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I just joined meta.stackoverflow.com and linked my account to my Stackoverflow one. I like upvoting good answers, but unfortunately I have to start off with reputation 1 on meta, which doesn't let me upvote.

How about letting me transfer 15 rep points from my Stackoverflow account into my meta one?

Otherwise there doesn't seem to be a way that I can get involved in the meta community without actually posting or answering a question. That's annoying because I frequently come here to find out how Stackoverflow works, and I can't upvote good answers.

I don't want to create a question just for the sake of it, and almost all questions are answered before I get anywhere near them!

Update: It took me a while to figure out, but this meta question seems to explain how feature requests get processed:
-the request are considered open until a status-completed, status-declined, or status-bydesign tag is added to the question
-the Stackoverflow team generally don't even look at feature requests until they reach 10 upvotes.

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+1 for me, just because my heat isn't all ice. –  Ólafur Waage Nov 10 '09 at 22:19
+1 so you can upvote. –  mmyers Nov 10 '09 at 22:32
Not the first time rep transfer has come up meta.stackexchange.com/questions/171/rep-transfer-from-meta –  Brad Gilbert Nov 10 '09 at 22:38
"I don't want to create a question just for the sake of it", oh yes, don't do that. –  o.k.w Nov 10 '09 at 23:57
Here, have an upvote. –  perbert Nov 11 '09 at 0:12
Hehe he's close to the rep cap on meta (and almost half his rep on SO) from only this question. –  Ólafur Waage Nov 11 '09 at 0:33
possible duplicate of Should reputation from SO carry over to Meta? –  Gnome Sep 2 '10 at 9:01

3 Answers 3

up vote 11 down vote accepted

You can associate your accounts. You'll get 100 rep then. But I don't think you have enough rep on SO to qualify.

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how do I associate my account? –  hexium Nov 10 '09 at 22:24
@Olafur Aha, so I needed 200 rep on Stackoverflow to get the 100 rep bonus on meta: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5909/… –  Dan J Nov 10 '09 at 22:26
@hexium - go to your profile page (on any site) and click on the "accounts" tab. There'll be three buttons to click to perform the association with the other three sites. –  ChrisF Nov 10 '09 at 22:37
@Dan yes you'll need 200 rep to get a bonus when you associate. –  Ólafur Waage Nov 10 '09 at 22:38

I would argue that allowing users to transfer rep between sites is not a good idea. The entire point of rep is to figure out how much you participate on a given site.

For instance, my SO rep is about 3900, my SF rep is 570, my SU rep is just shy of 890, and my rep here is only 499. That's really quite a good indication of how things are - I got to SO first and others later (If I've got time).

If folks were able to move rep around (even if it was just into meta), that would really blow rep out of the water as a useful way of telling how much you participate.

If it's a real problem, then I'd say a better approach would be to grant voting rights to folks who have reasonable rep on the other sites AND who have linked their accounts. That would let folks who have proven to be active in the overall community have a voice on meta merely by being good members of the other communities.

That said, I actually don't think ANY change is necessary - I think it's pretty much fine the way it is. Just look for some questions to answer here on Meta and you'll pretty rapidly get to voting status.

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Yeah, I've almost got 30k on SO. I'd move my rep around so I had 10+ on each of the trilogy (except meta), and who knows what horrors I would visit on sites where I didn't put in my time. –  Adam Davis Nov 11 '09 at 2:53
I agree that transferring arbitrary amounts of rep shouldn't be allowed - I am only suggesting being allowed to move "a little bit" of rep to get started. The "grant voting rights" alternative you suggest also sounds good to me too. –  Dan J Nov 11 '09 at 15:24

Well you've made a start by posting this question!

Seriously, posting a question and a couple of answers should (as long as they are interesting and relevant) get you the two up-votes you need to be able to vote yourself.

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