If only Google was a man, some of us would have received series of slaps. Here are my 5 best google search ever:
- www.google.com (on Google’s search bar)
- How do I search on google.com (on Google)
- How do I spell Hello World with JavaScript
- How do I know if my PC is online (With my PC)
- How do I know the name of the browser I’m using (With Google Chrome)
How much do you know about Stack Overflow?
Stack Overflow is not just the over usage of computer’s memory as defined in your Computer Science class or for those self taught like me, it not some kind of an e-Professor that Google always referred us.
It’s way more than just questions and answers.
StackOverflow.com arguably is the largest, most active, most trusted and most referred developers’ community.
yeah GitHub included.
And that’s not all
Stackoverflow.com is likely the second place recruiters check after LinkedIn.com and that’s because LinkedIn is an employment social network. I’m sure you get my point.
Let’s do the Did you know…
- Did you know,
August is Stack Overflow’s birthday On Web? Ask this guy Community User. - Did you know,
As a user on Stack Overflow you have a CV and a Story page, curated just for you? Lifesaver. - Did you know,
Stack Overflow awards you for visiting the site? - May be you knew Stack Overflow awards reputation for votes on questions and answers but did you know, someone has earned One Million reputations on Stack Overflow? The almighty Jon Skeet.
One Million Reputation on Stack Overflow
Stack Overflow’s reputation points, Now that’s a huge Did You Know, which has its own did you knows.
But Did you know a developer got a job just for having a number of reputations in a certain category? See Here
Those Reputations… yeah wait.
Let’s talk about Badges.
Let’s not get ourselves confused: Reputation: are the number of points you gain or lose when your questions or answers are either up voted or down voted on Stack Overflow while Badges: are awards you receive for carrying out some activities on Stack Overflow.
So picture a physical community, where we have leaders or elders. Badges on Stack Overflow identify those leaders while reputations grants the privileges.
While growing reputation could be somehow difficult, some badges on Stack Overflow are close to free.
Let’s identify the quick ones you can earn and how. First you need to register or Login. Visit www.stackoverflow.com. Then:
- Start by understanding Stack Overflow, there is a document on that, it called the Tour make sure you read it till the End, Click Here. For simply reading this document you earn the badge
Informed
told you it was simple. - Next, Stack Overflow and the community should know who you are. You will need to Complete the “About Me” section of your user profile, head over to your profile page. For providing these few information about you, you get the badge
Autobiography
How cool is that.
Now the journey to the next Jone Skeet has began with these two badges.
There are few more badges you can easily earn, some may take time;
- If you are the patient type, visit www.stackoverflow.com everyday for a consecutive 30 days, you get the badge
Enthusiast
and if you make it to the 100th day consecutively you get theFanatic
badge. Believe me some us live here, you may soon join us. - You can share links to questions or answers that you feel may be useful to a forum on social media or anywhere, unique visits from 25 different IPs gives you the
Announcer
badge, 300 visits gives you theBooster
badge and 1000 visit gives you thePublicist
badge. Be careful don’t spam others. - You found a useful question or answer, it only good you up vote the question or answer. With your single vote you are triggering 4 significant things: first, you are appreciating the user’s effort, he/she probably woke by 2:00am, second, you are simply bookmarking the answer or question, third, you are identifying the answer or question for future users and lastly, for your first up vote you will be awarded the
Supporter
badge. - Okay, probably the question or answer is more of, let me quote Stack Overflow itself, “Dangerously incorrect.” It your duty to down vote it, for your first down vote you get the
Critic
badge - Let’s agree, some probably woke up by 2:00 am to answer or ask the questions, this may lead to a typo or even a missing function. If you spot this and the question or answer is useful, simply click the edit and correct the typo or function, for your first edit you get the
Editor
badge. - Another quick badge; January of every year the annual Stack Overflow survey is published, complete at least one of these surveys. You get the
Census
badge. - The
Not a Robot
badge, this has been awarded to only 561 people as at this write up, to be one of them, this is what you need to do. Meet a Stack Overflow employee at an event where Stack Overflow was an organizer or participant with 50 or more attendees. Good Luck.
Final Note on the Badges
They are around 90+ badges in 3 different categories Golden Badge, Silver Badge and Bronze Badge. Most badges are receivable only after you gain a number of reputations, some are in hierarchy format Bronze->Silver->Golden while most can be awarded multiple times. Enough with the badges.