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Question & Answer Sites: A Case of Mistaken Identity

BID:: 3955

By: EE-Tech-News
Posted on: 2/15/2011 at 5:02 AM

In case you were too busy buying candy hearts and roses yesterday to read it, Fortune Magazine reporter Daniel Roberts published an interesting roundup of question and answer (Q&A) websites and one thing was abundantly clear: The Q&A space is suffering from a major identity crisis. Roberts tested and interviewed CEOs from six different Q&A sites, including: Answers.com, Ask.com, ChaCha.com, Quora.com, StackExchange.com and Vark.com.

Notice anyone missing from that list?

Since Roberts didn’t bother to contact Experts Exchange (EE) for an interview, I’ve taken it upon myself to not only respond to his piece but also ask myself—and my colleagues at EE—the questions I would have asked our company if I were Roberts.

But first, a penny for my thoughts…

As stated above and evidenced by the wide range of methods and monetization strategies (or lack thereof) exhibited in this piece, Q&A sites have yet to settle upon a winning model. Sites like Answers.com and Ask.com are straddling the fence between being community or search engine driven. Sites like Quora seem more like Tumblr or other blog-esque formats; and sites like ChaCha, well, they’re just hoping the economic downturn keeps their “specialists” desperate enough for the 10-30 cents that they pay them per question to stick around.

At Experts Exchange, we know who we are. We’re a site for technology questions, and we have been since 1996. That’s pre-Google, or prehistoric, in Internet years. While many Q&A sites allow users to ask any question on any topic, we've focused our efforts on the technology community. In fact, StackOverflow (StackExchange’s flagship brand) built much of their business by positioning themselves in relation to us, as the anti-Experts Exchange.

And now for the Q&A that almost wasn’t...

Q: What makes Experts Exchange different from other Q&A sites on the Internet?

A: Most of our nearly 3 million solutions revolve around specific technology questions, and the majority of those have a sense of urgency to them. People don't like to ask questions; we're searchers by nature. So when a user arrives at the point where they have to ask, they want to know they can trust the solution.

One of the big things that makes Experts Exchange unique is a patented system that requires askers to select their best answer. Most Q&A sites (StackExchange included) let the community vote for the best answer, when really the person whose opinion matters most is the one who asked the question.

Q: Who answers the questions on Experts Exchange, and why should users trust them?

A: Experts Exchange Experts are unpaid volunteers who give of their time to answer questions on the site. We’ve got some of the best and brightest technology minds on our site, including over 300 Microsoft MVPs. When someone answers a question correctly, he/she earns points for answering that question. The usernames of the people with the most points in a certain topic area show up in that topic area’s Hall of Fame. (Sidenote: The points system and Hall of Fame concept are what people are now calling “gamification”—something else Experts Exchange has been doing for years.)

Q: How has Experts Exchange stayed in business for so long?

A: In a rapidly changing Internet landscape, where start-ups are dying as quickly as they are being born, there's always a question of business model. Who will last? We've been online since 1996; and yes, in that time we had to create a premium subscription model, but it works.

We switched to a premium model to keep out of the Venture Capital business (been there, done that, got the t-shirt). Companies like StackExchange couldn't do it without the VC cookie jar. Where's the model? Huh, Spolsky? (I’m sorry. Did that slip out?)
In addition to stabilizing site revenue, the premium subscription model protects our community from drive by postings. People ask questions and stick around for an answer.

So what about you, EE lovers (and haters)? What else do you want to know about EE? What do YOU think makes this site different from other Q&A sites? Out of the six sites reviewed in Roberts’ article, which ones are your favorites? Are there any other sites you thought should have been included in Roberts' article?

Posted on:: 2/15/2011 at 5:02 AM3955
Category:: Tech News
Tags:: Experts Exchange
,; StackExchange
,; gamification
Views:: 25297

About This Blog

EE-Tech-News

The EE Tech News blog is produced by Jenn Prentice, Gary Weyel and Matt Stanford. Prior to joining Experts Exchange in 2009, Jenn worked as an editor at Metro Magazine (Raleigh, N.C.). Gary is a 10-year veteran of the advertising/marketing industry and has done work for numerous global brands. Matt is the Experts Exchange Marketing Coordinator by day and Penn State legal student by night.

