Stack Overflow sold to Prosus for $1.8B • Hacker News Board

Re: Stack Overflow sold to Prosus for $1.8B

#241

Post by irrational » Wed, Jun 02, 2021, 5:31 PM UTC

dested wrote: post #11

I always thought Microsoft would be a natural buyer given the tech stack and Microsoft's support for developers. Unrelated story, I have a day one Stack Overflow account. I don't remember how I found it but I'm sure it was posted on digg or slashdot or something at the time. I had a lot of posts in the first few years about some generally broad concepts, and completely inactive since. In spite of this, I am in the to…

Ironically I was one of the first ones too but never really participated since I didn’t think the site would actually have lasting power. Never ask me to pick the winning horse.

Same thing with Bitcoin. I knew about it from the first day, but never mined any since it was such a dumb idea. Face palm.

Re: Stack Overflow sold to Prosus for $1.8B

#242

Post by passivate » Wed, Jun 02, 2021, 5:31 PM UTC

ehnto wrote: post #123

Goronmon wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way I see it as a user is that while I may invest time in a community like Stackoverflow, my actual responsibilities are practically non-existent and my direct monetary investment is literally zero. Whereas the company maintaining the site as a whole has to invest a whole lot of time and money into keeping the site running, and have a huge responsibility in continuing to do so if they want to site to even stay in…

But your answers clearly had value, otherwise they couldn't have sold the site as it would have nothing on it.

IMO, That is a bit of an odd position to take. The terms of the deal were very clear going in.

I don't owe Donald Knuth anything more than the $100 (placeholder) for his books, even if they helped me get a 6 figure job right out of college.

Yes, his books had a lot more "value" than $100, but those were the terms of the deal.

Re: Stack Overflow sold to Prosus for $1.8B

#243

Post by mhitza » Wed, Jun 02, 2021, 5:31 PM UTC

barreira wrote: post #221

croes wrote: post #115

"The group’s expansion into internet platforms began in the 1990s' spanning online consumer services, including: E-commerce - including its subsidiary, OLX (100%) Takealot.com (96%) Fintech - including its subsidiary, PayU (98.8%) Food delivery - including its subsidiary and associates, iFood (54.8%), Delivery Hero (22.3%) and Swiggy (38.8%) Etail - including its subsidiary, eMag (80.1%) Travel - including its associ…

OLX is the most popular Craigslist-type website at least in Portugal (and maybe in more places in Europe as well?)

In Romania as well. Also PayU is a common payment processing gateway around here as well.

Re: Stack Overflow sold to Prosus for $1.8B

#244

Post by mitchdoogle » Wed, Jun 02, 2021, 5:32 PM UTC

hu3 wrote: post #39

steve_adams_86 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t want to seem like a jerk saying this, because I’ve put effort into supporting the site and helping with moderation, I know it’s all very challenging and difficult, but: I think stack overflow has been dead for a while. Maybe you and I wanted different things from it and you still find it useful, but I haven’t really enjoyed it for many years. I loved it over a decade ago, these days I generally avoid it. I wa…

> stack overflow has been dead for a while Yep. SO has been read-only for me for years. When I need help with something it's usually advanced enough to merit a Github issue otherwise I seek Slack/IRC/Discord/Gitter comunities of the technology I'm having trouble with.

I feel like it is read-only for the vast majority of users. The whole internet is.

Re: Stack Overflow sold to Prosus for $1.8B

#245

Post by jagger27 » Wed, Jun 02, 2021, 5:32 PM UTC

iSnow wrote: post #194

jrockway wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. I think what happened is that the early users answered all the most frequently occurring questions, and the questions honestly haven't changed much. I think my most popular answer is like how to diff with git. People are using git even more than they were when SO started, so it gets upvoted regularly.

There really should be some karma decay system to prevent early users hogging 5-figure reputation. I didn't do much there in the last 5y but I am still way up in reputation.

I think this idea combined with the “is this answer still relevant” flag that was recently added would work well. I see no reason to devalue old but still good answers.

