A New Name for StackOverflow

[wraith808]

http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/03/a-new-name-for-stack-overflow-with-surprise-ending/

I didn't know that StackOverflow had so many child sites!  They aren't really renaming the site, just changing the name of the parent company to StackExchange.  But there are some really good Q&A sites that I hadn't even heard of before... a few of the topics that I signed up for that interested me: Role-Playing Games, Board Games, Code Review, Gaming... and that's just the tip of the iceberg!  I figured I'd post this here in case anyone else was unaware of the number of sites under that umbrella, and was interested in the topic.

[tomos]

thanks wraith

something there for everyone nearly
http://stackexchange.com/sites

[Deozaan]

I just recently started using Stack Overflow this week, and I'd seen mention of Stack Exchange there, so I didn't know this was new. Thanks for the info!

Also, I love the surprise ending (which I personally interpret to mean the final picture in the blog, not the boring stuff about shares and investors)!

[Deozaan]

So... Do they really expect me to create a new account for each subdomain?

I have an account with Stack Overflow. But if I try to login to Stack Exchange then it tells me my Open ID is new and it says I'm going to be creating a new account.

EDIT: Found this http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/09/global-network-auto-login/ but I'm still trying to figure out how to get it to work.

[housetier]

Back in the days I came across experts exchange, and used it a little. But their answers are hidden behind a registration wall. So when I needed As for my Qs stackoverflow had become popular, and I immediately saw its usefulness.

I use it every once in a while; it is my main source for information about "how to" do something. I appreciate them keeping all the information out in the open.

But I've never used any of their other sites.

[wraith808]

So... Do they really expect me to create a new account for each subdomain?

I have an account with Stack Overflow. But if I try to login to Stack Exchange then it tells me my Open ID is new and it says I'm going to be creating a new account.

EDIT: Found this http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/09/global-network-auto-login/ but I'm still trying to figure out how to get it to work.

I didn't have a problem on any of the sub sites, but on the main site, I did.  I never found a resolution... I'll take a look at your link when I have time, and see if I can get it to work (I'm using my own openid on my own server... that's one feature I wish DC would add- the ability to use OpenID).

EDIT: What problem are you having with the link?  My problem was that it said that it was creating a new account, so I got a bit paranoid about losing my rep/accounts.  But I went ahead and did it, and it worked.

[Deozaan]

EDIT: What problem are you having with the link?  My problem was that it said that it was creating a new account, so I got a bit paranoid about losing my rep/accounts.  But I went ahead and did it, and it worked.

Yeah, it told me it was creating a new account, so I also got paranoid about losing reputation and badges and stuff like that. I went ahead and did it, and I lost reputation and badges and stuff like that on all sites except the one I already had an account on, Stack Overflow. Or, in other words, each sub-site got a "new" account and no reputation or badges or stuff like that got transferred over.

So now I'm not sure if it was supposed to do that or not.

[wraith808]

EDIT: What problem are you having with the link?  My problem was that it said that it was creating a new account, so I got a bit paranoid about losing my rep/accounts.  But I went ahead and did it, and it worked.

Yeah, it told me it was creating a new account, so I also got paranoid about losing reputation and badges and stuff like that. I went ahead and did it, and I lost reputation and badges and stuff like that on all sites except the one I already had an account on, Stack Overflow. Or, in other words, each sub-site got a "new" account and no reputation or badges or stuff like that got transferred over.

So now I'm not sure if it was supposed to do that or not.

That's what mine did also- except it also ignored the boardgaming one since I had badges.  Really confusing.  But it seems fine now.  I think reputation *is* supposed to be per site, though, so I guess that was correct.

[Deozaan]

Yeah, it's strange and confusing. Basic profile information like e-mail address, OpenIDs, etc. transferred over, but "Member since x date" and reputation, etc. all got reset per site.

And that kind of sucks, since some of the basic privileges like commenting or posting links, etc. have to be earned through reputation. If I was a well-known, reputable user (e.g. over 9000! rep) on Stack Overflow and suddenly wanted to chime in with a helpful answer in (e.g.) Mathematics, then my ability to do so as a new member to the Mathematics subsection would be very limited.

It's kind of like living with your parents, needing to earn their trust to do anything, except the amount of trust they have for you varies depending on which room you happen to be in when you ask them.

[wraith808]

And that kind of sucks, since some of the basic privileges like commenting or posting links, etc. have to be earned through reputation. If I was a well-known, reputable user (e.g. over 9000! rep) on Stack Overflow and suddenly wanted to chime in with a helpful answer in (e.g.) Mathematics, then my ability to do so as a new member to the Mathematics subsection would be very limited.

True.  But it's easy enough to get basic privileges, and since it helps keeps spammers out, I'm not too tied up about it.

[f0dder]

It makes sense, though - just because you're an excellent programmer doesn't mean you're excellent at, say, the English language... and you do get, what is it, 100rep or so just by linking the account.

[Deozaan]

It makes sense, though - just because you're an excellent programmer doesn't mean you're excellent at, say, the English language... and you do get, what is it, 100rep or so just by linking the account.

I don't see how reputation is relevant to proficiency. I thought it was more about being able to trust someone to be a constructive and helpful member of the site. You don't need to be an expert in much of anything, except perhaps good manners and etiquette for that.

Also, not sure where you get the figure for 100 rep for linking the account. My new account(s) have exactly 0 rep. Er, well, I guess you start at 1? I can't remember for sure.

[f0dder]

I don't see how reputation is relevant to proficiency. I thought it was more about being able to trust someone to be a constructive and helpful member of the site. You don't need to be an expert in much of anything, except perhaps good manners and etiquette for that.

It's relevant because people judge quality of answer by looking not only at the ranking for each individual answer, but also at the answerer's overall reputation.

On some of the stack sites this could be more important than others...

Also, not sure where you get the figure for 100 rep for linking the account. My new account(s) have exactly 0 rep. Er, well, I guess you start at 1? I can't remember for sure.

Hm. I started on StackOverflow, and have used a couple of the other sites. When I log on a new stack site with my OpenId, it gives me the opportunity to link accounts, and the times I've done that, I get a +100 rep bonus on the new site for linking.

[Mattphoes]

I also really like how SE works. It is so well designed. It hardly can't get any cleaner.