Stack Overflow
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|
 Screenshot of Stack Overflow as of December 2011 |
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| URL | stackoverflow.com |
|---|---|
| Commercial? | Yes |
| Type of site | Knowledge markets |
| Registration | Optional; Uses OpenID |
| Available language(s) | English |
| Content license | CC-BY-SA 3.0 (for user contributions) |
| Owner | Stack Exchange, Inc. |
| Created by | Joel Spolsky and Jeff Atwood |
| Launched | August 2008 |
| Alexa rank | 96 (August 2012)[1] |
| Current status | Online |
Stack Overflow is a website, part of the Stack Exchange Network,[2][3] created in 2008 by Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky[4][5], as a more open alternative to earlier forums such as Experts Exchange. The name for the website was chosen by voting in April 2008 by readers of Coding Horror, Atwood's popular programming blog.[6]
It features questions and answers on a wide range of topics in computer programming.[7][8][9] The website features the ability for users to ask and answer questions, and, through membership and active participation, to vote questions and answers up or down and edit questions and answers in a fashion similar to wiki or digg.[10]. Users of Stack Overflow can earn reputation points and "badges"; for example, a person is awarded 10 reputation points for receiving an "up" vote on an answer given to a question, and can receive badges for their valued contributions,[11] which represents a kind of gamification of the traditional Q&A site or forum. All user generated content is licensed under a Creative Commons license.[12]
As of January 2012, Stack Overflow has about 967,000 registered users,[13] and more than 2,000,000 questions. Based on tags assigned to the questions, the most common topics on the site are C#, Java, PHP, JavaScript, jQuery, and Android.[14]
Contents |
History
The website was created by Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky in 2008.[4] On 31 July 2008, Jeff Atwood sent out invitations encouraging his subscribers to take part in the private beta of the new website, limiting its use to those willing to test out the new software. On 15 September 2008 it was announced the public beta version was in session and that the general public was now able to use it to seek assistance on programming related issues. The design of the Stack Overflow logo was decided by a voting process[15].
On 3 May 2010 it was announced that Stack Overflow had raised $6 million in venture capital from a group of investors led by Union Square Ventures.[16][17]
Technology
Stack Overflow is written in ASP.NET 3.5[18] using the ASP.NET MVC (Model-View-Controller) framework.[19] Unregistered users have access to most of the site's functionality, while users that sign in using the OpenID service can gain access to more functionality, such as establishing a profile and being able to earn reputation to allow functionality like re-tagging questions or voting to close a question.
Sister sites
Server Fault
In April 2009, the owners of Stack Overflow began a private beta for Server Fault, a sister site. The site deals exclusively with questions and answers related to the field of system administration.
Super User
Super User, a sister site dedicated to questions from all computer "power users",[20] rather than just programmers or system administrators, entered a "semi-private beta" in July 2009[21] and was launched publicly on 18 August 2009.[22]
Meta Stack Overflow
Meta Stack Overflow became the site for questions about the sister sites themselves and various other meta-level discussions.[23] Most support, feature-request and bug report entries were moved from UserVoice-hosted stackoverflow.uservoice.com in July 2009.[24]
Area 51
Area 51 is a "New Site Staging Zone".[25] This is intended for anybody to create their own Q&A site on any topic, using similar software.
Careers
Careers, located at careers.stackoverflow.com, is a secondary undertaking by the Stack Overflow team. The goal of the careers site is to create a job-seeking service aimed at companies that are seeking top quality programmers. Careers allows Stack Overflow members to link their Stack Overflow profile with their online resume created on the careers site, allowing employers to browse their contribution history to Stack Overflow. Initially job-seekers had to pay a fee in order to file their resume, i.e. the resume will be searchable by employers, but now it is free for job-seekers.
Stack Apps
The Stack Overflow team has recently begun the creation of an API for accessing the data contained on the other sites. Discussion on Stack Apps centers around the API, although users are encouraged to list apps and libraries developed for the API.
