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I participate a lot, but almost exclusively in the (HTML5) Canvas tag. Because I don't answer much else I've got a smallish reputation for a frequent visitor(12

I participate a lot, but almost exclusively in the (HTML5) Canvas tag. Because I don't answer much else I've got a smallish reputation for a frequent visitor(12K). I'm the top answer-er for the Canvas tag, having answered around ~10% of all questions ever asked about Canvas on StackOverflow. I would say that reputation numbers don't necessarily measure engagement per se in S.O. very well. I've found that if I answer a general JavaScript question, even if its an absurdly simple one, I garner more reputation in a few minutes than if I I give a detailed answer to 2-3 in depth canvas questions. If I wanted to pad my reputation I could definitely answer more general JS questions that crop up, but I really enjoy helping people with their canvas projects, so I sorta stick to that domain and try to help with my slightly-more-unique knowledge. Anyway, reputation numbers aren't that important to me. At the end of the day, this is the only encouragement I need: http://i.imgur.com/POZmt.png http://i.imgur.com/POZmt.png

cruise02 15y ago
Reputation points in niche tags are definitely harder won than in the popular language tags, but (as you've demonstrated) it's easier to climb to the top of a niche tag and establish yourself as an expert. The real-world reputation you gain from that is more valuable than the reputation score on the site. Great job!
- pmjordan 15y ago
  The high-traffic tags are full of low-quality or frequently asked questions. The amount of duplication in e.g. the C++ tag is staggering, but there doesn't seem to be a conscious effort to enforce a no-duplicate policy of any kind. Picking out worthwhile questions is difficult with all that noise. Worse, the "unanswered" section is full of questions that have been answered, the asker just never bothered to click accept. After a few upvotes to one of the answers and enough elapsed time that should probably happen automatically. There are also a lot of questions which cannot be answered given the information provided, and the original user is evidently no longer interested in getting it answered. As you say though, you really can help people who have difficult questions in the niche tags (I've been spending far too much time in 'iokit' and 'objective-c++'). One upvote plus your answer accepted (total +25) is all you can hope for, though.
  - fusiongyro 15y ago
    It seems to be just really hard. I see a ton of duplicates in the MySQL and Java tags as well. New programmers who are also new users of S.O. vastly outnumber the experienced, and they're exactly the ones who are going to ask questions that have been repeatedly answered. Any forum that welcomes new users is going to have this problem. The same kind of thing happened on Forrst, which should probably have been a little more resistant.
  - JeremyBanks 15y ago
    Regarding duplicates: they should be closed as duplicates of a canonical question, but the incentives all work against that so it rarely happens. There's a ten-month-old widely-supported proposal on meta meant to address this, but it hasn't received any comment from the Stack Exchange Inc. folks. http://meta.stackoverflow.com/q/90620/134300 http://meta.stackoverflow.com/q/90620/134300
    - kmontrose 15y ago
      Incentivizing duplicate finding is tricky: - rewarding with rep could convert answerers to closers * answering produces useful stuff, closing is (often) just clerical - over aggressive closing drives new users away * blatant laziness shouldn't be rewarded, but subtle variations on a problem shouldn't be punished either - some level of duplication is a good thing * http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/11/dr-strangedupe-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-duplication/ http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/11/dr-strangedupe-or-how-... * in a nutshell, people ask the same conceptual question in different ways, it's good to have all those ways around to help Googlers We've also improved finding duplicates in the close dialog since that meta post (it's a hard problem, so it's not a perfect suggesting system), so it's hardly like we've done nothing. Also, as written that feature request is unworkable. Incentivize closing over asking, madness. Even incentivizing over editing (+2 up to 1k rep) is harmful IMO. I suppose we could just decline that post, but what'll probably happen is it'll be status-completed when we've come up with a better solution (which will be documented in an answer). http://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/65516/closed-and-dupe-closure-rates http://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/65516/clos... ^ Based on the most recent data dump, somewhere around a 15 - 20% of closed questions (which are about 3-4% of all new questions). That sounds about right, honestly. I'm sure some stuff is slipping through, and we could make it easier to maintain these rates; but it doesn't seem like a pandemic of duplicates. Oops, forgot the disclaimer: Stack Exchange Inc. employee, etc. etc.
stephencanon 15y ago
Could not agree more. I have the same relationship to the [floating-point] tag. It's very satisfying to help out with the detailed questions that no one else is answering, instead of trying to beat the rush to answer the silly operator-precedence questions.
GlennS 15y ago
I'm somewhat lower on the scale than yourself, but I've found that my highest rated answer is my most trivial: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/287404/using-regular-expressions-to-do-mass-replace-in-notepad-and-vim/4196975#4196975 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/287404/using-regular-expr...
AlexC04 15y ago
I remember the time you helped me with some canvas stuff. Thanks again. 12K is well deserved :)
100k 15y ago
I wouldn't say 12K reputation is "smallish". I have just under 6K (mainly from ruby-on-rails and google-app-engine) and according to Stack Overflow that puts me in the top 6% of users overall.
mark-r 15y ago
I've always felt that reputation is an imperfect proxy for how helpful you've been, which is the important thing in the end. That screen shot is a much more direct measure - you should be proud of it!
yahelc 15y ago
I take a similar approach with answering Google Analytics (implementation) questions, having answered ~10% of the tag's questions all time. http://stackoverflow.com/tags/google-analytics/topusers http://stackoverflow.com/tags/google-analytics/topusers
jordangray 15y ago
I completely agree about giving in-depth answers. There's nothing I love more than an answer that relies on either a) stuff I know or can do really well; or b) a bucketload of research. Several times I've went back to answers and edited them, even after an answer has already been chosen, because good answers are way more important to me than recognition. Completely with you on the "thank yous" being the biggest motivating factor; I wouldn't care about the site if it weren't for those. That said, if you want to get your rep up without lowering your standards, one option for the high-traffic tags is to go for bounty questions. That way, if you give good answers, you get a reward which is commensurate with your time/expertise, and you know that the asker both appreciates the complexity of their question and is very keen to have an answer.
guynamedloren 15y ago
> I would say that reputation numbers don't necessarily measure engagement per se in S.O. very well. I've found that if I answer a general JavaScript question, even if its an absurdly simple one, I garner more reputation in a few minutes than if I I give a detailed answer to 2-3 in depth canvas questions. Here's why: SO points are not based on complexity or thoroughness, but based on value - value that is perceived by the community. A quick answer to an simple Javascript question may seem rudimentary to an experienced programmer, but if it has hundreds of points, the community has determined that the answer is helpful in a big way. Chances are there are many, many people that have experienced the same problem, which makes an answer to that problem - no matter how simple - incredibly valuable to the community as a whole. Edit: This is probably obvious for SO users, but it's worth mentioning for anybody that is confused or wondering why the point system works the way it does.
obtu 15y ago
It sucks we don't have good whuffie (subjective reputation). Sticking to a low-traffic tag is certainly a good way to see more challenging questions, and get more enjoyment from the site; filtering out some of the popular tags (which tend to be low-signal) from the front page also works.
notmuchtotell 15y ago
I am similar to you (just over 10k rep). Often when I answer a question, it is a tougher one that others shun away from. I may put in some real work to help the person. However, because the the level of difficulty of the question is higher, the level of understanding of the voter also needs to be higher to know if he/she should vote for the answer. Of course, there are other factors like the narrowness of applicability to a more difficult question and the time taken to even read the question if it is a longer one.
justncase80 15y ago
I just asked a question on gamedev.stackexchange.com about the canvas tag and matrix rotation, care to take a crack at it for me? :) http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/26491/matrix-rotation-of-a-rectangle-to-face-a-given-point-in-2d http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/26491/matrix-rota...

