
Ask HN: I just got my Stackoverflow Python gold badge - is it worth anything? - aaronchall
OK, I know this probably amounts to a (not-so-)humblebrag, but I&#x27;ve been paying close attention to my stats on Stackoverflow, I&#x27;m in the top 3% overall in terms of rep. And this weekend, I finally achieved the Python gold badge (my area of focus). It was hard to get, took a long time, and I benefited from strong English skills and research skills as well as my Python and programming skills.<p>I mentioned it to my boss this morning, also a technical type, he told me that and $3 would buy me a cup of coffee. (He&#x27;s a good guy and I like him.) I nodded amiably, and as non-defensively as I could, said, &quot;Well, some select for it.&quot; But who really does? It may get my foot in the door in some situations, and it might be considered a feather in the cap for my organization, but it&#x27;s certainly not my key to the top tech job at a fortune 500. I have to earn that kind credibility in other ways.<p>But it&#x27;s something, right? It&#x27;s an achievement, and it signals that I have the ability to reach goals. That says I&#x27;m worth something, doesn&#x27;t it? And it probably has some economic value too, doesn&#x27;t it? How would I quantify that? That&#x27;s my main question.<p>I&#x27;m probably asking to be smacked down here, but that&#x27;s a risk I&#x27;m willing to take. I&#x27;ve seen a sort of anti-Stackoverflow current before, but you can&#x27;t deny that it helps people, and (I&#x27;ll hedge with &quot;virtually&quot;) all of us technical types use it at least as a supplement to documentation and reading the source, and I&#x27;ll brashly assert that many of us use it as a first resort thanks to Google. And if I&#x27;ve helped people, that makes me feel really good, so I do have a lot of respect for Joel Spolsky and Jeff Atwood, and I&#x27;ve wanted, for a while now, to make a meaningful contribution to a resource that has helped me so much. I&#x27;m now starting to feel like I really have. To me, the economic question is one way of measuring that contribution.<p>Evidence: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;stackoverflow.com&#x2F;help&#x2F;badges&#x2F;51&#x2F;python?userid=541136<p>Addendum, gaius said: &quot;I&#x27;m afraid your boss was right. It may even be a negative, as it paints you as someone with a lot of free time.&quot;<p>My response (from below): Well it certainly could do that. If it does, I can always chalk it up to sour grapes. But I think I have a good answer to that, if I encounter it in question form.<p>I also go to a lot of tech meetups and give tech talks. I&#x27;m ten-years married with no kids. I can spend my time how I choose. Only I have something to show for all of my evenings over people who only play games or read click-bait. I want children, eventually, but I&#x27;m not ready yet. I&#x27;d also like another graduate degree, and I&#x27;d like even more experiences in finance, as now I&#x27;ve only been a financial advisor and worked in risk data and architecture.<p>I had over 150 answers on tax and retirement planning on all-experts.com with strong ratings, and they&#x27;ve deleted that material because it&#x27;s out of date, and now I just have a line on my old resume (it&#x27;s not even in my current one). I like that much of my material will not be dated as quickly on Stackoverflow.
======
ErnestedCode
"that and $3 would buy [you] a cup of coffee."

That really sounds like a dick thing to say. Even if it were true (which I
don't believe it is), It sucks to have someone who is in charge of writing
your performance reviews say something like that about one of your
accomplishments. What if you took a Coursera online course on Python and he
said the same thing? What if you got a Python Programming Certificate from
O'Reilly and he said, "Well, any monkey who pays for the training software
could do that"?

The truth is, you will most certainly benefit financially if you put it on
your resume and your LinkedIn profile. I think recruiters and tech-savvy
employers would gobble that up. It definitely shows that you are extremely
knowledgeable about the language and can answer almost any question without
hesitation. It _also_ shows that you are articulate and that you are the kind
of person who would take the time to teach others and share your knowledge.
These are very valuable traits that are extremely valuable in software
companies.

People who are saying, "It shows you have a lot of free time" are nuts. Free
time for what? Thinking about software? Who wouldn't love that from a
potential job candidate? I guess it also shows that you have a lot of free
time if you're going to tech conferences, take online courses, or go to night
school.

Not all people will value your badge, but I'm pretty sure you could leverage
it to find a new, higher-paying job with an open-minded boss who isn't going
to discredit your accomplishments.

