On Saturday, September 1, 2018 5:46:55 PM MDT Walter Bright via Digitalmars- d wrote:
> On 9/1/2018 3:58 PM, Adam D. Ruppe wrote:
> > On Saturday, 1 September 2018 at 22:10:27 UTC, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> >> I've used StackOverflow. It's NOT a place for asking and answering questions.>
> > I generally agree, but the D tag on it isn't so bad since most the annoying regulars keep away. It is more the domain of me and a handful of other regular D folks (though indeed, sometimes the annoying types step in to shut stuff down, I often will just answer it anyway (ab)using my 20,000 magic internet points to comment on closed stuff if I happen to see it in time)
>
> Sometimes I get caught up in Reddit/Hackernews karma. Then, I remember that it's absurdly meaningless. Maybe if Reddit/Hackernews would let me exchange karma for a tote bag or t-shirt :-)

In theory, SO reputation is more meaningful in that in principle, it indicates that other programmers think that you know what you're talking about. And actually, the fact that I'd answered a bunch of questions on SO and had a high reputation helped me get a job at one point, because it was an online resource where the folks interviewing me could actually see that I knew what I was talking about before they even talked to me. Reputation on SO does need to be taken with a grain of salt, but when someone has 10K+ reputation from answering questions, and you can see what they've posted, it does say something about what they know and not just that folks thought that they said a bunch of funny or insightful things.

Overall, I don't think that SO is a great platform (and while I've answered a bunch of questions, I've asked relatively few there), but it does provide the answers to many people's questions, and as someone who answers questions, it provides a way to show others that you actually know how to program - especially when that's then added to other stuff that you have online like your github history.

- Jonathan M Davis