<p>Small chipping in: There were similar arguments as brought forth by @MichaelChernick when R started to gain momentum with version 1.0.0. I guess it's just a fundamental issue with community effort like open source software, open access journals, open data initiatives or community-driven open knowledge spaces as this one. Much has been written on what makes contributors tick and how commons influence for-profit competition, so I won't reiterate here. </p>

<p>But for me it is clear: A site like this serves the common good, one way or another. Reputation is the currency and fun and new insights the reward. That's why (most) of us probably do this. </p>

<p>Background: I am an outside professionalist and editor of an open source journal and R contributor and here on cross validated. I don't see my work threatened. If anything, I feel like I learn a lot here that will benefit my clients and my work.      </p>
