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Announcing O'Reilly Answers

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Re: Announcing O'Reilly Answers

#3

Post by tseabrooks »

I think this is clearly a response to StackOverflow. If I can get a lot of high quality content on the sorts of things O'Reilly publishes books about in a free online place (StackOverflow) why would I waste money on purchasing their books?

Notice that they will be 'rewarding' contributions with points redeemable for books. This site exists because O'Reilly is afraid StackOverflow will result in a loss of sales of their books and they have no original idea on how to combat the problem.

Re: Announcing O'Reilly Answers

#4

Post by jeremymcanally »

tseabrooks wrote: post #3

I think this is clearly a response to StackOverflow. If I can get a lot of high quality content on the sorts of things O'Reilly publishes books about in a free online place (StackOverflow) why would I waste money on purchasing their books? Notice that they will be 'rewarding' contributions with points redeemable for books. This site exists because O'Reilly is afraid StackOverflow will result in a loss of sales of the…

I don't think so. I think getting people talking about the same topics in an environment where the books are always around will probably actually drive sales. Especially questions like "What language should I use for (X)?" "Oh, use (Rails|PHP|ASP.NET MVC)!" "Cool, I'll go grab a book on that..."

It probably won't drive a huge spike in sales, but I really doubt it'll hurt them.

Re: Announcing O'Reilly Answers

#5

Post by telemachos »

I'm not sure I can say how awful that site is.

To focus on one thing, nearly all of the current posts appear to be snippets taken from their books, with prominently placed ads below. These are not questions: they're just advertisements. (I also wonder if the authors were asked about the use of their work in this way.) The posts that aren't by authors are by editors or other O'Reilly employees. The thing is sheer astroturfing, not a QA site.

It's sad to see a company that does something so well (their books are generally excellent) so desperate to capture every market. They feel a bit like Starbucks a few years ago.

Re: Announcing O'Reilly Answers

#6

Post by cyanbane »

tseabrooks wrote: post #3

I think this is clearly a response to StackOverflow. If I can get a lot of high quality content on the sorts of things O'Reilly publishes books about in a free online place (StackOverflow) why would I waste money on purchasing their books? Notice that they will be 'rewarding' contributions with points redeemable for books. This site exists because O'Reilly is afraid StackOverflow will result in a loss of sales of the…

Regardless, us readers win ;)

Re: Announcing O'Reilly Answers

#7

Post by RyanMcGreal »

telemachos wrote: post #5

I'm not sure I can say how awful that site is. To focus on one thing, nearly all of the current posts appear to be snippets taken from their books, with prominently placed ads below. These are not questions: they're just advertisements. (I also wonder if the authors were asked about the use of their work in this way.) The posts that aren't by authors are by editors or other O'Reilly employees. The thing is sheer astr…

> The thing is sheer astroturfing, not a QA site.

When reddit launched, nearly all the posts were by reddit devs or YC insiders. Give it time to see if the model takes off among external users.

Re: Announcing O'Reilly Answers

#9

Post by telemachos »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #7
telemachos wrote: post #5

I'm not sure I can say how awful that site is. To focus on one thing, nearly all of the current posts appear to be snippets taken from their books, with prominently placed ads below. These are not questions: they're just advertisements. (I also wonder if the authors were asked about the use of their work in this way.) The posts that aren't by authors are by editors or other O'Reilly employees. The thing is sheer astr…

> The thing is sheer astroturfing, not a QA site. When reddit launched, nearly all the posts were by reddit devs or YC insiders. Give it time to see if the model takes off among external users.

Nah, not buying it.

Were the reddit devs aware that they were making those posts? I'm guessing yes, but I'm guessing that easily 50% of those "posters" over at O'Reilly Overflow have no idea what they've been up to.

Were the reddit devs selling their books by posting? (Yes, I understand that Reddit sells stuff, but the posts are not directly linked to selling what they're posting about. That's what makes the O'Reilly site astroturfing.)

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