Stack Exchange is a Q&A website where users can ask questions and get answers from other people who have similar problems, making the community very active in answering questions. So far, there are different types of communities on the SE network (e.g., math, computer science, sci comm). Each website has its specific culture, rules, and policies that guide the participants. The only thing that's needed to be considered is that it should not violate any existing policy or terms of service.
What is the purpose of Stack Exchange?
The purpose of Stack Exchange includes:
- To help others by providing good information:
- To help each other by improving the quality of our work through peer review and collaborative editing;
- To provide value-added content;
- To give reputation points to people who contribute well-researched and up-to-date content.
- To promote experts' activity by giving them recognition.
- To build an archive that contains great reference material;
- To keep track of the best answers to the particular question over time;
Make sure your question gets answered quickly and don't require you to keep going back to check whether someone has already asked the same question.
What is an excellent alternative to Stack Exchange?
An excellent alternative to Stack Exchange includes:
Quora
Quora is similar to Stack Exchange but not identical. They share many common properties, including user profiles, questions, answers, badges, and comments. Both sites offer users to ask and answer any question. The significant difference between these two sites is Quora has a more open community, whereas there are no specific experts. It means everyone's allowed to write questions and answers with the same rules and guidelines. Whereas in Stack Exchange, only selected users can post questions and answer.
Quora Website: https://www.quora.com
DevHubby:
DevHubby is similar to StackOverflow website but not exactly the same. DevHubby has a very big community of software engineers and a lot of questions and answers on the programming questions. If you are looking any help in coding or programming you can always use this resource.
DevHubby Website: https://devhubby.com
Similar to stack exchange, Reddit website also has its own rules for posting questions. However, it allows anyone to submit content or link. So it gives a much broader scope for sharing knowledge. But the downside of this approach is quality control becomes difficult. For example, it has been known that moderators have to remove spam posts regularly.
Reddit Website: https://www.reddit.com
Medium
Another fantastic solution where anyone can publish their article. The beauty of the medium is that you can specify the audience for your article from "only professionals" to "everyone." This works well when you want your article to address issues of a particular industry.
Medium Website: https://medium.com
Blogger
This is not exactly a web app but a service provided by Google. Google provides this service to help bloggers set up a blog over their existing websites without hosting and maintaining one themselves. This makes it easy to get started quickly. If you choose this option, you will have to pay a monthly fee to use blogger.
Blogget Website: https://www.blogger.com
How to make my site like Stack Exchange?
The following are steps to follow when making your site Stack Exchange:
Step 1: Decide the type of community you would like to have. There exist different types of communities according to the subject area. You may start your new site by choosing the most appropriate one based on your interest.
Step 2: Design your home page based on your chosen type of community. Once your design looks professional enough, register as a business entity with the domain name. Make sure your website name doesn't contain keywords from what you intended to target for your website. It is recommended to use.com extension if possible.
Step 3: Get a free cloud service like mywebforum.com to store your information: Cloud service is a place shared by other members to store files and documents to which they need access. It also serves as a central location where they can find each other's profiles. In my web form (MWF), all forums and threads automatically created by MWF users can be stored here. You can easily upload attachments such as images, videos, etc. This option might save time and cost since you won't be required to build your forum software.
Step 4: Post your first question or answer. Do it right away. Don't wait for approval unless you're sure of your idea. Be careful as all your submission won't be instantly approved as some will be auto-flagged as low quality or obsolete. It could take days, depending on how busy the mods are. Just do your best.
Step 5: Once you feel comfortable about your submissions, come back again later to continue developing your ideas. As you continue asking questions and answering them. Your reputation points will increase, indicating the level of expertise required to participate on this site.
Step 6: Continue creating content until you reach a certain point of expertise. At this time, you can consider submitting your site for beta review.
Step 7: Choose a theme to apply to your website. A template with a matching color scheme is necessary to look professional in front of visitors. The template chosen must be compatible with your platform of choice.
Step 8: Publish and promote your site! Share information about your site on social media. Invite relevant people who show interest in joining your site. In no time, you'll see visitors coming into your site as they discover your value proposition.
Why is Stack Exchange so popular?
It has everything you need within its scope:
- Its community-driven approach ensures quality content:
- Its clean UI design attracts users:
- It allows experts a place for sharing their knowledge:
- It provides tools to answer questions like forums.
