[rch]

I'd get into that. I am a C/C++ guy, writing Python (etc.,etc.), with R/Perl programming coworkers. There is obvious value for me in external reviews.

The trick is, could there be some sort of bilateral confidentially agreement? That's one I'd need to ponder a bit.

[mikegreenberg]

I agree that solving the confidentiality part is key. I think it's very remote that someone will steal large swaths of code from you. But it might be a good idea to expect that your code example will act as part of "payment" for their review. If it bothers the author, maybe code review sessions can be broken up by individual functions/pages/modules that are looked at by many independent reviewers so no one reviewer sees it together as a package.

[baberuth]

I'm not super concerned about confidentiality for my code, but then again I'm not doing anything groundbreaking.

Mostly, if I cared about confidentiality, it'd be so I don't get publicly embarassed for crappy code.

Rating systems for reviewers would also let people build reputations so that reviewee's could feel more comfortable about code confidentiality.

Stack overflow already has reputations built in, so as I mentioned, it might just be awesome as a feature for SO. And another revenue stream, if they weren't already swimming in cash.

[frobozz]

The main confidentiality issue is not about whether you, the coder, cares about people stealing your groundbreaking idea. When you are doing work for hire, the code is not necessarily yours to publish.

Whilst sharing it with someone you could refer to as a colleague, employee, or contractor might be OK. Sharing it with the world, or someone who might share it with the world, is not.

[rch]

I'm not concerned about code confidentially at all :) ...but unfortunately, I am not in a position to make that call. The people I work with sometimes do important/secret things, so all the IP policies are geared to the extreme case. That said, as long as I have a path to declare what I plan to share and with who, then things could become much easier... in theory anyway.