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A New Name for Stack Overflow (with surprise ending)

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Re: A New Name for Stack Overflow (with surprise ending)

#41

Post by kanak »

omaranto wrote: post #39
cletus wrote: post #29

I'm still seeing no evidence of success or traction beyond the original Stackoverflow. I'm kinda curious what their burn rate is. I think there are 20 odd employees now, not all of them engineers. That'll consume $2-3 million a year. One hopes they're simply stockpiling cash while valuations are good. I'm kinda curious what valuation they got. I haven't seen anything about that anywhere.

MathOverflow is very successful and useful. Of course, there are so few mathematicians, even counting all graduate students, that being a huge success in that community doesn't mean it's very a big site.

Is MathOverflow part of Stack Exchange? I ask because Stack Exchange seems to have a different site called "Mathematics Stack Exchange" [1].

http://math.stackexchange.com/

Re: A New Name for Stack Overflow (with surprise ending)

#42

Post by cletus »

spolsky wrote: post #36
cletus wrote: post #29

I'm still seeing no evidence of success or traction beyond the original Stackoverflow. I'm kinda curious what their burn rate is. I think there are 20 odd employees now, not all of them engineers. That'll consume $2-3 million a year. One hopes they're simply stockpiling cash while valuations are good. I'm kinda curious what valuation they got. I haven't seen anything about that anywhere.

Thank you cletus; I needed a link to match this one. http://www.codeproject.com/Lounge.aspx?msg=2724411#xx2724411... The burn rate is very low. The valuation is private.

This response confuses me.

The linked comment is dismissive and, in hindsight, ludicrous, saying that SO won't be around in a year (in 2008).

The only reasonable conclusion to reach from this is that your response is a not-so-subtle derision of my statement, basically claiming it is just as ludicrous. Or am I reading this wrong?

If not, this confuses me for several reasons:

1. It's very un-HN to be so snarky, even petty. You might be confusing HN for proggit?

2. I love SO, the (original) site. Not once have I ever questioned its viability or value;

3. I have however raised questions about the ability of SE sites to gain traction in their respective verticals, a position thus far backed up by your own numbers [1].

4. I actually wish you guys well. I'm a big fan. The snarky response to a dispassionate position/question makes me wonder if I've hit a nerve?

There are two kinds of comments you'll see on the Internet: uninformed hate/trolling like you linked to. You seem to be suggesting my comment falls into that. I disagree but hey, that's your prerogative. Whatever the case, there's no point in responding to those kinds of comments.

The second kind are neutral/positive, arguably informed and generally reasonable. My position is my comment falls into this category. When you respond to those with snarky comments, it actually does you a great disservice, portraying you as petty and small-minded (neither of which, for the record, I believe to be true).

Weird morning.

[1]: http://blog.stackoverflow.com/wp-content/uploads/FebMonthlyU...

Re: A New Name for Stack Overflow (with surprise ending)

#43

Post by brown9-2 »

spolsky wrote: post #36
cletus wrote: post #29

I'm still seeing no evidence of success or traction beyond the original Stackoverflow. I'm kinda curious what their burn rate is. I think there are 20 odd employees now, not all of them engineers. That'll consume $2-3 million a year. One hopes they're simply stockpiling cash while valuations are good. I'm kinda curious what valuation they got. I haven't seen anything about that anywhere.

Thank you cletus; I needed a link to match this one. http://www.codeproject.com/Lounge.aspx?msg=2724411#xx2724411... The burn rate is very low. The valuation is private.

Are there multiple meanings of "burn rate" at play here?

I can't imagine how paying 20 people fulltime salaries is anything approaching "low" - as in under $1 or 2 million. Of course "low" is a relative term, so it all depends on what the number is you are comparing it against...

Re: A New Name for Stack Overflow (with surprise ending)

#44

Post by ry0ohki »

spolsky wrote: post #36
cletus wrote: post #29

I'm still seeing no evidence of success or traction beyond the original Stackoverflow. I'm kinda curious what their burn rate is. I think there are 20 odd employees now, not all of them engineers. That'll consume $2-3 million a year. One hopes they're simply stockpiling cash while valuations are good. I'm kinda curious what valuation they got. I haven't seen anything about that anywhere.

