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research-article

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

Authors:

George Hripcsak,

Björn HartmannAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '11: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 2857 - 2866

https://doi.org/10.1145/1978942.1979366

Published: 07 May 2011 Publication History

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.

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Cited By

Lima MSteinmacher IFord DVorreuter GGonçalves LConte TGadelha B(2025)How are discussions linked? A link analysis study on GitHub DiscussionsJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/j.jss.2024.112196219(112196)Online publication date: Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2024.112196
Lambert CChoi FChandrasekharan E(2024)"Positive reinforcement helps breed positive behavior": Moderator Perspectives on Encouraging Desirable BehaviorProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36869298:CSCW2(1-33)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3686929
Storey MRusso DNovielli NKobayashi TWang D(2024)A Disruptive Research Playbook for Studying Disruptive InnovationsACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/367817233:8(1-29)Online publication date: 15-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3678172
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Design lessons from the fastest q&a site in the west
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing
  2. Human computer interaction (HCI)
2. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics

Index terms have been assigned to the content through auto-classification.

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '11: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

May 2011

3530 pages

ISBN:9781450302289

DOI:10.1145/1978942

General Chair:
Desney Tan
Microsoft Research
,
Program Chairs:
Geraldine Fitzpatrick
Vienna University of Technology
,
Carl Gutwin
University of Saskatchewan
,
Bo Begole
PARC
,
Wendy A. Kellogg
IBM Research

Copyright © 2011 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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SIGCHI: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 07 May 2011

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CHI '11

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CHI '11: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

May 7 - 12, 2011

BC, Vancouver, Canada

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CHI '11 Paper Acceptance Rate 410 of 1,532 submissions, 27%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

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ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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Cited By

Lima MSteinmacher IFord DVorreuter GGonçalves LConte TGadelha B(2025)How are discussions linked? A link analysis study on GitHub DiscussionsJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/j.jss.2024.112196219(112196)Online publication date: Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2024.112196
Lambert CChoi FChandrasekharan E(2024)"Positive reinforcement helps breed positive behavior": Moderator Perspectives on Encouraging Desirable BehaviorProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36869298:CSCW2(1-33)Online publication date: 8-Nov-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3686929
Storey MRusso DNovielli NKobayashi TWang D(2024)A Disruptive Research Playbook for Studying Disruptive InnovationsACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/367817233:8(1-29)Online publication date: 15-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3678172
Etemadi RZihayat MFeng KAdelman JZarrinkalam FBagheri ESakai TIshita EOhshima HRadboud University, Netherlands FMao JJose J(2024)It Takes a Team to Triumph: Collaborative Expert Finding in Community QA NetworksProceedings of the 2024 Annual International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval in the Asia Pacific Region10.1145/3673791.3698404(164-174)Online publication date: 8-Dec-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3673791.3698404
Cheng RWang RZimmermann TFord D(2024)“It would work for me too”: How Online Communities Shape Software Developers’ Trust in AI-Powered Code Generation ToolsACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems10.1145/365199014:2(1-39)Online publication date: 9-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3651990
Kabir SUdo-Imeh DKou BZhang T(2024)Is Stack Overflow Obsolete? An Empirical Study of the Characteristics of ChatGPT Answers to Stack Overflow QuestionsProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642596(1-17)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642596
Kuo THalfaker ACheng ZKim JWu MWu THolstein KZhu H(2024)Wikibench: Community-Driven Data Curation for AI Evaluation on WikipediaProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642278(1-24)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
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Zhang YWu YChen TWang TLiu HWang HRoychoudhury APaiva AAbreu RStorey M(2024)How do Developers Talk about GitHub Actions? Evidence from Online Software Development CommunityProceedings of the IEEE/ACM 46th International Conference on Software Engineering10.1145/3597503.3623327(1-13)Online publication date: 20-May-2024
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Liang JYang CMyers BRoychoudhury APaiva AAbreu RStorey M(2024)A Large-Scale Survey on the Usability of AI Programming Assistants: Successes and ChallengesProceedings of the IEEE/ACM 46th International Conference on Software Engineering10.1145/3597503.3608128(1-13)Online publication date: 20-May-2024
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Chowdhury PTahaei MEdwards MPeersman CNautiyal LRamokapane KRashid A(2024)Community Security Champions: Studying the Most Influential Users on Security Stack Exchange2024 IEEE Secure Development Conference (SecDev)10.1109/SecDev61143.2024.00015(93-104)Online publication date: 7-Oct-2024
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