Congratulations on your badge!

~~~
some_furry
> That really sounds like a dick thing to say.

Yeah, it sounds like your current employer doesn't appreciate you.

> People who are saying, "It shows you have a lot of free time" are nuts. Free
> time for what? Thinking about software? Who wouldn't love that from a
> potential job candidate?

I really love this part of your comment.

OP: Congratulations, I only know a few people with gold badges and they're all
pretty far in their field.

~~~
aaronchall
It's ok, he speaks in hyperbole sometimes, I do feel appreciated, and I feel
like he appreciates my extracurriculars.

But I think we've demonstrated I can probably at least get free coffee with
it, at this point. :) Cheers!

------
Singletoned
I have done quite a bit of recruiting and interviewing for Python in the past,
and I'd say that if I saw it on your CV, I'd automatically invite you in for
an interview.

If you fluffed the interview on Python stuff, I'd give you the benefit of the
doubt and give you another go.

And if you happened to have answered one of my questions for me, I'd have a
whole lot of good will towards you.

I think you'll probably end up with a lot of very small karmic rewards, rather
than any one big one.

------
cedsav
Your contributions on StackOverflow demonstrate that you're passionate about
your subject, articulate, and willing to help other. The gold badge reinforces
that.

You're asking if it's worth something, I think it definitely is, but it's up
to you to leverage it. Bring it up in your next job or salary negotiation, or
when looking for freelance gigs.

Perhaps the most important thing for you though is to figure out what's next.
If you enjoy educating and helping others, there are a lot more you can do:
start a blog, write a book, teach a class, etc...

~~~
brerlapn
I think this is an approach that will serve you well in leveraging the SO
ranking--cedsav mentions at least three skills that it demonstrates, and you
should be able to expand on those (knowledgeable enough about Python to be
able to understand a problem presented and identify a solution; efficiently
communicating solutions to others, for example). Answer the question, "a gold
badge, why should I care about that?" until you feel like you've got those
skills you really want to highlight listed and honed in a way that you feel
comfortable presenting them.

I know this is somewhat standard communications/marketing advice, but I think
given your question it will serve you well, as it routes around the
dismissiveness of the "it's just a gold badge" to make sure that they
understand what it signifies.

Based on the responses to this thread, there are clearly people out there who
value that signifier; some good communication will increase that number for
you.

------
imron
>I want children, eventually, but I'm not ready yet.

Totally off-topic, but there will possibly never be a time when you feel
'ready', or by the time you eventually feel ready it may well be too late.

10 years married if you married at 20 still leaves you with a few years of
time. 10 years married if you married at 30 leaves you (and more specifically
your wife) with far less time and a far higher likelihood of complications.

Anyway, I know nothing about your situation and I don't in any way mean to
butt in on something that is a highly personal decision, but if you haven't
done so already, it's very worth having a good think about what 'ready'
actually means for both you and your wife.

------
Kiro
I don't agree about the comments saying it doesn't mean anything. We are
currently looking for talented people and after Github I can't imagine any
better validator than Stack Overflow. We can only dream of finding someone
like you. Trust me, if someone walked in saying he or she had a gold badge on
Stack Overflow it would almost be an instant hire.

~~~
totalrobe
OP you should probably message this guy

------
iterationx
In the context of gamification you have a high score in the video game of
stackoverflow. In the context of tool usage, you are good at using python.
What you build with that tool is what will give you status. Don't spend too
much time using the tool to beat the video game.

------
smarks
"No One Cares How Hard You Worked"

I'm glad you think your manager is a good guy and that you like him. I might
like him too. My first reaction to your question was, "The gold badge might be
worth the paper it's printed on" \-- not too far from your manager's coffee
comment.

But that little exchange between you and your manager betrayed a lot. I
suspect your manager is thinking about what results you deliver, but you're
thinking more about the effort you've put in. The problem is that nobody cares
how much effort you put in. Mostly they're looking for results, and results
are what drive economic value.

This is not to say that posting to StackOverflow is worthless. It's not. (I'm
a participant there too.) But its value is what _you_ get out of that
activity: what you've learned, the practice you get, and yes, the motivation
you get for scoring points and getting badges. Isn't getting a gold badge an
accomplishment? Not to anyone outside of SO. It's mainly evidence of time and
effort you've put in, but it says little about how much you have or could
accomplish if someone were to hire you.

