Stack Overflow Explained

Stack Exchange, Inc.
Commercial:Yes
Programming Language:C#
Type:Knowledge market
Question and answer
Registration:Optional
Owner:Prosus
Author:Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky
Ceo:Prashanth Chandrasekar
Launch Date:[1]

Stack Overflow is a question-and-answer website for computer programmers. It is the flagship site of the Stack Exchange Network.[2] [3] [4] It was created in 2008 by Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky.[5] [6] It features questions and answers on certain computer programming topics.[7] [8] [9] It was created to be a more open alternative to earlier question and answer websites such as Experts-Exchange. Stack Overflow was sold to Prosus, a Netherlands-based consumer internet conglomerate, on 2 June 2021 for $1.8 billion.[10]

The website serves as a platform for users to ask and answer questions, and, through membership and active participation, to vote questions and answers up or down similar to Reddit and edit questions and answers in a fashion similar to a wiki.[11] Users of Stack Overflow can earn reputation points and "badges"; for example, a person is awarded 10 reputation points for receiving an "up" vote on a question or an answer to a question,[12] and can receive badges for their valued contributions,[13] which represents a gamification of the traditional Q&A website. Users unlock new privileges with an increase in reputation like the ability to vote, comment, and even edit other people's posts.[14]

Stack Overflow has over 23 million registered users,[15] and has received over 24 million questions and 35 million answers.[16] The site and similar programming question and answer sites have globally mostly replaced programming books for day-to-day programming reference in the 2000s, and today are an important part of computer programming.[17] Based on the type of tags assigned to questions, the top eight most discussed topics on the site are: JavaScript, Java, C#, PHP, Android, Python, jQuery, and HTML.[18]

History

The website was created by Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky in 2008.[5] The name for the website was chosen by voting in April 2008 by readers of Coding Horror, Atwood's programming blog.[19] On 31 July 2008, Jeff Atwood sent out invitations encouraging his subscribers to take part in the private beta of the new website, limiting its use to those willing to test out the new software. On 15 September 2008 it was announced that the public beta version was in session and that the general public was now able to use it to seek assistance on programming related issues. The design of the Stack Overflow logo was decided by a voting process.[20]

On 3 May 2010, it was announced that Stack Overflow had raised $6 million in venture capital from a group of investors led by Union Square Ventures.[21]

In 2019, Stack Overflow named Prashanth Chandrasekar as its chief executive officer and Teresa Dietrich as its chief product officer.[22]

In June 2021, Prosus, a Netherlands-based subsidiary of South African media company Naspers, announced a deal to acquire Stack Overflow for $1.8 billion.[23]

Security breach

In early May 2019, an update was deployed to Stack Overflow's development version. It contained a bug which allowed an attacker to grant themselves privileges in accessing the production version of the site. Stack Overflow published on their blog that approximately 184 public network users were affected by this breach, which "could have returned IP address, names, or emails".[24] [25]

2023 controversy over AI-generated content and moderation strike

Content

Stack Overflow only accepts questions about programming that are tightly focused on a specific problem. Questions of a broader nature—or those inviting answers that are inherently a matter of opinion—are usually rejected by the site's users, and marked as closed. The sister site softwareengineering.stackexchange.com is intended to be a venue for broader queries, e.g. general questions about software development.[26]

Closing questions is a main differentiation from other Q&A sites like Yahoo! Answers and a way to prevent low quality questions. The mechanism was overhauled in 2013; questions edited after being put "on hold" now appear in a review queue.[27] Jeff Atwood stated in 2010 that duplicate questions are not seen as a problem but rather they constitute an advantage if such additional questions drive extra traffic to the site by multiplying relevant keyword hits in search engines.[28]

All user-generated content is licensed under Creative Commons Attribute-ShareAlike license, version 2.5, 3.0, or 4.0 depending on the date the content was contributed.[29]

Statistics

A 2013 study has found that 75% of users only ask one question, 65% only answer one question, and only 8% of users answer more than 5 questions.[30] To empower a wider group of users to ask questions and then answer, Stack Overflow created a mentorship program resulting in users having a 50% increase in score on average.[31] As of 2011, 92% of the questions were answered, in a median time of 11 minutes.[32]

