Difference between StackOverflow.com and Experts-Exchange.com
StackOverflow and Experts-Exchange are two renowned IT related technical Question and Answers type websites. Both websites fall into the category of technical support websites and have done a commendable job of helping programmers from all over the globe. The popularity of these two website vouches for this fact and it is perhaps the best reason for a closer look. So let’s compare the two from different aspects.
Interesting Facts about These Names
The name Stackoverflow.com comes from a very common programming problem which generally arises when your system is out of stack storage due to excessive function calling or recursion. The experts-exchange site was initially launched with the domain name ExpertsExchange.com but due to the misinterpretation of the name as ExpertSexchange by the masses, the team later changed the domain name to Expert-Exchange.com
Service
StackOverflow is a completely free Programming Question & Answering Service where you can ask questions for free, answer questions for free and also it’s free to index. The website defines itself as something like an intersection of Wiki, Blog, Digg/Reddit and a forum. Experts-Exchange on the other hand is a Technical Question Answering service which covers a gamut of IT related fields, not just programming. However it is not free to access the contents of Expert-Exchange.com.
Membership
As said, membership is necessary to access the contents of Experts-Exchange.com whereas it is not the case with StackOverflow. Moreover the membership of Experts-Exchange.com is not free. You can answer questions and or write articles for the website to earn the requisite number of points to remain as a non paying member of the website. The other way to be a member of the site is to pay for the service and get answers to your unlimited tech questions. StackOverflow offers free membership and is dedicated to the programmers in the true spirit of programming. You can get the answers without any exchange of money or contribution to the website.
Mechanism for Answers
StackOverflow follows a very simple and elegant way of answering users’ questions. The users and the website team collaboratively work to answer the questions being put up by the users. The website says that it is the users who run Stackoverflow along with their fellow programmers. Once the system has developed faith in the user, he/she then can edit almost anything just like Wikipedia. In this manner they aim at better programming. On the contrary, Expert-Exchange follows a very complicated system of answering the questions. The registered users of the Experts-Exchange.com known as ‘experts’ answer the questions. Upon answering the questions they earn points which help them stay as a member of the website. This mechanism results in a competition among the users to earn more points as the points also help them achieve special expert certifications after they've reached a certain predefined figure. This policy has invited strong criticism as most of the times users answer only to increase their points rather than actually answering in the spirit of answering the question properly. This practice is termed as points begging.
Summary
StackOverflow.com
- StackOverflow.com is a programming Question and Answering website.
- It offers its content and membership for free.
Experts-Exchange.com
- It is a Question and Answering website which is not just centered on programming but covers a gamut of IT related topics.
- It does not offer free membership. Moreover content is accessible only by the members.
- It is infamous for the ‘points begging’ answers.
