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The Stack Exchange Network
Type of site
Question & Answer
OwnerStack Exchange Inc.[1]
Created byJeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky
URLstackexchange.com
CommercialYes

The Stack Exchange Network is a group of question and answer websites, each covering a specific topic, where questions, answers, and users are subject to a reputation award process. This process allegedly promotes knowledgeable users, best answers, and important questions.

A wide range of topics in different fields is covered.[3][4][5][6] All subscriber generated content (questions and answers) is licensed to Stack Exchange under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (CC BY-SA) license.[1]

Community design

Users can ask and answer questions, up-vote or down-vote an answer. Through this process users earn reputation points and badges. A user is awarded 10 reputation points for receiving an "up-vote" on an answer given to a question, and can receive badges for achieving certain meta-goals, such as logging in continuously for 100 days, or fulfilling simple criteria, such as answering their first question.[7] By collecting reputation points, users are given more privileges, ranging from the ability to vote and comment on questions and answers to the ability to moderate many aspects of the site.[7] According to Jeff Atwood, the reputation and badge system is modeled after those in video games. By building game-like feedback systems into community websites, such mechanics will encourage users to contribute more actively.[8]

History

The first site in the Stack Exchange Network was Stack Overflow, created by Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky in 2008[9][10] as a more open alternative to earlier forums such as Experts-Exchange. Soon after Stack Overflow exited from its beta phase, a few more sites were added to the network, starting with Server Fault, which entered public beta on May 26, 2009.[11] On February 6, 2012 Jeff Atwood publicly announced that he was to leave Stack Exchange and spend more time with his family.[12]

The Stack Exchange platform was first released by Fog Creek Software as a solution for third-parties to create their own communities based on the software behind Stack Overflow and its sister sites.[13] Later, the site was repurposed so the community can collaborate in deciding on what sites should be added to the network.[14]

The Stack Exchange Network began with three sites, StackOverflow.com, ServerFault.com, and SuperUser.com.

Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow was launched in 2008[9][10] as a more open alternative to earlier programmer 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.[15] On September 15, 2008 it was announced the public beta was in session and that the general public was now able to use it to seek assistance on programming related issues.

As of June 2012, Stack Overflow's publicly available usage tool reports it has about 1.2 million registered users and 3.2 million questions.[16] Based on tags assigned to the questions, the most common topics on the site are C#, Java, PHP, .NET, ASP.NET, JavaScript, C++, jQuery, iPhone, and Python.[17]

Server Fault

File:Serverfault.png
Server Fault Homepage

The site deals exclusively with questions related to the field of system administration, designed for use by system administrators and IT professionals.[18] The website was launched in public beta, open to registration in May 2009.

The most popular topics discussed on the site, based on tags assigned to the questions, are Linux, Windows, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, security, networking, SQL Server, Apache, Ubuntu and backups.[19]

Super User

Super User is dedicated to questions from all computer "power users",[20] rather than just programmers or system administrators, and it was launched publicly on August 18, 2009.[21]

Funding History

In February 2010 StackExchange 1.0,[13] Stack Exchange 1.0 was launched as a product sold to third parties to create sites based on the software powering Stack Overflow. Ownership of these sites is retained by the third parties.[22] In April 2010, Stack Exchange 2.0 was funded by venture capital,[23] New sites are created using a crowd-sourcing process based on voting.[24]

References

  1. ^ Joel Spolsky (2008-09-15). "Stack Overflow Launches". Joel on Software. Retrieved 2012-08-26.
  2. ^ Alan Zeichick (2009-04-15). "Secrets of social site success". SD Times. Retrieved 2009-04-16.
  3. ^ "Spolsky's Software Q-and-A Site". Slashdot. 2008-09-16. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
  4. ^ Joel Spolsky (2009-04-24). "Learning from StackOverflow.com". Google Tech Talks. YouTube. Retrieved 2009-05-23.
  5. ^ Keller, Jared (November 18, 2010). "Stack Overflow's Crowdsourcing Model Guarantees Success". The Atlantic. Retrieved 4 January 2011.
  6. ^ a b "FAQ: What is Reputation?". Stack Overflow. Retrieved 19 January 2010.
  7. ^ Atwood, Jeff (2009-03-15). "The World's Largest MMORPG: You're Playing it Right Now". Coding Horror. Retrieved 2012-08-27.
  8. ^ a b Jeff Atwood (2008-04-16). "Introducing Stackoverflow.com". Coding Horror. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
  9. ^ a b Jeff Atwood (2008-09-16). "None of Us is as Dumb as All of Us". Coding Horror. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
  10. ^ Jeff Atwood (2009-05-26). "Server Fault Public Beta Launches". Stack Exchange Blog. Retrieved 2010-06-07.
  11. ^ Jeff Atwood (2012-02-06). "Farewell Stack Exchange". Coding Horror. Retrieved 2012-02-07.
  12. ^ a b Dana Oshiro (2009-10-12). "StackOverflow Shares its Mojo: White Label Q&A for All". Read Write Web. Retrieved 2011-01-11.
  13. ^ Joel Spolsky (2010-04-13). "Changes to Stack Exchange". Stack Exchange Blog. Retrieved 2010-06-07.
  14. ^ Jeff Atwood (2008-04-06). "Help Name Our Website". Coding Horror. Retrieved 2011-06-15.
  15. ^ "All Sites - Stack Exchange".
  16. ^ "Tags". Stack Overflow. Retrieved 15 July 2010.
  17. ^ Calling All Lusers. Jeff Atwood. Coding Horror. Retrieved on 2009-06-08.
  18. ^ Server Fault Tags. Server Fault. Retrieved on 2009-08-19.
  19. ^ O'Dell, Jolie (2009-07-26). "Geeks-Only Q&A From Super User". ReadWriteStart. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
  20. ^ Atwood, Jeff (2009-08-18). "Super User Now Public". Stack Overflow Blog. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
  21. ^ RobinH (2009-09-27). "StackOverflow For Any Topic". SlashDot. Retrieved 2009-09-28.
  22. ^ Andrew (2010-05-06). "Stack Overflow". Union Square Ventures. Retrieved 2010-06-10.
  23. ^ Sarah Perez (2010-07-08). "Stack Exchange Uses Crowd-Sourcing to Launch New Sites". Read Write Web. {{cite web}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
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