Ask HN: CodePundit.com – We are building a better stackoverflow. Are we? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: CodePundit.com – We are building a better stackoverflow. Are we?

1 pointkull6 comments

We are looking for feedback, advice and beta testers.

About the project:

The main idea of CodePundit is to have a place for programmers to get quality answers to any of their questions almost immediately.

For experts (who must be approved) answering questions is a way to make some money and be recognized by companies/startups who will use CodePundit. If possible, we also want to encourage experts to try the 'teaching approach' rather than 'blindly answering' questions.

We see this project as something which combines a Q&A site with an eLance type of place. You will have access to the best developers out there, on demand, and you don't need to worry about selecting the best candidate.

Since there is a payment involved, we expect no spamming and people will be asking questions when they really need it. On the other hand, since they pay, they can expect a quick and quality answer. If your question is not urgent and you are okay to have it answered in the next day or two, you can always submit it for free or for a very little payment.

http://www.CodePundit.com

For some reasons SO already provides magic answers 24/7 even for very obscure problems, often providing both the answer and some teaching thrown in, and all of that for free.

Can you give an example for a question that wasn't, or wouldn't be answered properly on SO?

(There's a little typo at the bottom in "Affordable".)

Many of my questions were not answered on SO, while I was in a hurry during a development process. I also usually get an answer not immediately or my answer is marked not always correctly as "duplicate" etc.

CodePundit is not designed to compete with sites where you submit a question and don't worry much when the answer will come. CodePundit would be used when you need an answer within 1 hour and be sure it is answered by an expert.

One thing that might work is a "These friendly experts are on standby to fix your shit" - approach. Programming is scary and at any given time thousands of programmers are stuck at something. You know, someone to hold your hand and go through that logfile together with you, could be nice :-)

Good luck!

I agree. Very tough road to climb to usurp SO reign on this area. Feels like you are trying to solve a problem SO has already solved.

I see your point. But the idea is not really to compete with SO, but rather offer an option for users who wants an answer to their questions / issues within few hours (and be sure the answer will resolve the issue), instead of waiting and hopping for some answer on other Q&A sites.

Looking forward to hear more feedback.

Sometimes honest feedback from a stranger is just what the doctor ordered. I have no agenda here, this is just my honest opinion. This is a business with no market demand. Have you put up some static landing pages with a big call to action button and see how many people will actually enter a credit card? i.e. before you invest in this business, build a "fake" site that looks real enough, and buy a small amount of traffic into the site with google ad words and see what % of people actually want to pay for this service. (The people that actually do enter their credit card get a nice email saying, thanks, this service coming soon. And some are a little mad they were tricked, but small price to pay for this info.) I suspect the conversion will be very very low. My boss would never let me pay for this service. He'd say, just figure it out yourself or wait for the free answer on SO.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com