Until the class assignment I have never heard about Stack Exchange. As I registered, I decided to use the “Physical Fitness” site, as other options didn’t seemed to focus on particular subjects that I had no knowledge and interest in. So, I posted my first question: “How to get my boyfriend to workout?”. I wasn’t sure if it fitted the category right, but I posted it anyways. Not surprisingly, my question migrated from “Physical fitness” to “Interpersonal skills”.
What surprised me most is how quickly people started commenting on my question asking for more details. For example, other users would ask :”would you be able to give examples of some things that currently take up his time?”, “Does he give any specific reasons why he doesn’t want to engage in physical activities? Are there any specific physical activities he’s ever expressed any interest in?”, “It would help to be more clear about your motives here, is this about you wanting him to be more active or expressing concern about his health? Is your boyfriend concerned about his health in general? Does he have health issues arising from not exercising?”
Then, very soon I got my first (and super large) answer.
This kind of deep analysis and the willingness of others to figure out a solution to my problem was certainly unexpected. Why would anyone care to write such a long answer, if they don’t even know me personally? In any case, my question got viewed 549 times and got one vote. The long answer got 5 votes, and I marked it as the best answer.
Next, I decided to answer a few questions in “Physical Fitness”. I searched questions with a tag “yoga”, as I wanted to share the knowledge I actually have. So, I answered to the following questions:
- Does yoga help in weight-loss?
- Is doing yoga in regular socks okay? Are the yoga toe socks better, the same, or worse than doing yoga barefoot?
- Is an “active lifestyle” enough for maintaining health?
- How can I get rid from feet pain?
When I was writing the answers I felt like I seriously wanted to help. I even googled some stuff in order to make sure my answer contains correct information. Two of my answers got one vote each, and one was accepted as the best answer – that made me feel so proud of myself.
Then, I asked another two questions on the topics that I genuinely wanted to know more. One in “Physical fitness” :“What kind of workout I can do in the sea?”. Another one in “Interpersonal relations”: “How to make decisions quickly and not regret afterwords?”
For the first question I got an answer that was a bit off-topic and thus useless. But my second question was “voted to be deleted”, which made me upset. The issue was that I described personal anxiety arising from decision-making, and other users commented that this questions is a personal issue that should be addressed to a psychologist. I deleted the question, realizing that I made a mistake by posting a PERSONAL question in “INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS”.
To conclude, I had fun using Stack Exchange, it got me feel very excited and willing to help others. It made me feel like I’m part of the community where everyone is there ready to lend a hand to everyone. However, I don’t think I will continue using Stack Exchange as I do not see how it is any better that regular forums (except for the required depth in asking and answering as well as strict moderation). Maybe in other sites, that deal with more concrete topics, such as Stack Overflow, this system makes more sense.
P.S. My reputation numbers: Physical Fitness – 36; 1 badge “Teacher”. Impact: 380 people reached. Interpersonal Relations – 19; 3 badges “Student”. Impact: 622 people reached.
