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I asked few questions on Stack Overflow and got the perfect solutions for my questions in no time. Thanks a ton to all you folks.

But I am just wondering, who are the people who are answering my queries and what encourages them to answer these questions?

Is it a knowledge sharing platform? Can anyone please tell me?

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migrated from stackoverflow.com Sep 22 '09 at 2:01

This question came from our site for professional and enthusiast programmers.

7  
Stackoverflow is not meta stackoverflow. – Joren Sep 22 '09 at 1:59
    
see blog.stackoverflow.com – Mitch Wheat Sep 22 '09 at 2:00
    

In many cases, it's the same people who were asking the questions a decade ago :)

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1  
Nice answer! Very true – Rex M Sep 22 '09 at 2:30
    
With one glitch: there was no SO back then :( – malach Sep 22 '09 at 13:53

The same people who've answered questions on other forums for years and years, and mailing lists before that.

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5  
Not all of them :) – Rex M Sep 22 '09 at 2:08
    
I can't even fathom the ridiculousness of that response. – please delete me Sep 22 '09 at 2:17
    
@silky I don't know what that means :\ – Rex M Sep 22 '09 at 2:27
    
I potentially took your comment the wrong way; I interpreted it as 'not all the same people', if it meant that, my response was of the form 'that is so obvious it goes without saying, I can't imagine what else you're referring to'. I guess we can assign it to an argumentative morning on meta and leave it be :) – please delete me Sep 22 '09 at 2:39
4  
I assume Rex meant that there are people answering questions, who weren't before Stack Overflow. ( btw, it's late, here in the US. ) – Brad Gilbert Sep 22 '09 at 3:34

We just can't resist. Money isn't everything in life. We want to bond, sometimes don't know how. Helping others help life be more bearable.

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1  
And the little bit of appreciation helps... – pavium Sep 22 '09 at 5:17

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