What is it like to be a high-rep user?

Question

It's been months. Many months. Asking some questions. Answering many more questions. Thanklessly editing hundreds, nay, thousands, of vague and poorly-formed posts. Proving to all, far and wide, that you are the expert. That you know all there is to know about your chosen field. And finally, your hard work, your countless hours, your sleepless nights, have paid off. You have built up a nearly peerless reputation. You and your accomplishments are truly, as my old French teacher would have said, for-mi-dable! You are rolling in the Internet Dollars, having amassed bankrolls well into the thousands.

What is it like, I wonder? O! I beseech you to tell me. You, who consume crosshatched cakes; you, who unite with unicorns; you, the foremost of the freehanders; you, who prance with ponies. Are you embarassed that your Meta rep is higher than your SO/SF/SU rep?^*

*_{Because, uh, you see, I'm about to join your ranks, and I would like to know what I'm getting into...}

Answer 1

What is this "Stackoverflow" you're talking about? Is that some kind of sister site to Meta?

Answer 2

Why would I?

Meta is a very important part of the system, it's here to help users, debate about the engine itself, etc.

A high reputation in meta says you know how the system and the community works, you provided useful suggestions and/or bug reports, engine-enhancing scripts for everyone to enjoy, statistics, etc.

I'm proud to be a high rep meta user, the trilogy wouldn't work without it.

Answer 3

I always imagined it something like this

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/3089/dafonz.jpg

Answer 4

As a more serious answer to what you meant to be a joke question :-) ...

I am near the top of the smaller (relative to stackoverflow) serverfault. As I get higher I am more committed to seeing the community succeed since I am not sure serverfault has reached the critical mass yet (There seem to be good and bad days).

Although the reputation aspect is still kind of fun it means far less to me then seeing good questions and answers on serverfault since I have invested a good amount of time in effort into it. If it does fizzle out I won't consider my time wasted since those answers and questions will probably at least be archived on the internet, and I have learned from both answering and asking questions.

Answer 5

I wouldn't call myself high-rep here on Meta, though I'm now on the first page of users. I have ~5200 on SO.

Really, Meta is totally distinct from the Trilogy. It's more about the management of the Trilogy, and right now I find that more interesting to analyze and post about than programming (although I still enjoy programming). I'm not embarrassed that I have more rep here than on SO, it just shows where my interests are.

---

At 3k, you have all the basic tools needed for participating on the site. The system is quite well-designed with respect to that. I will say, though, that it's a pretty long road to 10k from there. You definitely have to work for it.

Answer 6

I had a moment of existential crisis when my Meta rep first exceeded my SO rep. That said, I got over it pretty quickly -- one reason my main SO rep is fairly stagnant is that my primary activity there is junior janitoring these days. (And even that's more rare than it used to be.)

(Close votes and flags and edits FTW!)

I am a bit surprised to find out I'm a Meta first-pager. But that's because Meta has a much smaller community than SO proper.

What's it like? Well, I love looking at the flags and deletions, but that's because I'm inherently curious like that. I do look forward to, one of these years, breaking the 10K mark on SO so I can gain access to all the noise and junk that's been deleted there as well. (Too bad boat programming is, from my understanding, hard-purged ... )

Answer 7

It is worrysome to say the least. I long for the day when my reputation was unknown. a simple 101. When no worries were bestowed upon me except for ask and answer. Now there is closing responsibilities and editing. I cry myself to sleep thinking worrying about such posts. Those unicorns be cursed! Stop where you are now. Don't get above 2 thousand or you will regret it! Learn from the mistakes of others!

Answer 8

Worst Feeling of My Life.

Answer 9

No.

Especially since I failed the precondition. :)

Answer 10

I don't think it's much different than before all the points came... is it?

I mean, they're just points, right?

Answer 11

I've been carefully bleeding off meta rep using bounties. It's become a lot easier lately since I can add bounties to any question, rather than saving up my own unanswered questions for it.