The Factory Floor

12:27 AM

@Shalvenay if I may ask: What is your motivation?

@dot_Sp0T I feel like I'm still...more often than not slogging my way through posts for dribs and drabs of reputation. That, and my question-voting habits still seem subpar (especially here on WB -- I've been able to get the Electorate badge on DIY, EE, RPG, and Aviation, but not WB

dot_Sp0T

@Shalvenay So your motivation is to gather badges and become famous?

Nex Terren

@dot_Sp0T Agreed with dot_Sp0T. There is no set goal for Stack Exchange members in the long term. If you're getting what you want out of it, you're giving back, and you're abiding by the letter and spirit of the SE law, then voilà! You've accomplished the only real implied goal of this site.

2

Shalvenay

@dot_Sp0T well, the Electorate badge I see as the STack telling me something about how it wants users to behave

and I'm also seeing in my tag badge progress (especially on DIY) that not only am I not famous, but I basically am getting a rep/answer that's below what SE itself expects

dot_Sp0T

The Electorate badge seems to me to be a way of motivating people to vote on questions. That's it. This badge has likely been created in order to ensure that the whole voting system that SE is based on is actually used.

Shalvenay

12:34 AM

and it leaves me wondering if I'm just the victim of operating in niche areas where voters are less frequent, or if there's something wrong with the way I answer questions

hey there @WELZ

WELZ

Hello fellow exchangers, I come here lurking from GD.SE

dot_Sp0T

@WELZ well shoo get back where you came from, we're a highly distrusting and inclusive bunch here

WELZ

@dot_Sp0T ooh, snarky - however, I'm not intimidated

dot_Sp0T

@WELZ well you're a persistent sort yourself. Welcome to The Factory Floor

(I always wanted to say that)

Shalvenay

one other thing I've noticed is that I'm extremely reticent to downvote questions specifically

dot_Sp0T

12:37 AM

@WELZ what can we do for you? :) There's not too much going on here at this hour it seems. But I'll gladly help you where I can

WELZ

@dot_Sp0T thanks, I'm just lurking, I have to see how welcoming you peeps are - if i should join the community... :p

dot_Sp0T

@WELZ you definitely should not, it will ruin your life, you'll get less sleep and your mind will get filled with all those vague and crazy ideas that you definitely need to think about right now instead of doing any actual work

But the fact that you're already in the chat tells me that it's too late for you and WB.SE has already got you firmly in its grip

WELZ

@dot_Sp0T thanks and goodbye lmao

@dot_Sp0T nah, I like to check out the famous questions/users/chats on most of the sites, sometimes they are just so intriguing...

dot_Sp0T

@WELZ hmm sounds like a solid thing to do. But I think just checking out the top questions will not get you hooked here. Most of the top ones get their fame from catchy titles and content people can relate to when they're on the HNQ. The really intriguing good ones tend to get something around 20-50 upvotes before they shift to oblivion due to answering them being way more time-consuming than just dropping by for a quick 2-liner.

WELZ

oh no, not at all. I genuinely read (waste time) tons of questions...

dot_Sp0T

12:47 AM

@WELZ If I may recommend something I would recommend for you to keep looking at the activity feed for a few days. Maybe drop by here again in some 10 hours when more people are around so they can dig out a few jewels for you :)

JDługosz

1:08 AM

@Shalvenay gaather more rep from posting good answers? That means being creative and knowledgeable and knowing how to find info on the web. Something more specific to WB is to work on being a better writer, and that will help in real life and other stacks as well.

@dot_Sp0T hey, there are worse things to be gripped by.

@WELZ hello. I've posted a time or two on GD, too.

Shalvenay

@JDługosz yeah -- I suspect it doesn't help very much that my reading tastes skew hyper-technical.

@JDługosz and yes -- WB isn't particularly great for answers for me because it doesn't touch on my strongsuits that often

@JDługosz but at the same time, on DIY.SE I tend to be pretty heavy on answering and still have problems gathering upvotes on my answers -- and it's sometimes hard telling if it's a global problem (voting base) or a local issue (writing style)

Journeyman Geek

@Shalvenay writing style and knowing your audience is pretty important

JDługosz

@Shalvenay seems like DIY has high voting numbers, based on what I see on your profile.

Shalvenay

@JourneymanGeek yeah

@JDługosz two things: 1) those votes are spread across lots of posts (the question inflow rate is very high and it can be hard to cull those down as dupes and such) and 2) it seems like some tags have better voting habits than others

JDługosz

@Shalvenay hyper-technical reading habits can work well for WB! Know your way around the subject and and point to the primary information in an answer.

Shalvenay

1:21 AM

@JDługosz yeah. most WB stuff seems to be more economics, astronomy/astrophysics, biology, and earth-sciences though than what I deal better with (chem/engineering-scale physics, with something of a nod to combat and military history as well)

gov't stuff seems to be a mixed bag too

speaking of that -- what are good sources for models of law, if you will? I'm fairly facile with models of government as a whole, but my thinking on legal systems is very heavily inspired by what the US does...

dot_Sp0T

1:44 AM

@Shalvenay that's a difficult question. Most law / government stuff I know began with the fact that we actually addressed such thing in history classes in school, when going through all the periods of history like the classical era with greeks, then romans, etc. so you might get a broad overview from a good history book

Shalvenay

@dot_Sp0T yeah -- most of the history texts I had in school were too zoomed out for that

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