Phew! After more than 2 years since I joined ResearchGate my score finally became active at a measly 1.14. Did it make me happy… well of course yes! And what did I do to gain that recognition from among my peers? I simply started answering some questions posed by other RGers.

It didn’t really matter to me whether I was a ‘Subject Matter Expert’ but all I knew was that I was better at googling. Time after time Google has come to my rescue, be it searching for that elusive paper on fracture mechanics or that mouth watering Hyderbadi Biryani recipe. And I not just blindly chose the first couple of search results that google spat out, but to dig deeper, refine and re-refine my search was my forte. I got the right answers to my queries and I did it pretty quick.

And since Google covers the entire knowledge of this microcosm that we live in, so I believe, I confidently stepped out of my tiny bubble and started picking up questions that seemed interesting, challenging or way out of my league. Thus I have come to know what machine do scientists/researchers use to make fine slices of tooth or what Cox Regression is all about and how I will never use it ever for the rest of my life or why I have a love-hate relationship with Ansys.

Being a ‘jack of all and master of none’ may be seen by others as a dangerous path to tread, but for me, I love the experience. So far, I have managed not to steer others away from the right path of knowledge going by the responses to my answers, the ‘upvotes’, the slight increase in the number of followers and profile views and even a friend request on Facebook (the person has been accepted but currently under acquaintance and restricted list!).

There are many criticisms about scoring system set out by ResearchGate but at the end of the day it still serves as a platform to disseminate knowledge and if it does so by boosting the ego of it citizens, then so be it.

And why did I take up the exercise of answering ……well,after all these years, I still haven’t got an answer to my one and only question I posted. It has 642 views, 2 followers and of course 0 answers….but hey who’s counting?