Experts Exchange
Experts exchange is a website where people who need an answer to a tricky technical question can go to seek out the help of self-proclaimed experts in various topics. Experts are given points for answering questions. Experts with lots of points can earn rankings, print out certificates and earn free t-shirts (the ultimate nerd motivator).
I first visited the site because I had been struggling with a particular function that had suddenly stopped working and I couldn’t figure out why. My boss got me set up with an account, and I was able to ask my question.
It was cool. At first, the suggestions I got were things I had already tried, or unhelpful comments from people who didn’t seem to understand what I was trying to do. Fortunately, there was a fellow who was able to suggest a way of rewriting the function. It worked, and I was happy.
But while I was there, I happened to look at some of the other php questions in that “zone”. I started providing some answers. I started earning some expert points. I started having fun.
I really like working on php problems, and because the nature of my work prevents me from coming across every potential use for php, I used to find that I wasn’t being stretched as much as I like. So now, whenever work gets slow, I can always count on someone on experts-exchange posting a question that I wouldn’t otherwise have a reason to think about.
I almost always learn something new when I visit the site these days. Either I learn because I have to do some research in order to answer a question I’ve never come across before, or else I learn because someone posts an alternate way of doing something that I didn’t know about.
I’m pretty good at it too, which is nice as far as self-validation goes. I’ve now participated in 123 questions, not counting the handful I’ve asked myself. Of those, I was either credited with an accepted answer or an assisted answer on 73. Out of the remaining 50, only 15 were credited to another user. The rest are all still open or deleted by their authors. I happen to know that many of those open questions have simply been abandoned after I correctly answered them, and I’ll eventually get the points credited to me when the moderators come around and clean up the old questions.
Right now I am ranked a php “Master”, meaning I have over 50K points. The next ranking is Guru. Earning it requires hitting 150K points, and I expect to hit it sometime in October. Additionally, today marks a milestone for me with EE, as I have earned a spot among the top 15 php experts for the entire year. This is particularly thrilling seeing as I joined in July, so almost every other expert on the list has been answering questions since the year began.
The top php “rookie” – meaning someone who joined this year, is sitting at number 4 on the top experts for 2007. He joined in January, and currently has 225K points in php. I have 94K. If I can overtake him by the end of the year (and I think I can) I will receive an official award from experts-exchange recognizing me as the top php rookie.
I’m competitive, I like to collaborate with other techies, I like the challenge of trying to debug someone else’s code, I enjoy expanding my own knowledge, and I love free t-shirts. It’s only natural that I would be drawn to this site. And if showing off my expertise helps me land a job doing what I enjoy, then that just makes it all the better.
[UPDATE: I’m now at #13 for the year on the site, and within a single answer from #12. So far for the month of September I have just over 53,000 points in the php zone. Or, to put it another way, I have more points than the combined monthly totals of the 2nd-6th spots of top php experts this month.]
[UPDATE: I’m now a guru, and #9 for the entire year in php. My new shirt should be here in a few weeks. I created a little module for my blog that counts my current points score. It’s at the bottom of my left-hand sidebar.
To help me spend less time on the site and still answer questions, I developed a script which alerts me each time a new question is asked. This is important because when I’m working, I can’t keep checking the site throughout the day, but it’s not a problem to turn off my timer for a few minutes while I answer a question that I know I’m interested in solving.
I believe I have close to 40,000 points stored up in unclosed questions that I’ll receive toward the end of the month and the beginning of next as moderators come through and clean them up. The current top php rookie may not realize it yet, but he is very soon going to be replaced.]
[UPDATE (October 26, 2007): I have now been recruited as a zone advisor for the PHP and the blogging zones. This means that I’ll be the “go-to” guy if someone’s stuck with a particularly difficult problem in any of those areas, or if there’s a dispute about who answered a question best. It also means I can close any question and post a comment as an admin. Also, I get a new email address. If someone sends to my username (MasonWolf) followed by “experts-exchange.com” it’ll be forwarded to me. Anyway, it’s kinda cool. Out of thousands of experts on the site, there’s only 55 zone advisors, and I’m the newest.]
September 06 2007 07:57 pm | worth mentioning
2 Responses to “Experts Exchange”
Kiran Paul on 19 Sep 2007 at 5:17 am #
Hi Mason,
Congrats on your guru and master certifications. You look great in the new tshirt. I am also nearing my master certification in PHP, need some more points.
Cheers,
Kiranvj
Wolfman on 20 Sep 2007 at 4:20 pm #
Thanks! Work slowed down the first part of the month, so I ended up with a lot more time for the site than I expected. Now that things have picked up again, I haven’t been able to answer more than 1 or 2 questions a day, so I guess that leaves more for you and everyone else. 🙂
Good luck Kiran!