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StackExchange- The Stack Overflow Knowledge Exchange Platform

stackexchange.com

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Re: StackExchange- The Stack Overflow Knowledge Exchange Platform

#11

Post by nopassrecover »

ankhmoop wrote: post #5

Until I clicked on the link, I was excited, as the comments on monetization lead me think they might be providing a marketplace for me to provide for-fee answers to users. Unfortunately, this is not the case. As it is, I don't bother to use StackOverflow. My questions would be too esoteric for the audience/format, and nearly all of the questions I see are boring, easily answerable with a search of the documentation.…

Listen to the StackOverflow podcasts and you'll read why money based answer systems don't work. In fact, this is why they are beating Experts Exchange.

Re: StackExchange- The Stack Overflow Knowledge Exchange Platform

#12

Post by patio11 »

vaksel wrote: post #8

is it me or is it a little bit pricey in the mid range? 1 million page views is nothing, and then you are stuck in a $999 plan without actual traction to monetize. And there is no reason to be stuck on a $999 plan on a shared server, if for $300 bucks more you can get unlimited + dedicated server. Seems like the $999 plan should be $499 instead, and the $1299 plan should be $999. And come to think of it, the pricing…

Why pay $999/mo, when you can have a few hackers code it up in a couple of weeks for a few grand.

The long road of our industry is littered with the corpses of projects which would only take a few programmers a couple of weeks to program. But technical risk isn't the big worry here for a startup.

Hell, someone should do it here, would be a decent startup idea, copy them, but charge $29.99/$59.99/$99.99 for your plans.

That hypothetical startup would be:

a) Trying to market the product without having a successful reference implementation available and without having Joel & Jeff to bootstrap the reference implementation.

b) Be aimed squarely at the low end of the market. (i.e. penny-pinching pathological customers rather than enterprises for whom $1,000 is inconsequentially cheap if it brings projects in on time) This buys you some very fun customer support duties.

c) Need to sell minimally several dozen companies on a quirky knowledge-base type product per FTE they wanted to support.

d) Get to compete on search advertising with someone who can afford to outspend them ten-to-one for customer acquisition.

Re: StackExchange- The Stack Overflow Knowledge Exchange Platform

#13

Post by lowdown »

vaksel wrote: post #8

is it me or is it a little bit pricey in the mid range? 1 million page views is nothing, and then you are stuck in a $999 plan without actual traction to monetize. And there is no reason to be stuck on a $999 plan on a shared server, if for $300 bucks more you can get unlimited + dedicated server. Seems like the $999 plan should be $499 instead, and the $1299 plan should be $999. And come to think of it, the pricing…

$129 PER 1,000,000 page views.

Re: StackExchange- The Stack Overflow Knowledge Exchange Platform

#15

Post by vaksel »

patio11 wrote: post #12
vaksel wrote: post #8

is it me or is it a little bit pricey in the mid range? 1 million page views is nothing, and then you are stuck in a $999 plan without actual traction to monetize. And there is no reason to be stuck on a $999 plan on a shared server, if for $300 bucks more you can get unlimited + dedicated server. Seems like the $999 plan should be $499 instead, and the $1299 plan should be $999. And come to think of it, the pricing…

Why pay $999/mo, when you can have a few hackers code it up in a couple of weeks for a few grand. The long road of our industry is littered with the corpses of projects which would only take a few programmers a couple of weeks to program. But technical risk isn't the big worry here for a startup. Hell, someone should do it here, would be a decent startup idea, copy them, but charge $29.99/$59.99/$99.99 for your plans…

The first part, I wasn't talking about building it. I was talking about a customer, who is stuck paying $999-2500 a month, for a product that can be built by a few programmers in a few weeks.

That hypothetical startup wouldn't need to give customer service. You want customer service and like paying large fees? Go to stackexchange, you want a working solution at a huge discount? You come to the hypothetical startup.

Basically its the case of Stackexchange playing the role of a big pricey inbred company, and you giving them the 34signals option

Re: StackExchange- The Stack Overflow Knowledge Exchange Platform

#16

Post by LargeWu »

ktharavaad wrote: post #14

Seems really pricey for a relatively simple software like this. Someone write an opensource alternative? it looks like something that can be thrown together in a weekend.

A lot of what makes Stack Overflow successful is the amount of effort they've put into making a great user experience. That's not the sort of thing you just come up with in a weekend. It's a continual process that requires a lot of attention. And let's face it, open source's strong point generally isn't in engineering good user experience.

Re: StackExchange- The Stack Overflow Knowledge Exchange Platform

#18

Post by gojomo »

vaksel wrote: post #8

is it me or is it a little bit pricey in the mid range? 1 million page views is nothing, and then you are stuck in a $999 plan without actual traction to monetize. And there is no reason to be stuck on a $999 plan on a shared server, if for $300 bucks more you can get unlimited + dedicated server. Seems like the $999 plan should be $499 instead, and the $1299 plan should be $999. And come to think of it, the pricing…

Funny, I thought their pricing was too low, given that it essentially includes hosting and support keeping it up.

With their software and administration, you need nothing other than web-browser-commenter skills to get these sites launched.

Re: StackExchange- The Stack Overflow Knowledge Exchange Platform

#19

Post by LargeWu »

tptacek wrote: post #3

I'm surprised/impressed at how quickly they're moving on this whole Stack Overflow concept. There are YC startups that don't seem to be as nimble as Atwood's team. What's the long-term relationship between Atwood and Fog Creek?

SO is only, I think, 3 programmers including Atwood. So I should hope they're nimble. Why they should be any less nimble than a YC startup would never even occur to me.

Spolsky is really more of a silent partner in this (maybe not so silent publicly, but the impression I get from their podcasts is that he is involved only on the business end).

Re: StackExchange- The Stack Overflow Knowledge Exchange Platform

#20

Post by jonknee »

LargeWu wrote: post #16
ktharavaad wrote: post #14

Seems really pricey for a relatively simple software like this. Someone write an opensource alternative? it looks like something that can be thrown together in a weekend.

A lot of what makes Stack Overflow successful is the amount of effort they've put into making a great user experience. That's not the sort of thing you just come up with in a weekend. It's a continual process that requires a lot of attention. And let's face it, open source's strong point generally isn't in engineering good user experience.

I think it's more that it was launched by two really well known (by programmers) programmers. Exposure is everything.
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