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Ask HN: Would you pay for someone to answer your StackOverflow question?

8 points by drorco ↗ HN
EDIT: Just to be clear. It would not be happening on StackOverflow but on a different external site.

If so how much?

Would you consider paying more if she/he would personally help you fix it by modifying your code?

Do you think this kind of service is needed?

Update:

There are many unanswered questions on StackOverflow. I wonder if money was involved maybe a large part of them would have been answered. The question is, if these questions were important to their askers, and why people haven't answered them.

I agree that adding real money into StackOverflow may ruin the whole eco-system, though I wonder if maybe there's a place for it somewhere else.

20 comments

[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 71.3 ms ] thread
WesleyThurner
I think it would depend on how fast/important the question was to me. But I might pay up to $20 depending on what it is.
objclxt
> "Would you consider paying more if he would personally help you fix it by modifying your code?"

He or she, really. Personally, I find the "please fix my code [paste large amount of code here]" questions on StackOverflow to be of little value to the community as a whole. I don't mind answering them, but if I look at my own profile (which is a fairly high ~17k rep) my answers that have been most well received/up-voted are almost universally problems that have been abstracted away from "fix teh code" type questions.

In a way, bounties are already a kind of payment, if you consider reputation to be a currency of sorts (and I would).

drorco
Fixed. :)

Bounties provide a bigger incentive, however it doesn't always work. Do you think that if instead of 50 points of bounty it was replaced with $50, more people would be getting answers for these questions?

aniketpant
StackOverflow is one of the most helpful community I have come across the Internet and I am an active user. I ask questions at times and try to answer whatever I can. Most of my doubts are answered on SO because someone might have already hit that bump before.

When I answer questions on SO, I never think about earning via my answer because it doesn't make sense. Most people answer on the website for the simple reason of helping someone out. If I don't answer thinking that I won't get anything out of it, then someone else will answer for sure.

I feel that monetizing a part of SO will take away a lot of fun for people like me.

kolinko
As a pro programmer - if I have a problem that I didn't manage to find/google a solution, then it's probably something crazy tough and that only a person in my specific niche can help with. It would probably be too expensive for a service to find such a person & to pay him or her for a reply.

On the other hand, I can imagine novices finding use with this site.

drorco
And if it was costing a few tens of dollars, would it be reasonable?
s3b
How would you react if I tell you I'll only answer if you pay me? (Especially if I know you've paid in the past)
drorco
Depends on how bad I need your solution.

Another question, would you answer a question for money which otherwise you wouldn't have been answering?

s3b
You probably won't motivate me with small amounts. As they say, "I don't get out of bed for less than $10000". :) However if you offer to donate to charity, I'll probably be inclined to help you.
drorco
Hmm that's very interesting.

What kind of charity organizations you had in mind? OSI or others which are not related to coding?

PonyGumbo
If you're going that route, you should allow the contributor to pick from a selection of charities.
jamesjguthrie
I think if SO suddenly became a pay-for-an-answer website it would quickly die and be replaced with something else that's still free.
geffchang
Experts-Exchange is still alive.
drorco
In Experts-Exchange you pay for membership, not pay-per-answer. Actually their business model is quite awkward imo. If you answer enough questions, you don't need to pay which is a weird incentive for supporters imo.
kohanz
The Experts-Exchange UI, last time I saw it, is a catastrophe.
ivanaj
Well, I have seen few times in user's profile that write "If you think I was helpful feel free to send something from my Amazon's wishlist."
6thSigma
I think a new Stackoverflow-like site with money involved would be near impossible to take off.
chrisbennet
StackOverflow does such a good job now I don't think you could compete. S.O. won't do your homework for you so that's unserved market. If your service was called "Help Me Cheat On My Homework" it might work. ;-)
jlengrand
Isn't it already the kind of thing bountify is doing https://bountify.co/?

I have been really happy with the service so far, even though people tend to really put low tips compared to the amount of work required

wturner
I think it's a question as to whether someone who has a degree of expertise has any reason to be motivated by money when the payments are so small. In a weird way I think software engineers would be doing the internet a service by accepting small amounts instead of doing stackoverflow exclusively.This way the trend can nudge back toward people getting paid for information - even if it's just little amounts. On the flip side I wouldn't mind paying small amounts for my questions that would otherwise be answered on stack overflow. But it would be very small. $1 here, $10 there.