StackExchange- The Stack Overflow Knowledge Exchange Platform

I'm surprised/impressed at how quickly they're moving on this whole Stack Overflow concept. There are YC startups that don't seem to be as nimble as Atwood's team. What's the long-term relationship between Atwood and Fog Creek?

Anyone know of plans for non-profit or educational use? I imagine the folks trying to cure diseases or solve environmental problems could use a tool like this.

Here is a half-completed django implementation of StackOverflow called soclone: <a href="http://code.google.com/p/soclone/" rel="nofollow">http://code.google.com/p/soclone/</a>. No changes since 2008 though.

Hope this works out for them, great way to moneterize the platform without having the rely solely on a advertising supported business model.

Seems really pricey for a relatively simple software like this. Someone write an opensource alternative? it looks like something that can be thrown together in a weekend.

is it me or is it a little bit pricey in the mid range? 1 million page views is nothing, and then you are stuck in a $999 plan without actual traction to monetize.<p>And there is no reason to be stuck on a $999 plan on a shared server, if for $300 bucks more you can get unlimited + dedicated server.<p>Seems like the $999 plan should be $499 instead, and the $1299 plan should be $999.<p>And come to think of it, the pricing seems pretty high. Let's face it, the software is very simple and could be duplicated very quickly. Why pay $999/mo, when you can have a few hackers code it up in a couple of weeks for a few grand.<p>Hell, someone should do it here, would be a decent startup idea, copy them, but charge $29.99/$59.99/$99.99 for your plans.

Their terms are so good (45 day free trial, immediate cancel &#38; refund at any time), that I wish I had a use for it that justified the price. Even as a user-support for a software product, it would be cool. Probably cheaper, if you have serious support costs - for example, that (possibly fake) Gates article quoted $500 million per year in support costs. Saving a fraction of that is worth the costs quoted. I'm sure it's similar for other big corporations - and even for internal use.<p>As for price, you'd be amazed at what corporations will pay for solutions to their problems. This is because you'd be amazed at how much their problems cost them.

Until I clicked on the link, I was excited, as the comments on monetization lead me think they might be providing a marketplace for me to provide for-fee answers to users.<p>Unfortunately, this is not the case.<p>As it is, I don't bother to use StackOverflow. My questions would be too esoteric for the audience/format, and nearly all of the questions I see are boring, easily answerable with a search of the documentation. The questions would be less boring if I were paid to answer them, and then I'd be more likely to find a few gems to answer, too.

I've long thought that a StackOverflow for photographers would be a great resource... but not a business. Unfortunately, the StackExchange pricing assumes that you will be a revenue-generating because no one can justify $129/month on running a free resource.

This is great. I was hoping this would happen since so much microdocumentation is only ever shared between team members on large projects and is not easily available to new members.<p>On the other hand, I guess the idea they mooted early on of going open source is dead now.

I'd say its possible to do this using Drupal in 2 weeks.<p>Oh, wait, did you say "3" talented developers?<p>Please, less than a week then. Drupal already has ready-made modules for this type of functionality. All you need is to throw 'em together. The price is too high, sorry.

I think this is a great idea. My questions as a potential user would be:<p>(1) How much visual customization will be supported?<p>(2) I won't have to make people use OpenID, will I?<p>(3) Does the Fog Creek/Atwood team plan more verticals that I might inadvertently find myself competing against?

The software is excelent, but the pricing fails.<p>Supose that i'e an idea to build a community using StackExchange. How can I monetize it to pay U$S999 a month once I pass 1mm pageviews? It's quite hard!

Anyone want to guess how long it will take for Microsoft SharePoint to copy this interface?

The segmentation between 'shared' and 'dedicated' hosting is bizarre -- aren't you paying them not to have to care about that?<p>Furthermore, it leads me to think poorly of their software -- did they really manage to fuck up something as embarrassingly parallel as responding to HTTP Requests? Maybe it's just that their MS toolchain is ignorant of the possibility...