“New home page seems like Stack Overflow doesn't allow free use any more”
First, it looks like the StackOverflow homepage was changed to not require a sign-in.  The heavily downvoted (about -50) answer[0] by Cesar M at the bottom of the page also shows the screenshot of the change.<p>Second, I&#x27;m guessing that revenue from job postings (Careers section) and banner ads did not bring enough money.  From what I remember reading, I think SO also had high hopes of the other StackExchange specialty sites using the same Q&amp;A engine would be more successful (i.e. more banner ads, more money, etc) but it turns out they were only a modest impact on revenue.  (E.g. MathOverflow is an interesting community with Fields Medal mathematics PhDs but it probably doesn&#x27;t bring much revenue.)<p>Therefore, this leaves the &quot;enterprise sales&quot; revenue idea of licensing the Q&amp;A engine to private teams.  (Hey, Slack just had their IPO and some companies pay for Gitlab and Github -- so let&#x27;s push for selling SO Q&amp;A for enterprises.) This monetization pressure leads to using the SO landing page as a giant billboard for their enterprise product.  (I&#x27;m not making a personal complaint but just observing that they seem to be in a difficult monetization dilemma and their actions to improve their financial situation just irritates the users.)<p>IMO, I&#x27;m skeptical that internal Q&amp;A platforms would actually be useful for companies and I made a previous comment explaining why.[1]<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;meta.stackoverflow.com&#x2F;a&#x2F;386566" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;meta.stackoverflow.com&#x2F;a&#x2F;386566</a><p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=14804834" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=14804834</a>