I think this is the most important but totally unmentioned fact....I think SO is going to make its money from reselling the underlying engine. Its really quite a strange anomaly...the whole Q&A thing is not new by any means, but I must say Jeff has made the user experience so nice that I think its possible that some sites that couldn't have existed before might now be able to pull it off (its hard to build a big enough network to make a community self sustaining....good software makes it that much easier).

Yes, they have a lot of work to do to make it truly vertical, and not disrupt anyone in the process, but I think thats where their real $ is going to come from.

I've sent stackexhange several emails, trying to get into the beta program early, even trying to pay an extra fee for premiere service...I am more than willing to pay the ~$1000 per month fee so I can get up and running now....but no dice it seems.

Anyways, back to the article.....really, anyone that is technical (geeky) enough that can and would block ads using a script....those people wouldn't be the types to buy software from the advertisers on SO anyways (and I'm sure the advertisers know this),,,so really, I think its just a bunch of hullaboo about nothing consequential.