cruise02 15y ago

Reputation points in niche tags are definitely harder won than in the popular language tags, but (as you've demonstrated) it's easier to climb to the top of a niche tag and establish yourself as an expert. The real-world reputation you gain from that is more valuable than the reputation score on the site. Great job!

pmjordan 15y ago
The high-traffic tags are full of low-quality or frequently asked questions. The amount of duplication in e.g. the C++ tag is staggering, but there doesn't seem to be a conscious effort to enforce a no-duplicate policy of any kind. Picking out worthwhile questions is difficult with all that noise. Worse, the "unanswered" section is full of questions that have been answered, the asker just never bothered to click accept. After a few upvotes to one of the answers and enough elapsed time that should probably happen automatically. There are also a lot of questions which cannot be answered given the information provided, and the original user is evidently no longer interested in getting it answered. As you say though, you really can help people who have difficult questions in the niche tags (I've been spending far too much time in 'iokit' and 'objective-c++'). One upvote plus your answer accepted (total +25) is all you can hope for, though.
- fusiongyro 15y ago
  It seems to be just really hard. I see a ton of duplicates in the MySQL and Java tags as well. New programmers who are also new users of S.O. vastly outnumber the experienced, and they're exactly the ones who are going to ask questions that have been repeatedly answered. Any forum that welcomes new users is going to have this problem. The same kind of thing happened on Forrst, which should probably have been a little more resistant.
- JeremyBanks 15y ago
  Regarding duplicates: they should be closed as duplicates of a canonical question, but the incentives all work against that so it rarely happens. There's a ten-month-old widely-supported proposal on meta meant to address this, but it hasn't received any comment from the Stack Exchange Inc. folks. http://meta.stackoverflow.com/q/90620/134300 http://meta.stackoverflow.com/q/90620/134300
  - kmontrose 15y ago
    Incentivizing duplicate finding is tricky: - rewarding with rep could convert answerers to closers * answering produces useful stuff, closing is (often) just clerical - over aggressive closing drives new users away * blatant laziness shouldn't be rewarded, but subtle variations on a problem shouldn't be punished either - some level of duplication is a good thing * http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/11/dr-strangedupe-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-duplication/ http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/11/dr-strangedupe-or-how-... * in a nutshell, people ask the same conceptual question in different ways, it's good to have all those ways around to help Googlers We've also improved finding duplicates in the close dialog since that meta post (it's a hard problem, so it's not a perfect suggesting system), so it's hardly like we've done nothing. Also, as written that feature request is unworkable. Incentivize closing over asking, madness. Even incentivizing over editing (+2 up to 1k rep) is harmful IMO. I suppose we could just decline that post, but what'll probably happen is it'll be status-completed when we've come up with a better solution (which will be documented in an answer). http://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/65516/closed-and-dupe-closure-rates http://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/65516/clos... ^ Based on the most recent data dump, somewhere around a 15 - 20% of closed questions (which are about 3-4% of all new questions). That sounds about right, honestly. I'm sure some stuff is slipping through, and we could make it easier to maintain these rates; but it doesn't seem like a pandemic of duplicates. Oops, forgot the disclaimer: Stack Exchange Inc. employee, etc. etc.

