StackExchange- The Stack Overflow Knowledge Exchange Platform • Hacker News Board

Re: StackExchange- The Stack Overflow Knowledge Exchange Platform

#21

Post by JimmyL » Mon, Jun 29, 2009, 5:12 AM UTC

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…

>> the software is very simple and could be duplicated very quickly

As is said so many times in what we do, if it's that simple why don't you hire a few hackers for a few weeks, build it, and then compete with them? SE has a very polished platform, unbeatable service (presumably, since it's backed by Fog Creek), and a great sample implementation that you can look at to see exactly how much information is exchanged/value is added to your network. They've also got Joel and Jeff, two very prominent voices in the space.

As for the price point, I don't think they're going for small five-person shops. My guess would be that they've got two markets targeted:

* The internal company knowledge base. In this, they'd be taking a run at a small part of Confluence, and the price point doesn't really matter. If you're in this space, $3K/month is nothing if it makes a production team more efficient.

* Support/community building for a third-party product. Most company support forums are, after all, basically a way for people to ask questions to fellow users/administrators. So why not optimize on a system that's designed specifically around asking and answering questions, as opposed to a form that's meant for discussions? What immediately comes to mind, for example, is BlackBerry third-party software development. It's not bad once you've got the hang of it, but it has a lot of tricky parts to get going and optimize. So RIM would get an SE site going and say "we encourage everyone to ask their questions here, and we'll have a team of a few community relations people hang out here to do what they can." Gives the community a focal point, and in a way that promotes getting things done, as opposed to complaining. Think of it like a version of GetSatisfaction for technical support.

Re: StackExchange- The Stack Overflow Knowledge Exchange Platform

#22

Post by ankhmoop » Mon, Jun 29, 2009, 5:20 AM UTC

guns wrote: post #6

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.…

How much money would make it worth your time? If your expertise is too high / too esoteric for the StackOverflow community, then you should command high prices in the marketplace. It's doubtful to me that you could appeal to expert users to exchange time for money when it is better leveraged by consulting and entrepreneurship. This topic comes up quite often on the StackOverflow podcast.

How much money would make it worth your time? If your expertise is too high / too esoteric for the StackOverflow community, then you should command high prices in the marketplace.

$5-$15 per answer would be reasonable given the limited time involvement.

It's doubtful to me that you could appeal to expert users to exchange time for money when it is better leveraged by consulting and entrepreneurship.

I seem to have enough free time to blow a fair portion of it commenting on Hacker News.

Re: StackExchange- The Stack Overflow Knowledge Exchange Platform

#23

Post by ankhmoop » Mon, Jun 29, 2009, 5:24 AM UTC

mikedouglas wrote: post #7

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.…

Because that business model worked so well for Google Answers?

On the other hand, Stack Overflow is racing to the bottom, so to speak, on the quality of questions and the people answering them.

Either way, money is what would entice me to answer questions on the web. Currently I do it for free on IRC, but only because standing community helps ensure that the quality of questions is reasonable on the channels I frequent.

Re: StackExchange- The Stack Overflow Knowledge Exchange Platform

#24

Post by 10ren » Mon, Jun 29, 2009, 5:26 AM UTC

Their terms are so good (45 day free trial, immediate cancel & refund at any time), that I wish I had a use for it that justified the price. Even as a user-support for a software product, it would be cool. Probably cheaper, if you have serious support costs - for example, that (possibly fake) Gates article quoted $500 million per year in support costs. Saving a fraction of that is worth the costs quoted. I'm sure it's similar for other big corporations - and even for internal use.

As for price, you'd be amazed at what corporations will pay for solutions to their problems. This is because you'd be amazed at how much their problems cost them.

Re: StackExchange- The Stack Overflow Knowledge Exchange Platform

#25

Post by thorax » Mon, Jun 29, 2009, 5:30 AM UTC

ankhmoop wrote: post #22

guns wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much money would make it worth your time? If your expertise is too high / too esoteric for the StackOverflow community, then you should command high prices in the marketplace. It's doubtful to me that you could appeal to expert users to exchange time for money when it is better leveraged by consulting and entrepreneurship. This topic comes up quite often on the StackOverflow podcast.

