As a professional developer of many years I have seen a fair number of coding discussion sites come and go. StackOverflow was a breath of fresh air which seemed to attract a good calibre of contributor. But being a “Jack of all trades and master of none” myself I rarely considered that I could answer a question better than the specialists.
However, there has been a real downturn in the quality of questions and answers. It seems that the blind (and the lazy and the stupid) are now being led by the blind (and the misinformed).
There have been a number of occasions on which I’ve wanted to merely comment. But I couldn’t because I had not gained the necessary ‘reputation’ to do so. An idiot can answer a question but I can’t make a comment!
Something had to be done, so I made it my mission one night to gain enough rep to be able to comment on other posts. It was tricky…
Firstly I had to find a question that I could answer and to which I felt my answer would deliver true benefit to the community. Then I had to get in there quick because there is no shortage of people waiting to answer these – possibly desperate to gain reputation themselves? Then you have to write it well and make sure your code works. And then you have to hope that the asker has the decency to up-vote your answer or even honour you as having answered the question.
Some people, rather than posting a proper answer just answer it in a comment. But that quick avenue is denied to me – chicken/egg.
I have now spent almost a full day and night answering questions in a bid to gain enough reputation to be recognised amongst my peers as a valid commenter. And I’ve achieved it as I now have 114 reputation (and counting). I can even now edit the community wiki, woohoo!
And the strange thing is that it feels like a real accomplishment. Maybe it is. I have actually helped people. And I shall no longer diss those others who answer questions as I now know what hard work and what a cut-throat environment it is. They are putting in the effort for others, well-informed or not. Plus I’m a member of their club now, so it must be alright :)
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