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Comments

Expert Comment

by: Fl4wless on 2011-02-16 at 02:51:35ID: 23916

So what about you, EE lovers (and haters)?
Hater - StackExchange Convert

What else do you want to know about EE?
How can you justify charging for the ability to ask questions that are freely askable/answerable/viewable on sites such as StackExchange?

When will you make your solutions freely available like other Q&A sites (without having to log in)?

What do YOU think makes this site different from other Q&A sites?
Experts-Exchange used to be a good concept. I used it quite a bit about 4/5 years ago and it saved my neck on a few occasions. In fact, I probably dabbled in it since then when I was desperate. But since the birth of other Q&A sites, especially StackExchange (specifically StackOverflow) I've never had to use EE again. Since 2009, EE has had no unique selling point.

Out of the six sites reviewed in Roberts’ article, which ones are your favorites? Are there any other sites you thought should have been included in Roberts' article?
StackOverflow.com (StackExchange) is my favourite site on the list, if not one of my favourites on the net. StackExchange gives the OP the ability to ask questions for free, get a response within minutes and to get genuine advice on what they're asking.

The EE philosphy of "The person whose opinion matters most is the one who asked the question" is not a correct philosophy in my eyes. Trust me, it doesn't and shouldn't.

When asking programming questions, people sometimes lead towards bad practice. The StackOverflow community is usually first to educate the OP and give a correct answer. If the EE philosphy applied everwhere then the world would be filling with more bad programmers and low quality code. After all, you ask a question because you don't know something and you want to learn to be better. Experts-Exchange encourages a straight-down-the-line answer to the original question, whereas StackExchange encourages personal development and quality.

The great thing about StackExchange is that the community votes up the most useful answers. The better the answer, the more the community 'upvote'. The OP doesn't need to accept that answer. They can accept the answer that helps them most, but at least the legacy of the community preferred answer is there. I.e. if I go to StackExchange, not only do I have an accepted answer to look at straight away (without needing to log in or hand of credit card details), I can look at the upvoted answers and get a better understanding of the problem and the solution.

Expert Comment

by: wilhil on 2011-02-16 at 06:14:55ID: 23918

Thank you for showing me how to sign up to this site for free. However, I doubt I will be contributing more than to say, I am an EE hater, and here is my response:

http://blog.williamhilsum.com/2011/02/response-to-experts-exchange-blog-post.html

Expert Comment

by: mplungjan on 2011-02-16 at 10:35:38ID: 23921

I am quite active on both sites. More than 9K answers accepted at EE since 1998 and an SO flair of 2.5K since last year.
Disclaimer: I almost only answer JS related questions and almost only need browser quirk questions answered.

SO from the visitors point of view works well when you need answer to something that has already been asked - being expert at EE I can click on EE solutions too.
SO's users and posters seems younger, geekier and know how to find answers on the net.
EE's users, in the zone I am frequenting seem less geeky, need more handholding and to be honest, a third of their questions would have been hammered at SO as "Not a question", ridiculed for grammar and syntax, voted down for not providing clear and concise questions according to Strunk and White and told to read How To Ask Questions The Smart Way. So be it. At EE, you get hand holding when needed, zone changes and additions when needed (SO has tags), moderators that rezone and call for experts when a question is abandoned or someone clicks the "Request attention"
SO has a "bounty" feature. I have so far not been impressed with that - lost bounties on answers that was voted up by the community (or the answerer's alias) but not answering my questions.

So what to do about the EE haters? I have told EE on many occasions that the paywall is obnoxious and the expert sign up too obscure. Daniweb's popup actually worked better for me, 3 times annoyed, then I signed up and never saw it again. Same as EE's adverts and wall - I have to sign out to see them.

EE works really well for corporate users and users who regularly have technical problems that need more than a oneliner or is solved with a "Use jQuery" or "Upgrade your ancient browser"

SO works really well for young geeks doing HTML5 and jQuery (again I do not use other areas much)

For me, if I have a PHP question I ask at EE, if I have a jQuery one, I ask at SO