Thank you cletus; I needed a link to match this one. http://www.codeproject.com/Lounge.aspx?msg=2724411#xx2724411... The burn rate is very low. The valuation is private.

If the burn rate is low, why so many rounds of funding? What do you plan to do with the funding to make the company profitable?

Re: A New Name for Stack Overflow (with surprise ending)

#45

Post by ry0ohki »

iwwr wrote: post #33
flomo wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be laughing, but I just a couple days ago I was googling for information on an actual Stack Overflow error.

Stack Overflow on their namesake: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/214741/what-is-a-stack-ov...

And would things be different if they had called it PrivateVoid http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/04/help-name-our-websi...

Re: A New Name for Stack Overflow (with surprise ending)

#46

Post by pinko »

flomo wrote: post #15
astrodust wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Future competitors: Null Pointer, General Failure, Segmentation Fault.

I would be laughing, but I just a couple days ago I was googling for information on an actual Stack Overflow error.

There needs to be a name for this phenomenon: a phrase being rendered un-Googleable due to overloading by a more dominant homograph.

I'm sure there is one in German...

Re: A New Name for Stack Overflow (with surprise ending)

#47

Post by beaumartinez »

br1 wrote: post #27

The partition of stack exchange into n different sites is sad. Tags should be able to impose order at least in the IT questions. The current situation heightens the artificial boundaries between programmers, users and sys admins.

Use the StackExchange API, hack together a site aggregating questions from all StackExchange sites by tags, ???, make the world a better place.

Re: A New Name for Stack Overflow (with surprise ending)

#48

Post by jedsmith »

cletus wrote: post #42
spolsky wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you cletus; I needed a link to match this one. http://www.codeproject.com/Lounge.aspx?msg=2724411#xx2724411... The burn rate is very low. The valuation is private.

This response confuses me. The linked comment is dismissive and, in hindsight, ludicrous, saying that SO won't be around in a year (in 2008). The only reasonable conclusion to reach from this is that your response is a not-so-subtle derision of my statement, basically claiming it is just as ludicrous. Or am I reading this wrong? If not, this confuses me for several reasons: 1. It's very un-HN to be so snarky, even pe…

I know who you are because of StackOverflow, and I came to respect your opinion through your answers while I participated there. I have to agree with you. You asked a very tame question and got a very unexpected response, all the more strange because you've been a big contributor to the flagship.

Re: A New Name for Stack Overflow (with surprise ending)

#49

Post by evanhanson »

kanak wrote: post #41
omaranto wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MathOverflow is very successful and useful. Of course, there are so few mathematicians, even counting all graduate students, that being a huge success in that community doesn't mean it's very a big site.

Is MathOverflow part of Stack Exchange? I ask because Stack Exchange seems to have a different site called "Mathematics Stack Exchange" [1]. http://math.stackexchange.com/

MathOverflow is a hosted instance of the SE stack, while the "Mathematics Stack Exchange" is part of the Stack Exchange network (started in their Area 51, "graduated", etc). The former is mainly for academics and professionals in the field, while the latter is more elementary and geared more towards the average user.

Re: A New Name for Stack Overflow (with surprise ending)

#50

Post by logicalmind »

cletus wrote: post #42
spolsky wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you cletus; I needed a link to match this one. http://www.codeproject.com/Lounge.aspx?msg=2724411#xx2724411... The burn rate is very low. The valuation is private.

This response confuses me. The linked comment is dismissive and, in hindsight, ludicrous, saying that SO won't be around in a year (in 2008). The only reasonable conclusion to reach from this is that your response is a not-so-subtle derision of my statement, basically claiming it is just as ludicrous. Or am I reading this wrong? If not, this confuses me for several reasons: 1. It's very un-HN to be so snarky, even pe…

My interpretation is that he is going to use your comment, like the one he linked to, as motivation to prove you wrong. Maybe your comment will be printed out and put onto the wall of the SE office.
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