User reputation
Over the course of a user's experience on Stack Overflow they can earn Reputation. Reputation can be earned from asking questions, providing answers, suggesting edits (capped to a maximum amount of 1000 Rep). The more reputation a user obtains the more trusted they are on the site, and the more privileges they are given. The privileges that can be earned are as follows:
- trusted user
- protect questions
- access to moderator tools
- approve tag wiki edits
- cast close and reopen votes
- create tag synonyms
- edit questions and answers
- create tags
- create gallery chat rooms
- established user
- retag questions
- view close votes
- reduce ads
- vote down
- create chat rooms
- edit community wiki
- set bounties
- comment everywhere
- talk in chat
- flag posts
- vote up
- create wiki posts
- remove new user restrictions
- participate in meta
- create posts
User suspension
In April, 2009 Stack Exchange implemented a policy of "timed suspension", [26] in order to curtail users who either show "No effort to learn (the community rules) and improve over time" or engage in "disruptive behavior" and become a nuisance. The suspension is accompanied by temporarily setting the user's reputation score at '1' and a notation on the user's profile page indicating the suspension and remaining duration.
See also
References
- ^ "Stackoverflow.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/stackoverflow.com. Retrieved 2012-08-02.
- ^ "Stack Exchange Network Legal Links". Stack Exchange. http://stackexchange.com/legal. Retrieved 2012-01-02.
- ^ Stack Overflow Internet Services, Inc. (2010-06-08). "Stack Exchange API". Stack Apps. http://stackexchange.com/legal/terms-of-service. Retrieved 2010-06-08.
- ^ a b Jeff Atwood (2008-04-16). "Introducing Stackoverflow.com". Coding Horror. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001101.html. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
- ^ Jeff Atwood (2008-09-16). "None of Us is as Dumb as All of Us". Coding Horror. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001169.html. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
- ^ Jeff Atwood (2008-04-06). "Help Name Our Website". Coding Horror. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001101.html. Retrieved 2009-06-15.
- ^ Alan Zeichick (2009-04-15). "Secrets of social site success". SD Times. http://www.sdtimes.com/SHORT_TAKES_APRIL_15_2009/About_SHORTTAKES/33403. Retrieved 2009-04-16.
- ^ "Spolsky's Software Q-and-A Site". Slashdot. 2008-09-16. http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/16/1910214. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
- ^ Joel Spolsky (2009-04-24). "Google Tech Talks: Learning from StackOverflow.com". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWHfY_lvKIQ. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
- ^ Jeff Atwood (2008-09-21). "The Gamification". Coding Horror Blog. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/10/the-gamification.html. Retrieved 2011-01-24.
- ^ "FAQ: What is Reputation?". Stack Overflow. http://stackoverflow.com/faq#reputation. Retrieved 19 January 2010.
- ^ Creativecommons.org
- ^ "Users". Stack Overflow. http://stackexchange.com/leagues/1/week/stackoverflow. Retrieved 26 August 2011.
- ^ Jeff Atwood (2008-04-24). "Logo Design Contest". http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2008/04/logo-design-contest. Retrieved 2012-06-12.
- ^ "Announcing the Stack Overflow Series A Financing". blog.stackoverflow.com. http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/05/announcing-our-series-a/. Retrieved 2010-08-31.
- ^ Ha, Anthony. "Stack Overflow raises $6M to take its Q&A model beyond programming". http://venturebeat.com/2010/05/04/stack-overflow-funding/.
- ^ "Stack Overflow". Microsoft Case Studies. Microsoft. 10 March 2010. http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?casestudyid=4000006676. Retrieved 24 March 2010.
- ^ Jeff Atwood (2008-09-21). "What Was Stack Overflow Built With?". Stack Overflow Blog. http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2008/09/what-was-stack-overflow-built-with/. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
- ^ O'Dell, Jolie (2009-07-26). "Geeks-Only Q&A From Super User". ReadWriteStart. http://www.readwriteweb.com/readwritestart/2009/07/geeks-only-qa-from-super-user.php. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
- ^ Atwood, Jeff (2009-07-14). "Super User Semi-Private Beta Begins". Stack Overflow Blog. http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/07/super-user-semi-private-beta-begins/. Retrieved 2009-07-19.
- ^ Atwood, Jeff (2009-08-18). "Super User Now Public". Stack Overflow Blog. http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/08/super-user-now-public/. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
- ^ Atwood, Jeff (2009-06-28). "C'Mon Get Meta". Stack Overflow Blog. http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/06/cmon-get-meta/. Retrieved 2009-07-20.
- ^ Atwood, Jeff (2009-06-28). "Should meta.stackoverflow.com replace uservoice.com?". Meta Stack Overflow. http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/1/should-meta-stackoverflow-com-replace-uservoice-com. Retrieved 2009-07-20.
- ^ Area 51
- ^ Atwood, Jeff (2009-04-06). "A Day in the Penalty Box". StackOverflow Blog. http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/04/a-day-in-the-penalty-box. Retrieved 2009-04-06.
