{"id":10641,"date":"2020-02-11T14:07:12","date_gmt":"2020-02-11T19:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/stack-overflow-a-winner-at-a-turning-point\/"},"modified":"2020-02-11T14:07:12","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T19:07:12","slug":"stack-overflow-a-winner-at-a-turning-point","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/stack-overflow-a-winner-at-a-turning-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Stack Overflow \u2013 a Winner at a Turning Point"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stack Overflow<\/span><\/a> began in 2008 as a site to help programmers get information faster in the form of a Q&A site.<\/span><\/p>\n

From the very beginning, Stack Overflow was extremely community oriented. The site has four main interfaces for user interaction. One is the regular question and answer site, similar to <\/span>Yahoo Answers<\/span><\/a>. The site also has a \u201cMeta\u201d section, which is a clone of the regular question and answer site, but for questions and answers about the site itself. The Meta site is also used for the Stack Overflow company to get user feedback about particular decisions. <\/span>Chat rooms<\/span><\/a> on Stack Overflow also provide a sense of community to developers, providing a place where they can talk to other programmers about similar interests. Stack Overflow provides a job-finding interface as well, where programmers can search for employment.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are a few other mechanisms key to understanding Stack Overflow. As users participate on the site and their posts are voted on, their account gains reputation which is publicly displayed. In addition, Stack Overflow, is moderated by users who volunteer their time to remove useless or harmful posts. However, Stack Overflow differs in that its moderators are mostly chosen by the community of users through an election process.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thus, Stack Overflow\u2019s value to users is primarily based around providing a community for programmers. There is easy access to helpful information, transparency about what the company is doing and how the site works, conversation groups, ways to search for jobs, and users essentially moderate themselves to build the community they want.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the revenue side of things, Stack Overflow is funded through two main sources: Stack Overflow Talent (job-finding) and advertising. Stack Overflow has now also added a Stack Overflow Teams product as well, which allows companies to clone the Q&A model for their own personal use.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since 2008, Stack Overflow has over 18 million questions, with over 11 million users and 51 million unique visitors <\/span>per month<\/span><\/i>. This is a huge value add for programmers across the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

So why is Stack Overflow at a tipping point?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They\u2019re on the brink of losing their old community.<\/b><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a timeline of important events (many have been excluded for succinctness):<\/span><\/p>\n