The folks running this place still don't get it.

Stackoverflow is not social media. It is a place to look up solutions to problems.

If I'm working on a program, and suddenly have a need to know some obscure fact about some library I'm using, I look it up on google. The odds are then very good that I'll get a link to a Stackoverflow question that includes what I need to know.

In such a situation, I am not in the slightest interested in "interaction." I'm working on something, and I need to get back to it.

Anything you do to try to grab my attention is an interruption - an irritant.

What you ought to be doing is looking at the numbers of "passive consumers" and trying to drive that number as high as you can get it. Passive consumers as the ones who are most exposed to the advertisements placed on the site. To make money, you need those passive consumers.

Active consumers (people like me who make content) don't see the advertisements at all - we have user accounts and can shut off the ads.

Quit trying to convert passive users to content creators. Most people aren't interested in the least in creating content. They want (and need) access to information to solve their problems so that they can get back to work.

In other words, Stackoverflow usage looks like this:

1. Work
2. Problem
3. Search for solution
4. Find solution on Stackoverflow
5. Use knowledge found on Stackeoverflow to solve problem
6. Work

You want to change it to:

1. Work
2. Problem
3. Search for solution
4. Find solution on Stackoverflow
5. Join Stackoverflow
6. Dink around learning about the Stack system
7. Dink around on the Stack sites
8. Waste time discovering that the Stack sites aren't really social media
9. What was I doing? Oh, yeah. Work.
10. What was the problem again?
11. Search Stackoverflow, find solution again
12. Use knowledge found on Stackeoverflow to solve problem
13. Work

Put another way, the Stack sites are more like Wikipedia than they are like Facebook.

They are a source of information, not a place to congregate and shoot the breeze.

The folks running this place still don't get it.

Stackoverflow is not social media. It is a place to look up solutions to problems.

If I'm working on a program, and suddenly have a need to know some obscure fact about some library I'm using, I look it up on google. The odds are then very good that I'll get a link to a Stackoverflow question that includes what I need to know.

In such a situation, I am not in the slightest interested in "interaction." I'm working on something, and I need to get back to it.

Anything you do to try to grab my attention is an interruption - an irritant.

What you ought to be doing is looking at the numbers of "passive consumers" and trying to drive that number as high as you can get it. Passive consumers as the ones who are most exposed to the advertisements placed on the site. To make money, you need those passive consumers.

Active consumers (people like me who make content) don't see the advertisements at all - we have user accounts and can shut off the ads.

Quit trying to convert passive users to content creators. Most people aren't interested in the least in creating content. They want (and need) access to information to solve their problems so that they can get back to work.

In other words, Stack Overflow usage looks like this:

1. Work
2. Problem
3. Search for solution
4. Find solution on Stack Overflow
5. Use knowledge found on Stack Overflow to solve problem
6. Work

You want to change it to:

1. Work
2. Problem
3. Search for solution
4. Find solution on Stack Overflow
5. Join Stack Overflow
6. Dink around learning about the Stack system
7. Dink around on the Stack sites
8. Waste time discovering that the Stack sites aren't really social media
9. What was I doing? Oh, yeah. Work.
10. What was the problem again?
11. Search Stack Overflow, find solution again
12. Use knowledge found on Stack Overflow to solve problem
13. Work

Put another way, the Stack sites are more like Wikipedia than they are like Facebook.

They are a source of information, not a place to congregate and shoot the breeze.