Clearly a paid-for article. Jeff is onto something these days and needs some press.
Regarding the down-votes: it's the second time in a week that Jeff publishes something free of any interesting content and makes it big enough to reach a large audience while mentioning each time that he's onto something but can't say anything about it. If that's not a PR exercise, please tell me what it is.
I can confirm that SE Inc. definitely did not pay for this article (or blog post). They called us for some facts, but that was the extent of our involvement as far as I know. I also agree that it seems about two years late and not filled with any new information.
You're right, it's just my opinion based on the tone of the article and what I perceive of Wired. I'd change the wording to reflect that if I could edit the post. Also, this was not really meant as an accusation in the sense that I make no value judgement on Jeff based on what he did or did not pay for the article (but I hear I'm strangely wired (yeah, hum) when it comes to translating my opinions into judgements; YMMV so, you've got another point there because I should be more cautious).
I can also confirm that neither StackExchange nor Jeff Atwood paid for this post.
I met Jeff Atwood while I was in San Francisco last month and thought he had a good story that hadn't gotten much mainstream press (for example, StackExchange was covered by the New York Times, [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/07/technology/07question.html...] but that story didn't go into the origins of the company or Atwood's "secret agenda" of tricking developers into being better communicators). The story wasn't assigned, I pitched it to Wired because I had the opportunity to interview Atwood.
I think of Atwood were to pay for press (which I very much doubt he would do) I assume he'd do so when he actually had something to announce.
Regarding the down-votes: it's the second time in a week that Jeff publishes something free of any interesting content and makes it big enough to reach a large audience while mentioning each time that he's onto something but can't say anything about it. If that's not a PR exercise, please tell me what it is.