Reputation and accepted solutions
Last reviewed 3 September 2026
Reputation is the forum's own score, separate from XP and from Bounty. It measures one thing: whether people found what you wrote useful.
How it is earned
| What happened | Reputation |
|---|---|
| Somebody upvotes a thread you started | +1 |
| Your reply is marked as the solution | +10 |
Upvoting your own thread pays nothing. It has to, or the number would measure enthusiasm for yourself.
Marking a solution
Whoever started a thread can mark one reply as the answer. It moves to the top and the thread reads as resolved for the next person with the same problem — which is the whole point of a forum outliving its conversation.
It pays once, and un-marking refunds nothing
An accepted solution pays 10 reputation and 25 Bounty, once per post, ever. Marking and un-marking repeatedly pays nothing further.
That is not distrust, it is arithmetic: the toggle used to pay on every mark, which made it a button that printed Bounty. And no refund on un-marking, because the alternative is a thread author who can take back somebody's reward after the fact.
Marking your own reply
Allowed — sometimes you solve it yourself and writing down how is worth more than leaving the thread open. It pays nothing, for the same reason self-upvotes do not.
Where it shows
On your profile, and on the leaderboard, which can be sorted by reputation instead of XP. Several achievements are counted from it, from 100 up to 5,000.
Did this answer your question?
One tap. It decides which answers we rewrite first.
Still stuck?
Both of these reach a person. Tell us what you tried — it saves a round trip.