53

So, Jeff, what are you using to store reputation, anyway?

Improve this question
7
  • 19
    If they use a long, I think we're safe for a few billion years at least.
    – Paul Tomblin
    Commented Jul 2, 2009 at 14:14
  • 1
    If they use Python's datatypes, there is no limit for his rep.
    – Masi
    Commented Jul 2, 2009 at 14:16
  • 22
    @Masi: Storage is always going to be a limit.
    – Jon Skeet
    Commented Jul 2, 2009 at 14:40
  • 81
    640K should be enough for anyone....
    – user95071
    Commented Jul 2, 2009 at 15:19
  • 43
    Am I really the only one just about tired of questions about Jon Skeet? I mean I respect the guy immensely but give it a break already...
    – Paolo Bergantino
    Commented Jul 2, 2009 at 19:50
  • 10
    @Paolo, in this case, the question is about when Rep exceeds the datatype, like the 'twitpocalypse' and because JonSkeet is the leader for the foreseeable future, he cannot be excluded from THIS question.
    – devinb
    Commented Jul 2, 2009 at 21:31
  • 3
    His profile views too would need the same data type. Right now its going neck and neck. And for the titan he is, his rep is slightly ahead of profile visits..
    – nawfal
    Commented Mar 29, 2013 at 9:18

14 Answers 14

Reset to default
93

Why do you think the rep cap was invented? Defensive coding in the guise of a social mechanism ;)

Improve this answer
61

A new data type is automatically spawned called JonSkeetInt that can hold an infinite value.

Improve this answer
2
  • 15
    "Automatically" is also another term for "Jon Skeet did it himself". Obviously he'll change the datatype to one that can hold his new rep.
    – MiffTheFox
    Commented Jul 5, 2009 at 2:15
  • Miff, "Multiple references to the same class (Jon Skeet). Maximum recursion exceeded."
    – lprsd
    Commented Jan 10, 2010 at 16:19
54

2^32 = 4294967296 (unsigned int)

4294967296 / 200 = 21474836.48 (factor in daily rep cap)

21474836.48 / 365 = 58835.1684... (factor in days in a year)

So it would take Jon Skeet (and his descendants presumably) 58835 years to overflow the datatype.

EDIT

It has been correctly pointed out that Jon Skeet is not bound by a 200 rep cap. He in fact has an average of 279.850... points per day.

74 720 (JonSkeetRep) / 9 (MonthsActive) * (365 / 12) (avgDaysPerMonth)

2^32 = 4294967296 (unsigned int)

4294967296 / 272.949 (JonSkeetDailyRepAvg) = 15735420.5217... (NumberOfDaysToOverflow)

15735420.5217 (NumberOfDaysToOverflow) / 365.25 (AvgDaysInYear) = 43081.2334... (NumberOfYearsToOverflow)

So Jon Skeet would still have to live another 43000 years.

