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I have been a full stack web developer and have been using computers for most of my life.

I use these Stack Exchange websites a lot, to get answers, as they say, and indeed they are right! I get answers to the question others already posted. I am quite a happy user about this.

But.
There is absolutely no way, even using this place for more than 10 years (I created this account four years ago to save or up/downvote some questions). I will never ever find an interesting question to post. It is just not possible.

Why? Simple.
I am a full-stack web developer, which means that my expertise covers many topics, from graphics, to coding, to server management, to the frontend, backend, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Bash, SQL, Docker, Git, etc., etc.

That means I am not an expert on any particular topic, so my problems are usually "beginners type", hence they are already posted by someone else!

Happy news! There is a way around it: remove the reputation all together or, please, someone tell me how to cheat it!

I want to express gratitude for the working solution, but I am blocked from doing so.
I want to downvote.
I want to participate.
I want to make some small comments without being discriminated against because "my reputation is low".
If you put up a barrier, then you are not inclusive.

Are you afraid of spam? Well, I have a bunch of solutions for you:

  • let me pay $5;
  • let me pay $10 if $5 is not enough;
  • $15?;
  • use CAPTCHA: a good way of getting rid of bots;
  • for the first month, no new user can post anything. See? There are nice and common alternatives. Spammers don't buy anything, and bots can't solve difficult CAPTCHAs.

If you want to filter in only smart people, then do some intelligence tests and the resulting QI value will be displayed in the user profile.

Do you want a "reputation champion" at the end of each year? Create a contest! An online one, with tasks to do and... whoever does everything faster is the winner who will be remembered for ages.

These are just examples and ideas to be discussed, but that are all much more inclusive and fair for all the users.

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  • 7
    Are you sure you want to say cheat, to me it sounds more like you wanted to say change ?
    – Vickel
    Jan 26 at 15:42
  • 4
    > I will never ever find an interesting question to post. It is just not possible Well you definitely can edit posts, give answers to others posts though I assume some are not so much "haver of knowledge" in specific topics. In those cases you can keep posting question. Posting good question along can get you to a high rep.
    – Jitendra Singh
    Jan 26 at 15:45
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    > I want to make some small comments without being discrimined because "my reputation is low". If you are being discriminated just because your rep is low you can use the flag button besides the comment. It will be removed if mods also feel that this comment is not being respectful to others (though it may take some time).
    – Jitendra Singh
    Jan 26 at 15:47
  • also related: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/290628/…
    – rene
    Jan 26 at 15:47
  • also related: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/17204/…
    – rene
    Jan 26 at 15:49
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    New technologies are invented every day, especially in the sub-specialty of web development. Saying that you're never going to be able to ask a question because they've all been asked and answered already is, quite frankly, ridiculous. And even if you somehow couldn't think of a question to ever ask, there are zillions of unanswered ones that you could answer. There is no need to cheat. You can just provide useful contributions to the site's knowledge base and earn the reputation.
    – Cody Gray - on strike
    Jan 26 at 15:57
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    FYI: Your title of "How to cheat the reputation system?" is nearly guaranteed to result in numerous people responding negatively to your question (i.e. downvoting). I'd suggest you edit it to make it less offensive to people who have expended large amounts of time and effort to earn reputation, even if it you're specifically wanting to avoid expending that effort yourself, which despite your title it doesn't really sound like you're unwilling to put into the SE Network. In other words, your title sets a tone which lots of people will find negative, nearly regardless of what you're saying.
    – Makyen
    Jan 26 at 16:02
  • What is a "QI value"?
    – This_is_NOT_a_forum
    Jan 26 at 18:50
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    Ranting is not a great way to gain reputation either. Your post started out very interesting (Quite Interesting, @This_is_NOT_a_forum? :), but then you proposed ideas that have been proposed before, and are simply not compatible with this platform. Pity. If you have a more constructive idea to gain reputation for being a Jack-of-all-Trades, I'm all ears!
    – Joachim
    Jan 26 at 19:02
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    You do know you can gain reputation by answering questions as well as asking them, right? You have all that expertise, so share it with the network!
    – F1Krazy
    Jan 26 at 21:07
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    @Joachim ranting works fine on meta, if you know the right way to 😁
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Jan 26 at 23:40
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    There are many ways to gain initial reputation in any Stack Exchange site.
    – Himanshu
    Jan 27 at 6:07
  • I approved the suggestions. I am about to delete my account. I just can't explain enough that if I am full stack developer is also because of social anxiety. Then, the websites that wants to help me more says my reputation is low. You just cannot understand, after 25 YEARS doing HTML stuff (yep, from 1998..), how much it triggers me personally.
    – user981122
    Jan 27 at 14:13
  • No, I won't change the title. The title is exactly right as it is. I don't want to be polite, I want to be direct and honest as I am. The reputation system is wrong and so it is important to learn how to bypass it just to be able to use the BASIC stuff of this site. Just the very bottom of it like upvote/downvote. I don't ask so much, do I?
    – user981122
    Jan 27 at 14:20
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    The question could not be asked in a worse way. Title is the worst, and makes most people here downvote automatically and move on without even reading the question. Why would anyone help you cheat??? Anyway I did read, and reopened, as it's totally and obviously not duplicate of that other question.
    – Shadow The GPT Wizard
    Jan 29 at 12:58

