Vfx Overflow is a Visual Effects’s Q&A site built on the same technology as Joel Spolsky’s hugely popular Stack Overflow. It incorporates aspects of Wiki, Game-play, Tagging and Voting, and brings them together in a way that helps artists find the very best answers fast.
KEY CONCEPTS:
Voting
Voting is a simple but effective device to push the best answers to the top. Users gain reputation each time one of their answers is voted up, and this encourages people to the write detailed accurate and helpful answers. In a similar way, inaccurate, inappropriate or unhelpful answers get voted down and disappear.
Tagging
Hard-coded category hierarchies don’t work well because questions can be about 2 or more things. At Vfx Overflow, users assign tags to their questions. Tags are dynamic and flexible. They easily accommodate new jargon and technology, and they make search much easier. Over time the site learns which tags a user is good at answering and can tailor the display of questions on future visits.
Game-play
As users participate more and more they accrue reputation points and and have powers bestowed upon them, such as the power to edit another user’s post, upload images, and eventually become a moderator. By participating in specific ways, users earn badges such as Fanatic, Organizer, Populist or Critic. The competitive element helps keep the standard of information high.
Wiki
A user, who has enough reputation, can edit an existing question or answer. Questions can be re-phrased or re-tagged. Answers can be improved upon, or bought up to date as technology changes. Users may even aggregate ideas from existing answers and reformulate them as their own, potentially getting voted to the top. The focus is on the quality of information. The idea of ownership is gone, and the result is that each question page becomes the canonical micro-wikipedia for that problem domain. This is probably one of the most powerful aspects of the system. Its also the clearest advantage over forums for getting accurate up to date information. The answers, and questions, evolve.
Beautiful and Free
VFX Overflow has a simple intuitive interface designed to remove barriers to finding information. We believe our users want to concentrate on the content they find, so there are no flashing distracting ads and there never will be.
Finally, Vfx Overflow costs nothing and you don’t have to register to use it.
www.vfxoverflow.com (Get Answers to Visual Effects Questions!)
Site is administered by Julian Mann (Montreal), Hugh Macdonald (London), Elie Jamaa (Kochi, Japan)