How Slashscore was developed
The idea behind Slashscore started in 2017 when we were internally debating “What defines who you are” as a developer. We took this to the next step by asking ourselves, “Having so many developers with various skills around the world, what metrics would you use to determine what makes developer A better than developer B?” for your projects pending implementation.
At that time, we asked this question on several Slack channels frequented by developers, and the outcome was crazy. Some of the more hilarious answers were:
- Lines of code
- Number of ping-pong matches won
- The numbers of monitors used
- Pints of coffee consumed
- Trolls trolled
The majority of them, however, were on point and professional. They were pointing out that it would be cool if we could find a fair system that could be
- Measurable in a meaningful way
- Applicable to ALL developers in general (especially considering how much work can vary)
We’ve started to add some metrics into a spreadsheet, and then, step by step, we put an entire system in place that we called "the resume of the future for anyone who codes."
The first version of Slashcore had just one big score. As you might already know, some football players have a higher rank in defense, others have higher ball-control skills, and still others are better at scoring goals. It can be the same with developers. Some of them are really good professionals but lack communication or soft skills, or the other way around.
This determined us to split the score in version 2 into four categories-professional, extra, community, and community.
We were pleased to discover, after launching it, that there are many developers who have both.
Made by Developers for Developers
It’s about time we tell a new story about developers.
See, being a developer is like a sport. Now we may not hit baseballs, but we do smash cables and monitors :), which requires a great deal of passion.
A great boxer always has someone guiding and assisting them in their corner. They are indispensable. A great developer needs Slashscore to do more, become more, reach their full potential, and show how valuable they are and how they affect the ecosystem.
Many people believe that being a great developer is a natural talent. But this is a misconception that must be destroyed.
The best developers are not born, they are made.
Does it take hard work? Well, yes. Will it take late nights or early mornings? Yes! Will it take courage? Yes!
Software development is one of the most important activities of our time, and great developers are needed now more than ever.
So let’s turn the page on the old ways and create a revolution of great developers. Let’s stand out, let's be different, and show the world what we're worth.
As Slashcore is built by developers, each feature was created with a “we are building this for ourselves” mindset. Because of this, we'll always care deeply and understand intuitively what our audience values.
We know what core problems developers are facing because we’ve faced them too:
- Need to realistically auto-evaluate their own activity.
- Need a platform that also assesses their human skills and devotion to knowledge sharing.
- Need a platform where to add all the info in one single place in a well-arranged manner to give them real leverage in discussions with technology partners.
- Need a product that shows WHO THEY ARE AS DEVELOPERS.
We promise that wherever Slashscore continues this amazing journey, the model of dev-centricity will be forever in our hearts.
What kinds of challenges can Slashscore help solve?
Being a software engineer is not without challenges, regardless of how many years of experience you accumulate. In fact, each new level of experience can come with a whole new set of challenges related to the tools of the trade, code quality, work values, and many others. This can make it difficult for developers to evaluate themselves, which in turn can diminish their value when hunting for a job.
The hard part was never the measuring. It was the honesty of it. Any system that asks you to describe yourself measures how well you describe yourself, and that is a different skill from the one it claims to be about.
So the answer we kept arriving at was to stop asking. Public work is already a record: commits, reviews, issues, releases, answers. Nobody writes that record for an audience, which is exactly what makes it worth reading.
What slashscore is today
Slashscore is a graph of software engineers. Each profile carries one score from 0 to 100, computed from public data by a single formula that is published in full, down to the weights and the arithmetic.
Three things follow from that, and they are the whole design:
- Nothing is self-reported, so nothing rewards self-promotion.
- The formula is versioned and frozen. Recalibrating anything is a new version, and every score records the version that produced it.
- The maths is on the page. You can check your own number by hand.
The 2017 spreadsheet asked what makes developer A better than developer B. This is the same question, asked without taking anyone's word for the answer.
If what you have read up to this point resonates with you or with a software engineer you know, read how the score is built, find yourself in the graph, then claim your profile if you want it kept current.