How to earn reputation at mathworks

I was trying to find out how to earn reputation with Matlab central at Mathworks. I looked at Matlab central answers, all I get is a table with reputation points required for various activities, and this one and a few more answers related to reputation http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/1058-contributors-metainfo-reputation-and-more as the best answer so far, however so far none of them gave a clear idea of how to earn reputation. I also read a few interesting conversations by people with very high reputation. It seems to be earned by answering questions. But how many points earned, and how. Does the quality of answer also affects earning points? or it is just acceptance of answer? Can more than one answers be accepted at once? I was expecting a table which would tell exactly how many points are earned and by what activity. Further it seems that people with zero reputation can do nothing except asking questions and accepting them. How do they build reputation? What is usefulness and significance of earning reputation (other than powers earned to edit, delete etc.). Does asking good questions also earn reputation? Can some one please clarify all above.

[Syed Noman Hussain]

The best details on " How many reputation points one can earn" can be seen on https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/help?s_tid=al_priv#reputation

the best ever I saw

thanks Cheers

[Thierry Dalon]

The link seems not to answer the question but explain what one can do with the reputation points.

[Steven Lord]

See the "Building a Reputation" box on the right side of that page.

Answer 1

[Matt J]

I was expecting a table which would tell exactly how many points are earned and by what activity.

You can find such a table on the right hand side of the page at the following link,

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/help?s_tid=gn_mlc_ans_hlp#reputation [EDITED, Jan, Link updated]

Does the quality of answer also affects earning points? or it is just acceptance of answer?

Acceptance of your answer by others is sufficient to get points, but accepting your own answers will not earn you points.

Can more than one answers be accepted at once?

Not currently, but there are rumors that that feature may eventually be added. You can vote for multiple answers, though, except your own answers of course.

Does asking good questions also earn reputation?

People can vote for your question (as I've now done for you) and that will earn you 1 point per vote.

What is usefulness and significance of earning reputation (other than powers earned to edit, delete etc.)

That's it, for the most part. Some people posting questions might also look at your profile and use your reputation as a basis for how much they trust your answers, not that that's always a good thing...

[Image Analyst]

I was expecting a table which would tell exactly how many points are earned and by what activity.

I don't know the formula - I don't think they share that. For example, one answer gives you 3 points, a comment 2 points, earning someone's vote gives you 1 point, having your answer accepted gives you 5 points, or whatever. I don't believe the Mathworks shares their secret formula. I thought that asking questions gives you points because once Jan and I had the same number of answers and accepted answers, but he had lots of questions and I had none, and he had way more points. On the other hand, maybe he just had more votes, though votes seem to be fairly rare from what I've seen. I think that just one or two questions doesn't earn you points but maybe it doesn't kick in until you have asked more than a lower limit number of questions. I have no idea (and don't really care other than a very slight amount of curiosity).

Sometimes participants come and go so I've brought up the idea of listing reputation considered over all-time, over the past month, one year, two years - like is done on You-tube. But actually it would be just a novelty gimmick that I don't care about, but some people with more curiosity regarding that might find fun.

[Walter Roberson]

If you click on About MATLAB Answers in the left control area, and click on Build Up Your Reputation, then the points table shows up on the right: 4 points if someone accepts one of your Answers, 2 points if someone votes for one of your Answers, and 1 point if someone votes for one of your Questions. There are no points given to for comments.

Two people with the same number of Accepted Answers might have had different number of people vote for them.

Reputation over the long term: until recently I would have led all of the per-week and per-month (and everything else), except when I was on vacation. Lately I have slowed down a lot so someone else might be ahead over shorter terms.

[Walter Roberson]

By the way, if anyone cares (ha !), I have historical stats about the top 50 going back a bit more than 2 years, sampled every few days. There have been changes in the page layouts and I have not bothered to create a routine that can harvest all of the formats. But if someone was keen on developing their skills for Trendy...

[Jan]

@Image Analyst: It is surprising to read your "I don't know the formula" below Matt J.'s link to the table, which explains the points exactly.

[Vandita]

I wrote mail before he gave me the table! I asked as I couldn't find the table after searching for it for quite a good time(may be I missed it) and I did not if any such thing existed.

Answer 2

[Jan]

There are two kind of reputation in this forum:

1. The official reputation points (called RP now), which is described above and works automatically by fixed tables.
2. The personal repuation, which is based on respect and grows slowly and individually.

You can earn RPs by answering homework questions and suggesting to use EVAL for standard problems. Then Matlab beginners will accept such answers because they are not aware of the fact, that this will cause more problems than it solves. Such answers will not increase the respect of other high skilled members.

E.g. Walter checks the answers of others, fixes typos and bugs in my answers and clarified many bad formulations or mistakes. This will not increase his RPs, but his reputation in the community. Whenever he would ask me for a favour, I'd be glad to help him. When somebody asks me to suggest a Matlab profi for a specific work or a consulting, I would not use the official RP list, but my personal impressions, and both do not overlap exactly.

I got exhaustive and helpful answers from Matlab's techical support before I've earned RPs in different Matlab forums. They simply do their job enthusiastically. But together with the activity in the community, the chances might grow to get a direct phone connection to a specific developper. But this could be a biased impression, because the changing quality of my problems.

Remark: The counters in the forum do not react immediately but with a certain delay, perhaps in the magnitude of hours. Therefore the RP shown in your profile might be a little bit outdated.

Answer 3

[Walter Roberson]

Additionally:

People with zero reputation can add Answers and Comments. Those Answers might end up being Accepted, or being voted for by others, thus increasing the Reputation of the answerer.

People with zero reputation can also vote for Questions and Answers. This will not increase their own reputation, but it helps feed the eco-system; getting into the practice of considered voting for contributed material encourages others to vote, some of which is likely to flow back to you if you are contributing.

Also, getting in to the practice of voting helps train you in recognizing what constitutes a good answer, which will in turn help you to write good answers.

Basically, you achieve reputation by participating in ways that others find valuable.

There are no points given for using one of the moderation powers earned by reputation -- just the good-will of the other volunteer moderators whose burden you helped to relieve.

[Walter Roberson]

As an example of the benefits of participating, and of "reputation".

I have been reading a lot in a particular medical site that allows doctors and patients to interact. There are several doctors who regularly volunteer, but much of the time the replies to patients do not really say much more than "Yes, that is possible" or "Well, maybe, but you need to be examine in person." But there are two or three who offer more substantive replies, explaining the issues and giving details, and those two or three also tend to be amongst the most reliable repliers. In turn, those two or three also happen to be the doctors whom the patients review most frequently and with the greatest enthusiasm, and would recommend most highly.

There are (in many fields) experts who know exactly what they are doing, and may have written the major works used by other experts. Such people have reputations with the portion of their peers who actively work to push the boundaries of their field. And that is no small accomplishment. But it is the person who interacts with a wider audience and "gives good answer" with explanations, who accumulates the wider reputation, and whom gets to be "looked to" by others as being dependable.