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-8 votes
1 answer
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On which day did it become impossible to upload images via the SE mobile app?

Still trying to understand why some images and GIF files hosted on i.stack.imgur.com larger than 2 MiB, I wonder the following: on which day did it become impossible to upload images via the SE mobile ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
217 views

When were comments first available on Stack Exchange?

I am curious about when comments first became available on Stack Exchange (or whatever the site was when the development occurred). I ask this because, in the Database schema documentation for the ...
William Ledbetter's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
315 views

What happened to stackoverflow.uservoice.com?

What happened to stackoverflow.uservoice.com and why was the site removed or discontinued? Because I was looking at some old questions here and I found out that there was a stackoverflow.uservoice.com....
Wolf's user avatar
  • 304
-9 votes
1 answer
136 views

What does 'StackExchange' mean? [duplicate]

As the question implies, I am talking about the name of this website. It has evidently been formed from 'Stack' & 'Exchange'. But what does it mean and why was this name chosen ?
TheMadHatter's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
296 views

When did Stack Exchange debut?

https://stackoverflow.com/company says y'all started in 2008. https://stackexchange.com/about says y'all started in 2010. Which is correct?
K7AAY's user avatar
  • 271
22 votes
0 answers
540 views

What is the story behind the "I really hate unicorns" close reason? 🦄

According to the Question Close Stats in the 10k Tools here on Meta Stack Exchange, Shog9 created a new close reason in June 2013 that stated: Questions about unicorns are off-topic because I ...
Robert Columbia's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
48 views

Where do I find a history of changes to Stack Exchange's API?

As the title says is there a place where I can find a history of changes to the API? The API I am talking about is here: https://api.stackexchange.com/ I want something more detailed than what is ...
ptestb0001's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
325 views

Which technology/framework was used to develop the Stack Exchange mobile app?

I am just curious to know - which technology/framework was used to develop the Stack Exchange mobile apps? Is it native Android and native iOS (Swift/Objective-C) or hybrid frameworks (React Native, ...
user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
99 views

Where can I find information on Stack Exchange sites' history, especially regarding early stages in their development?

After spending some time on various Stack Exchange sites I am starting to get interested on the history of these sites. When were they first proposed on Area 51, if ever? When did they enter ...
Weijun Zhou's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
354 views

What was Stack Exchange 1.0?

I've seen a few users mention that certain SE sites like SharePoint and MathOverflow are unique, as they were originally created as Stack Exchange 1.0 sites. As a fairly recent user, I don't know ...
Stevoisiak's user avatar
  • 15.2k
-10 votes
1 answer
577 views

Is Area 51 dying? Does it deserve it?

I wrote a query to calculate the number of the started sites per year. Here is the result: Note, the data for 2017 is scaled up by 12/5, because it is yet end of May. The graph shows a strong, ...
peterh's user avatar
  • 1
16 votes
1 answer
188 views

How could a question require 18 people to be finally deleted?

Digging a little bit in the Data SE, I found this old post. In 2011-11-18, it required 18 people to be finally deleted. At least, there are so many voters in the corresponding PostHistory record (id ...
peterh's user avatar
  • 1
13 votes
1 answer
168 views

What did Stack Exchange/Overflow change in May 2016 that cut low-quality questions so dramatically on the flagship sites?

So, I'll confess, I'm addicted to SEDE. To date, I've spent most of my time crafting queries to help with Spring Cleaning over on Chem.SE. However, alongside the site cleanup efforts, it appears that ...
hBy2Py's user avatar
  • 1,414
12 votes
1 answer
211 views

Who invented the Winter Bash hats program? [duplicate]

Hats are a really nice idea and earning one is a happy event. Who invented the hat system? I was wondering how they were born, and who chose their names?
NID's user avatar
  • 231
3 votes
2 answers
76 views

Is reputation requirement for commenting from the start or was it introduced later?

I have looked at some post regarding this but nobody seem to have given its answer. For example this post Has the Comment system always required a minimum reputation? talks about this question among ...
arman's user avatar
  • 351
16 votes
2 answers
574 views

Was Programmers (now Software Engineering) the first SE site to change its name?

Programmers Stack Exchange is now officially Software Engineering Stack Exchange, which made me curious about history: is this the first time this has happened? Has any SE site previously changed ...
Anko's user avatar
  • 1,297
34 votes
2 answers
444 views

Moderators (mods) have diamonds, why?

