Stack Overflow goes live

The name Joel Spolsky may or may not ring a bell in your head. If not, maybe Jeff Atwood or the site [codinghorror.com]? Well, these guys have got together and built a resource for programmers. The goal of the project is simply to “”. The site launched for the general public today.

I’ve been following the project with the weekly podcasts since they started them . It’s been interesting to listen to the progress of a site like this which essentially is doing the same thing as many other sites out there, but trying to do it better. If they succeeded or not is for you to decide but judging from the beta I’ve been testing recently, i think it’s definitely looking good.

I think an interesting approach has been the balance between technology and psychology in the project. A social site of course has it’s technical challanges with databases and such but even more it’s the human side to it. Sure you can optimize your code, squeeze out every millisecond, add a bunch of features and all that but if it’s not usable to a human being or even more precisely the target group, it’s not going to work. If you ask me it’s the non-technological features that make stackoverflow rise above the rest; the site encourages users to make it better.

Take it for a spin: http://www.stackoverflow.com

Also read Joel’s post: Stack Overflow Launches

Jeff doesn’t have one up yet, but I’m guessing he’s going to write something so keep your eyes peeled.

I’m sure the site will change & improve a lot in the coming year so make sure you come with your ideas to the team.