Reaching 3.9 Million People

Who can claim to have never used Stack Overflow? Probably no one among those who have ever written at least one line of code.

And if you ever went to Stack Overflow to check something related to Python, you might have found one of my answers.

Ten years ago, I joined Stack Overflow, a community managed website where users can publicly post questions and answers about programming. These were the early days, way before the platform got sold for 1.8 billion dollars¹.

How it all started

I started by answering questions about the Python programming language. Partially for fun, as a pastime, and partially because I knew the answers to those questions, and it seemed like sharing them helped others.

We all know that helping others and being thanked for it, gives that warm fuzzy feeling inside—and that’s (mostly) why we do it.

Back then, I did not know how valuable my contributions would or could be.

Rising through the ranks

The website had (and still has) a system of up-votes and down-votes, so that users can identify useful and correct answers.

In less than 6 months, my Python answers got ranked among the top 1%. Something I wasn’t expecting.

My answers varied greatly in genre. Some were answers that dealt with common Python pitfalls and newbie’s problems, some dealt with very intricate algorithms and required a lot of detail, involving profiling and testing to demonstrate which solution was the best, and some answers shared insight into various Python best practices and designing principles.

I am proud of the care I put into them.

In parallel, as my contributions grew in recognition, so did my user privileges. I gained access to moderator tools that would allow me to improve the quality of others’ questions and answers, maintaining a high standard for the community.

Today

Today, I am not as active on the platform, but I look back at the impact that my contribution has had.

Thanks to the thousands of up-votes that my answers received (and still receive), I earned a total of 150 badges (6 gold, 63 silver and 81 bronze). Gold badges are extremely rare, and I managed to earn 3 in Python. I surpassed even the highest privileges milestone of the platform and I am considered a trusted user with access to internal and Google site analytics.

But most importantly, over the years, my contributions have reached and helped about 3.9 million people. I consider this an achievement! :)

1. Prosus closes acquisition of Stack Overflow for US$1.8 Billion ↩