EDIT

Second edit to reflect the fact that there are 365 days in a year and not 356

Improve this answer
19
  • 14
    Set's his calendar.
    – Ólafur Waage
    Commented Jul 2, 2009 at 14:26
  • devinb, you'll have to re-figure your numbers including the cap-immune accepted-answers. You can still win 15 points an answer even after you've hit the cap, and Skeet has acknowledged that this takes place with him from time to time :)
    – Sampson
    Commented Jul 2, 2009 at 14:30
  • That's assuming he never has any answers accepted. The better calculation would work out the percentage of questions he has accepted and the rate at which questions are asked, too. I don't have the data set in front of me, sadly.
    – Hilarious Comedy Pesto
    Commented Jul 2, 2009 at 14:30
  • 7
    For what it's worth, over Tuesday/Wednesday I averaged 502 points per day. Those we pretty remarkable days, admittedly... and I don't think it makes that much difference to the feasibility :)
    – Jon Skeet
    Commented Jul 2, 2009 at 14:39
  • 36
    Who are we to say that Jon Skeet won't live for 43000 years?
    – Hilarious Comedy Pesto
    Commented Jul 2, 2009 at 14:42
  • 27
    How do you know he hasn't already lived for 43000 years? He could be a Highlander. ;)
    – gnostradamus
    Commented Jul 2, 2009 at 14:50
  • 6
    THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE....JON SKEET!
    – Thomas Owens
    Commented Jul 2, 2009 at 18:56
  • 20
    @gnovice: He's English, not Scottish, so he can't be the Highlander. He's obviously the Doctor.
    – Eric
    Commented Jul 2, 2009 at 19:06
  • 4
    365 days in a Solar year, 355 in a lunar year. 356 in neither.
    – geoffc
    Commented Jul 2, 2009 at 19:26
  • 2
    @geoffc Oh, my dear god. How did no one notice my heonius dysxelia?
    – devinb
    Commented Jul 2, 2009 at 19:33
  • 3
    @geoffc: technically, there are 365.2425 days in a year. :)
    – Kip
    Commented Jul 2, 2009 at 21:05
  • 1
    @Kip: I'm not adjusting my calculations again.
    – devinb
    Commented Jul 2, 2009 at 21:30
  • 1
    @Kip: Meh! Close enough for horseshoes! Darn Gregorians!
    – geoffc
    Commented Jul 3, 2009 at 1:19
  • 3
    @Geoffc: Don't blame Pope Gregory, blame God! If He'd just made the earth spin 0.0664% slower, or if he'd made the earth just a little closer to the sun, we wouldn't need leap days...
    – Kip
    Commented Jul 4, 2009 at 0:55
  • 6
    @Kip - I think you mean "blame Jon Skeet."
    – Super Long Names are Hilarious
    Commented Sep 13, 2009 at 3:13
35

Fact: Jon Skeet's reputation cannot be stored in any datatype. It exists only in not-yet-invented quantum computing devices.

Fact: The reputation number you see beside Jon Skeet's avatar is merely the projection of his reputation into the 4-dimensional spacetime that humans understand. His reputation actually occupies most of a 256-dimensional hyperspace.

Fact: Only Jon Skeet is capable of understanding how the previous two facts do not contradict each other.

Improve this answer
1
  • 5
    This was the best answer
    – jamylak
    Commented Jun 7, 2013 at 1:07
30

The reputation score that we see for Jon Skeet is the overflow

Improve this answer
1
  • 7
    To be more precise, his reputation overflows approximately once per 23.99999 hours, giving the appearance of increasing by about 250 per day.
    – Mechanical snail
    Commented Aug 5, 2012 at 8:39
16

It goes to MIN_INT and the rest of us get to look down on him for a few days.

Improve this answer
2
  • 10
    I almost want Jeff to set Jon's rep to MAX_INT - 200 and see what happens...hilarity might ensue.
    – Thomas Owens
    Commented Jul 2, 2009 at 14:20
  • 4
    Ha-ha. Irrelevant but funny: I unlocked a new achievement: my month reputation exceeded 10% of Jon's month reputation.
    – Costique
    Commented Jan 18, 2012 at 20:58
13

He saves the Princess!

Improve this answer
2
  • 6
    I wonder if Jon Skeet does an Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-B-A before posting. Is that his secret?
    – sal
    Commented Sep 14, 2009 at 4:09
  • 4
    I believe it's "Up-Vote Up-Vote Down-Vote Down-Vote Edit Retag Edit Retag Vote-to-close Check-Rep". And yes, he gets to vote four times per question if he so chooses.
    – corsiKa
    Commented Feb 17, 2011 at 18:17
10

Q. What happens when Jon Skeet’s reputation exceeds the limit for the data type holding it?

A. A stackoverflowpocalypse aka a skeetoverflow

Improve this answer
7

Look, this is Jon Skeet we're talking about. Obviously we have a new Jon Skeet fact:

  • When Jon Skeet's reputation threatens to overflow the type used to represent reputation, the type automatically doubles in size to accomodate.
Improve this answer
3

When JS gets MAX_INT score the whole site will fall in a stack overflow.

Improve this answer
2

Microsoft makes a bigger data type.

Improve this answer
1
  • what does microsoft have to do with anything?
    – 0x6C38
    Commented Aug 15, 2013 at 0:56
1

Since we're programmers here, we're try to reproduce the issue when that happens so that most straightforward thing to do would be staring at Marc Gravell's reputation and refreshing the page to see what's going to happen.

Improve this answer
0

This data type stores all our reputation 

JohnSkeet_Var Reputation = 99999999999999^9999999999^99999999999^999999999999
Improve this answer

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .