Why Is There No Reputation On This Site?
Hi all,
I use this site for literally all of my issues with C++ nowadays. I have tried Stack Exchange, and, frankly speaking, I feel it is meant to be more of a 'dictionary' for questions/answers rather than an active forum where one can get an actual walkthrough with what one is doing wrong or how to do something.
This being said, I am curious as to why this site does not have any kind of 'reputation' attached to users. I am almost completely tied to the amount of posts one has created/responded to as a marker of how authoritative one is or how much weight is attached to ones response. I'm certainly not saying this is a bad way to do things and am definitely not attacking the site at all, especially as I have received almost nothing short of excellent help here, but I also see how easy it would be for a new C++ user to fall prey to bad advice, assuming none of the heavyweights on this site weigh in (which, again, I see as unlikely).
P.S. I am probably one of the users that gives bad advice and I have little feedback to let me know I'm doing that.
TL;DR - I think this site puts a heavy burden on high-post users to call out bad advice, rather than marking users with bad advice as such.
I use this site for literally all of my issues with C++ nowadays. I have tried Stack Exchange, and, frankly speaking, I feel it is meant to be more of a 'dictionary' for questions/answers rather than an active forum where one can get an actual walkthrough with what one is doing wrong or how to do something.
This being said, I am curious as to why this site does not have any kind of 'reputation' attached to users. I am almost completely tied to the amount of posts one has created/responded to as a marker of how authoritative one is or how much weight is attached to ones response. I'm certainly not saying this is a bad way to do things and am definitely not attacking the site at all, especially as I have received almost nothing short of excellent help here, but I also see how easy it would be for a new C++ user to fall prey to bad advice, assuming none of the heavyweights on this site weigh in (which, again, I see as unlikely).
P.S. I am probably one of the users that gives bad advice and I have little feedback to let me know I'm doing that.
TL;DR - I think this site puts a heavy burden on high-post users to call out bad advice, rather than marking users with bad advice as such.
| This being said, I am curious as to why this site does not have any kind of 'reputation' attached to users. |
But not curious enough to search the forums for posts on reputation?
Apologies, been trolling this site for nearly a year and a half and had seen no mention of this.
That being said, I'm still unsure why a 'best answer' system shouldn't be implemented completely independent of the user that posted said answer, but I feel I'm beating a dead horse talking about any additional features after reading previous posts.
That being said, I'm still unsure why a 'best answer' system shouldn't be implemented completely independent of the user that posted said answer, but I feel I'm beating a dead horse talking about any additional features after reading previous posts.
The key differences I see between the two sites;
1) Conversation Vs Competition
2) Often there is no one 'best answer', many of the topics on this site are OP specific, if the OP posts a difficult problem we are more willing to give our own thoughts without worry that there might be a better way out there. Often you are given a hearty shove in the right direction rather than being spoon fed the 'correct answer'. Give a fish vs show how to fish type deal.
3) You know that you have written bad advice, you know that others have given bad advice, you have pointed out to others that they have given bad advice and have received as good as taken. Nobody is punished with a lowered grade, or a lasting history. This is a good learning environment for all three participants. You get to see the good, the bad, and the ugly here. Everybody is striving to get better.
4) I notice posters in stackoverflow are given a hard time when they post answers to old questions, but new questions are criticized if a similar question was asked two years ago. Here, we have the beginner forums, and even better, people one step ahead are better at explaining their last step than people 90 levels up who have peered into the heart of the machine and have become a part of it.
So, yes you have to take all advice here with a grain of salt, but you are getting help from non-professional and professional alike. Nobody is giving you the worst advice they know. I often do find myself landing on stack overflow when I ask a question on google, but when I have a question burning a hole in the space between my ears, or when I'm in the helping mood I always find myself on this site.
1) Conversation Vs Competition
2) Often there is no one 'best answer', many of the topics on this site are OP specific, if the OP posts a difficult problem we are more willing to give our own thoughts without worry that there might be a better way out there. Often you are given a hearty shove in the right direction rather than being spoon fed the 'correct answer'. Give a fish vs show how to fish type deal.
3) You know that you have written bad advice, you know that others have given bad advice, you have pointed out to others that they have given bad advice and have received as good as taken. Nobody is punished with a lowered grade, or a lasting history. This is a good learning environment for all three participants. You get to see the good, the bad, and the ugly here. Everybody is striving to get better.
