note
tilly
I would say that reputation is closest to being a measure
of how much the site as a whole feels that you have helped
them.<P>
People who are competent have an advantage, of course.
Being able to tell people useful things is helpful. Being
willing to be involved is also good. But a relatively new
Perl programmer who is willing to try may gain in reputation
more quickly. Indeed I know that several of the saints
feel that way about themselves.<P>
So it would be wrong to assume* that just because I have
a higher reputation than [Dominus], I am better than him.
This is even true when you see that he has been here for
longer and I have several times the reputation! It
<b>would</b> be accurate to assume that people think I have
contributed more overall value to the site. Which is
not surprising when I have several times as many posts as
he does.<P>
So what is the difference between competence and what is
measured in reputation? Well here are some items:
<ol>
<li> Cumulative time spent. That is obvious.
<li> Amount of effort put into the site. If you post a lot
it will add up.
<li> Early useful answers. If they are early, then you
catch a lot of people who only visit the thread once.
This often works even if the answer is obvious to an
experienced programmer. This effect is so strong that
I try not to take advantage of it. I would like to let
people with less experience take advantage of these.
<li> Discussions that people like. People are social, they
vote up things that they like. This is another aspect
that I don't like, but I have to live with. For instance
[id://29977] makes people laugh, [id://26380] makes them
think. Guess which has the higher reputation?
</ol>
And so on. Things that will <b>not</b> factor in:
<ol>
<li> Nodes that appear after the discussion moves on.
<li> Nodes that people do not understand - no matter how
good the technical material may be.
<li> Nodes whose tone puts people off - again no matter how
good the technical material may be.
</ol>
etc.<P>
So no, reputation doesn't measure competence. Not by a
long shot.<P>
Nor should it.<P>
* It would be accurate to assume from the way that I said
that that I consider him more competent than me...
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