@genesis The point isn't earning rep, even though it seems like some people treat it that way and I think nearly everyone falls into that trap occasionally. The point is giving and receiving help in areas we're all interested in. Rep just indicates how much, and how well, you do that. Rep, like happiness, is a by-product of doing things right, rather than to goal unto itself.
:) Re the actual question about 3.7k in 56 days. I've been on SO for not quite two years and have ~71k of rep. (Puts me on page two of the all time rep list, not that I'd ever look or anything.) About two months in, I probably had 2.5k of rep. My participation comes and goes. :-)
@genesis Re edits awaiting approval: I don't know. :-) I haven't spent a lot of time figuring out how those various bits and pieces work.
Right, under deadline, have to dash. Best in your quest for top 10! Be prepared to spend a lot of time on it, and be sure that's really where you want to spend that time.
Remember that SO and the SE network are just websites, and whatever the FAQ says, push comes to shove they're run by the SE management. Consider how you'll feel if you spend a huge amount of time and effort acheiving top 10 (or top 10,000, which is frankly still pretty darned good) and fall out with management.
@genesis: However, pursuing that goal, you're likely to learn a lot of things, make a couple of friends, etc., so there are other benefits. Just be sure you're going in with your eyes open. Right, really going now. :-)
@genesis Of course it could end. Similarly, you might do something that seems fine to you, but gets you banned from the SE network. Or the SE management might do something that you find inappropriate that makes you want to distance yourself from it.
How do Stack Overflow, Meta Stack Overflow, etc. stay up?
Someone has got to pay for the infrastructure and people's wages. So how do these sites make money? Is it purely through the tiny advert visible to Internet Explorer users (but not Firefox with Adblock!)?
If you vote down please specif...
I mean, for God's sake, we are made to believe that he is a human just like us. So, please take a nap while mere mortals like us can answer some questions and get some (not-so)well-deserved reputation points. Or at least, give us some timeslots(in GMT Please, no algorithms here) during which you ...
Honestly I've never understood the fascination with Jon Skeet though. I guess I missed out on the early days of the site when everyone knew everyone else
He's obviously a smart guy, but we've got a lot of smart people here
amongst the major changes that I can recall are VTC (initially required only 1 vote), rep on questions(earlier 1upvote on question == 10 rep), downvotes are now free on questions ( earlier it would cost you 1 rep)
@genesis yeah.
today' going to be my 600th day in SO.. even though I wasn't an early joiner by any means
Yeah, remember that Jeff and Joel had extremely popular blogs already among programmers. With that many readers, it didn't take long for people to show up.
I don't know. Probably slowly at first. They started writing, their friends started reading, they told their friends, and so on. Eventually, the word got around.
And people stuck around because they liked what they saw. The writing was good, the ideas were good, it was a positive experience. Same deal for SO/SE
Jeff Atwood has been encouraging programmers to start blogs for years. Even if you don't like writing or don't think you're any good at it, blogging can make you better at it.
Oh, haha well I never said I was good at design either.
Probably grammar, yes.
Some things sound awkward in English because that's not how a native speaker would say them. And then you have to be careful that you conjugate words correctly depending on what part of speech they are
The same stuff everyone has trouble with in foreign languages. Like me with German. Grrr
Well, right now I'm home for the summer and we live about 30 minutes north of Austin. But normally I go to the University of Texas, so I live just off campus in downtown Austin.
@Sathya I never really notice that, and I hang out in the supposedly popular tags. But I guess I'm a pretty fast typist and being a native speaker helps
@CodyGray I can type pretty fast but it still takes a bit of time for me to compose a decent answer in my head & then type it out. Something I'm trying to improve.
Also, PL/SQL is a niche topic... and most of the questions are fairly tricky
But when I say "I opened window", it means that I opened it but it isn't necessary still opened. But when I say "I have opened window", it means that I opened it and it is still opened, or am I wrong? edit :)
I'm not really sure... It's been way too long since I studied English grammar
Actually, I think the key is that "time" is indeterminate. Because you could also say "I have opened a window", and that wouldn't necessarily mean that a window is still opened.
Which is grammatically more correct?
Thanks everybody for the great 2010 moments we spent together!
vs
Thanks everybody for the great 2010 moments we've spent together!
I don't know, I've been speaking English for a long time. When I was a kid I used to read all the time, and that helped me a lot. You learn new words and phrases and stuff like that.
See, and like that. Mistakes that are commonly seen in informal speech, but stuff you'd never see in formal writing. That should be "there are are lot of words", but instead I said "there is". Totally wrong, shame on me.
A lot of native speakers don't know better. An unfortunate number of US high school students fail exit tests that cover simple material like that.
How do Stack Overflow, Meta Stack Overflow, etc. stay up?
Someone has got to pay for the infrastructure and people's wages. So how do these sites make money? Is it purely through the tiny advert visible to Internet Explorer users (but not Firefox with Adblock!)?
If you vote down please specif...
Which is grammatically more correct?
Thanks everybody for the great 2010 moments we spent together!
vs
Thanks everybody for the great 2010 moments we've spent together!
