In an earlier post, I mentioned that I’ve been hanging out in the MSDN WPF Forum lately.  

I was feeling pretty good about my 100th post the other day, and in fact, I was even considering retirement from the forums so I could spend my afternoons playing golf.  (Isn’t that what doctor’s do when they retire?)

Then I noticed something disturbing!  Right there under my name were two little gold (well, yellow really) stars.  For some reason, I had never even noticed the rating system before.  And now, on the crest of my retirement, I discover that I’ve only scored 2 out of a possible 5 stars… clearly there is still much work to be done.

How much?  Well, I did a quick search and found this information on the MSDN recognition system. 

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Strike that!

Okay, I feel pretty good about earning 2000 points in my first 2 weeks, but come on!  Do I seriously have to earn a million points to retire with 5 stars?  Am I the only one that thinks the cost of that last star is just a little too high?  I figure I can reach 4 stars (15000 points) in about 3 months at my current pace.  But then that last star is going to cost me roughly 19 more years!!  I don’t think so!

Okay, clearly my understanding of how the point system works was drastically off! 🙂

The values in that chart are the upper limit for the star level, not the requirement.  So in order to get my 5 gold stars, I only need to achieve 15000 points.  Much Better! 

Of course, that also means I don’t yet have the 2000 points that I thought I had.  🙁

I discovered that by clicking my name, I can see exactly how many points I have.  Currently, I have 851 recognition points, so I still have a ways to go!  But at least its within reach!  Yep… still a “noob” at this forum thing!  🙂

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