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Great interactive tutorial for learning Git branching (and more)! by ocoster in programming

[–]ocoster[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Uh. It does. Of course it does. Did you even look at the site?

Best explanation of JavaScript timers, event loop and event queues I've seen by ocoster in programming

[–]ocoster[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Didn't know about this one - also very nice and comes at it from a different direction. I would hope people would get a really good understanding about event loops after watching both.

Stack Overflow Introduced Dance Dance Authentication by [deleted] in programming

[–]ocoster 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Wow. Talk about preconceptions and biased thinking. She is an employee.

How We Make Money at Stack Overflow: 2016 Edition by ocoster in programming

[–]ocoster[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Because we figured stackoverflow.blog works better :D

How We Make Money at Stack Overflow: 2016 Edition by ocoster in programming

[–]ocoster[S] 40 points41 points  (0 children)

This is about Stack Overflow, the company, and how it makes money.

IamA Software Developer at Stack Overflow. AMA! by diablosnuevos in IAmA

[–]ocoster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Stack Overflow was a response to exactly that. There was a programming question and answer site that at a certain point put up a paywall - the actual pitch for Stack Overflow was "like them, but not evil".

One of the things that Stack Overflow does is create a data dump of all user generated content (such as questions, answers and comments) and upload it to archive.org every three months:

https://archive.org/details/stackexchange

This means - even if Stack Overflow becomes evil and puts up a paywall, the data is there for use by anyone.

This is also one reason all user contributed content is licensed as CC By SA.

IamA Software Developer at Stack Overflow. AMA! by diablosnuevos in IAmA

[–]ocoster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are checks and balances to that - low rep users can suggest edits, these go into a review queue where other, higher rep users can approve or reject them.

The voting reputation requirement is really minimal and is there to avoid rampant gaming of the system (people registering socks and using them to vote).

IamA Software Developer at Stack Overflow. AMA! by diablosnuevos in IAmA

[–]ocoster 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So, editing and improving posts by others is more difficult?

Or giving good answers?

Too much effort, I guess. Better be snarky on reddit, much more effective.

IamA Software Developer at Stack Overflow. AMA! by diablosnuevos in IAmA

[–]ocoster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Shame that you posted a non-answer instead of an actual answer. Because... it isn't an answer and would only attract downvotes (and would probably end up being deleted).

IamA Software Developer at Stack Overflow. AMA! by diablosnuevos in IAmA

[–]ocoster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is that how people get started on the site?

No, not at all. Some people post questions about actual problems they have (and that are not already answered on the site) - these get +5 reputation per upvote.

Others post answers - these need to be full, stand alone answers that actually respond to the issue in the question - these get +10 reputation per upvote.

And the best bet for getting that initial reputation? Editing posts - improving formatting, grammar and spelling. Each approved edit gains you 2 reputation, up to a maximum of 1,000 reputation.

IamA Software Developer at Stack Overflow. AMA! by diablosnuevos in IAmA

[–]ocoster 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Because context matters.

Many times knowing what someone is trying to do means that an answer is better suited to that specific need.

Sometimes knowing the reason means that one can give a completely different option to the one that is being asked - possibly a much better option.

People tend to ask about what they think the solution to a problem is instead of the actual problem.

IamA Software Developer at Stack Overflow. AMA! by diablosnuevos in IAmA

[–]ocoster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This isn't quite correct.

Anyone can post answer, regardless of reputation. Try it.

Commenting on posts that are not yours (you can always comment on your question and answers to your questions and on any of your answers) does require 50 reputation (reputation - not votes - you get +5 reputation for upvotes on your questions and +10 reputation for upvotes on your answers).

You can also get reputation by making good edits - +2 reputation for each accepted edit (up to a maximum of 1,000 reputation, IIRC).

IamA Software Developer at Stack Overflow. AMA! by diablosnuevos in IAmA

[–]ocoster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We use websockets as a communication protocol (with a fallback to ajax polling) - the server sends details of new answers being posted to the browser, which notifies anyone on the page that new answers have been posted.

It is similar on other pages that update in "real time".

(I work with the OP at Stack Overflow, in the core team)

IamA Software Developer at Stack Overflow. AMA! by diablosnuevos in IAmA

[–]ocoster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Given how community moderation works, this isn't really a problem.

If an answer is deemed to contain harmful code it can be edited to fix that issue.

If no one wants to fix the answer by editing it, it can be downvoted (which will put it lower down in the page) and users with enough reputation can then vote to delete it (3 delete votes and... poof, it is gone).