stephencanon 15y ago

Could not agree more. I have the same relationship to the [floating-point] tag. It's very satisfying to help out with the detailed questions that no one else is answering, instead of trying to beat the rush to answer the silly operator-precedence questions.

GlennS 15y ago

I'm somewhat lower on the scale than yourself, but I've found that my highest rated answer is my most trivial: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/287404/using-regular-expressions-to-do-mass-replace-in-notepad-and-vim/4196975#4196975 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/287404/using-regular-expr...

AlexC04 15y ago

I remember the time you helped me with some canvas stuff. Thanks again. 12K is well deserved :)

100k 15y ago

I wouldn't say 12K reputation is "smallish". I have just under 6K (mainly from ruby-on-rails and google-app-engine) and according to Stack Overflow that puts me in the top 6% of users overall.

mark-r 15y ago

I've always felt that reputation is an imperfect proxy for how helpful you've been, which is the important thing in the end. That screen shot is a much more direct measure - you should be proud of it!

yahelc 15y ago

I take a similar approach with answering Google Analytics (implementation) questions, having answered ~10% of the tag's questions all time. http://stackoverflow.com/tags/google-analytics/topusers http://stackoverflow.com/tags/google-analytics/topusers

jordangray 15y ago

I completely agree about giving in-depth answers. There's nothing I love more than an answer that relies on either a) stuff I know or can do really well; or b) a bucketload of research. Several times I've went back to answers and edited them, even after an answer has already been chosen, because good answers are way more important to me than recognition. Completely with you on the "thank yous" being the biggest motivating factor; I wouldn't care about the site if it weren't for those. That said, if you want to get your rep up without lowering your standards, one option for the high-traffic tags is to go for bounty questions. That way, if you give good answers, you get a reward which is commensurate with your time/expertise, and you know that the asker both appreciates the complexity of their question and is very keen to have an answer.

guynamedloren 15y ago

> I would say that reputation numbers don't necessarily measure engagement per se in S.O. very well. I've found that if I answer a general JavaScript question, even if its an absurdly simple one, I garner more reputation in a few minutes than if I I give a detailed answer to 2-3 in depth canvas questions. Here's why: SO points are not based on complexity or thoroughness, but based on value - value that is perceived by the community. A quick answer to an simple Javascript question may seem rudimentary to an experienced programmer, but if it has hundreds of points, the community has determined that the answer is helpful in a big way. Chances are there are many, many people that have experienced the same problem, which makes an answer to that problem - no matter how simple - incredibly valuable to the community as a whole. Edit: This is probably obvious for SO users, but it's worth mentioning for anybody that is confused or wondering why the point system works the way it does.

obtu 15y ago

It sucks we don't have good whuffie (subjective reputation). Sticking to a low-traffic tag is certainly a good way to see more challenging questions, and get more enjoyment from the site; filtering out some of the popular tags (which tend to be low-signal) from the front page also works.

notmuchtotell 15y ago

I am similar to you (just over 10k rep). Often when I answer a question, it is a tougher one that others shun away from. I may put in some real work to help the person. However, because the the level of difficulty of the question is higher, the level of understanding of the voter also needs to be higher to know if he/she should vote for the answer. Of course, there are other factors like the narrowness of applicability to a more difficult question and the time taken to even read the question if it is a longer one.

justncase80 15y ago

I just asked a question on gamedev.stackexchange.com about the canvas tag and matrix rotation, care to take a crack at it for me? :) http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/26491/matrix-rotation-of-a-rectangle-to-face-a-given-point-in-2d http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/26491/matrix-rota...