, 443,000 of the 1.3 million registered users had answered at least one question, and of those, approximately 6,000 (0.46% of the total user count) had earned a reputation score greater than 5000.[33] Reputation can be gained fastest by answering questions related to tags with lower expertise density, doing so promptly (in particular being the first one to answer a question), being active during off-peak hours, and contributing to diverse areas.[33]

Technology

Stack Overflow is written in C# using the ASP.NET MVC (Model–View–Controller) framework, and Microsoft SQL Server for the database[34] and the Dapper object-relational mapper used for data access.[35] Unregistered users have access to most of the site's functionality, while users who sign in can gain access to more functionality, such as asking or answering a question, establishing a profile and being able to earn reputation to allow functionality like editing questions and answers without peer review or voting to close a question.[36]

Reception

Stack Overflow won the 2020 Webby People's Voice Award for Community in the category Web.[37]

The site's culture has been criticized in the past for being unfriendly by one research paper, especially in the context of gender differences in participation and beginners learning computer science.[38] A 2023 study by another researcher concluded that the website's new users were met with significant difficulties in obtaining help from other users in posts started by the former; an analysis from a sample of 968 posts showed that 49% experienced hurdles such as their questions being closed, receiving no response, or receiving no mention as to why their posts were being negatively scored.[39]

A study from the University of Maryland found that Android developers that used only Stack Overflow as their programming resource tended to write less secure code than those who used only the official Android developer documentation from Google, while developers using only the official Android documentation tended to write significantly less functional code than those who used only Stack Overflow.[40]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 2014-07-07 . Stack Overflow Launches . Spolsky . Joel . 2008-09-15 . Joel on Software . 14 February 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210214111921/https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2008/09/15/stack-overflow-launches/ . live .
  2. Sewak. M.. Finding a Growth Business Model at Stack Overflow, Inc.. Stanford CasePublisher. 18 May 2010. Rev. 20 July 2010. 2010–204–1. 23 May 2014. Stanford University School of Engineering. 204-2010-1. etal. 13 August 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120813013908/http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee204/Publications/Finding%20a%20Growth%20Business%20Model%20at%20Stack%20Overflow.pdf. live.
  3. Web site: Stack Exchange Network Legal Links . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20140820103131/http://stackexchange.com/legal . 20 August 2014 . 2012-01-02 . Stack Exchange . en-US.
  4. Web site: Stack Exchange API . Stack Overflow Internet Services, Inc. . 2010-06-08 . 2010-06-08 . Stack Apps . 26 April 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110426013228/https://stackexchange.com/legal/terms-of-service . live.
  5. Web site: Jeff Atwood . 2008-04-16 . Introducing Stackoverflow.com . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20100203112658/http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001101.html . 3 February 2010 . 2009-03-11 . Coding Horror . en-US.
  6. Web site: None of Us is as Dumb as All of Us . Coding Horror . 2008-09-10 . 2009-03-11 . Jeff Atwood . 14 March 2009 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090314173417/http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001169.html . live.
  7. Web site: Secrets of social site success . . 2009-04-15 . 2009-04-16 . Alan Zeichick . https://web.archive.org/web/20090426045609/http://www.sdtimes.com/SHORT_TAKES_APRIL_15_2009/About_SHORTTAKES/33403 . 26 April 2009 . dead.
  8. Web site: Spolsky's Software Q-and-A Site. Slashdot. 2008-09-16. 2009-05-23. 16 May 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090516073225/http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08%2F09%2F16%2F1910214. live.
  9. Web site: Google Tech Talks: Learning from StackOverflow.com . Joel Spolsky . YouTube . 2009-04-25 . 2009-05-23 . 4 May 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190504031536/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWHfY_lvKIQ . live.
