learning drupal fast track: how to create a stackoverflow clone?

Question

I've started figuring out drupal, and so far most of the results are just ugly. May be I need to learn it in something similar to a real-life project. I thought — to reproduce this site's functionality might be a good learning project. But I need help. :)

Without assuming this site is based on drupal (it most likely is not — too quick, I think) is there a way to build something similar in functionality (yes, slower, OK if not as fancy as this one, but close) with existing drupal modules and schemes (or with minimal tweaking)?

Or drupal is not good enough for that? Or — is it too complicated project for a student?

Which existing modules and schemes might help to build something similar?

(No competition is intended with stackoverflow.)

Answer 1

Firstly, Drupal is by no means a slow system, actually it works quite well.

Secondly, this has been already asked and answered here.

By the way Drupal has a medium learning curve but, once you learn how to use you'll find it simple and you'll find it will satisfy almost everything you want to do with it. Its plugin system is just great and it's very SEO friendly (I don't get paid from Drupal I swear, I just happen to like it a lot)

My website is made in drupal if you wanna take a look (is in spanish though).

Answer 2

-Is there a way to build something similar [to stackoverflow] in functionality with existing drupal modules and schemes (or with minimal tweaking)?

It's a good idea to try and learn a new technology by trying to make a real-world project. But if you're intention is to actually learn drupal, then trying to solve the problem with exiting modules and "a minimal amount of tweaking", you might not learn very much!

-Or drupal is not good enough for that? Drupal is certainly capable of the type of functionality implemented here, and much more.

-Or — is it too complicated project for a student? It depends on the student. Different people have different abilities. Your mileage may vary.

Answer 3

Some suggestions that might possibly help:

• There's a Drupal distribution for it ... (not just a 'module'), i.e ArrayShift. Quote from its project page:

  A question/answer site built to emulate the core functionality of sites on the StackExchange platform, such as:

  • StackOverflow.
  • Drupal Answers.

• There is a Drupal theme for it, i.e the ArrayShift Theme. Here is a screenshot (from its project pages):

It has been in a kind of unsupported status until recently, though the updated project page contains a roadmap to get it going again for D7 (and D8 later on).

Disclosure: I'm the (new) maintainer of ArrayShift (and its related modules and theme),
I hope this does not violate the site's policy on self-promotion.