My Stack Overflow Journey!
If you are a tech guy, I don’t think I need to say what is Stack Overflow at all. In case you don’t know what it is check it out https://stackoverflow.com/. Stackoverflow is an online platform where developers can learn and share their knowledge and help each other to solve programming issues, resolve issues in digital offerings, etc.
I have been a Stack Overflow member for 4 years and 10 months now. Today I thought to write down this post because recently, I reached a noteworthy milestone on Stack Overflow — a reputation of 2500+.
You might now think, is that a big deal compared to the users with reputations exceeding 100K+? 🙂Yes I agree there are a lot of users with a 100k+ reputation, but this is a great milestone in my StackOverflow journey. Each upvote, accepted answer, and positive interaction served as validation for my dedication to learning, sharing, and contributing to the community. So I’m over the moon!
I thought to pen down how I started my journey, what kept me motivated, and what I gained out of StackOverflow, hoping this will be an inspiration for at least one guy.
You can check my profile at: https://stackoverflow.com/users/10055162/anuradha-karunarathna
How I Started
- Searching for the solution on StackOverflow for programming questions started at the beginning of my undergraduate life, but I hadn’t asked any questions until my final year.
- One day, I was pulling my hair to resolve an issue of embedding Python code inside C++ code for my final year project work. Since I couldn’t resolve it by hours, I thought to try out stack overflow. This is the question I asked: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/56632641/segmentation-fault-occurs-when-pyrun-simplefile-is-called-repeatedly
- Before going more than 2 mins, my question was upvoted! and there was a comment too. I felt good thinking at least one guy has read my question. Somehow I got a direction to resolve my issue.
- Similarly, I asked a few questions related to my project work and got them answered…
- But I didn’t try to answer others’ questions at all.
- When I joined WSO2 as an employee, I saw how WSO2 values the stack overflow community around WSO2 products. As WSO2 offers open-source solutions, Stack Overflow is one of the places the dev community seeks for help on their matters. Our mentors and leads also highly value community engagement.
- After 5 months passed from my employment, I found a stack overflow question related to an area I just worked on. So I was confident to answer that question and here it is https://stackoverflow.com/questions/62384147/input-security-question-in-self-registration-for-recovery-password-wso2-is-sol/62385083#62385083
- Even though the answer was not upvoted or accepted, The words from the questioner -“Thank you Anuradha for your help” made my day.❤️
- Such
thank youworth more than $1000, because I love to help others.
What kept me motivated
- UpVotes, Accepted answers, and Thank yous
- Read the following comment! What do feel if you get such a compliment? Such a heartfelt expression of gratitude filled me with immense joy and satisfaction😇❤️. I wanted to contribute more.
- Seeing the +10, and +15 green labels in the achievements section made it more satisfying.
2. Curiosity to learn
- I got to know about StackNotifier which is a Chrome browser extension that can notify new stack overflow questions on subscribed tags. I added
wso2andwso2-identity-servertags. - Gradually it became a daily dose. At the end of the working hours, I check on the notifications and try to answer at least one question per day.
- Believe me, I received at least 2 notifications per day, but most of the time when I check on the question it’s not something I am aware of.
- Since I was a new developer to the WSO2 identity-server team at that time, I was eager to explore the product’s features and learn. So I tried the flows that have caused the stack overflow issue and tried to find the possible causes. That was so interesting. The experience proved to be highly productive.
What I gained out of StackOverflow
So far this is my reputation summary. I am so excited to see this growth!
- Satisfaction
The self-satisfaction gained from my journey is priceless. It is an indescribable feeling when you realize you have the ability to assist an unknown developer somewhere in the world.
2. Knowledge
I learned a lot from Stack Overflow answers which I searched during project work.
At the same time, I researched and tried unexposed areas to answer the questions. Today I’m bearing bronze batches for the wso2-identity-server and wso2 tags by obtaining more the 100 scores for the tag. Collectively all these scores prove my expertise in the area.
Apart from that from my answering attempts:
- I improved my troubleshooting skills
- Learned how to ask the most relevant questions to get the background clear
- Learned how to handle situations such as XY problem
3. Connections
I could build LinkedIn connections with people who get help from me to resolve their issues. Some guys have followed my blogs. Such developer connections mean a lot. I’m proud to say that I have a great fellow developer network.
Wrap up
Maybe now you think, stack overflow is outdated and ChatGPT is there to resolve everyone's issues. Still, Stack Overflow will always be the best place for trickier questions that require more community endorsement. As a last note, I don’t think Stack Overflow will die soon!
If you are not yet among the community, join today and gain value!👊
