52
votes
Accepted
Does Jon Skeet ever have to answer another question to remain the #1 user on Stack Overflow?
2020 Update:
It looks like the answer may end up being "Just under a decade". At the rate he's currently going, Gordon Linoff will overtake Jon around the end of February 2023, 9.5 years ...
- 2,693
29
votes
If we do something about the "sandmen" I might consider treating newbies with kid gloves
A system like this presumes that duplicate closure is flawless.
And my God, it is far from that.
You're basically punishing people for the fact that the biggest broken thing in all of this is that ...
- 47.8k
27
votes
Accepted
How can a user earn more than 2000 rep in a week?
You can check the reputation tab on their profile to see where the reputation actually comes from, but in short the daily reputation cap is only for reputation earned from upvotes and suggested edits. ...
- 3,488
19
votes
Accepted
Will the reputation I retrospectively gain count toward my "rep cap" badge?
If the recalculation causes you to reach 200 reputation on new days, then yes, your progress towards the badges will increase. There is no "tick" that gets added to a day when you hit it before. Each ...
- 187k
18
votes
If we do something about the "sandmen" I might consider treating newbies with kid gloves
I believe that part of the problem that SE has is a contradiction between two goals. On the one hand, SE intend their network of sites to become a repository of canonical questions and answers. That ...
17
votes
Accepted
Why is the rep cap set at 200? Why not 2000?
(tl;dr? Skip to the last three paragraphs.)
The reputation cap is one of the network's longest-running features, having been set at 200 since the month Stack Overflow launched, if not earlier. Records ...
- 4,512
16
votes
Accepted
Earning reputation by downvoting?
The system already corrects this on its own. We don't run a recalc on your account every time you change a vote - that's just way too expensive. Instead, whenever your account gets recalculated again ...
- 187k
16
votes
Why is the rep cap set at 200? Why not 2000?
It's probably more related to what you can do with the reputation than what is necessary to reach the daily reputation limit. For instance, it takes 2.5 days (2 if you have the association bonus) to ...
GlorfindelMod
- 239k
15
votes
Accepted
If I hit the daily rep cap and then get downvoted, does it still count towards badges?
Many years ago, we simplified the logic for the daily reputation badges.
They only consider positive reputation changes. That means the script that awards the badge doesn't even look at downvotes, ...
- 187k
14
votes
Soft opinion on changing the reputation cap
if a user has been a member for many years
That doesn't mean they've been an active contributor for years. You could have registered a long time ago, not visited the site in years, and come back ...
GlorfindelMod
- 239k
13
votes
Accepted
Stopped earning reputation at 313 due to reputation cap, even though I have 9 accepted answers
As your full reputation history from the /reputation page shows, you've earned 335 reputation from votes cast today, not including reversals of votes cast prior to today. This is equal to 200 capped ...
12
votes
What is the reasoning behind the reputation cap?
I've only recently started hitting 200 rep per day on a semi-regular basis (on rpg.se), and it seems to me the cap has the following benefits, in particular on a site with relatively small active ...
- 221
12
votes
Accepted
I have a rep to protect. Where is it?
Yes, you hit the rep cap. You got enough upvotes to earn 200 points.
You also lost points because a user got removed. A user removal entry in the log is informative; it tells you that votes once cast ...
- 101k
11
votes
What is the daily reputation cap and how can I hit it?
As time goes by, the above answer is no longer 100% correct. Specifically,
Reputation earned from these activities (accepting/accepted/bounty) before reaching the cap does still count towards the ...
11
votes
Accepted
What effect does serial downvoting have on my rep cap?
None. Reversed votes are marked as "deleted" in the system and do not affect your rep cap on any day, including days where the votes originally occurred. The events in your reputation history are only ...
- 187k
11
votes
If we do something about the "sandmen" I might consider treating newbies with kid gloves
As the "sandmen" are going to get rep, what about "Give an incentive for finding duplicate questions" along with a way they can explain to the questioner why it is a duplicate.
- 26.7k
10
votes
Accepted
How am I receiving a trickle of rep from these upvotes after being repcapped?
Events seem to have happened in the following order or similar:
You receive 199 cappable¹ reputation in some way, including 30 for an answer to What does return alone does in C++?
12:43: You receive ...
- 27.2k
10
votes
Accepted
When was the 200 rep per day limit added?
This is pretty straightforward to find out.
Stack Overflow was publicly launched on September 15, 2008 (source: a quick google search).
The first version of the rep FAQ contains a mention of the point ...
- 25.7k
10
votes
If we do something about the "sandmen" I might consider treating newbies with kid gloves
The main problem for Stack Exchange is that their platforms are unwelcoming by design. When new joiners ask a question, they often get dupe hammered, heavily downvoted and/or their question gets ...
- 1,603
10
votes
How can a user earn more than 2000 rep in a week?
In this case, the reputation league shows the correct amount of reputation gained. However, there is a bug in the functionality involving deleted posts, which are calculated as if they were not ...
GlorfindelMod
- 239k
9
votes
Accepted
How did I get this bit of reputation after I hit the repcap?
Between the upvote that gave you the extraneous 2 reputation and the one before it, you had cast two downvotes. They were both on the same post, and they were both retracted shortly after you cast ...
- 187k
9
votes
There seems to be no downvote rep cap
Why should there be a down vote rep cap?
To begin with, if your question gets a 1:1 up vote:down vote response, you're still net positive in rep. You're getting rep for participating, even if it's ...
- 188
8
votes
Accepted
Why is rep-cap count not increased even it seems I hit rep-cap?
From your activity profile:
You earned 185. The criteria for Epic is "earn 200 daily reputation 50 times". 185 is not 200, and your Epic counter is not increased.
The things that may be confusing ...
- 25.7k
8
votes
Current rules for Epic/Legendary badge concerning rep loss after hitting the cap
The moment you've earned at least 200 reputation from anything (excluding the association bonus) then that day counts towards the badge - the reputation cap has absolutely nothing to do with the badge....
- 187k
8
votes
Accepted
Highest reputation earned in one day on Stack Overflow
That belongs to David Robinson, who earned 1550 reputation thanks to three bounties worth 500 reputation and five answer upvotes on July 6, 2013. The full post and the queue to find that out is in ...
- 21.2k
8
votes
The Stack Exchange pension, or, reaching the daily reputation limit entirely with votes on old posts
This query can be helpful to analyze the results for different sites. As you can see, there's currently about a dozen users on Stack Overflow with an average above 200 (but one should note that the ...
GlorfindelMod
- 239k
8
votes
Accepted
Reputation recalculation didn't retroactively award Mortarboard
Looks like it has just been fixed:
Also visible in profile, e.g. from https://superuser.com/users/116475/franck-dernoncourt?tab=badges&sort=recent:
- 28.6k
8
votes
How can a user earn more than 2000 rep in a week?
Easy one: by putting in tremendous amounts of time and energy.
See a user like Gordon Linoff on Stack Overflow.
Besides writing books and running a successful business place, he writes 10, 20 ...
- 37.7k
7
votes
Accepted
Only received 2 rep for an upvote
As explained in the faq, the daily reputation cap is not for total reputation, but rather reputation from upvotes and suggested edits.
Sum the upvotes you got today and you do have 200:
The -30 ...
7
votes
Accepted
Rep cap reached but not counted towards Legendary badge
As indicated by the FAQ, only unupvotes and unaccepts affect the day they occurred. Because downvotes are not considered in any way for those badges, undownvotes are also ignored for it.
Calculating ...
- 187k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible