[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Is there a Stack Overflow clone that pays mo...
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       Ask HN: Is there a Stack Overflow clone that pays money for
       answers?
        
       I'm having a problem with StackOverflow - it's _usually_ about
       basic programming stuff. Sometimes I work on a kind of niche this
       and asking questions about those gives you no answers (or weird off
       topic answers). From what I know I can 't offer money for solution
       there, but I think that's the only way I could attract someone and
       actually get an answer.  I feel that more poeple may share the same
       feeling.  I'm not looking for a job offering websites, it's not
       about doing the whole project for me - it's about letting me just
       skip the part I can't solve. It's also not about trying to monetize
       answers for trivial questions. I helped hundreds of people already
       in the past and I understand the value of knowledge sharing.  An
       example: I need to run Lua compiler (not Lua VM or something) in a
       browser. I'm totally not experienced with c++, emscripten, wasm,
       etc and I'm not interested right now. I just want to embed this
       solution into my frontend app. Not a whole project taking
       days/weeks/months, not a trivial question about centering images in
       a box.  Is there something like that already? Do you feel that is
       something you want to exist?  (BTW: If you feel brave - feel free
       to steal this idea and make it into reality if it not exist.)
        
       Author : dzek69
       Score  : 16 points
       Date   : 2022-09-15 18:00 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
       | tgflynn wrote:
       | I would think a platform for some kind of micro-consulting would
       | be more interesting, rather than just question answering, because
       | such questions may be so niche that you're unlikely to find
       | someone who can just answer off the top of their head, but you
       | might find someone who could provide a reasonable answer with a
       | few hours of research and investigation.
       | 
       | As for your specific question, why would you assume that "running
       | a Lua compiler in the browser" is an easy thing to do ? I would
       | say that unless someone has already developed that integration
       | and made it available chances are that it would actually be a
       | significant project to implement.
       | 
       | Perhaps fengari, as suggested by another commenter, would do what
       | you need. Presumably it must include a Lua byte compiler, so the
       | question is whether it provides access to the byte compiled code
       | (though why anyone would need to byte compile Lua in the browser
       | but not run that code is beyond me).
        
         | dzek69 wrote:
         | I may be wrong but I think finding a person for micro
         | consulting should be quite easy even now.
         | 
         | And for LUA issue and why I think it's easy thing to do. I
         | found at least few solutions for running Lua VM in a browser
         | with emscripten. I read about running ffmpeg in browser.
         | 
         | It's all about changing some configuration and compiling the
         | code to be used with web assembly. The solution for what I need
         | is a single command. But knowing nothing about c++ I find it
         | hard to compile lua compiler instead of lua VM. And because I
         | need several versions of lua - fengari is not an option, but
         | it's sure an interesting project I may use somewhere else.
        
         | marek_leisk2 wrote:
         | Micro-consulting sounds like hell. Sales are a huge drag on any
         | expert trying to capitalise. By the very nature of their
         | business they need fewer but larger deals.
        
       | ontouchstart wrote:
       | I think you might want to change your perspective a little bit
       | and think about what value this system could offer for the
       | problem solvers other than compensate for their time and
       | attention.
       | 
       | (Why would I spend 15 minutes reading your post and writing this
       | comment if I am not getting paid?)
        
       | hbcondo714 wrote:
       | I think you are looking for something like Experts Exchange:
       | 
       | https://go.experts-exchange.com/
        
       | HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
       | I think Quora or CodeMentor might be a good place to ask that
       | kind of question. ISTR that CodeMentor has a way that you can pay
       | to get short-term help like you need.
        
       | uberman wrote:
       | Did you check out: https://fengari.io/ by any chance?
        
         | dzek69 wrote:
         | never seen that before. It seems nice, I may use it some day.
         | 
         | It doesn't solve my Lua issue unfortunately - I need several
         | versions of lua - and fengari seems to implement lua 5.3.
         | 
         | Also the lua thing is just an example. I had many of such "not
         | trivial, not too much" + "i don't really care, i need an answer
         | and never go back to it" situations. I still long for
         | StackOverflow with money offer for a solution.
        
       | PaulHoule wrote:
       | I used to work for HackHands where you could get assigned to help
       | people out with programming problems in real time and get paid.
       | 
       | It was mostly fun but also a bit sketchy. Frequently I'd wind up
       | helping students with their CS homework which is questionable but
       | usually pleasant work.
       | 
       | Occasionally I'd run into a "hard case" such as the person who
       | wanted me to make changes to the production SQL Server database
       | where it wasn't clear to me that he had permission to make the
       | changes and I didn't want to be responsible for messing the
       | system up. (Which would have been a risk no matter what but I
       | hadn't admined a SQL server database in years at that point.)
        
         | dzek69 wrote:
         | Such website would surely require a good terms of service and
         | some kind of moderation to avoid any shady events from
         | happening.
         | 
         | HackHands was acquired, I will take a look at what PluralSight
         | is about, but it's not definitely a QA website with a price
         | listed near the topics.
        
       | andrewmcwatters wrote:
       | I own a software consultancy[1], and work with Lua. It sounds
       | like you want to run different versions of luac(1) in the
       | browser, but not lua(1). Correct?
       | 
       | On a separate note, marek_leisk2 is correct. I have clients who I
       | can bill for 15 minutes at a time, but it's because they are
       | already established clients with me.
       | 
       | Edit: Sounds like this was just one example. Feel free to email
       | andrew@andrewmcwatters.com or reply here and we can talk through
       | that problem further if you want. No charge.
       | 
       | As a quick reply and to be honest, unless you absolutely need
       | this running in a browser, I'd just take a $12/yr VPS[2], pipe
       | source to luac, then return its output to your users. It's less
       | than maintaining luac builds with JavaScript integration points
       | of multiple versions of Lua.
       | 
       | [1]: https://www.andrewmcwatters.com/
       | 
       | [2]: https://my.racknerd.com/aff.php?aff=2502
        
       | ccvannorman wrote:
       | try using Upwork or another Contracting Platform and post a job
       | of "Expert Lua compiler consultant needed" with a one-time job
       | fee of $250 (or pick your number). Then, filter their available
       | talent by Lua and reach out to 20-50 contractors with Lua in
       | their description, asking if they're interested in this job.
        
         | speedgoose wrote:
         | It sounds like more work than doing the implementation
         | yourself.
        
       | GuB-42 wrote:
       | I have seen several websites where you can attach a bounty to a
       | question. StackOverflow does that with reputation, but I have
       | seen some sites do it with money.
       | 
       | First relevant result on Google (not a recommendation):
       | https://bountyquestion.com/
        
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       (page generated 2022-09-15 23:02 UTC)