How much money would make it worth your time? If your expertise is too high / too esoteric for the StackOverflow community, then you should command high prices in the marketplace. $5-$15 per answer would be reasonable given the limited time involvement. It's doubtful to me that you could appeal to expert users to exchange time for money when it is better leveraged by consulting and entrepreneurship. I seem to have en…

Keep money per answer out of this. It's amazing what happens when you keep a site like SO working on social norms and avoiding market norms.

To understand how powerful this difference can be, this book is an eye-opener (outlined here): http://bookoutlines.pbworks.com/Predictably-Irrational

Re: StackExchange- The Stack Overflow Knowledge Exchange Platform

#26

Post by ankhmoop » Mon, Jun 29, 2009, 5:39 AM UTC

thorax wrote: post #25

ankhmoop wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much money would make it worth your time? If your expertise is too high / too esoteric for the StackOverflow community, then you should command high prices in the marketplace. $5-$15 per answer would be reasonable given the limited time involvement. It's doubtful to me that you could appeal to expert users to exchange time for money when it is better leveraged by consulting and entrepreneurship. I seem to have en…

Keep money per answer out of this. It's amazing what happens when you keep a site like SO working on social norms and avoiding market norms. To understand how powerful this difference can be, this book is an eye-opener (outlined here): http://bookoutlines.pbworks.com/Predictably-Irrational

Keep money per answer out of this. It's amazing what happens when you keep a site like SO working on social norms and avoiding market norms.

Other than money, how do you prevent an expert-exodus as expert users are deluged with simpleton questions? Amidst a deluge of bad questions, there's little value to remain active, as your own questions can rarely be answered, and users aren't providing interesting questions.

Something else is needed to provide a substitute for that value.

Alternatively, you must prevent the exodus by filtering the kinds of interactions/questions that occur. Mailing lists, for instance, have a barrier to entry to serve as a first-pass filter (the subscription), and then a community to enforce community norms.

Re: StackExchange- The Stack Overflow Knowledge Exchange Platform

#27

Post by patio11 » Mon, Jun 29, 2009, 5:50 AM UTC

orph wrote: post #17

Here is a half-completed django implementation of StackOverflow called soclone: http://code.google.com/p/soclone/ . No changes since 2008 though.

I think this is going in my next essay about OSS vs. proprietary software.

Proprietary software: OK, so technically it both exists and works, but it costs money.

OSS: It has only had one man-week of labor in it. The software is not feature complete. However, if it actually worked, it would be awesome because you'd be able to browse your corporate knowledge base on your Wii. Also, it would support browsers without Javascript, because your office is cool and lets workers change things like that.

Successful open source projects -- the ones you use, the ones you love, the ones you have heard of -- are the exception. Projects like this are the rule.

Re: StackExchange- The Stack Overflow Knowledge Exchange Platform

#28

Post by blasdel » Mon, Jun 29, 2009, 5:54 AM UTC

The segmentation between 'shared' and 'dedicated' hosting is bizarre -- aren't you paying them not to have to care about that?

Furthermore, it leads me to think poorly of their software -- did they really manage to fuck up something as embarrassingly parallel as responding to HTTP Requests? Maybe it's just that their MS toolchain is ignorant of the possibility...

Re: StackExchange- The Stack Overflow Knowledge Exchange Platform

#29

Post by tharris7 » Mon, Jun 29, 2009, 6:01 AM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #27

orph wrote: post #17

Here is a half-completed django implementation of StackOverflow called soclone: http://code.google.com/p/soclone/ . No changes since 2008 though.

I think this is going in my next essay about OSS vs. proprietary software. Proprietary software: OK, so technically it both exists and works, but it costs money. OSS: It has only had one man-week of labor in it. The software is not feature complete. However, if it actually worked, it would be awesome because you'd be able to browse your corporate knowledge base on your Wii . Also, it would support browsers without Ja…

Perhaps OSS is stronger because of this phenomenom: only the best projects survive (the ones worth people spending their own time on). Whereas in propietary software, it's up to the bosses what gets made and developers to get paid.

Re: StackExchange- The Stack Overflow Knowledge Exchange Platform

#30

Post by hello_moto » Mon, Jun 29, 2009, 6:28 AM UTC

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.

If it's just need a weekend, why not do it yourself?

PS: Don't forget to open source it.