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How We Make Money at Stack Overflow

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Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow

#221

Post by criddell »

astrodust wrote: post #216
gsylvie wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you turn off your ad blocker for SO, you get to see targeted job postings in your geographic and expertise area.

This is the way ads should be done. The only reason I run a blocker is because my tolerance for absolute bullshit ran out. No, there is no "one weird trick" to make hundreds of dollars a day and get rid of wrinkles at the same time. Just no. I've seen the quality of advertising plunge to depths I never imagined in the last five years. I yearn for the days of "Punch the Monkey" level dribble rather than the pure poiso…

At this point, I really don't understand why people that know about ad-blockers don't use them. Do they also watch commercials when they are playing back a show they recorded on their DVR?

Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow

#222

Post by astrodust »

criddell wrote: post #221
astrodust wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the way ads should be done. The only reason I run a blocker is because my tolerance for absolute bullshit ran out. No, there is no "one weird trick" to make hundreds of dollars a day and get rid of wrinkles at the same time. Just no. I've seen the quality of advertising plunge to depths I never imagined in the last five years. I yearn for the days of "Punch the Monkey" level dribble rather than the pure poiso…

At this point, I really don't understand why people that know about ad-blockers don't use them. Do they also watch commercials when they are playing back a show they recorded on their DVR?

I honestly want ads. I want them to be of things I could at least theoretically want to purchase.

I've never seen an ad for a conference I should probably go to, or of a service that looks interesting, or of a product I want. Not in the last five years unless I've expressly visited their site and got tagged by Google, in which case all I see is ads for that.

Instead I'm barraged with bullshit news stories, weight loss products that are total garbage, wrinkle removal creams of dubious origin, and "suggested links" which never, ever deliver on what they promise.

The whole advertising industry is in shambles.

Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow

#224

Post by codinghorror »

mattmanser wrote: post #157
codinghorror wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Joel, eh? Think you might be forgetting someone in there, somewhere? ;)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I always got the impression from the podcasts that while you both designed it, it was more you actually programming it. I could be mis-remembering after all this time! Didn't you quit your job and program it while Joel was still mainly focused on Fog Creek day-to-day?

Yes, it was Joel's famous "servant leadership". We brainstormed ideas once a week on weekly calls (which became the podcast) and he trusted me (and Geoff and Jarrod, the first two people at the company after the founders) to build Stack Overflow as we saw fit.

Community feedback was a huge part of that feedback cycle once the beta was live.

Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow

#225

Post by ihaveajob »

tedmiston wrote: post #211
CaptainZapp wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, if this is off-topic, you hit a nerve. The absolute antibehavior of what you descrcribe I've recently experienced with Air Asia. A few month ago they started to spam me with a newsletter I never requested. Last time I flew them was in the beginning of 2015 and I never subscribed for their crap. The unsubscribe link on the mail does not work and after a significant amount of digging I found a way to unsubscribe…

I think you're pretty on topic. Airlines... I have had a very similar with Air France who I flew with once, through a "hacker" booking of a flight provided by Delta but through Air France's site to save hundreds of dollars over Delta's. They actually subscribed me to four newsletters: "Flying Blue", "Hello from KLM US", "Air France USA", AND "iFly KLM Magazine United States". From those I've received ~75 messages ove…

A perfect CAN-SPAM complaint opportunity.

Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow

#226

Post by tedmiston »

ihaveajob wrote: post #225
tedmiston wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're pretty on topic. Airlines... I have had a very similar with Air France who I flew with once, through a "hacker" booking of a flight provided by Delta but through Air France's site to save hundreds of dollars over Delta's. They actually subscribed me to four newsletters: "Flying Blue", "Hello from KLM US", "Air France USA", AND "iFly KLM Magazine United States". From those I've received ~75 messages ove…

A perfect CAN-SPAM complaint opportunity.

I'm not sure if they're required to conform to it being outside of the US. A quick Google search sounds like it might be based on whether the mail server is in the US or not.

Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow

#227

Post by therealdrag0 »

dolguldur wrote: post #24

Stackoverflow is the prime example for how a company can generate tremenduous value without making that much money. It's difficult to estimate its contribution to the world economy quantitatively, but I'd definitely say billions, many many billions.

Good point.

A thought provoking example I had pointed out to me recently is the GPS system, which was built and is maintained by the US government but is a free public service. The amount of public value from it is astronomical.

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