
Get most StackOverflow rep by avoiding difficult questions - normalocity
I really shouldn&#x27;t be surprised...programmers are lazy, they say.<p>If you look at my top-voted answers, they all seem like things where someone either doesn&#x27;t understand a basic concept, doesn&#x27;t read available documentation, or hits an error message and drops it directly into Google without considering the issue on their own. It&#x27;s an interesting phenomenon, and I wonder if it&#x27;s a observation for other users. I have really simple questions that still get me 1-2 upvotes a month for years after the answer was provided.<p>If the answer also happens to be for a popular language&#x2F;framework&#x2F;n00b problem, then all the better.<p>Ex: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;stackoverflow.com&#x2F;users&#x2F;249543&#x2F;jefflunt<p>If this is common, then it would seem a reasonable strategy to just look for easy questions and answer them quickly - if the only reason you&#x27;re on SO is to play the reputation game, that is.<p>This supports my general view that, if you want a decent chance at running a business that will have a large client base, simply take a problem that is very common, but not very difficult (maybe trivial) to solve for an experienced person, and sell an automated solution to the masses.
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criswell
The more effort I put into an answer on StackOverflow the less I get back.
This question for example drives me crazy
([http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18885347/is-there-an-
imag...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18885347/is-there-an-image-file-
format-selector-in-css/18885353)): I have no idea why it was upvoted 6 times
in 48 views and no clue why my answer was upvoted 9 times. I wonder if there's
like some network of people who upvote thing to give people a lot of
reputation points?

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wikwocket
I do not understand the rhyme or reason behind why people vote some answers
but not others, but I always upvote questions I have also had, and answers
that solve my problem. It's possible the post you link hits some magic
combination of commonly-searched-for terms used by some of the zillions of
programmers each day, many of whom have SO accounts.

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michaelstewart
Interesting. The downside of solving trivial problems is that the barrier to
entry for your competitors will also be trivial.

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anywherenotes
Most people face simple issues. And when they look for answers, they find
stackoverflow and upvote the answer.

When a really tough question comes up, it probably effects only a few people,
so only few people will upvote. I'm assuming 'tough problem' comes up only
because something new and unusual is being attempted.

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jlengrand
Add to that the fact that If you already have a lot of rep, and answers the
same exact thing as other people, OP will tend to validate you instead of the
first guy thats posts :).

It happened to me in several occasions. And this is one of the reasons I tend
to avoid answering questions now.

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helpermethod
Same here. Got 9k rep by mostly answering basic Java questions.

