The two main pillars of the stack overflow experience as a contributor: - Gameify all metrics to an absurd degree, using gold-star-sticker style incentives for

The two main pillars of the stack overflow experience as a contributor: - Gameify all metrics to an absurd degree, using gold-star-sticker style incentives for every given interaction type. - Take the metrics a seriously as possible, creating a baroque network of norms and code that a user is always, somehow, in violation of. So if it gets upvoted too much, it SHOULD be flagged as community wiki. There was a long discussion where users were complaining about answers that were posted too fast, preventing the complainers from getting points. If you misclick, then retract it, you can't vote again. Why? Because users were downvoting everyone who competed with them to float their answer to the top, then retracting. The overall culture the site has a deep aspect of working the referees as much as possible, and the extreme hands on nature of how they regulate people's Fake Internet High Scores is to blame for it.