For more than 16 years, Stack Overflow has served as the central hub for technologists worldwide, empowering them to learn, showcase skills, and thrive in their careers. We have been proud to be an open tab on the desktop of almost every developer. But times change, resources evolve and the day to day needs of users are not the same as they were the day we were founded. There are many new tools out there and that tab that was so prominent in years earlier may now be relegated to the back of the browser.
The open web has undergone many changes, and the Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange community and team have had a front-row seat for much of it. From the rise of personal computing in the 1980s to the rise of the Internet in the 1990s to the explosion of mobile computing and cloud computing in the early 2000s. As we all know, the years that followed then kicked off the current genAI era. One thing that has not changed much in this time is Stack Overflow—both in its dedication to accurate knowledge and the platform itself. We’ve added new features and integrated with many of the world’s leading technology brands—but at the core, we have remained focused on Q&A.
Our goal has always been to foster an open and inclusive platform, rewarding contributions and technical growth through community. Stack should be always open and include content that is engaging, but we have come to believe that Q&A is just one piece of the puzzle. If you were able to join our Feb 26 AMA, then you know that over the course of the next year, we’ll be focused on ensuring our sites remain a go-to destination for our users, including by modernizing the existing assets we have in place but also by introducing new capabilities and features that promote contribution from all types of users.
The new Stack Overflow will be one built to feel like a personalized homepage—your own technical aggregator. It might collect videos, blogs, Q&A, war stories, jokes, educational materials, jobs, all these formats (or maybe others, we would love to hear your ideas!), and fold them together into one personalized destination. We want this place to be your “third screen”—your entry point to your own neighborhood on the internet.
The only way to truly grow, cultivate and encourage new Knowledge Creation is to expand the ways to contribute to the web’s knowledge sources.
Here are some of the things we’ll be experimenting with over the coming months and plan to share more in our quarterly community product roadmap blogs:
The heart of Stack Overflow and the Stack Exchange network will always be our curated and canonical Q&A repository. That isn’t going away, but we’ll introduce new content types to ensure this site remains a resource for years to come. These content types will maintain the explicit quality indicators that have always been at the core of the Stack ethos—things like upvotes and downvotes and other means of community moderation. And where possible, we will add other opportunities for community members to edit, rate, and build them collaboratively. We’ll be looking to expand and showcase blogs, news aggregation, coding workshops & challenges, rich videos, coding humor, and war stories from those in the technological trenches. We aim to be an educational resource for the industry and we understand that not everyone learns the same way—so let’s create content geared to all. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to learning!
We already have tools like Staging Ground to create a better experience for new users of the Q&A platform, but we know a big part of why our earlier users joined in the first place was to grow their personal reputation. We’re committed to continuing that journey. Expanding beyond (but not leaving behind) Q&A means you should be able to register stats and badges not just for providing answers, but for new and different forms of engagement in any of the new content areas. The days where you can answer one question, early, and coast on the rep from that for the rest of your time on the internet are over. Users should benefit from points and badges for streaks, for completing learning paths, for seeking or giving mentorship, etc.
And most importantly, we have to reach out to new groups of users—people who maybe didn’t need the Q&A offering, but would be interested in contributing to the body of knowledge here using different form factors and content types.
We offer Stack Overflow Jobs, a site dedicated to helping employers support their recruitment initiatives by posting open roles on a specialized job site for developers and technologists. Since launching in May 2024, more than seven million jobs have been viewed on Stack Overflow Jobs. Even with the site expanding to the UK, DE, NL, and FR we know there is so much more we can do to be a best in class experience for employers and seekers.
While the Department of Labor announced in February that the United States added a net total of 143,000 jobs nationwide, it also noted that Federal labor data showed joblessness in the technology sector up to 5.7%. With so many people in technology-facing jobs in the world right now: there is a huge potential audience for those looking for jobs and those looking to fill them.
We are excited by the journey we are taking together and look forward to sharing updates in the months ahead. As we said during the AMA, we aim to build and create an environment for everyone in technology. As such, we want to keep hearing from you. We’ll continue to offer these conversations and public updates, but ask that you continue to share with us your thoughts and suggestions. As we build, what would YOU want to see or what features would help make your life easier? Thank you for all your contributions and stay tuned for more!