I don't think many people would object to that. I think the objection is that being a regular on SO does not demonstrate that one is serious about learning thei

I don't think many people would object to that. I think the objection is that being a regular on SO does not demonstrate that one is serious about learning their craft. At least not anymore than someone hanging out on LtU, or GDnet, etc. The problem with SO Careers is that it is in effect being advertised as the only legitimate way for programmers to show that they are serious about programming. That doesn't seem right to me.