Relating to this discussion, what are the possible positive effects of venture capital funding for Stack Overflow?
asked Feb 16, 2010 at 22:06
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4 Answers
Localization becomes a priority.
answered Feb 16, 2010 at 22:11
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The StackExchange is not localizable at the moment: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4169/… VC funding may provide for the necessary resources to speed up the process.– PekkaFeb 16, 2010 at 23:07
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1Stack Overflow != Stack Exchange. See my answer here: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/39539/… Joel indicated they may sell Stack Exchange back to Stack Overflow LLC one day. Right now, they're two separate companies. I'm talking about localization for Stack Overflow. Feb 17, 2010 at 0:19
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@George I would assume localizing SO and SE will be if not the same, then at least very, very similar beasts.– PekkaFeb 17, 2010 at 0:31
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@Pekka Keep in mind that Stack Exchange has a more 'generic' model than Stack Overflow does. It will be similar, but Stack Exchange has to deal with being localizable and generic, Stack Overflow is highly optimized for its audience and thus has a bit of a different set of criteria for localization. Feb 17, 2010 at 2:23
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@George I'd expect that this would creep back up into the SO code eventually. It's not a benefit for me, but I can see it helping some. Feb 17, 2010 at 3:58
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1@George I was thinking more along the lines of localized versions of SO for non-english audiences, for which I believe there is a large number of people who are at this moment outside SO's scope. I don't know whether this is a priority in where Joel and Jeff what to go with the VC funding, but it would be interesting IMO.– PekkaFeb 17, 2010 at 8:13
They can afford to provide every 10K+ user their choice of pony, unicorn, waffles or being Jon Skeet for a day.
answered Feb 16, 2010 at 22:10
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They will be able to afford to build a mobile version of StackOverflow.
answered Feb 16, 2010 at 22:07
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Given the capabilities of modern mobile browsers, the current sites are almost 'mobile friendly'. I've been browsing with a few mobile browsers (incl. Opera mini/mobile), I would say the main issue is the layout which requires lots of scrolling.– o.k.wFeb 16, 2010 at 23:56
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@okw, I tried Opera mini but haven't got it to access SO yet, just an error page. Feb 17, 2010 at 0:15
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@okw it's not too bad on my iPod Touch, but there's definitely some room for improvement. I can't imagine ever using a mobile app to answer or ask questions (too much typing), but it would be useful for searching and for tracking updates/votes through the day as I'm away from my desk. Feb 17, 2010 at 3:57
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@Joel, I've actually typed codes using alphanumeric keypads to post answers. Painful but I was real bored then. :P– o.k.wFeb 17, 2010 at 5:45
- They'd hire a real server admin, rather than needing developers standing in as server admins. Not that the team has done a bad job, but there have been some avoidable outages.
- A development database that doesn't live on the production server.
- Connections needed to force advertisers to give SO a second look who currently pass it over because they don't allow animated/flash ads. It'd be nice to see some of the ad dollars from the VS2010 launch campaign make it's way to SO, for example.
- Money to promote serverfault a little better.
- More user profile customization
Finally, if they really want to "raise the level of discourse on the entire internet", they're gonna have to compete with phpBB on price at some point. And that means a version that can be hosted on a php server. And that means a re-write, or at least parallel implementation. I don't think mono will cut it for that crowd. I'm skeptical of the idea that php hosts are really cheaper in a meaningful way (I can find asp.net hosting for $5/mo, just like php - or even free from time to time), but the perception exists.
answered Feb 17, 2010 at 4:03
