[kristiandupont]

The tone of your post seems condescending - I really hope that the high number of upvotes is not simply a reflection of how popular is it to dislike Joel.

I think his post is straight forward - this is a neat way to do specific searches for programmers. Programmers who use SO might or might not be cool, but they are now searchable.

[KirinDave]

If my tone is condescending, that's because it is. Don't you know how XKCD Explained works? ;)

I find it supremely unsurprising that Joel has decided to sell the user info he collects at the website he helped create. He is exactly that kind of person, who wouldn't see anything wrong with that. After all, it's his website and the privacy policy is clear, right? (sigh)

But honestly, I don't dislike Joel. I just am irritated by his disproportionate popularity. The man's writing is solid, but his technical and managerial insights are at best mediocre. This is in sharp contrast to someone like Paul Graham, who not only has the writing capabilities but also the background of technical and social achievement to back it up.

[100k]

That isn't anywhere close to what Stack Overflow is doing.

This isn't selling user details from Stack Overflow (for which all the data is available for download, by the way: http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/06/stack-overflow-creativ...).

It's a separate service, the users of which have to pay to get listed. I'd say that indicates a pretty strong willingness to be contacted by employers.