  10. News: Dummett. Ben. 2 June 2021. Stack Overflow Sold to Tech Giant Prosus for $1.8 Billion. Wall Street Journal. 2 June 2021. 29 October 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211029175938/https://www.wsj.com/articles/software-developer-community-stack-overflow-sold-to-tech-giant-prosus-for-1-8-billion-11622648400. live.
  11. Web site: The Gamification . Coding Horror Blog . Jeff Atwood . 2008-09-21 . 2011-01-24 . 1 February 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140201063225/http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/10/the-gamification.html . live .
  12. Web site: Were Rewarding the Question Askers. 13 November 2019 . 20 November 2019. 16 November 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191116115224/https://stackoverflow.blog/2019/11/13/were-rewarding-the-question-askers/. live.
  13. Web site: What is reputation? How do I earn (and lose) it? . Stack Overflow . 14 August 2010 . 9 June 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130609062938/http://stackoverflow.com/help/whats-reputation . live .
  14. Web site: List of privileges. 22 November 2017. 14 February 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200214143308/https://stackoverflow.com/help/privileges. live.
  15. Web site: All Sites – Stack Exchange. 2023-03-26. stackexchange.com. 22 November 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191122230648/https://stackexchange.com/sites?view=list#users. live.
  16. Web site: All Sites – Stack Exchange. 2023-03-26. stackexchange.com. 22 November 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191122230648/https://stackexchange.com/sites?view=list#questions. live.
  17. Web site: Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2021 . 2022-07-22 . Stack Overflow . en . 16 September 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210916193418/https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021/?utm_source=social-share . live .
  18. Web site: Stack Overflow . Tags . 9 December 2014 . 15 February 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200215125549/https://stackoverflow.com/tags . live .
  19. Web site: Jeff Atwood. 2008-04-06. Help Name Our Website. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20150416073345/http://blog.codinghorror.com/help-name-our-website/. 16 April 2015. 2014-07-15. Coding Horror.
  20. Web site: J.Atwood & J.Spolsky founding stackoverflow.com – but we need a logo.. 99Designs.com. 23 May 2014. 30 April 2008. 3 March 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160303182732/http://99designs.com/logo-design/contests/logo-stackoverflow-6774/brief#contest-breadcrumbs. live.
  21. Web site: Ha. Anthony. Stack Overflow raises $6M to take its Q&A model beyond programming. VentureBeat. 23 May 2014. 4 May 2010. The money we've raised means that, for the next ($6m / monthly burn rate) months, we can take on new projects, hire new people, and build new expert Q&A sites on a wide variety of new topics. Instead of opening sites in exchange for money, we’re about to launch a new, democratic system where anyone can propose a Q&A site, and, if it gets a critical mass of interested people, we'll create it.. 21 April 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160421001812/http://venturebeat.com/2010/05/04/stack-overflow-funding/. live.
  22. News: Fried . Ina . Axios Login: Take Note . 26 February 2020 . Axios . 25 September 2019 . 10 May 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200510194411/https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-login-a3657826-f987-4435-a235-bff280080da6.html?chunk=4#story4 . live .
  23. News: Dummett . Ben . Stack Overflow Sold to Tech Giant Prosus for $1.8 Billion . 2 June 2021 . Wall St. Journal . 2 June 2021 . 29 October 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211029175938/https://www.wsj.com/articles/software-developer-community-stack-overflow-sold-to-tech-giant-prosus-for-1-8-billion-11622648400 . live .
  24. Web site: Stack Overflow says hackers breached production systems. Cimpanu. Catalin. ZDNet. en. 2019-06-22. 7 December 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191207032048/https://www.zdnet.com/article/stack-overflow-says-hackers-breached-production-systems/. live.
  25. Web site: Ferguson . Mary . 2019-05-17 . Update to Security Incident [May 17, 2019] ]. 2022-06-11 . Stack Overflow Blog . en-US . 19 May 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220519214227/https://stackoverflow.blog/2019/05/17/update-to-security-incident-may-17-2019/ . live .