Do a web search for the phrase "no one cares how hard you worked." You'll get
some articles on this theme. One is [1]. Ok, this is about photography, but
the point is relevant: someone likes a photograph or they don't. It doesn't
matter that you put a lot of work into it, they still might not like it. Or
[2]. See point #4, but also #3 and #7. Economic value comes from the results
you deliver, not the effort you put in.

[1]
[http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photogra...](http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2011/05/no-
one-cares-how-hard-you-worked.html)

[2] [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michaelprice/10-lies-we-
tell-o...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michaelprice/10-lies-we-tell-
ourselves_b_6389924.html)

------
sp332
It's possible that you're underestimating the benefits of the "getting your
foot in the door" effect. You should be relatively well-known among SO
pythonistas, and anyone else in the python community is likely to be impressed
enough by your advocacy to get coffee with you. Use that to expand your
network!

~~~
NateDad
This. Getting well-known by other pythonistas is very valuable. How you get
that recognition doesn't really matter. Stack overflow, a popular blog,
contributions on the mailing list, working on a lot of open source projects,
etc...

Personally, I don't think terribly highly of Stack Overflow's award system,
since it can be relatively easy to game, but if you're really contributing
value, then it's not the badge that matters, it's that value. And so, I would
recommend against saying "gold badge in python on Stack Overflow" on your
resume, but I _would_ say "Very active contributor to python questions on
Stack Overflow", and let the reader see the value you have put into the system
beyond from the silly little badge next to your name.

------
nanoGeek
In this life very few things are black and white. Getting a gold badge in
Python is not as great as starting the next Facebook but it's definitely a
clear sign that you know your stuff.

I think your badge is worth much more than $3, but it's very hard to value how
much money it's worth. Think about it: how much money is worth getting a GPA
3.7 vs 3.3? How much money is worth meeting Zuckerberg and talking with him
for 30 minutes?

Getting a gold badge in Python will not result in a rise on your salary alone.
On the other hand having this badge proves that you know your stuff. It's
clear how competitive StackOverflow is. If you ever decide to move to another
company it will definitely be seen as a positive sign when they look at your
CV. You may get an interview thanks to the badge.

So, to sum up, with this badge and some luck, you can work at a better company
(and this means higher salary). On the other hand, don't expected a rise from
your boss.

------
lbotos
The most important thing you've gained is not recognition of those skills but
the skills themselves. Use those to show whomever you need what you are
capable of.

~~~
aaronchall
It's true, answering all of those questions has greatly improved my skills in
a demonstrable way, but it also signals that I have those skills, which means
I probably won't be asked to demonstrate them in situations where others
would. It could be used as a heuristic that at least gets me a free pass not
to take the "can he code fizz-buzz" question. Then the question is, "can he
architect a continuous integration system in a maintainable sort of way?"

~~~
geofft
If you're in the top 3% of Python users on SO, Fizzbuzz should take you no
more than, so optimizing against that doesn't seem particularly useful.

And it feels to me like being able to cogently answer questions on
StackOverflow isn't a skill that's necessarily correlated with architecting
big systems. The value I'd imagine you have, out of this skillset, is being
able to explain your code to other developers, give good code reviews, figure
out new systems, etc.

If it were me, I'd mention it on my resume and give it some wording in the
hopes that an interviewer will ask me questions along those lines and ask me
to explain some code and I'll do a good job of it. But that would also be
selecting for jobs where my work _does_ involve a lot of working with other
coders and doing code review, and not speak very much to my ability to do
architecture and design review.

(Or maybe I have the wrong impression of what all this is about, and you
should take me as an example of a naive interviewer and correct for that. :) )

------
_cudgel
I came here to say "that and $5 at starbucks would buy you a cup of coffee"...
but I see your boss already mentioned that.

I will say this: Congratulations! You appear to have set a goal and attained
it! This is a good thing for you, and you should be proud of it.

You also appear to looking for some validation for your efforts. Here, I think
you're going to be disappointed. But you don't need external validation for
this to have meaning. Enjoy what you've accomplished!

------
ashray
It matters. Stackoverflow runs a careers platform and ranks users based on
their scores. It's opt-in but if you place yourself in there, you'll start
getting some calls from recruiters looking for python people. A gold badge is
worth a lot on the platform in terms of visibility to prospective employers
(it's much more targeted than, say, a linkedin profile). It shows that you are
passionate about your programming. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.

If you want to quantify it in monetary terms, it's hard to say but it could
mean an extra $10-$25k salary per year (due to better negotiating power at the
table...).

Source: I've used their careers platform to find some people who are
passionate about what they do.

------
jamesdutc
I think it's beneficial as a personal achievement. You set a goal and worked
hard to achieve it. (Kudos!)

As a professional achievement, I think it would have mostly neutral effect.
There are a lot of good jobs (doing decent work) that just won't filter past
basic proficiency and professional competence.

Additionally, I'd suspect that, for jobs where you'd do amazing work and where
candidates would be filtered to a much higher standard, something like this
could set expectations too high. Even if you have a corresponding degree of
real expertise to match your StackOverflow rank, there's still very little
upside in passing these high expectations.

Of course, you're probably more visible to recruiters now, whatever that's
worth.

