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While you call out the author, note that the primary motivator StackOverflow offers to users are those very internet points you decry: You can't blame someone f

While you call out the author, note that the primary motivator StackOverflow offers to users are those very internet points you decry: You can't blame someone for playing to the very mechanics of the site. Would StackOverflow be popular if it didn't have leader boards and reputation points and arrays of expertise-claiming badges? Would people spend their time working on other people's problems if it didn't earn them something they hoped to spin into professional credibility? I suspect no. And of course StackOverflow uses gamification to encourage people to do work for other people, for free. It is no big secret that many users are essentially free labor that do the dirty work of digging through a lot of terrible links on Google to try to find something that answers the question. For those who take advantage of this it is a wonderful resource. There are some supremely excellent questions that through the crowd and wiki-like editing the answer ends up being exemplary. But in the general case it does seem that it allows people to skip the boring work and get groups of people fighting for badges and imaginary credibility to do it for you.

LanceH 13y ago
There is value in answering questions beyond just the points. A lot of answers require understanding the mechanics of the code and not just getting the right result. Then there is the matter of effectively communicating that to someone else. Last, there is feedback about your answer which further refines your skill. He wants it to be an educational site instead of the much more pragmatic site that it is clearly designed to be. He doesn't have fun working in 2 languages he hates. He thinks that obscure answers that few people care about should count more than answers seen and used by many. "Hey Doc, it hurts when I do this." "Stop doing that." -- He managed to play that out over a couple pages of bloated text and blames the site and not himself.
- moneypenny 13y ago
  You still can't deny that the mechanics of the site are somewhat broken - I have answered questions, had the answers upvoted, only to see the question edited by a mod and changing the fundamental question and adding more specifics, at which point my answer becomes incorrect and is downvoted. This is plainly a stupid mechanic.
k-mcgrady 13y ago
>> "the primary motivator StackOverflow offers to users are those very internet points" I disagree. The reason I answer questions on SO is because of the incredible help I get from it form my own questions and those already answered. I think a lot of people contribute as a way of giving back and internet points don't encourage them in anyway. Sure there are people who internet points are important to but I would guess (and I admit I have no evidence to back this up) most of the people using SO care very little about points.
- orclev 13y ago
  Some data points. Took a poll around our office (it was kind of thin because of the holiday) and of the 4 devs that responded and said they use SO, all 4 said they don't actually care about or pay attention to the points, they just use it as a source of information.
  - robryan 13y ago
    The vast majority of people using stack overflow are simply consuming questions/ answers they have arrived at via a Google search. These people won't care about points but it doesn't tell us anything about the motivations of those that are regularly answering questions.
    - d0mine 13y ago
      Here's a data point from another end of the spectrum: I've provided more than 1000 answers. I love it. If there were no StackOverflow I would use other means more: Usenet/mailing lists, irc. I don't find it offensive that someone tries to reduce my motivation to accumulating points. It is just another example of "someone wrong on the internet".
clubhi 13y ago
I just spent most of my morning on my day off trying to solve someones problem on one of my user groups.
steveklabnik 13y ago
As they say, "what gets measured gets managed." If you build your site around gamification, don't be surprised when your users try to turn it into a game. (I say this clutching my own HN karma...)

LanceH 13y ago

There is value in answering questions beyond just the points. A lot of answers require understanding the mechanics of the code and not just getting the right result. Then there is the matter of effectively communicating that to someone else. Last, there is feedback about your answer which further refines your skill. He wants it to be an educational site instead of the much more pragmatic site that it is clearly designed to be. He doesn't have fun working in 2 languages he hates. He thinks that obscure answers that few people care about should count more than answers seen and used by many. "Hey Doc, it hurts when I do this." "Stop doing that." -- He managed to play that out over a couple pages of bloated text and blames the site and not himself.

moneypenny 13y ago
You still can't deny that the mechanics of the site are somewhat broken - I have answered questions, had the answers upvoted, only to see the question edited by a mod and changing the fundamental question and adding more specifics, at which point my answer becomes incorrect and is downvoted. This is plainly a stupid mechanic.

k-mcgrady 13y ago

>> "the primary motivator StackOverflow offers to users are those very internet points" I disagree. The reason I answer questions on SO is because of the incredible help I get from it form my own questions and those already answered. I think a lot of people contribute as a way of giving back and internet points don't encourage them in anyway. Sure there are people who internet points are important to but I would guess (and I admit I have no evidence to back this up) most of the people using SO care very little about points.

orclev 13y ago
Some data points. Took a poll around our office (it was kind of thin because of the holiday) and of the 4 devs that responded and said they use SO, all 4 said they don't actually care about or pay attention to the points, they just use it as a source of information.
- robryan 13y ago
  The vast majority of people using stack overflow are simply consuming questions/ answers they have arrived at via a Google search. These people won't care about points but it doesn't tell us anything about the motivations of those that are regularly answering questions.
  - d0mine 13y ago
    Here's a data point from another end of the spectrum: I've provided more than 1000 answers. I love it. If there were no StackOverflow I would use other means more: Usenet/mailing lists, irc. I don't find it offensive that someone tries to reduce my motivation to accumulating points. It is just another example of "someone wrong on the internet".

clubhi 13y ago

I just spent most of my morning on my day off trying to solve someones problem on one of my user groups.

steveklabnik 13y ago

As they say, "what gets measured gets managed." If you build your site around gamification, don't be surprised when your users try to turn it into a game. (I say this clutching my own HN karma...)