Will SQLA 2.0 crush StackExchange 2.0?

[Breck_Carter]

Is SQLA 2.0 going to start life with MORE questions than StackOverflow?

Nope, not even close, SO is heading for one million...

...but how about the first StackExchange 2.0 website that has emerged from Beta?

http://nothingtoinstall.com has 2,285 messages and 3,167 users with reputation > 1 point.

The general newsgroup has over 50,000 threads... surely the SQLA 2.0 team will be able leap about the parking lot and beat their mighty chests!

As the Mason the chimpanzee said in "The Penguins of Madagascar", "Well, of course we can still fling poo at them. That's tradition." 🙂

[VolkerBarth]

Sorry, Breck, but I don't get the message...can you explain the hints?

[Breck_Carter]

What is giving you difficulty? the history of StackExchange 2.0? the SQLA 2.0 development team? the website nothingtoinstall.com? general newsgroup? chest beating? the Madagascar chimpanzees?

[VolkerBarth]

@Breck: Well, more or less I think I don't get the join condition right... So you are expecting the SQLA 2.0 site to start with a large NNTP based question pool? (And nevertheless, possibly not that much known users..?)

[Breck_Carter]

Yes, I am hoping for all of the NNTP data. Currently, StackOverflow has almost a million questions, across a mind-blowing variety of topics, and nobody complains about having "too much information"... which is like saying there are "too many books in the world". For a few days it might take a bit of getting used to, but bring it on!

[Breck_Carter]

I also hope distinct NNTP users get set up as SQLA users, but that might not happen... and it is not as important as the content.

[VolkerBarth]

.. and my boys could clarify the Madagascar quote - good catch:)

[Former Member]

I have used the newsgroups for a long time, and find the change to sqla to be a challenge for me.

What I like about sqla:

• Much more flexible
• Usefull for tagging (but must be used) questions
• Fulltext search

What I miss in sqla (Perhaps just not yet found?)

• Notifications of answers more frequently. Currently only once a day is not fast enough in many cases, especially when the community often answer in 10-30 minutes 🙂
• No real tree structure for answers/questions/comments, only one level
• A more compact overview of the "threads", with something like "Status read","Thread ignored by me" (You know, the way it worked in a nntp reader)
• Ahhh, and yes, comments longer than 515 characters, with formatting capability. (Especially line breaks and type text

André

[VolkerBarth]

AFAIK, parts of the points you are missing are planned for SQLA 2.0 (which will by a Sybase-hosted website based on the OSQA software). Another advantage I see: You can upvote and accept answers as being helpful, as some kind of "quality measure". - As to the missing notifications (on which I agree): When I have asked a question, I usually leave the website open and refresh the homepage now and then to "see new contents".

[graeme_perrow]

In SQLA 2.0, you can "subscribe" to a question, and any answers or comments are emailed to you immediately. Comments will be threaded and support formatting. They will be limited to 600 characters. Note that comments do have formatting capability in SQLA as well, you just don't have the fancy buttons that you have on the answer textbox.

[Breck_Carter]

@Graeme: ...and SQLA 2.0 will be available when?