So now that I've gotten past 3000 points on Stack Overflow, I don't feel much incentive to keep playing.
Nothing new will happen until 10000, which seems unachievable. Shouldn't there be something to aim for at 4000, 5000, etc.?
I know there are badges, but they're not really doing it for me. I need a carrot!
I guess you could say I lost my motivation after 10K. I still visit the site daily, and I still ask/answer questions. However, it's no longer a "game" - it's just a great technical resource. Perhaps that's not such a bad thing.
How about, because you're learning to get better at what you do, and how to communicate more effectively in writing?
I guess I'm open to suggestions as to ability "unlocks" between 3k and 10k, or above 10k.
Look at it this way, at 3K you got the best reward. You broke your addiction and got a little piece of your life back.
Good. Now go get 3k on SF and Meta.
Delete your account and start over.
If it makes you feel better, I went through the same thing. So badly, in fact, that my Meta rep has eclipsed my main SO rep.
For me, this is largely due to the fact that my primary expertise is in C# -- an area with tons of competition on SO. Thus, by the time I see a question which I can answer, typically there are seventeen answers already posted. (And another seven come in while I compose mine!)
I took to answering Cocoa/Objective-C questions a bit, but one look at my recent activity will show that I spend most of my time doing "junior janitor" tasks -- editing, commenting and closing. Time well-spent; it's a contribution I can make to the site which helps keep its content clean.
Indeed, I just wish I had enough time to fully clean the place up. But at the rate of content growth, that just isn't possible!
How about an extra 618 rep on meta when you hit 5K on SO?
I'll admit I really like the ability to view up/down votes at 1000 rep but I don't participate enough here to get there...
EDIT: One smaller goal is to try to move up on the user pages. For example on SO, I'm on page #33 and I'm 93 rep away from getting to page #32. It also changes frequently.
Summarizing my answer on a related thread:
Make up some goalposts that are realistic for your situation, pass those goalposts, repeat.
The next relevant goalposts for you are probably attaining a silver badge for your main tag(s) -- that's doable in the 4k-6k range.
Pick someone to compete with.
(But not Jon Skeet.)
Don't forget the free Telerik license at 10k...
I could say I lost my "motivation" to answer after 3000 points.
At least the motivation to earn reputation the fastest possible. My objective was to reach the 3000 mark, to get the closing votes, to help maintaining the site. Now that I got it, I focus mostly on a "semi-moderating" job, with answering from times to times.
Moderating tools are too far, but I have all what I need: votes, edits, close votes, comments, and flags. Far enough to spend already too much time on these sites :-]
In general about the question, like stated by others: "You have 3000 points, now help maintaining this site". At least cast a vote to close from times to times.
It is a long hike from 3k to 10k, though I'm pretty persistent and will keep striving, but it would be nice if there was another step in between.
How about Meta privileges based on your highest Trilogy rep minus something or divided by something? My SO rep is worth a hundred extra starting points on SF and SU, which is more or less as it should be, but it should give me some street cred on MSO.
How about your questions showing up more in the front page when you have over x rep?
(Maybe only count rep from answers)
How about being over to offer a bounty after 1 day when you have over x rep and after half a day when you have over y rep? (Maybe with a larger minimal bounty size and the +50 not being added on)
