I just noticed that it’s been exactly two months since I joined the MSDN forums, so here’s my two-month update on my quest for 5 gold stars…

At the moment, I have exactly 3500 points, which puts me solidly in the middle of 3 stars.  I’m not quite half way to my 4th star (7500 points).  And at this rate, I should achieve my 5th star (15000 points) about 6 months from now.  Then I will finally be able to retire into obscurity (unless people start haphazardly marking all of my posts as helpful, in which case I could retire sooner)!   

It’s quite clever of Microsoft to invent this little rating system that takes full advantage of the obsessive-compulsive nature of geeks to defend their geekdom.

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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