ServerFault launches - it's StackOverflow for sysadmins

by spolsky • 17 years ago

135 27 17 years ago

vaksel• 17 years ago

makes sense for them to do this

Probably the greatest "side affect" from StackOverflow and ServerFault is watching ExpertsExchange slowly wither away into a moldy corpse.

donniefitz2• 17 years ago

I couldn't agree more. Nothing's more annoying than Googling for an answer to a problem, failing to look at the source of the link and ending up at Experts Exchange. Instant back button.

nopassrecover• 17 years ago

Scroll down :-) Or use Google cached version.

For it to show to Google bot it has to be visible for you too - if it's not then they'll get penalised by Google.

chanux• 17 years ago

ExpertExchange FTL.

sutro• 17 years ago

Great job, Joel. Now get to work on these variations:

SnackOverload - StackOverflow for people who like snacks

CrackedTwoByFour - StackOverflow for people who need refunds for defective building materials

CrackFoSomeHos - StackOverflow for crack whores

StackCoverFlow - this is still StackOverflow, but with a CoverFlow UI

moe• 17 years ago

Also needed:

CashOverflow - Gadget shopping advice for rich people

StuckInARole - Job advice for nerds

StruckByAHole - Software Security

abalashov2• 17 years ago

Don't forget MyFaultYourFault - an arbitration/dispute resolution service.

This could actually be wildly successful in the startup community, if not for the tiny little fact that most significant disputes don't occur between peers or equals, but rather between sheep (startups) and wolves (BigCo). And any situation in which the sheep are put into the position of negotiating with wolves does not lead to good outcomes, as a surgeon pointed out (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_...).

screwperman• 17 years ago

"Great job, Joel."

Joel does 0.1% of the work on StackOverflow and ServerFault. Give Jeff some credit.

jrockway• 17 years ago

So is the "woot" badge an advertisement for woot.com, or did they just steal the logo?

Dobbs• 17 years ago

See: http://serverfault.com/badges/66/woot-enthusiast

Woot was the launch sponsor for Server Fault so it would be an advert.

patio11• 17 years ago

They automatically migrate your information from StackOverflow based on your OpenID. (It started me with 101 rep, too.)

Find the man responsible for that decision and reward him appropriately, please. That is the kind of Obvious Usability Win that is anything but obvious.

Relatedly: My bank until recently required you to log in with a long numeric string, instead of a memorable ID like everywhere else on the planet. Then they upgraded to the 21st century and decided to allow people to pick memorable IDs. So they of course have a form for it. When I went to it, it said "Hey, we noticed that you use $NAME as your ID at $BROKERAGE, a company which we own. For your convenience, we're going to set your ID to $NAME. If you want to change it, click below."

Honestly if there was any way to figure out what person was individually responsible for the intra-company political hell that went into getting that approved I would have sent him a cake in the mail on general principles.

danw• 17 years ago

Does it keep your rep consistent between StackOverflow and the new site? Or is the porting only at signup?

niyazpk• 17 years ago

They just port the user data. Reputation points are seperate (that makes sense).

jawngee• 17 years ago

This site is the most aggravating thing I've ever f'ing used in my life.

I can't post a link because I'm a new user? Are you f'ing kidding me?

I can only post one answer every three minutes? Are you f'ing kidding me?

Dudes, I'm an expert in a variety of domains and I'm not interested in playing what appears to be a game to participate in your site. In other words, I have a lot of value to bring to your site, but am not really all the interested in making a hobby out of it.

I understand you probably have spam problems, but there are other ways to do it that aren't frustrating for people with a wealth of knowledge that want to add value to your site. HINT: Bayesian filtering on new posts might mitigate some headaches!

So, good job, you just discouraged someone with a lot to offer!

Quarrelsome• 17 years ago

Heh, blame the people that have played with the site thus far. Most of those measures are a direct response to shameless bot-ing by users who like to play (and "break" things).

Dilpil• 17 years ago

Yeah, one minute would probably be plenty.

abalashov2• 17 years ago

I strongly agree with this, and ran into the same limitation.

heresy• 17 years ago

Nice work, guys.

Where were you when I was still slaving away in the network admin pits? :)

deutronium• 17 years ago

Ive noticed a few posts seem to be closed as they are deemed "subjective and argumentative", personally I think this is a shame, as yeah, although the answers may be subjective, its still useful to hear different opinions on something. Cool site though.

sdragon• 17 years ago

I'd like to take the opportunity to suggest a variation of this for business/startup related Q&A. The few existing sites I know of, are full of spam/misinformation/product promotion, so there seems to be a clear market for ex-geeks/new business owners to freely exchange information.

ServerFault launches - it's StackOverflow for sysadmins

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