~~~
aaronchall
Thanks, James, one of the reasons I set out to climb the ranks on SO was
because I needed to build credibility, since I don't have a CS degree. I've
been playing around with code since I was a kid coding elementary games in
BASIC. I've been reading material on coding online for a long time too. But
all that is not enough.

My MBA, personal programming experience, and constant exposure to tech at NYC
meetups (like NYCPython and NYLUG) got my foot in the door, but I knew I
needed to build reputation over time in a reputation based system. I now feel
like I have not only my own work as a source of credibility, but also an
independent source that gives me a requisite gravitas for my desired
trajectory.

I know I'm not ready to be a Kirat Singh (or fill in your favorite giant
system's architect's name), but I'd like to build up that kind of capability
one day.

------
virgil_disgr4ce
Ontopic: If I was checking you out for a position, the Python badge would
definitely make an impact on me. It demonstrates that you really care about
Python and think about it beyond just using it. Side note: if you're looking
for a job (right now), I'm pretty much looking for you. Seriously.

Offtopic: "I want children, eventually, but I'm not ready yet. I'd also like
another graduate degree, and I'd like even more experiences in finance"

I kind of think you just described not having children :) Which is fine, just
decide now, because father age has a nontrivial impact on autism :(

------
rantanplan
It will probably help you get your foot at the door and that's just about it.
Provided you have a "careers" profile. I've been contacted by companies
through that.

Other than that, no. For example if I were your interviewer I would rip your
answers apart and ask you "why did you choose that solution?", or "what if we
change that condition on this problem?". So, if you thought that you are going
to "skip" parts of the interview, I'd say nope! Au contraire my friend :D

Congrats on the badge though, I don't have a gold one :(

------
KarlFreeman
There's a variety of things related to programming which have little, to no,
obvious economic value. You might find that your achievement (very well done!)
economically impacts you "in-kind". Its doubtful that an employer or
prospective client will look at your Stackoverflow profile and pay you more.
However, your glowing referrals from your peers to both might allow you to
position yourself as more highly sought after than you _actually_ are.

TLDR; Do good things and good things will come to you. Keep being awesome :).

------
Fuxy
It's great to have but reality is very few people will care.

If you did this just to get preferential treatment on interviews and such I'm
afraid you were wasting your time.

However your efforts in helping the community of developers is certainly worth
a mention on your CV just don't expect anything for it.

------
cweagans
Can I be snarky and ask why you didn't ask this question on StackOverflow?

In all seriousness, some people will see it as a huge accomplishment. Some
won't. If it were me, I'd put it on my resume. It seems like having a good
reputation in an internet community like this should be a mark of credibility.
Again, some won't see it that way, but some will, and you'll impress them.

------
brickcap
I think you are discounting the "helped people" part. Your boss says what he
says because he sees little value in your efforts. You answering questions on
stackoverflow does not affect him. But it does affect the people you've have
helped.

>And it probably has some economic value too, doesn't it?

Yes it does. It has economic value for the person whose job you probably
saved. It has economic value for the person whom you probably helped get a job
by explaining a difficult concept. There is economic value for the person whom
you helped in shipping a feature for their customers. Your boss does not see
from this prospective but the people you've helped do.

