Let's say I earned 200 reputation points today (the daily limit), and I still get upvotes.

Where do the earned points go for those late upvotes? Are they lost, or are they enqueued and will be earned tomorrow?

  • 12
    They aren't lost, you just don't get reputation for them. – Rizier123 May 2 '16 at 11:05
  • 1
    yes, that's what I meant. Does it imply reputation points will never be attributed? – Regis Portalez May 2 '16 at 11:07
  • 1
    Votes are retained as is, but no reputation is credited for the same. – CinCout May 2 '16 at 11:08
  • 35
    seems that your hit the rep cap was due to serial upvoting. today there is a reverse on you reptuation of -251. – albciff May 3 '16 at 13:54
  • 10
    @Rizier123 I would consider those points lost. – TylerH May 3 '16 at 14:02
  • 18
    What would be the point of having a limit if you still get the points? – mason May 3 '16 at 18:18
  • 8
    Easy come, easy go... – j08691 May 3 '16 at 18:29
  • 1
    @TylerH Those points still count for some privileges like the mighty Mjölnir, for instance (and probably other stuff I can't think of right now). – David Arenburg May 3 '16 at 19:22
  • 5
    @TylerH They are not lost, just not counted. Imagine some days later someone retracts one of the counted upvotes. Then, you don’t loose 10 rep points, but another, formerly uncounted upvote will become counted instead. – Holger May 4 '16 at 17:58

Congratulations on hitting the rep cap!

No, the extra points are not saved for tomorrow. There are a few reasons for this, but the most important one is that points unlock privileges. The more points you have, the more privileges you earn.
And we don't want people to earn privileges too fast. We don't want people to get a lot of privileges for a single lucky question or answer - we want them to earn it over time, while gaining experience with the system and a better understanding of how it works. So that, when they unlock the privileges, they will (hopefully) use them in accordance with the system.

There are a few exceptions to the rep cap: earned bounties can cross the 200 point limit. Otherwise it would be pointless for anyone to award a bounty for more than 200 points. And, the 15 points for an accepted answer are also awarded after the daily limit is reached.

  • 10
    Hitting the limit is nothing to be proud of, when this happens due to a serial upvoting :P. – Tom May 3 '16 at 14:03
  • 24
    @Tom If it was done without your knowledge of consent.. it means you have a fan. A misguided fan, but still a fan. – S.L. Barth May 3 '16 at 14:26
  • I don't know if it is a good thing to have a fan here :D. – Tom May 3 '16 at 14:30
  • 7
    I think you missed the point of the rep cap. Its main facility is not to prevent privileges being earned too quickly, it is to prevent burn out. If you have so much contribution for a day that you reach the rep cap, then the outlook is you should probably step away for a while. You can also see this in all of the cap limits - the main facility is to prevent burn out. – Travis J May 3 '16 at 18:40
  • 1
    @S.L.Barth As long as it's not an adoring fan... – TylerH May 3 '16 at 19:24
  • @TravisJ Hmmm... I'm curious if you have a source for that claim. If that is indeed the reason, then it seems a bit weird to me. Every time I've hit the rep cap on any SE network, it was usually due to just one post that happened to get a lot of upvotes that day (i.e. it hit the Hot Network Questions list.) I figured the limit was more just to make it a challenge for Jon to get to 1,000,000 rep. - lol - Or, conversely, to make it impossible for anyone to ever pass him in rep. – reirab May 4 '16 at 22:50
  • @reirab I have actually heard it before... I think in one of Jeff Atwoods old blog posts. May update my answer if I find it back. – S.L. Barth May 4 '16 at 22:52
  • I was under the impression that the definition of "developer" was "a fan of Jon Skeet?" By definition then, we are all fans of the Skeet. – joshmcode May 4 '16 at 23:29
  • 4
    @TravisJ That theory doesn't make much sense. The rep cap doesn't prevent you from posting 20 +1 answers a day every day. That's pretty much the opposite of "preventing burnout". If you could get a bunch of rep in one day (and take the rest of the week off) that would be less burnout-y. Preventing people from getting All The Privileges from one hot post is more important. – Andrew Medico May 5 '16 at 1:05

I haven't tried this strategy but I guess it's theoretically possible:

  1. When you suspect you will reach the rep cap, go hunting bad answers and write them in a list.
  2. Just when you reach the rep cap, downvote the bad answers. Each downvote will subtract 1 reputation of yours. This way you will obtain "available space" to be filled with more upvotes.
  3. Since the answers are bad, it's probable they will eventually be deleted, so you will recover some rep. If they are not removed you will have done a good service to the community, and you can be happy anyways :)

Note this strategy can't be used to abuse the system because there is a maximum number of votes.

  • 12
    That is some good deed done in a preeetty shady way... – Błażej Michalik May 3 '16 at 18:36
  • 3
    OTOH, you still get rep points for accepted answers, even when you've reached the 200 point limit. So you can just find some good questions and answer them. – user3386109 May 3 '16 at 21:49
  • 1
    @user3386109 Yes, and probably a bigger reputation gain can be achieved by getting accepted than by hunting bad answers to save reputation for another day. – Oriol May 3 '16 at 22:01
  • The rep would also likely be lost on the next global recalc, though I can't be sure. – BradleyDotNET May 3 '16 at 22:04
  • 3
    This doesn’t work as the reputation is recalculated as if you never did the downvotes. Note that the opposite is also true: if someone retracts an upvote days later, the rep is recalculated as if the upvote never happened and another, formerly uncounted upvote will be counted instead. – Holger May 4 '16 at 17:55
  • also i think you can edit the post you downvoted anytime to undo the vote and get your reps back!! I like this strategy though – user3894351 May 5 '16 at 4:43
  • @Elltz Yes, but that wouldn't be much ethical. – Oriol May 5 '16 at 8:29

The only way you will get those points into your rep total is if other rep is discarded due to a user being removed or serial voting being reversed. In those cases, the total for the day is reevaluated without the removed points. If you had some points discarded from previous consideration due to the rep cap, they would now be valid and would take the place of the ones removed so potentially you would not have a change in reputation despite having some points removed.

Congratulations on your mortarboard !

  • 2
    He got his mortarboard after serial voting, so nothing to be proud I'd guess... – David Arenburg May 3 '16 at 19:23
  • @DavidArenburg I'm amused by the 1 rep users in the list of recent mortarboard recipients. I guess the serial voting reversal script doesn't reevaluate the badges earned that day... – reirab May 4 '16 at 22:58
  • @reirab Apparently the mortarboard badge can be revoked manually. I'm doing some research for a feature-request now. – S.L. Barth May 4 '16 at 23:07

Reputation isn't a real thing. It's not like coins in your wallet. Try not to think too much of it. If you hit the reputation cap for a day, chances are you already have reputation to spare, and you'll get even more on the morrow, and in the future. Pretend you donated it to charity or something.

  • 2
    The less upvoted answer. Why I am not surprised. – Your Common Sense May 5 '16 at 5:09
  • “The points don't matter!“ – Insane May 5 '16 at 19:10

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .