Podcast #4

This is the fourth episode of the StackOverflow podcast, wherein Joel and I discuss the following:

• Why we think stackoverflow.com isn't "reinventing the wheel", or at least, reinventing it in a useful way. Failure, however, is always an option.

• We will be using ASP.NET MVC to build stackoverflow, as covered in my recent blog post. Joel and I carry on a long discussion of Model-View-Controller.

• A mention of CSS Zen Garden. Joel thinks it's an unrealistic example, but I don't.

• Defining "skinnability", whether it applies to your application, or if it even matters.

• A mention of this year's Maker Faire, where I met the Wikimedia Foundation's Jay Walsh. Followed by an examination of why we admire Wikipedia and consider it a defining influence.

• Guests welcome! You will be able to participate fully in stackoverflow.com without ever creating an account -- but there will be perks for creating an account.

• A bit about our reputation system -- learning the lessons of PageRank.

• Dealing with the inevitable evil users and users who actively game the reputation system. Not you, of course. We like you.

• Adopting Creative Commons by-nc-sa for our podcast and CCWiki for stackoverflow.com.

• On the contract between Joel and Jeff to form stackoverflow.com : the difference between a C Corporation and Limited Liability Company (scintillating!)

• Do we need lawyers? Yes, we need lawyers. Unfortunately.

• The final results of our logo contest.

• Twitter: is it only useful for "web celebrities?" I personally love Twitter and find it quite useful. Follow me on Twitter, and see for yourself. I'll try to convince Joel to join up.

• Tip of the week: Redgate SQL Compare.

• Thank you for all the questions and for the Wiki edits!

We also answered the following listener questions, with a lot of peripheral discussion on related topics:

1. Kyle Neumeier: How will you provide enough content to achieve a critical mass of activity on stackoverflow.com?

2. Andrew Morrow: How will you deal with answer ordering and voting? Will it be based on votes alone? If so, how do we follow the thread of a conversation?

3. ObviousTroll: Is it worthwhile to go back to school and get a graduate degree in computer science?

If you'd like to submit a question to be answered in our next episode, record an audio file (90 seconds or less) and mail it to podcast@stackoverflow.com.

The transcript wiki for this episode is available for public editing.

Episode source