We all know that moderators can be recognized anywhere (except chat) by their diamond (♦︎︎︎) symbol by their screen name. What was the design choice behind using the diamond, as opposed to something ...
Kaz Wolfe's user avatar
  • 1,770
35 votes
2 answers
1k views

Which Stack Exchange sites weren't proposed in Area 51?

Recently I found some sites that are a part of the Stack Exchange network but were not proposed. In other words, I'm talking about sites that are not established through Area51, like Super User. ...
Pandya's user avatar
  • 10.6k
20 votes
1 answer
491 views

What happened to the accept rate one year ago?

While discussing the effect of a beta site, attention turned to accept rates on SO. There's a sharp fall in global accept rate (not per-user) in early 2015: This is also true of Ask Ubuntu: And ...
muru's user avatar
  • 8,235
2 votes
0 answers
49 views

Are there any light-hearted lists of SE site milestones?

I am curious if there is a list of milestones for a Stack Exchange site which includes both more formal milestones like entering and leaving Area51 commitment phase, private and public beta, and first ...
user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
173 views

Has Stack Exchange ever purchased "premium" domain names?

The landing page of stackoverflow.com in June 2004 looked something like this: Suddenly, in July of 2008 there was a teaser of the site to come: The link goes to the original Stack Overflow blog. ...
Mooseman's user avatar
  • 13.7k
43 votes
2 answers
958 views

Where did the name "Stack Exchange" come from?

I get Stack Overflow (which I'm guessing was the first site?) and Super User, Code Review, and the other sibling site names make sense to me. But I've never heard of a stack exchange before. Is a ...
dx_over_dt's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
193 views

Who cast the first vote on SO?

And how did the first voters on Stack Overflow pull themselves up by their bootstraps? It's been insinuated in answers about proposals on Area 51 for new Stack Exchange sites that proposals don't do ...
Damian Yerrick's user avatar
-6 votes
2 answers
183 views

When did tagging become user responsibiliy?

I was looking back at an ealier beta version of stackoverflow and noticed that tags were previously a fix in the site. When did they become user responsibility?
noawithouth's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
184 views

Why was the Stack Exchange engine once for sale but no longer is?

There has long been plenty of interest in Stack Exchange clones. We even have a question cataloging them here. I never thought much about why the Stack Exchange technology isn't for sale. Who knows, ...
Praxeolitic's user avatar
50 votes
1 answer
1k views

What is the story of Jeff Atwood and the pluralization 'Bug'? [closed]

No, this is not a question reporting pluralization bugs, I don't really care about them and I don't think they're real bugs... But, I'm very curious to know why is the Stack Exchange team ignoring ...
Online User's user avatar
  • 1,643
9 votes
1 answer
816 views

Which came first, Stack Overflow or Stack Exchange?

Just out of plain curiosity, which came first, Stack Overflow or Stack Exchange? I'm led to believe it was Stack Overflow, simply due to the similarities to Stack Exchange, but I may be wrong. So, ...
DatEpicCoderGuyWhoPrograms's user avatar
16 votes
2 answers
315 views

Was there some sort of epic shift in SO which changed how reputation was earned?

I see so many members with over 20k reputation. As I move beyond 2k and see how serious an effort it is to make the jump to 3k and beyond. I wonder... Was there some sort of epic shift in the past ...
digitalextremist's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
183 views

What is the history of changes in Stack Overflow's privilege policies?

We can access current privilege policies from https://stackoverflow.com/help/privileges. However, changes to the policies are not documented there. There has been at least one notable change - the ...
ycsung's user avatar
  • 53
9 votes
0 answers
119 views

Is there history of the StackOverflow/StackExchange -sites available somewhere? [duplicate]

Found some info in Wikipedia and some info in blog, but is there longer (full) story available somewhere?
juniperi's user avatar
  • 400
7 votes
0 answers
173 views

From a programming point-of-view, what are the biggest challenges that the Stackoverflow team deals with? [closed]

I'm interested in learning what might be the challenges that the SO team has the most trouble with. I know alot goes into keeping SO up & running. My guess is that concurrency issues are big, .. ...
Caffeinated's user avatar
  • 1,822
-9 votes
2 answers
216 views

Founders of the Stack Exchange network

Who is/are the founder(s) of the Stack Exchange network?
Rajesh Paul's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
290 views

Why was the AI site shut down?

