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The new Flattr service could be integrated with StackOverflow.

Like someone's question / answer / comment? With Flattr integrated, you could reward them with actual cash.

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    Send me more money or I'll follow you around and post bad jokes under all your posts! – mmyers Feb 10 '10 at 23:01
  • if you are looking for money, go to EE (shudder)... – IAbstract Feb 11 '10 at 5:55
  • So I think the consensus is... NO! :-) – Joseph Anderson Feb 12 '10 at 15:49
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    Stackoverflow does make around $10k on ads per day though... – user134853 Nov 1 '10 at 11:03
  • So I guess that means no. Interestingly enough, similar services such as Kachingle have started to accept donations for Stackoverflow anyway: Stackoverflow is the fifth most popular site on Kachingle, and there are currently $46.39 waiting to be claimed: kachingle.com/site.php?id=2098&section=kachinglers So, what will happen with this money? – Thilo Mar 7 '12 at 3:31
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Definitely not. Aside from anything else, I suspect that if it could incur direct financial gain, I'd have to completely stop posting to SO from work. Many other people may be in the same situation.

(I'm assuming that the incidental gain of more people buying C# in Depth is okay :)

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    +1 - Interesting point I have never considered in these arguments. – Robert Cartaino Feb 11 '10 at 0:26
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    +1 Good point on posting from work and double-dipping. – Sampson Feb 11 '10 at 0:27
  • +1 that is a good point...I hope my purchase of C# in Depth helps you out Jon :) – IAbstract Feb 11 '10 at 5:54
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    Linking your posts to your Flattr account would be opt-in, though, I suppose. – Thilo Mar 22 '11 at 8:00
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This isn't going to happen.

Joel and Jeff talked about this on many, many occasions on their pod casts. They confronted Jason Calacanis (big believer in micro-payments) in podcast #56 where they hashed it all out. The conclusion was that Stack Overflow uses an "expert economy" (reputation, prestige, education, etc) and even attempting a "token economy" would essentially destroy Stack Overflow.

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    +1 For the podcast reference. I remember that episode :) – Sampson Feb 10 '10 at 23:29
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    +1 totally agree. Nothing more poisonous than introducing actual money into a system like SO. – Pekka Feb 10 '10 at 23:51
  • But the objective isn't to replace the expert economy - it's to introduce a separate, complementary mechanism for showing thanks using a spendable currency. – J Smith Apr 6 '20 at 10:04
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I think this type of feature was suggested in the past and met with rejection (my gut tells me this will be evident in the coming votes). Sounds a bit too much like Mahalo Answers.

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