Yesterday, I wanted to upvote an answer to a Stack Overflow question, and I found out I don’t have a good enough reputation on the platform to do so. This answer was perfect – it explained a complex problem in a few short steps and provided a reusable solution that worked for me. I wanted to thank this kind person for their efforts! I clicked the upvote button and received this message:

Whoa. Ok, let me try to leave a quick comment…

This was a shock. But honestly, the even bigger shock was recognizing that I’ve only been a consumer of information and never a contributor in this amazing community.

Like all good developers, I spend a lot of time on Stack Overflow. And maybe like a lot of good developers, my reputation count was 1. This is the 1 point we all automatically receive at sign-up so that we can ask questions, answer questions, and edit content.

Stack Overflow explains, “The three most important activities on Stack Overflow are Asking, Answering, and Editing – none of which require any reputation at all! Please try to get comfortable with those three activities before looking to expand your participation into other areas”  — Stack Overflow, https://stackoverflow.com/help/whats-reputation.

I love how Stack Overflow requests that before trying to expand your privileges, you should spend some time with the basics! Including reading other developers’ answers so you know how to answer in a helpful manner.

They further explain, “Reputation is a rough measurement of how much the community trusts you; it is earned by convincing your peers that you know what you’re talking about.”

So you need to prove to the community that you have provided helpful content to other users while following the Code of Conduct and meeting the Expected Behaviors. That’s awesome.

And it’s not difficult! After one day, I can proudly say that I have enough votes to leave a comment. Here’s how I did it:

Answer as many questions as you can

You will get +10 points when your answer is upvoted.

You will get +15 points when your answer is accepted (and it will be accepted because you found questions you can answer!)

I answered 3 questions (only one got the fully accepted points) and I have enough points to leave comments!

If you want to get points fast, answer people’s questions. You can earn points by posting a question, but that means thinking of a good question and then waiting for a kind stranger to answer you.

Find questions that you can answer

Create a custom tag filter from the Stack Overflow homepage (which I had never visited before now). Choose a topic you feel comfortable talking about and save the filter to use later.

I started by filtering for Ruby/Rails questions, but folks need help on all kinds of topics: VSCode-settings, Zsh configuration, SketchApp, and anything else you can think of.

Stack Overflow documents this process of finding topics that interest you.

Don’t Do it For the Points

While it started as a competition with myself to get privileges, I found these to be the real reasons I’m now super excited about answering questions:

Practice technical communication: Writing a good answer can be difficult, and for the most part, folks on Stack Overflow are incredibly generous in their answers. The Stack Overflow documentation is full of helpful links about contributing, including this one on how to write a good answer.

Learn new things: No matter how simple the question, I always provide links to the official documentation to back up my answer. I have to do some research to make sure my response is accurate and up-to-date, and I always discover something new along the way.

Get an endorphin boost: You get a little green checkmark when your answer is accepted. We all love green and symbols of validation, right? But more than that, it feels good to know I helped someone! Most people will send you their thanks in the comment section, letting you know they appreciate your time and response.

Solve small problems: It’s rare in our daily jobs that we can solve a small, discrete problem in a few minutes. It’s very satisfying.

If you are interested in being a highly reputable Stack Overflow community member, here is the List of all Privileges you can acquire via reputation points.