Why was the AI beta shut down? All stats looked good except for visitors/day and high-rep users, but it was in beta for less than two weeks!!
ertert3terte's user avatar
  • 1,731
4 votes
1 answer
103 views

Percentage of high-rep users over time?

I've thought of a SEDE project that would be very interesting, but I think it would require a time machine, and unfortunately my flux capacitor is busted. I'd like to know what the percentage of high-...
Ernest Friedman-Hill's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
164 views

Are there any more SE1.0 sites around?

I know there used to be a few SE1.0 sites still around, and many got migrated to 2.0 Mi.Yodeya MathOverflow Some moved out of SE altogether (such as parenting). Are any still in 1.0 mode?
ertert3terte's user avatar
  • 1,731
12 votes
2 answers
538 views

When/why did Stack Overflow disallow anonymous questions? [duplicate]

I remember a time when anonymous users could post questions without an account on Stack Overflow. IIRC, this is no longer possible. I don't mind the removal. I DO, however, find it interesting ...
Dane O'Connor's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
487 views

How did stackoverflow.com build the community initially? [duplicate]

I came to know stackoverflow.com about 8 months ago. It started up in 2008, and now it has millions of Q&As. How did stackoverflow.com build the community of experts and users initially, i.e. ...
william007's user avatar
18 votes
1 answer
263 views

Where did Stack Overflow acquire its standards?

I have used it my whole way through university, without it things would have been much different. I could not continue without SO, but as I use it more and more I see it is the best because of how it ...
deucalion0's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
90 views

Have there been any other festival-type events like Winter Bash in the past?

I've been active for a few years and I don't remember seeing anything like this in the past. Is this a first for Stack or did I just miss them in the past?
Daniel's user avatar
  • 163
1 vote
2 answers
232 views

Why Meta Stack Overflow? When did it start?

I get the appeal of having something talk about itself. I also get the appeal of recursion, how powerful it is in code and with great power comes great responsibility; hense the name Stack Overflow. ...
jasonleonhard's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
131 views

How is it possible that this question has a (deleted) answer with a lower post ID? [closed]

Archaeological question. When looking for the oldest question on Meta, I found that "https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5" redirects to "https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6/should-...
Mechanical snail's user avatar
28 votes
1 answer
1k views

How was the iconic Stack Overflow emblem born?

I didn't see a question about this anywhere so I decided to ask it. I anticipate an answer like "it best represents the site name," which is all right, but I'm sort of looking for an in-depth look at ...
Someone's user avatar
  • 5,930
6 votes
1 answer
202 views

What does "Stack Exchange" refer to? [duplicate]

The Computer Science/software site is called Stack Overflow. That has a natural meaning for that field. The more general site is called Stack Exchange. What does that refer to?
RussAbbott's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
136 views

Should I change this old answer with dubious advice?

Should I change this old meta answer since it has some risky info (RE: CW posts)?
Naftali's user avatar
  • 21.7k
5 votes
2 answers
260 views

Where did the badge system come from?

One of the interesting things about Stack Exchange is the badge system. I think it makes things more fun and competitive, while encouraging users to work and help the community. I was wondering where ...
karlphillip's user avatar
  • 2,785
-6 votes
3 answers
192 views

Why does SE use up- and downvotes instead of a scoring system?

The idea of voting on the quality of posts is obviously ingenious. However, why did Jeff and Joel decide for the up/down-vote scheme? Wouldn't a scoring system1 be more helpful? My thought is, if few ...
Tobias Kienzler's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
225 views

What processes made Stack Overflow the website it is today?

I have been with the Stack Exchange community since it became popularized after its beta period. During that time I have seen it grow into the vibrant community it is now. I have also seen it evolve ...
user avatar
12 votes
0 answers
225 views

Pictures of the chat software in time, courtesy of balpha

Hello World. Lorem Ipsum. Hello Barney. More colours. More circles More peoples More history
2 votes
2 answers
107 views

Has SO's development time ever been discussed?

I tried searching but couldn't find anything. Has it been discussed on how about how long Stack Overflow's time from initial development to beta was? I know they were working on it part-time for a ...
KallDrexx's user avatar
  • 173
811 votes
16 answers
78k views

Recent feature changes to Stack Exchange

This is an unofficial list/changelog of new features and various changes to Stack Overflow and the Stack Exchange network. It is maintained by the community, while a Stack Exchange employee changes ...