I was to point out that I never at any point suggested that SO would make the same mistake as EE and put up a pay gate. This was a very stupid idea. There are many less intrusive ways of capitalizing a community (I can think about a dozen off the top of my head). I would hope Joel et al are smarter than to make the same mistakes and kill the goose.
@Joel I think you need to learn more about EE's background (as do many here). It was more community oriented than SO is at this point. Hell the community even wrote large portions of the software thats still being used. They screwed up in their attempts at capitalization and alienated their community. The point of looking back at EE experiences has to do with their alienation of the community. I was perfectly happy to do it at the time and it was learning experiences. It was not also as you said "a customer getting an answer" any more than SO is, that model came later.
If you believe that you are more like wikipedia then by all means feel free to become a non-profit. Otherwise the stated goal of your company will be to grow your community so that you can capitalize off of their efforts. We can spin this in many ways but the stated goal of the company is to do this.
To the other people in this thread who think that SO is righteous. How do you feel about Facebook? Google? There are loads of examples of these styles of business models out there. The question with these business models is whether they can squeeze the necessary revenue out of a community without alienating it. Some have been good with it, some have not been so good at it.
Also for those who called me a hypocrite due to SO donating some money to charity the difference is CB donates ALL profits to charity. They operate essentially as a non-profit.
@Joel I think you need to learn more about EE's background (as do many here). It was more community oriented than SO is at this point. Hell the community even wrote large portions of the software thats still being used. They screwed up in their attempts at capitalization and alienated their community. The point of looking back at EE experiences has to do with their alienation of the community. I was perfectly happy to do it at the time and it was learning experiences. It was not also as you said "a customer getting an answer" any more than SO is, that model came later.
If you believe that you are more like wikipedia then by all means feel free to become a non-profit. Otherwise the stated goal of your company will be to grow your community so that you can capitalize off of their efforts. We can spin this in many ways but the stated goal of the company is to do this.
To the other people in this thread who think that SO is righteous. How do you feel about Facebook? Google? There are loads of examples of these styles of business models out there. The question with these business models is whether they can squeeze the necessary revenue out of a community without alienating it. Some have been good with it, some have not been so good at it.
Also for those who called me a hypocrite due to SO donating some money to charity the difference is CB donates ALL profits to charity. They operate essentially as a non-profit.