Is Microsoft Q&A the beginning of the end for SO?

Question

I saw Microsoft has created its own Q&A system, designed to incorporate the same Stack Overflow-style Q&A, but with additional samples, documentation and tutorials.

Someone asked "Why not use SO" and got some interesting answers.

I assume MS Q&A isn't using SO as the backend platform, as 'saldana' said they would continue to improve their platform to match SO's features.

I know there are other alternatives to Stack Overflow out there, such as Devada's AnswerHub that has not gained nearly as much traction as Stack Overflow has, but Microsoft is a different beast.

If the community is being alienated so much they are creating their own Q&A site, and (I estimate) half the tech questions will start to be resolved on MS Q&A, is there going to be much left here soon?

Answer 1

No. Their move was planned long time ago to replace the Technet & MSDN forum that were aging.

I am a moderator on Technet, and I can tell that it was move that was talked a lot in the past to resolve some issues.

The focus, as stated in answer linked is not the same as on SO. They welcome almost any question, and there are no downvotes or community moderation as it’s done by almost all by staffers; while on Stack Overflow the contents is more quality over quantity.

I think both platforms got their use (but maybe the "Welcome Wagon" of SO might scrap that balance)

A side note, the CoC of MS for the use is a lot simpler, it’s like the old be nice rule from SO.

Answer 2

If you go to Stack Overflow reputation league you can see that there is very little MS related technology on the first page for top earners in the last month, and even less MS related products that are currently covered with MS Q&A site.

Programming and technology don't solely revolve around Microsoft products and MS Q&A site will not have enough impact to bring SO down. It may reduce SO traffic in some MS tags, but that is all. It will also reduce pressure on SO by allowing questions that are off topic on Stack Overflow. Little less things to clean up is good thing, IMO.

On the other hand, little competition from such big player can make SE management to think twice about their next moves. MS can decide to expand support to its other products, including languages and that could be more serious threat to SO traffic. But even if that happens MS Q&A is nowhere near being the beginning of an end of SO.

Any kind of beginning of an end of SO will not come from the outside, but from inside the company. SO has huge traction and the only way it can collapse is under its own weight and because its own bad moves.

Answer 3

The way I see it - Microsoft has a different goal in mind.

However, Stack Overflow has specific criteria about what questions are appropriate for the community and Microsoft Q&A will have a more open policy regarding this. More importantly, via Microsoft Q&A we can create unique experiences that allow us to provide the highest level of support for our customers. It is hard to get a full picture of the customer who is asking a question on Stack Overflow. But on Microsoft Q&A it will be possible to connect the asker to their actual product usage and support contract. This will enable new opportunities to offer the highest quality support.

In this response, I take away the following:

• Microsoft Q&A wishes to have a more loose policy about what questions get asked on the site.
• Microsoft is explicitly leaning on this product as a means of supporting their products. Stack Overflow is very much not suited for that.
• There's a lot of metadata that makes supporting Microsoft questions "noise" on Stack Overflow - namely, "actual product usage" and "support contract". Those aren't details Stack Overflow cares about since support isn't the goal.

Besides, this has existed in one incarnation or another for their own products anyway.

This isn't a threat to Stack Overflow in the slightest, but that's not to say that there aren't other groups out there who would seek to create their own platform. Those that wish to face a daunting uphill battle in trying to pool together the actual resources needed to make something similar to the scale and utility of Stack Overflow, and frankly the only entity that could scratch the surface today would be Microsoft.

Although to be blunt, if it were the case that Microsoft wanted to truly ape the Stack Exchange experience, they'd just buy it like they did GitHub...

Answer 4

If the community is being alienated so much they are creating their own Q&A site, and (I estimate) half the tech questions will start to be resolved on MS Q&A, is there going to be much left here soon?

We might see a decrease in the quantity of new questions (about Microsoft-related technologies, which are much less than half of the traffic, as others have noted), but on the other hand, the quality of said questions may actually increase. They've stated the following:

However, Stack Overflow has specific criteria about what questions are appropriate for the community and Microsoft Q&A will have a more open policy regarding this.

I hope the users who ask questions that are too open-ended or otherwise unfit to be answered on Stack Overflow will finally find a place where they can stay, instead of repeatedly trying their luck here until they reach the question ban.