ServerFault launches - it's StackOverflow for sysadmins | Hacker News Reader

ServerFault launches - it's StackOverflow for sysadmins

serverfault.com

135 pointsspolsky27 comments

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

There's also a free signup option that they don't publicize:

http://www.experts-exchange.com/registerFree2.jsp

Although I can't think of any reason to use it.

I have. Signing up is easier than on StackOverflow ;)

Edit: Just checked the link: "Site access is now limited to Premium Service Members."

So, no more free accounts.

Start a new brower session or delete your cookies. You get that message if they recognize you from an existing account. I get that message in Firefox (after signing up from Firefox) but not in Chrome or IE.

You probably already know this but I wanted to point out that users can participate in a limited way without registering on StackOverfow.

If you "view source" for the web page, you can see the responses in there. I wish google had a "never show results from website" option, because of that website.

There's a firefox search engine without experts exchange results https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/10687

ExpertExchange FTL.

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!

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).

Yeah, one minute would probably be plenty.

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

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

Also needed:

CashOverflow - Gadget shopping advice for rich people

StuckInARole - Job advice for nerds

StruckByAHole - Software Security

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_...).

"Great job, Joel."

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

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.

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.

Nice work, guys.

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

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

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

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

makes sense for them to do this

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