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I read that Stack Overflow combines aspects of Digg, blogs, forums, and wikis.

What is the blog aspect?

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2 Answers 2

up vote 3 down vote accepted

Before Stack Overflow, I often felt that "I'm a blog post waiting to happen." Sure, I could post my thoughts and my experiences in a blog format, but getting any audience is a different matter.

When Stack Overflow came around, it was an easy matter to find questions where my experiences were relevant. *Poof*… an instant (and large) audience for my "blog posts."

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that's a stretch 'cos with that analogy.. a forum about ASP or C could be seen as a blog on ASP or C but with a bigger audience than a solitary blogger might get. so what you are referring to really fits under forum aspect far more. But anything blog not forum like about it? –  barlop Dec 29 '10 at 19:47
@barlop: I do not agree. A Stack Overflow answer is not like a post in a forum. A threaded forum is a discussion where my contribution is just a fragment of that dialog. I do not write on Stack Overflow like I would in a forum. My posts stand alone; everyone's post has to stand alone, by design. Each post is atomic and is sorted based on its own merits. Each Stack Overflow post is a complete thought, start to finish... like a blog post. –  Robert Cartaino Dec 29 '10 at 20:07
Still a bit of a stretch.. using a feature(votes) that is not found in a blog, to justify how it is like a blog. that your answer has the potential to stand out more(thanks to votes), but your other point that it is in its contents like a blog post, well, maybe that's just for the "answer" and its comments. But in a forum if you found a relevant thread you could post it, and so ok it doesn't get booted up to the top, but it's there. And it being moved to the top isn't really a blog thing. And if you didn't find a relevant thread you could post your own QnA on a forum. –  barlop Dec 30 '10 at 9:37
in a forum your contribution may be a fragment, or a complete thing. half-baked and discussed, or fully-baked. I've never actually really had a problem with such a post! I see though how this structure is 3 dimensional.. not like usenet with authors, not like a forum, or a blog. The 3D aspect of Question, full baked answers, comments. That's good, but this aspect is not blog like, or usenet like or forum like. –  barlop Dec 30 '10 at 9:41

Your looking at it now. I can type an answer to this question without setting up my own blog to do so. Kind of a mini-me version of a blog, without the Google ads.

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you can't be serious.. answering a question without google ads is just like many forums isn't it? especially forums pre google ads, surely not all forums are hostage to google ads! –  barlop Dec 29 '10 at 19:43
@barlop this is exactly how most blogs are fashioned. "I have a problem. I need to find the solution" ... poof ... "I have a solution, and it works" ... then commentary. I would say this is exactly like most blogs. –  jcolebrand Dec 29 '10 at 19:57
@drachenstern how can it be exactly like most blogs.. The I is different. a person asks a question, and others or that person post solutions. and in a blog the person/blogger knows the solution before they post. –  barlop Dec 29 '10 at 20:19
@barlop "not always" and that's the key. I've seen plenty of people post on here when they already knew the answer and then they answered it to boot. Just because you haven't seen the behavior doesn't mean it doesn't exist. –  jcolebrand Dec 29 '10 at 20:54
@drachenstern I was aware of it, though haven't seen it. But I heard of stackoverflow from a lecture on google video from joel, and he said he encourages people even to post questions just so they can answer them themselves.. Anyhow, is that what you are referring to? And you can do that on a forum too. Or on a usenet group. –  barlop Dec 30 '10 at 9:21
@barlop that is what I was referring to. And I never said that the usenet or forums weren't like that too. I was merely referring to the fact that that was part of how it was bloglike. –  jcolebrand Dec 30 '10 at 14:31
@drachenstern that's almost as superfluous as saying that it's on a computer, so it's "bloglike" –  barlop Dec 30 '10 at 15:48
@drachenstern it's on a computer, so congrats, you've now shown how it is digg like, forum like, blog like, wiki like. Your reasons have to be unique to those mediums. Not so general that it covers more than one or all. –  barlop Dec 30 '10 at 15:51
@barlop are you just looking for an argument? I think you need to step down the hall. I tried to give you an example to the question you were asking. Now you're just being rude and argumentative. I won't answer any more inquiries if you're going to be close-minded. The point is entirely that this site is NOT a blog, it is NOT digg, it is NOT a forum, it is NOT a wiki. It combines elements from each of those sites. You've already read that, so you're either not getting it, or you're being a dick. If you haven't gotten it, you won't. Glad you can use the service. Welcome to Meta. –  jcolebrand Dec 30 '10 at 16:18
@drachenstern of course it's not a blog, it's not a forum e.t.c. If you had written what you said in your last 2 comments as an answer,it'd have been down-voted.The fact that you continue saying things that are blatantly obvious,it's not a blog, not a wiki.of course. that is just basic logic,and it's not a donkey either.I guess your comments were never intended to be answers. I don't know what they were though, they're not good answers.My recent comments to your commments have been critical of your answer-like comments, now don't get emotional about a criticism of your answer-like comments. –  barlop Dec 31 '10 at 4:15

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