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I am not disagreeing with the current set up; I am just curious what the motivation was to design the site this way.

StackOverflow and Meta StackOverflow have separate reputation scores (you earn different scores on the two different sites) but here at Electrical Engineering Meta your reputation is linked to your account on Electrical Engineering.

Why the difference? Was there a particular reason for one going one way and the other one a different way?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I'm still trying to figure out the voting system here. Can someone explain why they downvoted this question? I am asking because I don't understand and I want to be able to ask good questions here and clearly I am not. \$\endgroup\$
    – tmwoods
    Mar 15, 2013 at 20:37
  • \$\begingroup\$ Here on Meta we use votes to indicate agreement/disagreement (another thing you can't do if they give you rep/privileges) \$\endgroup\$
    – W5VO
    Mar 15, 2013 at 21:06
  • \$\begingroup\$ I think I am still confused and I want to be clear that I am asking purely out of curiosity (i.e. I'm not sitting here crying because I got a downvote). I was asking a question, not stating an opinion so I'm not sure how it can be disagreed with. \$\endgroup\$
    – tmwoods
    Mar 15, 2013 at 21:10
  • \$\begingroup\$ @tmwoods I agree, which is why I did not vote, but someone might read it as wanting there to be rep for meta. Nothing to take offense to, just something that is not supported by the community. The fact that votes are just opinions and do not affect rep means people can ask without risk of losing rep. \$\endgroup\$
    – Kortuk
    Mar 16, 2013 at 13:53

2 Answers 2

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The only meta site that has its own reputation is meta.SO. That is because it is the "network meta." Go check every other meta on the system, meta.SO is the exception.

It is very large and dedicated to the SE system, the site metas are focused to that site and occasionally have broader questions we will then take to Meta.SO.

In the long long term there will be a meta.SE and a meta.SO and some confusion will be cleared up.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ That clears it right up. I haven't really had occasion to use the other sites here, especially the other meta sites. Thanks for the clear explanation. \$\endgroup\$
    – tmwoods
    Mar 15, 2013 at 20:38
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You have to be careful what advice or procedures you pull from Stack Overflow. Some of their stuff is legacy and some of it is purely geared towards (relatively) large communities. The meta organization for meta.SO is the way it is (both site and system meta) because it will be painful to change it.

Meta is for site business. It's for people to speak their mind, identify issues with the community, and to gauge public opinion. People do this because they have an issue, or are motivated to improve the site.If there is a reward for stating "popular" opinion, and a penalty for saying something unpopular, then meta devolves into a popularity contest.

You get points for being an expert on the site, not for being an expert about the site.

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