  26. Web site: . How do I ask a good question?. 2021-04-26. 25 April 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210425190449/https://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-ask. live.
  27. Web site: The war of the closes. 25 June 2013. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20190803223431/https://stackoverflow.blog/2013/06/25/the-war-of-the-closes/. 3 August 2019. 3 August 2019.
  28. Web site: Dr. Strangedupe: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying And Love Duplication. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20160812004558/http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/11/dr-strangedupe-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-duplication/. 12 August 2016. 19 March 2017. stackoverflow.com. 16 November 2010.
  29. Web site: Case Studies/StackOverflow.com. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20150502220622/https://wiki.creativecommons.org/Case_Studies/StackOverflow.com. 2 May 2015. 19 March 2017. creativecommons.org.
  30. Web site: Wang. Shaowei. An Empirical Study on Developer Interactions in StackOverflow. Singapore Management University. David Lo. Lingxiao Jiang. https://web.archive.org/web/20150202001818/http://www.mysmu.edu/faculty/lxjiang/papers/sac13stackoverflow.pdf. 2 February 2015. 18–22 March 2013. 25 February 2014. live.
  31. Book: Ford . Denae . Lustig . Kristina . Banks . Jeremy . Parnin . Chris . Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems . "We Don't do That Here" . 2018 . CHI '18 . New York, NY, USA . ACM . 608:1–608:12 . 10.1145/3173574.3174182 . 9781450356206 . 4758001 . free.
  32. Book: Mamykina, Lena. Bella Manoim. Manas Mittal. George Hripcsak. Björn Hartmann. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems . Design lessons from the fastest q&a site in the west . 2011 . 2857–2866. 10.1145/1978942.1979366. http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bjoern/projects/stackoverflow/. 9781450302289. 8706419. 25 February 2014. 5 March 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140305221429/http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bjoern/projects/stackoverflow/. live.
  33. Web site: Bosu. Amiangshu. Building Reputation in StackOverflow: An Empirical Investigation. Department of Computer Science, The University of Alabama. Christopher S. Corley. Dustin Heaton. Debarshi Chatterji. Jeffrey C. Carver. Nicholas A. Kraft. Tuscaloosa, USA. 2013. 11 February 2015. 11 February 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150211235444/http://amiangshu.com/papers/msr-challenge-preprint-bosu.pdf. live.
  34. Web site: What Was Stack Overflow Built With? . Stack Overflow Blog . Jeff Atwood . 2008-09-21 . 2009-05-23 . 26 April 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160426184213/http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2008/09/what-was-stack-overflow-built-with/ . live .
  35. Web site: How I learned to stop worrying and write my own ORM . Sam Saffron . 2011-03-30 . 2014-07-22 . 2 August 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140802022318/http://samsaffron.com/archive/2011/03/30/How+I+learned+to+stop+worrying+and+write+my+own+ORM . live .
  36. Web site: Why should I create an account? – Help Center. 2021-03-28. Stack Overflow. 28 March 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210328093509/https://stackoverflow.com/help/why-register. live.
  37. Web site: Kastrenakes. Jacob. 20 May 2020. Here are all the winners of the 2020 Webby Awards. 22 May 2020. The Verge. en. 21 May 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200521205535/https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/20/21263445/2020-webby-awards-winners-lil-nas-x-nasa-jon-krasinski. live.
  38. Web site: Brooke . Siân . "Condescending, Rude, Assholes": Framing gender and hostility on Stack Overflow. . 2019 . 21 July 2021 . 21 July 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210721142719/http://aclanthology.lst.uni-saarland.de/W19-3519.pdf . live .
  39. Book: Kaindl. Hermann. Mannion. Mike. Maciaszek. Leszek A.. 7 July 2023. Evaluation of Novel Approaches to Software Engineering: 17th International Conference, ENASE 2022, Virtual Event, April 25–26, 2022, Revised Selected Papers. Springer Nature Switzerland. 251-256. 9783031365973.
  40. Y. Acar, M. Backes, S. Fahl, D. Kim, M. L. Mazurek and C. Stransky, "You Get Where You're Looking for: The Impact of Information Sources on Code Security," 2016 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP), San Jose, CA, 2016, pp. 289–305. doi: 10.1109/SP.2016.25

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