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Is it possible to convert my Stack Overflow reputation into dollars (or better in euro)? It would be nice to see a service which allows it (not to say it will encourage people to spend their time more productively).

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  • 3
    I see no point in changing hard earned rep that tells us how someone is helping with questions/answers to a number that reflects how wealth someone is. -1
    – DrBeco
    Commented Apr 3, 2011 at 17:46
  • 5
    Jon Skeet would be set!
    – Blender
    Commented Nov 15, 2011 at 5:55

6 Answers 6

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Step 1: Earn a reputation on Stack Overflow.

Step 2: Head over to Stack Overflow Careers.

Step 3: Get an awesome new job after showing off your skills.

Step 4: Profit!

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    some employers do in fact weight this fairly heavily.. Commented Nov 26, 2009 at 3:36
  • 2
    I know I answered this in a semi-humorous way, but I am seriously excited about Stack Overflow Careers. I think you guys really hit the nail on the head. And as a side note - yay, I got a comment from Jeff! :)
    – Andy West
    Commented Nov 26, 2009 at 3:47
  • 3
    +1 If an employer posted on SO Careers, they're even more likely than average to care about SO rep.
    – jprete
    Commented Nov 26, 2009 at 12:59
  • 5
    @Jeff: How truly depressing.
    – womble
    Commented Nov 26, 2009 at 18:15
  • Eureka!!!!!!!!!!!! Commented Feb 15, 2011 at 11:25
  • 6
    Btw this worked for me. (1) Got 4K rep on SO (2) No college degree (3) Headed to careers (4) Got an awesome job that pays me more than people with college degrees. Thanks @JeffAtwood :)
    – gideon
    Commented Mar 2, 2012 at 4:38
14

If there was such a market, people would start farming reputation. By starting with many accounts, asking bogus questions from account A, giving bogus answers from account B, upvoting question&answer from account C.

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    People do that already.
    – SLaks Mod
    Commented Mar 20, 2011 at 20:02
  • 5
    @SLaks But at least don't get paid.
    – DrBeco
    Commented Apr 3, 2011 at 17:47
  • 1
    @SLaks I think that's the joke. Commented Dec 14, 2018 at 14:00
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There is likely a market for 10k+ accounts, but it's liable to be small. I expect that, at a minimum, a good programmer could rep-mine an account to 10k in about 2 months with about 2 hours a day. 120 hours of a 'good' programmer's time represents a value of around $10,000, or about $1 per rep point. The reverse isn't necessarily true (ie, 1 vote = 10 rep != $10, but the proof is left as an exercise to the reader).

However, there are likely to be very, very few people willing to pay anywhere near that amount for a 10k account.

Further, if the Stack Overflow team learned of such transactions (which, with over 100,000 users, must certainly have already taken place) then it is likely that they would consider locking the account.

Rep is meant to be a reflection of the person's stance among their peers, and transferring rep, except for bounty questions, is not part of the system for that reason.

So yes - it is possible. It's not liable to net you anywhere near the value of the time you put in getting that rep, and should the transaction be detected you may have an angry buyer to contend with, as well as losing your account.

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    Getting to 10k in 2 months spending 2h/day is only possible in popular tags. Less popular tags often give only 1 or 2 upvotes per answer. And honestly, an account that doesn't reflect one's own knowledge is not very useful. Employers are still going to test each candidate. Commented Nov 26, 2009 at 7:52
  • You'll note that most of the questions occur, by definition, in the popular tags. You're also thinking of the need to 'buy' an account to enhance one's own careers profile, whereas one might instead buy it in order to influence the direction of certain questions by obtaining mod status.
    – Pollyanna
    Commented Nov 27, 2009 at 2:48
  • On one hand, you forgot the bogus questions @ammoQ told about, so the values are not an exact math. On the other hand, you are right to alert that those accounts if found, will be closed. And they will be found. A guy with no experience, using a 10k account, will emit terrible answers or not answer anything at all.
    – DrBeco
    Commented Apr 3, 2011 at 17:52
  • meta.stackexchange.com/questions/122505/…
    – random
    Commented Feb 16, 2012 at 2:48
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Ask yourself this - why would anyone want to buy your reputation? It would greatly diminish the quality of answers on SO as well - a lot of people would answer questions they know nothing about hoping to get a little bit of rep here and there.

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    Isn't that what happens already? [ducks] Commented Nov 26, 2009 at 3:07
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    @ire_and_curses: Now that's a weird tag if ever I saw one. [quacks] Commented Apr 3, 2011 at 18:11
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Well, if you can find anyone willing to pay for an SO account with lots of rep, then yeah. But I don't think you'll have much luck finding a buyer.

Edit: Especially not for 443 rep.

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Put your stackoverflow userpage URL on your resume or business card, so that others can see how much you know.

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    I'd do that if business cards supported iframes.
    – Ether
    Commented Nov 26, 2009 at 3:47

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