>That says I'm worth something, doesn't it?

Absolutely. I remember reading a quote, I think it was from Lewis Carroll.
_One of the secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what
we do for others._

> $3 would buy me a cup of coffee

With diminishing returns. An answer on stackoverflow is more valuable than a
cup of cofee simply because it provides far more value to far more people for
a much longer time.

------
pfortuny
I guess it is only worth anything on stackoverflow and it _might_ be of value
on a future job hunt if and only if you take care to present it as "true work
outside of your work time". Otherwise you risk, as gaius says, being
considered a procrastinator and someone who spends too much work time on his
hobbies.

Sorry. It is something to be proud of but to be handled with care also.

------
jedanbik
If you mentioned this in a job interview with me, I would be impressed and
want to talk about questions you'd answered, questions you'd asked, etc. It's
a minor asset, but major achievement.

~~~
ARothfusz
Ditto on the interview -- and if you really enjoy helping other engineers meet
their goals you might want to consider a career in Developer Support. I've
really enjoyed mine! Other variations on Developer Support include
Professional Services, Field and Sales Engineering, Training, and Developer
Evangelism, depending on who you like to hang out with more within your
company (engineering, sales, docs, marketing) -- externally you're always
talking with engineers.

------
efriese
I don't know that I would compensate more for that achievement, but it would
certainly stand out in an interview. The fact you gained that badge tells me
you not only have the knowledge, but you also enjoy helping other people
learn. That skill is much more valuable to me as an employer. A person like
that can elevate a whole team.

------
Balgair
At best, this is a hyperlink on your resume or a source you can easily point
to on your website for people to know you are 'legit'. However, considering
the difficulty of this achievement and that your skills and outgoingness
should be apparent, the achievement should be obvious to anyone looking
somewhat closely. However, these kinds of credentials are great to introduce
some speaker for an event and they add color to your life in a bio or other
blurb thingy. Along those lines, when they introduce you in a court
appearance, these are things that can maaaaaaaybe e used.

All that said, CONGRTATZ! great job! keep up the good work.

------
brudgers
Clearly congratulations on the achievement. Condolences, perhaps, on being
caught in StackOverflow's gamification. Absolutely, thanks for helping so many
people.

Internet points are only worth whatever someone decides they're worth...e.g.
my HN points.

If your technical ability and enthusiasm seem under-appreciated, perhaps its
time to look for another job. That [and monetization] is why StackOverflow
Careers exists. Clearly you've advanced as a Python expert since you were
hired, and what was suitable at an earlier stage in your career may not be as
fulfilling now. Only you can say.

Good luck.

------
tdicola
If you're super enthusiastic about python, why not start contributing to its
development by fixing bugs, etc? It's also a long, slow process to get plugged
into a big open source project but it's a nice thing to put on a resume that
you've contributed to a large project like python. It will force you to code
with high standards for commenting, documentation, testing, etc. and make you
even more knowledgeable about python.

------
gamechangr
It matters WHERE you are applying to for future jobs.

If you pick a startup, a top 3% score maybe held against you. In that you
don't get things done, you focus on "personal" projects above work plans.

Some corporate jobs just want the bragging rights that they have the best.
That would be positive.

It would be great should you decide to freelance, and maybe helpful to get an
interview, especially with a recruiters.

------
astrodust
Stack Overflow is a great training tool. If you find a question you can't
answer, figure it out and post the answer.

A Gold badge is a sign you've been active in a community, but the real
challenge is to end up on the leaderboard:
[http://stackoverflow.com/tags/python/topusers](http://stackoverflow.com/tags/python/topusers)

~~~
mark-r
Hey, I'm on the leaderboard! I guess that plus $x will get me a cup of coffee.

I'd really love to meet Martijn Pieters some day.

------
j_s
Stack Overflow can definitely be a part of a selection criteria, both for
initially discovery and as a validation of skill - particularly linking to
highest-ranked answers relevant to a potential employer's problem domain.

Careful though: if people start taking it seriously they may investigate how
many of your answers were posted during normal working hours!

------
napolux
I received a CV request from a recruiter that specifically stated that my SO
score was one of their metrics.

