My favorite Stacks
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Loading ...I blogged before about the StackExchange platform for questions and answers.
A few months have passed, and a whopping 218 different “stacks” emerged (there might be some more off the radar). While most of them are still ghost towns, a few are starting to be rather useful (some more and some less):
- MathOverflow – Higher math. I haven’t personally used this one myself, but it seems to really take off.
- Force Close – Android
- Basically Money – Money & investments
- Smarter Gamer – Gaming. Not super active right now, but still.
- Draw3Cards – my own site about Magic: The Gathering. Picking up quite nicely over the last few months.
- Epic Advice – World of Warcraft, one of the largest stacks.
- Outflopped – Poker
- ZergOverflow – Starcarft
- Moms4Mom – Parenting
- AskSci/Science Stack – Science (These two should merge IMO)
Regarding my own experience, I am nowhere close to breaking even. Until now, StackExchange has been a free (beta) platform. When it come out of beta, they will start charging $120/month. But, I’m optimistic, and I don’t mind funding Draw3Cards from my own money for the next year – it is picking up in terms of traffic. Meanwhile, I have also done a little bit of development of a similar open source, though I hadn’t perused it beyond a “programming exercise” yet.
P.S.
Needless to say, the original Trilogy – StackOverflow, SuperUser and ServerFault – continue to be an invaluble assent in programming, using a computer and IT. Rock on!
P.S.S.
I just found Shapado, a free, open source hosted version of Stack Exchange. They are taking a lot of heat from some of StackExchange’s users, but I think their existence can only be good news to StackExchange’s users. I probably won’t be switching Draw3Cards to Shapado any time soon because the platform is still not ready (less features, not as smooth), but time will tell.
Eli:
Ron, do you have an Android phone? If so, which one?
Re Mathoverflow, isn’t it kinda scary? I’m been listening to the SO podcast recently and Jeff and Joel laugh about it all the time 🙂
3/4/10, 7:45ripper234:
Yes, I have a Nexus One – I said it to the group last time we met, but I guess my comment was swallowed by the noise of the caffe. I don’t know if N1 is the best choice (haven’t really done a detailed comparison), but I’m enjoying the phone very much, and Android is great.
Too bad Mathoverflow limit themselves to higher math – there should be such a resource for ‘humble 1st degree math students’
3/4/10, 8:59Tychumsempir:
Hey ripper. I’m glad you got Draw3Cards up. I’m now an active member! I emailed the guys at Monday Night Magic and asked them to plug the site, so hopefully, when they do, more people will start coming into the community. I’m telling friends as well. Such an awesome idea! If you hadn’t done it, I would have. 🙂
4/5/10, 21:30ripper234:
Thanks for the great feedback @Tychumsempir!
4/5/10, 23:29Your nick is hard to spell 🙂
bo:
Dear Bubba: the ‘stack’ topic-centric platform… sucks. Buncha lame fuquers too lazy to Google for a quick answer, set to eventually receive misinformed responses from jaw-flapping ‘wannabe esperts’.
You call that a plan?
The platform doesn’t stand as ‘site’. It’s an awkward proposition to web 2-point-oh bolt it onto an existing community site. Poor reader wanders through and clicks
http://meta.stackexchange.com/revisions/5/list
WTF? a ‘community wiki’ answer format? So reader has the joy of reading blather, like “Sammy added 7 characters” and “anomalous deleted whatever on date suchandsuch”. Bye now
7/5/10, 10:08