Is there a Stack Overflow clone that pays money for answers?

I would think a platform for some kind of micro-consulting would be more interesting, rather than just question answering, because such questions may be so niche that you're unlikely to find someone who can just answer off the top of their head, but you might find someone who could provide a reasonable answer with a few hours of research and investigation.

As for your specific question, why would you assume that "running a Lua compiler in the browser" is an easy thing to do ? I would say that unless someone has already developed that integration and made it available chances are that it would actually be a significant project to implement.

Perhaps fengari, as suggested by another commenter, would do what you need. Presumably it must include a Lua byte compiler, so the question is whether it provides access to the byte compiled code (though why anyone would need to byte compile Lua in the browser but not run that code is beyond me).

I own a software consultancy[1], and work with Lua. It sounds like you want to run different versions of luac(1) in the browser, but not lua(1). Correct?

On a separate note, marek_leisk2 is correct. I have clients who I can bill for 15 minutes at a time, but it's because they are already established clients with me.

Edit: Sounds like this was just one example. Feel free to email andrew@andrewmcwatters.com or reply here and we can talk through that problem further if you want. No charge.

As a quick reply and to be honest, unless you absolutely need this running in a browser, I'd just take a $12/yr VPS[2], pipe source to luac, then return its output to your users. It's less than maintaining luac builds with JavaScript integration points of multiple versions of Lua.

[1]: https://www.andrewmcwatters.com/

[2]: https://my.racknerd.com/aff.php?aff=2502

I used to work for HackHands where you could get assigned to help people out with programming problems in real time and get paid.

It was mostly fun but also a bit sketchy. Frequently I'd wind up helping students with their CS homework which is questionable but usually pleasant work.

Occasionally I'd run into a "hard case" such as the person who wanted me to make changes to the production SQL Server database where it wasn't clear to me that he had permission to make the changes and I didn't want to be responsible for messing the system up. (Which would have been a risk no matter what but I hadn't admined a SQL server database in years at that point.)

I think you are looking for something like Experts Exchange:

https://go.experts-exchange.com/

I use codementor for this exact situation, usually when I'm exploring something new and I wanna get insight and advice into best practices.

You hire somebody at a certain rate per hour then you set up a joined zoom session and go from there.

There have been a few times when I answered someone's question on usenet or irc, and it turned into a more in-depth discussion where they hired me for small consulting engagements. I don't think there needs to be any middleman web site for informal things like that to pop up. I had thought Stack Overflow itself let people note in their profiles that they were available for hiring or consulting. I believe Github also does that. Regarding your specific Lua question, maybe you could just offer a bounty. I also have to wonder why you want Lua in the browser since you already have Javascript.

I have seen several websites where you can attach a bounty to a question. StackOverflow does that with reputation, but I have seen some sites do it with money.

First relevant result on Google (not a recommendation): https://bountyquestion.com/

I think you might want to change your perspective a little bit and think about what value this system could offer for the problem solvers other than compensate for their time and attention.

(Why would I spend 15 minutes reading your post and writing this comment if I am not getting paid?)

I think Quora or CodeMentor might be a good place to ask that kind of question. ISTR that CodeMentor has a way that you can pay to get short-term help like you need.

The closest I know is https://issuehunt.io/

Did you check out: https://fengari.io/ by any chance?

try using Upwork or another Contracting Platform and post a job of "Expert Lua compiler consultant needed" with a one-time job fee of $250 (or pick your number). Then, filter their available talent by Lua and reach out to 20-50 contractors with Lua in their description, asking if they're interested in this job.

Codementor