They know it has something to do with the Internet and a website. Whenever I try to explain what we do, I see that glazed-over look appear in the questioner's eyes, similar to what you'd see in a deer's face moments before it impacts with the windshield.
I would say that what follows is typical of the conversation I have with my relatives when they ask me about my job. That would be a lie. Really they get that glazed-deer look in their eyes after the second or third line. But if I were able to have a nearly complete yet relatively short conversation about my job, this is how I'd imagine it would go:
What does your company do?
Basically we're a question and answer site. We try to make the Internet a better place.
So...you're like Yahoo Answers?
$DEITY no. We're a site where you can ask questions and get answers from experts.
Oh. So only certain people can answer your questions.
Actually, anyone can. If you know the answer, you can reply to the question.
But...I'm not an expert.
That's okay. You don't even need to register to answer a question, but if you create an account, you can get reputation for your answers and reputation builds credibility for your future answers. Continued participation helps make you an expert, or at least validates that you are familiar with the subject.
So I post an answer, and I get reputation for it?
Not exactly. You post an answer, and other users can vote your answer up if it's useful, or down if it's not clear or doesn't answer the question. This affects your reputation.
What can I do with this reputation?
Absolutely nothing!
Well, that sucks.
What I mean is you can't get money for your reputation or prizes.
So why do people try to get reputation if you can't do anything with it?
Reputation is like a validation of your knowledge in a particular area; you can embed your Stack Exchange profile's reputation into your blog or web page, to show the world that you actively participate in the website. For programmers, StackOverflow is the leading source of answers to programming questions on the web, and reputation is a fun way to show their peers how much they use the site.
So programmers can show employers their StackOverflow reputation to show what they can do.
It's a useful metric for employers familiar with the site. And our Careers site, which is part of the StackExchange network, has tools built in that highlight your reputation so employers can see how you participated in StackOverflow. They just create a Careers profile and potential employers can find a programmer suited to their needs.
Okay,...this sounds like Stack Exchange is just for programmers. I'm not a programmer.
Stack Exchange started out with StackOverflow, which is for programmers and their questions. And StackOverflow is by far our most active site...if you look at our list of sites, as of today there are over 4 million questions and it's growing by over six thousand questions per day. But there's actually over 90 sites in the Stack Exchange network, each with a particular topic of focus.
Ninety sites? Why so many? I could go to Yahoo Answers and there's just one site where I just ask anything I want.
We have a lot of sub-sites because this helps divide the areas of interest, which means your question won't be buried among questions that aren't relevant to the subject. You wouldn't ask a question about home repair in a stadium of people, would you? There's a good chance someone there can help you, but the majority of the people wouldn't have a clue, and it would be very noisy compared to going to a do-it-yourselfer's convention and asking the people there.
While we are largely technical...the first three Stack Exchange sites focused on programming, systems administration (ServerFault) and home computer user questions (SuperUser), we're not just for technology questions. We have sites for video games, parenting, science-fiction and fantasy, and even cooking. There's a list of sites you can explore.
What if you don't have a site that looks like it is good for things I'm interested in?
If you think there is a community that would be interested in what you have in mind, you can go to Area 51 and propose a new site be created. Area 51 is where new sites are proposed to see if they have enough support to build a community.
How do you make them grow? Like...why do people keep participating with the site?
I'm afraid there's no single answer for that! Maybe this would best fit as a question with our cognitive sciences site.
Most people come to get answers to their questions. Some stay because they enjoy helping others and sharing knowledge. Others find a sense of community. Some like the challenge of gathering reputation and badges, and others make friends in our integrated chat system.
It helps that we're completely free; there's no paywall, and we try to reduce the friction in the user experience by keeping advertising to a minimum. What advertising we do carry is shown as unobtrusively as possible.
There are many users who enjoy the game aspect of the site. They enjoy building reputation. We also have badges you can unlock by performing various tasks, like editing people's questions and achieving certain goals on the site. There are many users who enjoy trying to collect all the badges.
Wait, you get a badge for editing people's questions? Like, you alter what other people write? So you're like Wikipedia?
Our goal is to make the Internet a better place, and we're doing that by giving users tools to find authoritative answers to their questions. Sometimes an answer...or question...needs altering so that it can help the most people. Or maybe the wording is vague. Questions might get downvoted or closed until they are edited to be suitable for the site.
So yes, it is possible for other users to edit your contributions, and in that respect we are like a wiki site. Remember, the goal is for us to make the Internet a better place, and we want your questions to help other people too! It's nothing personal!
Usually by this point I imagine the other person is either satisfied with the explanation or they're making a sandwich and have no interest in talking anymore. Or maybe I'm making a sandwich. Or both. It's my imaginary conversation, so I can make a sandwich if I want.
Regardless of the stopping point, I usually suggest they look at the new animated "about" pages that give a brief overview of each site. Take a look at the Apple site's About page. Cool, huh? Just click on the "about" link in the upper right corner of any Stack Exchange site page.
That's kind of all there is to it. It's free to join, it's free to participate, and it's free to lurk around the sites and peruse the information. Jump in and see if you can answer some questions!
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