They hide the answer at the very end of an enormous scroll (of course after they try to sell you via a pop-up). A reasonable user has no clue that the answer is on the page.

When I have made it all the way down, I have received a quality solution perhaps 5 out of 500 times.

Stack Overflow realized there was a quality problem with the existing tech Q&A services and ate their lunches. Ditto for Quora. Hopefully they can keep it up.

Re: Expert Exchange gets narky after snub from Q/A site review

#8

Post by thesethings » Wed, Feb 16, 2011, 1:29 AM UTC

They're clearly freaked out about by Stack Exchange. They attacked them for needing a "VC cookie jar," but couldn't actually saying anything bad about their sites.

This was also surreal: "Sites like Quora seem more like Tumblr or other blog-esque formats."

Wait. What?

Many here on HN have only ever seen EE when clicking on it accidentally because of their SEO-fu.

The rise of more modern Q&A sites combined with Google's renewed commitment to punishing automated/weak/content means this must be a challenging time to be EE.

I admit I'm not mad at that.

Re: Expert Exchange gets narky after snub from Q/A site review

#9

Post by jarin » Wed, Feb 16, 2011, 1:30 AM UTC

Honestly, I'm just shocked to see that there's a real person behind the site.

I don't know why, but whenever I stumbled across an EE answer through Google, it's always seemed like a place full of crystallized ancient knowledge.

Re: Expert Exchange gets narky after snub from Q/A site review

#10

Post by kpanghmc » Wed, Feb 16, 2011, 1:33 AM UTC

One of the big things that makes Experts Exchange unique is a patented system that requires askers to select their best answer. Most Q&A sites (StackExchange included) let the community vote for the best answer, when really the person whose opinion matters most is the one who asked the question.

StackOverflow allows for both community voting AND for the original asker to indicate which answer was the best answer. I suppose the only thing it doesn't do is require the asker to select a best answer like EE does apparently.

Also, how in the world did they get this process patented?