1 Answer 1

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Well - lemme let you in on a secret.

YEARS ago, I discovered a way of getting reputation fast. I added an RSS feed of the front page on Super User, and would find one question every day at least where I knew a good answer, and try to either be the first or the best.

Don't bother farming edits. 2 reputation an edit? That's not worth it (unless it bothers you. Then go edit.)

I've over 100k there now. With a bigger site, you could follow RSS feeds for specific tags.

Pick a site. Put in 10 minutes a day, and answer stuff you know. Then find stuff you don't know, do the legwork to learn, and post an answer referencing them when that gets boring. Look at Hot Network Questions and post good answers you know. Just one answer. You could use the front page too. It's all about consistency.

Keep at it. Don't do anything silly like voting fraud. Set a goal for 200 reputation. Why 200? It gives you the association bonus. You know the way things work. It gives you most of the basic privileges.

Then go for 1000. Same way. Keep at it. Answer one question a day. Unless you find something super extra and shiny. You can do two. No one will judge you.

At some point, you'll look at your reputation and go "Wait, I hit 10k?"

And... that's how you cheat :D

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    I think @Enorazza suggests to create a "paywall", to avoid spam, not to pay for reputation.
    – Vickel
    Jan 26 at 15:56
  • "someone tell me how to cheat it!!" I did! - and the RSS/tag method would help focus/find things to answer.
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Jan 26 at 15:57
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    see my comment under the OP, most likeley cheat == change, in my interpretation , OP's profile says to be Italian (in Italy) @Journeyman
    – Vickel
    Jan 26 at 15:59
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    He also talks about wanting to do stuff that needs rep. He wants to buy a fish, and I'm telling him how to fish. And he does talk about money for rep. Paywalls are never happening on SE though, that's what the hyphen site did...
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Jan 26 at 16:01
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    btw, your answer is great advice
    – Vickel
    Jan 26 at 16:04
  • I don't know how to reply to comments, but, you know, my reputation is low.. I suggested a paywall NOT for reputation, but to avoid spammers or trolls! The way the actual reputation system is build it means I have to PAY a lot of time to get there. TIME = MONEY, right? I think the question/answers quality will be BETTER, because nobody will post stupid questions just to get reputation, but only valuable important things.
    – user981122
    Jan 27 at 14:29
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    You can always comment on and comment to your own posts. Gamification's value here is trying to ease people into the 'culture' of the place - comments for clarification and feedback (which then get rolled into posts), answers as answers (and not treating it as a forum). There is a learning curve - and you will literally see this on my top 2 sites but that's not such a bad barrier to entry if you're focused on content
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Jan 27 at 15:17

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