------
hasenj
I have ~42k points on SO and I don't think it's worth much to be honest. It's
only worth something if you don't have prior professional experience. For
example, you're fresh out of college, and the only thing you can do to
demonstrate your competence is to point to your blog, Stackoverflow profile,
and some of the hobby projects you've posted on github.

If you have worked prior jobs then a Stackoverflow profile wouldn't be worth
much.

How did I earn 42k points? I was very active on SO for about 4 months (during
the early days, long before Serverfault was launched (which, for those who
don't know, was only the second StackExchange site; heck, StackExchange didn't
really exist back then)). I used it actively because I had tons of free time.
I had just finished University and didn't have a job.

When I stopped being active, I had about 9k points. I was hoping to get to 10k
but I gave up, or rather, stopped caring. All the rest of the ~31k points were
earned passively; upvotes I've been getting on a daily basis for the past 5
years for all my previous questions and answers.

That's why I don't think a Stackoverflow profile is worth that much.

EDIT:

For example, I have 1430 votes on this question:

[http://stackoverflow.com/q/671118/35364](http://stackoverflow.com/q/671118/35364)

Does that say anything about my skills/knowledge? The only thing it says is I
was an early user of SO, so I got to ask that question before anyone else.

I also have tons of votes for this question:

[http://stackoverflow.com/q/1261975/35364](http://stackoverflow.com/q/1261975/35364)

Whose answer I just googled and have no idea why it works. Still, it's the
most upvoted question/answer related to VirtualBox. Someone literally
contacted me because of that. They assumed I was some sort of a virtualbox
expert.

I'm the third person on this list of "all time top users on virtualbox":
[http://stackoverflow.com/tags/virtualbox/topusers](http://stackoverflow.com/tags/virtualbox/topusers)

I can assure I know very little about virtualbox.

~~~
S4M
The problem with the karma of Stack Overflow is that the questions that are
the most viewed, and thus are getting the most votes, tend to be very easy,
like the ones you mention, or this one [0] about merging two dictionaries in
Python. At the end of the spectrum, a very advanced python answer wouldn't get
that much views so much, like this one [1] about extending python with C - I
think the guy who answered put some efforts in it and has experience in
writing C modules for python, which would make him a solid python programmer.

One way to disrupt Stackoverflow would be to have some way to access a
question's difficulty and give karma points accordingly.

[0] [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/38987/how-can-i-merge-
two...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/38987/how-can-i-merge-two-python-
dictionaries-in-a-single-expression)

[1] [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4238154/how-to-extend-
pyt...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4238154/how-to-extend-python-in-c)

~~~
hasenj
Stackoverflow was specifically built for the first type of questions: those
that you have to google all the time, but which have a simple answer.

Before stackoverflow, the answers to such questions were buried in forum
discussions. Worse, sometimes the top google result is a forum thread where
the answer is "google it"!

Detailed/advanced questions don't really belong on Stackoverflow; it wasn't
designed for them.

~~~
brudgers
Having listened to almost all the StackOverflow -> StackExchange podcasts, the
idea was to cover both obvious questions (that was more Spolsky [1]) and long-
tail questions where Spolsky and Atwood were both in agreement.

Both were in agreement about the horror of forum threads. One of the direct
targets however was ExpertSexChange's pseudo-pay wall. The big idea behind SO
was reducing friction for finding answers to programming questions. Today,
"What is REST?" would probably be killed because it is too broad for
StackOverflow and better answered on WikiPedia.

[1]: See Spolsky's famous _How do I move the turtle in Logo_ :
[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1003841/how-do-i-move-
the...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1003841/how-do-i-move-the-turtle-
in-logo)

------
gaius
I'm afraid your boss was right. It may even be a negative, as it paints you as
someone with a lot of free time.

~~~
sp332
If he's using his time to benefit the python community, that's hardly a
negative.

~~~
imron
From the point of view of the python community you are right.

From the point of view of his manager, it depends, and it may count as a
negative if his manager thinks working to maintain that 'top 3%' status might
affect his focus on his job.

~~~
aaronchall
Actually, I conservatively estimate I'll be in the top 1% within a couple of
years with no further contributions due to the passive reputation points I
earn.

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justjoey
The fact that you have to ask somebody if it's worth anything contains your
answer.

