Stack Exchange Network — Wikipédia

Stack Exchange is a network of English -speaking sites of questions and answers to collaborative edition, each dealing with a particular theme. Two examples are Stack Overflow sites, whose theme is computer programming, and Ask Ubuntu (en), which offers answers to the problems encountered on the Ubuntu operating system.

The network was designed on the Stack Overflow model, network pioneer: users can ask questions and submit answers. They are then rewarded by other users with a voting system, allowing to approve ( vote up ) or sanction ( vote down ) The user via points of “Karma”, named reputation on the network. Thus, the best quality responses are highlighted by their numbers of votes. In the same way, the most active users and providing quality content are allocated a large number of points, via these votes.

The reputation system allows sites to be moderate by their members with few actions from administrators. All user questions and answers are placed under Creative Commons license Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported , allowing reuse in a similar way to Wikipedia.

At June 11, 2014 , the network brings together 122 sites and more than 5.6 million users.

In 2008, Joel Spoolsky and Jeff Atwood created Stack Overflow, a question and answers site for problems related to computer programming. In 2009, they launched new sites, based on the same model: Server Fault For questions around the system administration and Super User For questions around the use of the computer (especially Linux).

In September 2009 , Fog Creek Software (in) Take a beta version of the Stack Exchange platform ^{[ first ]} . The name of the service is based on a play on words in English compared to stock exchange , which means “scholarship (values)” and evokes a notion of exchange, while the word stack (which we also find in Stack Overflow ) means “battery” and has a precise computer meaning.

The initial goal of the platform is to provide other communities with a site similar to Stack Overflow for their needs, against a monthly subscription ^{[ 2 ]} . Fog Creek Software then takes care of accommodation and infrastructure, at a monthly cost from 129 $ For sites with less than a million visitors, up to 2,500 $ For biggest customers ^{[ 2 ]} . However, this service is not successful, with poorly active communities and an obligation to have an entity capable of finance the cost within the community, not necessarily obvious in the world of free ^{[ 3 ]} .

In May 2010 , Stack Overflow, which has become a full -fledged company, lifts funds of $ 6 million via Union Square Ventures (in) and other investors. The Stack Exchange network then changes its strategy and now wishes to create its own sites, via a vote of its community members ^{[ 3 ]} . This system is still in place today, via space Area 51 , where everyone can vote for future sites they want to appear ^{[ 4 ]} . This system allows the team to visualize which themes have a community active enough to have a dedicated space and which can attract quality content.

In November 2010 , Stack Exchange opens up to other areas than IT, including sites on physics, mathematics or cooking ^{[ 5 ] , [ 6 ]} . The network then displays 33 websites attracting 1.5 million users and maintained by 27 employees ^{[ 6 ]} . The network is now financed via advertising.

At August 17, 2012 , the network brought together 88 sites and more than 2.1 million users.

Each network site allows you to ask questions about the targeted theme. In the same way, all users can then respond freely in a more or less complete way. Subsequently, users can vote for the questions and answers that seem relevant to them. These votes influence the visibility of messages: a response with the most positive votes will be displayed at the top of the page and the responses with no vote, or even negative votes are relegated to the bottom of the page ^{[ 7 ]} .

The person who asked the question can also accept one of the answers, in order to notify future readers that it was this content that helped him. This answer is then placed in first position at the top of the page ^{[ 7 ]} (the responses can also be sorted by date, by vote and by activity). It is also possible to update messages from other users, to keep the content up to date.
The network makes sure to obtain a clear and universal answer: questions of opinions or that can generate discussions or several answers are generally prohibited ^{[ 7 ]} .

Voting actions make it possible to gain points, called reputation, to the authors of the answers and approved questions ^{[ 8 ]} . This “karma” allows the user to obtain more moderation rights on the site and thus contribute to the self -organization of the community: ‘ We don’t run this site. The community does. » ^{[ 8 ]} . It is also a way for users to stand out and show their commitment and expertise in a field: an important reputation on a network of the network shows that many users approve of this person’s contributions.

Users can connect their accounts between the various sites of the network, and their experience is reflected in the award of “Karma” points and badges, kinds of rewards issued under certain conditions.

Stack Exchange mainly uses Microsoft technologies: the IIS web server, Microsoft SQL Server as well as the ASP.NET Framework framework ^{[ 9 ]} . All sites are based on the same source code, apart from Area81 Who is derived where there are no real questions/answers. Several free tools are also deployed, such as Redis, Haproxy (in) et ElasticSearch ^{[ 9 ]} .

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