Re: Stack Overflow sold to Prosus for $1.8B

#246

Post by herodoturtle » Wed, Jun 02, 2021, 5:32 PM UTC

sangnoir wrote: post #143

numair wrote: post #28

This is absolutely phenomenal. Naspers/Prosus are some of the savviest and most forward-thinking players in tech investment — would you have been smart enough to give Tencent all that money, way back when? And remember, they were a bunch of nobodies based out of South Africa when that happened. This is much more interesting than a monopolist like Microsoft buying SO, and I’d be keen to see what the growth strategy is…

> And remember, they were a bunch of nobodies based out of South Africa when that happened. Hard disagree - they weren't nobodies, Naspers was already a media juggernaut by 2001 (print and TV). Naspers was founded in 1915 (as De Nasionale Pers Beperkt - National Press) to promote Afrikaner Nationalism in the aftermath of the Anglo-Boer war. One of Naspers founders was also the founding president of the National Party…

Ja true, but don't we Saffers all wish we bought more Naspers on the JSE before their gamble on Tencent.

Re: Stack Overflow sold to Prosus for $1.8B

#247

Post by bidirectional » Wed, Jun 02, 2021, 5:34 PM UTC

kennywinker wrote: post #215

bidirectional wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how does this apply to modern investment funds who have to regularly provide client reports and make disclosures?

You can invest in Apple stock in the early 90s because you are a savvy investor who sees the massive potential, or you can invest in them because the stock shows up at the top of an alphabetical list. Either way you're rich, and get called a brilliant investor, while all the people who invested in ZZCO because they picked the bottom of the alphabetical list, or some other similarly random choice, are bankrupt.

Of course you can invest at random and it will sometimes work. But it does not explain the realities of the industry. Even just one of the top funds has an infinitesimally small chance of existing randomly, let alone a glut of them.

Re: Stack Overflow sold to Prosus for $1.8B

#248

Post by caymanjim » Wed, Jun 02, 2021, 5:34 PM UTC

zwieback wrote: post #12

The consensus seems to be that SO has peaked some time ago although I still get a lot of value out of it. Why then does nobody seems to think there's an upside to the acquisition? Maybe they can fix some of the problems.

I'm not sure what problems you're hoping they'll solve. I think the biggest problem with Stack Overflow is the endless stream of low-quality questions. It's hard to find interesting, helpful-to-others questions among all the "do my homework for me" type questions, repeats, poorly-worded unresearched posts, etc. That only gets worse as more people use it. I used to moderate, and got sick of it because it's not rewarding to wade through all the garbage. I don't know how they're going to grow the business and improve the quality at the same time.

My biggest concern is that they'll ruin it with ads. Historically, Stack Overflow has had some of the least-offensive advertising, to the point that I didn't even need an adblocker (although lately I do). They're going to want to monetize it for a return on their investment, and that can only lead to bad things.

Re: Stack Overflow sold to Prosus for $1.8B

#249

Post by ravenstine » Wed, Jun 02, 2021, 5:34 PM UTC

I hope they dismantle it and start over. So many outdated answers on there that I don't find it worth using anymore, whereas it used to be a staple of my software development.

Re: Stack Overflow sold to Prosus for $1.8B

#250

Post by selfhoster11 » Wed, Jun 02, 2021, 5:35 PM UTC

eric_b wrote: post #64

I find parallels between Stack Overflow and Mozilla. Both started with fairly focused products that were best in class. The user base grew and the network effect multiplied. Both were started and largely staffed by engineers. Then both companies started focusing on "bigger", more ambiguous goals. Their about pages are riddled with the latest marketing-speak: Authentically empowering dignity, community, and inclusivit…

Since when is Stack Overflow dying, or focused on social justice? That's not my experience at all. The purpose of the site (as well as the many, many sister sites) is to succinctly ask and succinctly answer questions. It does so admirably.

Occasional drama is just what happens when you become the effective Wikipedia of everything that is possible to ask about any technical topic. The actual Wikipedia is also not free of drama or political struggles in the background. But, much like Stack Overflow, it's also far from dead and continues to be a priceless resource to all of humanity.