4) I notice posters in stackoverflow are given a hard time when they post answers to old questions, but new questions are criticized if a similar question was asked two years ago. Here, we have the beginner forums, and even better, people one step ahead are better at explaining their last step than people 90 levels up who have peered into the heart of the machine and have become a part of it.
So, yes you have to take all advice here with a grain of salt, but you are getting help from non-professional and professional alike. Nobody is giving you the worst advice they know. I often do find myself landing on stack overflow when I ask a question on google, but when I have a question burning a hole in the space between my ears, or when I'm in the helping mood I always find myself on this site.
Last edited on
@newbieg
I certainly meant this post to in no way be a direct comparison between this site and Stack Overflow. As I stated in my initial post I feel this site is meant to be a discussion whereas Stack Overflow is solely meant to be a resource.
1) This is why I suggested the 'best answer' system should be implemented independent of the user that posted said answer. In short, if your post gets best answer your profile shows no modification because of that.
2) Completely agree. 'best answer' is a misnomer and not what I meant in retrospect, rather a 'reasonable solution' versus a 'bad solution'.
3) As I'll meniton in 4), this makes sense if you already know what you/the poster are/is talking about. Otherwise, it's speaking Mandarin to someone who speaks Latin.
4) This was quite literally the reason I made this post. I've been jumping into making games with python through pygame and have been forced to post on Stack Overflow and I absolutely hate it. I started out with roughly 150 rep from questions I've asked/answered in C++ and dropped to 5 rep simply because I didn't know what the hell I was actually asking or what keywords to use to search for similar questions, and, as a result, I kept getting downvotes and question bans. I can't even comment on things now. As mentioned in 3), it seems to me you only know what to search for if you have already found resources to explain what you're asking.
That's my two cents on this issue. More or less venting as every similar post I can find is archived and it seems I've missed the boat.
You guys/gals are awesome and I really hope these posts didn't come across as suggesting anything less.
I certainly meant this post to in no way be a direct comparison between this site and Stack Overflow. As I stated in my initial post I feel this site is meant to be a discussion whereas Stack Overflow is solely meant to be a resource.
1) This is why I suggested the 'best answer' system should be implemented independent of the user that posted said answer. In short, if your post gets best answer your profile shows no modification because of that.
2) Completely agree. 'best answer' is a misnomer and not what I meant in retrospect, rather a 'reasonable solution' versus a 'bad solution'.
3) As I'll meniton in 4), this makes sense if you already know what you/the poster are/is talking about. Otherwise, it's speaking Mandarin to someone who speaks Latin.
4) This was quite literally the reason I made this post. I've been jumping into making games with python through pygame and have been forced to post on Stack Overflow and I absolutely hate it. I started out with roughly 150 rep from questions I've asked/answered in C++ and dropped to 5 rep simply because I didn't know what the hell I was actually asking or what keywords to use to search for similar questions, and, as a result, I kept getting downvotes and question bans. I can't even comment on things now. As mentioned in 3), it seems to me you only know what to search for if you have already found resources to explain what you're asking.
That's my two cents on this issue. More or less venting as every similar post I can find is archived and it seems I've missed the boat.
You guys/gals are awesome and I really hope these posts didn't come across as suggesting anything less.
Last edited on
| people 90 levels up who have peered into the heart of the machine and have become a part of it |
Unfortunately though, my cyborg implants have yet to arrive, so no word on becoming one with the machine.
| dropped to 5 rep simply because I didn't know what the hell I was actually asking or what keywords to use to search for similar questions |
Stackoverflow used to have a very excellent close reason, "does not demonstrate minimal knowledge" - it was mainly against "can I has codes?" questions, but was indeed applied broadly to beginner questions even when they were otherwise good (had minimal complete verifiable examples, demonstrated effort, were not asking for opinions or recommendations, and were not duplicates) - which is probably why it's not a valid close reason for some years now.
in any case, cplusplus.com/forum is a discussion forum, not a searchable professional Q&A database, and it's much harder (and less important) to have an objective way to quantify the reputation of the participants of a discussion.
Last edited on
Topic archived. No new replies allowed.