Design lessons from the fastest q&a site in the west

Abstract

This paper analyzes a Question & Answer site for programmers, Stack Overflow, that dramatically improves on the utility and performance of Q&A systems for technical domains. Over 92% of Stack Overflow questions about expert topics are answered -in a median time of 11 minutes. Using a mixed methods approach that combines statistical data analysis with user interviews, we seek to understand this success. We argue that it is not primarily due to an a priori superior technical design, but also to the high visibility and daily involvement of the design team within the community they serve. This model of continued community leadership presents challenges to both CSCW systems research as well as to attempts to apply the Stack Overflow model to other specialized knowledge domains.

What makes a good code example?: A study of programming Q&A in StackOverflow

“…Some software developers believe that SO has replaced web search/forums as their main source of finding answers to their programming problems [16]. These findings show that a majority of the questions will receive one or more answers (above 90%) and very quickly (with a median answer time of 11 minutes).…”

Crowd-powered positive psychological interventions

“…Crowdsourced messages, however, are highly personalized and nuanced and thus could be extremely motivating, helping users adhere to interventions they might otherwise find challenging or tiresome. Receiving responses back as close to the moment as possible is also important (Mamykina et al, 2011). Fortunately, modern crowdsourcing techniques can produce results within a few minutes or even seconds (Bernstein, Brandt, Miller, & Karger, 2011).…”

Augmenting and structuring user queries to support efficient free-form code search

“…Stack Overflow: Several studies have explored Stack Overflow questions and answers [1,7,30,36]. However, to the best of our knowledge, its data has never been leveraged to improve code search engine results.…”