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I'm a member of several sites.

Some have questions I enjoy answering. Some have questions for work I need answering as I know little about it. Some have questions I answer because I like helping out.

The problem is that my reputation varies from site to site, which is very frustrating.

Could we have the points centralised or at the very least have a mechanism to move points about?

For example to use the points I earned from what I do know about, to put a bounty on what I don't! (Surely that's one of the main reasons for the points system?)

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    There is already the association bonus. I don't think we can get more.
    – John Dvorak
    Oct 28, 2013 at 16:49
  • 4
    Rep is also a reflection of your contributions on a site. Doing this would sever that measurement.
    – Jamal
    Oct 28, 2013 at 16:50
  • @Jamal but... I would like to be able to downvote everywhere. I don't care about closevotes, though.
    – John Dvorak
    Oct 28, 2013 at 16:53
  • @JanDvorak: Me, too. Also, if CR ever tanks (hopefully not), I can dump all my rep into SO and have access to editing privileges.
    – Jamal
    Oct 28, 2013 at 16:56
  • @JanDvorak well with the account bonus of 100 points, all you need is 24 more rep on that site to be able to downvote. I think that's a fair requirement
    – Hugo Dozois
    Oct 28, 2013 at 17:38
  • @HugoDozois Plus an additional point for every answer you want to downvote. On sites with a lot of bad answers, that can add up fast.
    – Servy
    Oct 28, 2013 at 17:39
  • You may be interested in this feature request: Allow bounty to be set with reputation from another site?
    – user000001
    Oct 28, 2013 at 19:25

2 Answers 2

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You might be expert on a single site and have gained a significant amount of rep. That should not be transferred over to other sites that you haven't spend any time on. Not just because you might not be an expert on the topic but also because you haven't spent enough time to understand the "feel" and scope of that site.

Secondly, rep is a reward for your efforts for each site.

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I almost wrote this same proposal myself as a suggestion a few weeks back. As someone who has invested a lot of time on several of the religion and culture sites, I'd very much like to be able to use that work to get more attention for my Stack Overflow questions. I'd like to think that the hard work I do over on my beloved Christianity.SE and Politics.SE should earn me the right to be heard better on SO. Indeed, the fact this has been asked before: Can there be an option to allocate rep from any site account for offering a bounty? really just sprurred me to think I need to write it up better.

The only problem is, they are right. Different sites are different worlds.

  1. The "exchange rate" isn't nearly the same on SO as it is on Politics, Money, or Christianity. Here on MSO, for example, I was able to hit 1000 in a matter of days. On Christianity, I can pop that out in a week or two. On Money, it would take months. (And on Skeptics, I'd be tempted to wonder if anybody there believes it is either possible or worthwhile. But I digress.) That alone would mess up the economy - imagine if I scooped up my rep from a lucky break on MSO and put a 300 bounty on a Money question. Everything would get screwed up.

  2. Moderation between sites would exponentially get harder. Not only do I have to look at the user's rep on my site, I need to look at all his sites.

  3. The efforts to make one site great don't necessarily make other sites great. As such, no matter how much time I spend making SciFi better, it doesn't really add a thing to StackOverflow. Sad, but true. The reputation system exists to tell others how much you have invested in that site, not the network. If we were one site this would be wholly appropriate. But, for better or worse, the decision has been made that we're not.

  4. And, as unfair as this sounds, the fact that I have earned the right to heard loudly on Christianity and Politics doesn't necessarily mean I have the right to be heard on SciFi or SO. Yes, I need SO for work, but I'm not Jon Skeet. I'm Michael. I'm good, don't get me wrong, but I'm not Jon. And I haven't really earned my chops over there.

So, long story short - I wish you were right. But, with deep thought, it is hard to make that case.

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    Exactly. Rep is rep, not money (excluding bounties). SE sites are also not offshore bank accounts.
    – Jamal
    Oct 28, 2013 at 17:43
  • I can see your point regarding very different topics, but in my case I know about computers, enjoy electronics and had a user ask a question about digital cameras.
    – back_ache
    Oct 28, 2013 at 19:15

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