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On Stack Overflow, there are quite a few questions, such as https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7658399/adding-checked-products-to-a-custom-php-basket (10K link), where the OP wants you to implement things for him/her, without really asking a question.

So, when you face this problem, there are two solutions:

  • Do the work yourself, and add a specific question if you happen to have one, like Pekka suggested:

I suggest you try for yourself [implement the feature / fix the problem] and come back if you have specific, answerable questions

  • Go to a website designed for this purpose.

Do you know if such a website exists?

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12
  • 12
    How about Yahoo Answers?
    – tombull89
    Oct 6, 2011 at 10:56
  • 28
    If such a website existed I would not send the person there, it is just encouraging the behavoir.
    – slugster
    Oct 6, 2011 at 10:58
  • For this question, you have a much higher change to get a satisfying answer on SO, so I understand that the OP did that. I'm looking for a website about programming related questions, and where you expect decent answers. That might not exist tough.
    – Benjamin Crouzier
    Oct 6, 2011 at 11:00
  • 2
    Yes, Get/Rent-A-Coder are dealing with these questions.
    – Time Traveling Bobby
    Oct 6, 2011 at 11:38
  • 15
    I don't think any forum, group or community would entertain such a question unless a monetary transaction was offered. Sometimes, if I can honestly tell that the OP is just completely and utterly stuck at the beginning despite effort, I'll provide a bit of a 'wire frame'. But, that's the extent of it.
    – Tim Post
    Oct 6, 2011 at 11:42
  • 1
    Yes, stackoverflow.com
    – Mob
    Oct 6, 2011 at 12:40
  • 17
    @Mobinga: Uh, no.
    – user1228
    Oct 6, 2011 at 14:55
  • 1
    Good review by Dan Appleman about major online job/consulting web sites : examiner.com/article/…
    – Benjamin Crouzier
    Feb 12, 2013 at 17:40
  • 3
    Send them to gimmetehcodez.com! (link points to Mad Scientist's answer ;)
    – Mathieu Guindon
    May 1, 2014 at 19:27
  • 1
    Try Careers2.0?
    – nhgrif
    May 1, 2014 at 23:36
  • Try the "gimme teh codez" subreddit? reddit.com/r/gimmeCodez
    – clickbait
    Jun 9, 2017 at 1:27
  • 6
    Related: Why is “Can someone help me?” not an actual question?
    – EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
    Jul 15, 2017 at 18:49

1 Answer 1

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81

There is no SE site for that, and I can't imagine that there ever will be one. A Q&A site where people answer questions without any monetary compensation can't work if the ones asking spend pretty much no effort on their problem and the answerers are expected to do the whole work for free.

If you want someone to do the whole work for you, you just need to hire someone and pay them to do that.

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3
  • "A Q&A site where people answer questions without any monetary compensation can't work if ... the answerers are expected to do the whole work for free." Sounds exactly like S.O. to me and yet S.O. is working and people are giving away millions and millions of dollars worth of consulting for free. I don't see how the questioner having put more or less effort into it changes that equation. I'm not suggesting S.O. allow those types of questions. Just saying I don't see it as a reason that it can't work.
    – gman
    Aug 3, 2020 at 5:53
  • @gman Solving a problem is very different from just writing the whole code. One has focus on teaching, the other is just doing work. SO focuses on solving problems and explaining
    – DownloadPizza
    Nov 4, 2021 at 11:18
  • @gman, I think this answer explains why it doesn't work (in the long run). Although the discussion there is about Stack Exchange being a forum or not, I think there is a big parallel and the same arguments apply for this question. Especially the reference to the chat room/forum problem is quite interesting. It very well explains that it "can't work if the ones asking spend pretty much no effort on their problem and the answerers are expected to do the whole work for free".
    – wovano
    Jun 12, 2022 at 6:26

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