Do it for free?

Helping people for points.

[fischermx]

There is a well know website with a lot of experts exchanging opinions, you know what it is.
I've always got very good response in very fast time when asking technical stuff.
It seems these people is doing this for free, but somehow I suspect they don't. I suspect many people is full-time paid staff acting like ordinary members to keep people paying for the service.
What do you think? Do they really do it for free?

[LisaWeber]

I don't know what website you are referring to. This one? Want to sticky it?

[takeiteezzy]

seriuosly, what site is it? and why can't u post the name of the site.

[trillianjedi]

and why can't u post the name of the site.

It's against our TOS:-

[webmasterworld.com...]

There are hundreds of sites like this though - pick any one of them.

I've always got very good response in very fast time when asking technical stuff.

A bit like WebmasterWorld?

It seems these people is doing this for free, but somehow I suspect they don't.

I suspect they probably do. A lot of kudos and consultancy work can come out of the odd bit of pro-bono for a busy community site.

[fischermx]

May be that site is not as famous as I thought, since I'm clearly paraphrasing the name without exaclty telling it in the first line!

[fischermx]

A bit like WebmasterWorld?

No, this is a forum. An open place for discussions.

That one is a site in the format of:
Question->Answers->PickTheCorrectAnswer->QualifyTheAnswer

[benevolent001]

any hints please...i cant find it.

[trillianjedi]

Oh OK - I know the site you mean.

Kudos and consultancy with a large dose of ego. I believe at some point they can do "something" with the points they earn also.

There is almost certainly no-one there on the pay roll that isn't open about being on the pay roll (moderators).

Are you looking to start such a site? Very very tricky to "kick-start".

TJ

[fischermx]

Since it's impossible to dig on a topic without doing noise, yes, I'm so how planning a site like this.
Tricky to start?
Well, not too much with a few thousands of savings, you can outsource middle easterns to answer questions while the site take off and get real people helping for free.

[rogerd]

I think that to encourage real pros to participate, there has to be a way to motivate them. As TJ suggests, many do it for professional recognition and/or to pick up consulting/programming gigs. So, consider having well developed member profiles, and promote those who contribute most to the site. A "top experts" list, for example.

[fischermx]

I think there are another type of sites like this, but not exactly working the same way.
I remember one which have a set of like 20-30 experts on different technology related topics and you would get response just from only that set of people.
In that aspect experts exchange is totally different because it allows participation as helper and being helped.

[vite_rts]

i know the site, and its not free

took a while tho :-)

You, have to buy some points, but you get some free on joining, an its a faboulous site

[Imperius]

Are we talking about: Experts-exchange.com

If that's the site you're talking about, I came across it before and found that I needed a membership of $9.95 a month for information I found for free by clicking on the link below in google search results. Why should I pay?

[fischermx]

You have to pay when you have unique situations of problems on errors and want a bunch of guys fighting to help you to get them 500 points ;)