Jon Ericson

community June 18, 2019

Adios to Unfriendly Badges! Ahoy, Lifejacket and Lifeboat

Sometimes it’s helpful to look back at past decisions and reconsider them in a new light. As part of our ongoing efforts to make Stack Overflow more welcoming and inclusive, we’ve been looking at how our incentive systems, including reputation and badges intended to encourage positive contributions, may be building discouraging barriers instead. In this…
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Community Manager (former)
community May 23, 2018

How Stack Overflow for Teams Fits into the Community

Back when I was a full-time programmer and there was some code someone struggled with, it was a common practice to ask around in cubicle land. Sometimes you’d get lucky and find someone who know the answer right away or knew where to look in the documentation. When Stack Overflow launched, I cultivated a habit…
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Community Manager (former)
2017inReview
community January 31, 2018

Stack Exchange 2017 in Review

“It’s a life’s work to see yourself for what you really are and even then you might be wrong.”—Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men You know the old saw about how 90% of an iceberg is hidden under water? At Stack Overflow, we strive to be a reverse iceberg by sharing as much as…
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Community Manager (former)
community January 26, 2017

Stack Exchange Year in Review 2016

I am not myself at all wise, nor have I anything to show which is the invention or birth of my own soul, but those who converse with me profit. Some of them appear dull enough at first, but afterwards, as our acquaintance ripens, if the god is gracious to them, they all make astonishing…
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Community Manager (former)
2017inReview
community March 1, 2016

Fair Elections and STV

Today is Super Tuesday! Unless you read FiveThirtyEight, it’s not really as awesome as other Super things. However, it does make a good excuse to talk about one of the more esoteric bits of Stack Exchange: moderator elections. As I write this, Donald Trump is well on his way to winning the Republican primary even though…
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Community Manager (former)
community January 12, 2016

Stack Exchange Year in Review 2015

I think we have to enjoy what we do if we are to succeed.—John Wooden Looking back on the past year across the network, it strikes me that we are very fortunate that so many people take pleasure in sharing their knowledge with others. Everything we (as a company and as a community) accomplished was…
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Community Manager (former)
community January 6, 2015

So long Winter Bash 2014

While testing hats before the start of Winter Bash 2014, a snowflake notification told me I’d earned the Treasure Hunter hat. After adjusting pirate paraphernalia to fit my head, I tried to remember what triggers this particular hat. As it happens, I’d just received a gold badge on Cooking that I would’ve totally ignored if…
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Community Manager (former)
community December 15, 2014

Winter Bash 2014

There is no better antidote, at least for the worst hours and eclipses of the soul, than to conjure up…serious frivolity. Friedrich Nietzsche What’s Winter Bash again? No, it’s not a new flavor of Unix shell. Rather, Winter Bash is an ancient tradition of Stack Exchange. (2011 is ancient according to Internet time.) Here’s how…
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Community Manager (former)
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