How to get Stackoverflow Reputation • Hacker News Board

Re: How to get Stackoverflow Reputation

#21

Post by messel » Tue, Aug 25, 2009, 10:59 AM UTC

jasonkester wrote: post #18

The strange thing about this is that the StackOverflow team seems to think that people will use these reputation points for hiring decisions. They have little widgets you can embed into your site to display your reputation, and I've even heard them suggest that developers put it on their resumes. I can't think of a better indicator of somebody not to hire than a guy with 10,000+ reputation on any community site. You…

Ha, great response Jason. Maybe it'll feed back to SO devs. These quality scoring crowd sourced systems need refinement. Although I'm a believer in emergent properties of large systems, the initial reputation should be tied to domain expertise. Let a group of really smart folks set the standard and promote intelligent answers.

Re: How to get Stackoverflow Reputation

#22

Post by messel » Tue, Aug 25, 2009, 11:01 AM UTC

sireat wrote: post #13

keyist wrote: post #6

Out of the 6 tips provided, "write relevant, detailed answers" wasn't one of them. Quite the contrary, in fact: "1. Be the First to Answer. Even at the cost of quality." Gaming a reputation system just means you figured out how to maximize a number determined by some arbitrary formula. Real life reputation works differently. People aren't going to remember the dude with 10k points. They will remember the person who g…

Tip No. 1 is a bit similar to Jeopardy strategy of ringing in the buzzer as fast as possible and figuring out the answer afterwards. Sadly, people will respect someone more with 10k gamed points than someone with 1000 honest points, because we have placed implicit trust in SO ranking system.

At least we have become a little more educated about the weaknesses of the system

Re: How to get Stackoverflow Reputation

#23

Post by olavk » Tue, Aug 25, 2009, 12:12 PM UTC

It is a secondary issue if individual users can hack the system to gain somewhat undeserved reputation.

The primary issue for the quality of Stackoverflow is whether good answers are generated, and whether the best (most correct, relevant and informative) answers float to the top. This seems to be the case AFAICT, so I don't think this reputation gaming is a big problem for the site. (It will be a big problem for somebody (theoretical) who hired people based on Stackoverflow reputation. But that would be stupid anyway.)

Re: How to get Stackoverflow Reputation

#24

Post by Encosia » Tue, Aug 25, 2009, 1:23 PM UTC

jasonkester wrote: post #18

The strange thing about this is that the StackOverflow team seems to think that people will use these reputation points for hiring decisions. They have little widgets you can embed into your site to display your reputation, and I've even heard them suggest that developers put it on their resumes. I can't think of a better indicator of somebody not to hire than a guy with 10,000+ reputation on any community site. You…

I don't have time to sharpen the saw, I'm busy sawing?

Re: How to get Stackoverflow Reputation

#25

Post by TheElder » Tue, Aug 25, 2009, 2:36 PM UTC

jasonkester wrote: post #18

The strange thing about this is that the StackOverflow team seems to think that people will use these reputation points for hiring decisions. They have little widgets you can embed into your site to display your reputation, and I've even heard them suggest that developers put it on their resumes. I can't think of a better indicator of somebody not to hire than a guy with 10,000+ reputation on any community site. You…

Thanks for the insight, although I'd still hire Jon Skeet, the highest reputation holder.

http://stackoverflow.com/users/22656/jon-skeet

Re: How to get Stackoverflow Reputation

#26

Post by saturdayplace » Tue, Aug 25, 2009, 2:54 PM UTC

Huhn. I go there to ask questions, and hope people answer them. Helps me learn. I'm not in school anymore, I don't need 'good grades.' I need to know how to do x with y.

Re: How to get Stackoverflow Reputation

#27

Post by johns » Tue, Aug 25, 2009, 3:05 PM UTC

jasonkester wrote: post #18

The strange thing about this is that the StackOverflow team seems to think that people will use these reputation points for hiring decisions. They have little widgets you can embed into your site to display your reputation, and I've even heard them suggest that developers put it on their resumes. I can't think of a better indicator of somebody not to hire than a guy with 10,000+ reputation on any community site. You…

I have 16K and I haven't spent 4 hours a day on it. I do spend some time at work on it, usually while I'm trying to distract myself from a problem so I can get a fresh perspective on it. I just answer a couple questions a day and eventually you start to stockpile rep. Old questions/answers get you rep like interest on a savings account.

I have the rep on my blog, because it has some perceived value amongst my professional peers (the .NET community) and there was recently a job I applied for where it actually was a useful number. That's the exception though since it's a unique opportunity. I would never put it directly on my resume, but I wouldn't hide it either.

Re: How to get Stackoverflow Reputation

#28

Post by johns » Tue, Aug 25, 2009, 3:15 PM UTC

People that game the system tend to get bored after awhile and go away. Only those that truly like answering questions and helping people stick around. Overall, most of the time questions are getting answered and that's the primary goal of the site.

If you're getting sniped and then having your content copied, post first or post faster. I have never had my content stolen for another answer.

Also if you want more rep with less games, stay away from the high-profile low-hanging fruit. Avoid basic language syntax lessons that are easy for people to answer quickly. Pick a few tags that you have more specific knowledge in and follow those. That's an easy way to get rep without as much competition.

Re: How to get Stackoverflow Reputation

#29

Post by cema » Tue, Aug 25, 2009, 4:32 PM UTC

Encosia wrote: post #24

jasonkester wrote: post #18

The strange thing about this is that the StackOverflow team seems to think that people will use these reputation points for hiring decisions. They have little widgets you can embed into your site to display your reputation, and I've even heard them suggest that developers put it on their resumes. I can't think of a better indicator of somebody not to hire than a guy with 10,000+ reputation on any community site. You…

I don't have time to sharpen the saw, I'm busy sawing?

Not quite. We all have to study constantly. The question is how to balance work and study.

Re: How to get Stackoverflow Reputation

#30

Post by asjo » Tue, Aug 25, 2009, 4:46 PM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #7

Yeah, I do the downvoting thing from time to time. If there are few answers, and I think mine is slightly better, I will downvote them so mine goes to the top. This usually results in lots of points, since people see mine at the top and upvote, and see the others at the bottom, and downvote them. (The same thing works here, but I don't do it. My comments usually get upvoted anyway, for some reason.) The funny part is…

Yeah, I do the downvoting thing from time to time. [...] Anyway, I hate to "game" sites like StackOverflow, but there is no incentive not to.

So why do you do it?

Your "hate" doesn't overshadow the good feeling of getting a lot of points?