Frequently Asked Questions

The pay data, interview insights and company reviews are based

Introduction to WSO

Wall Street Oasis is the largest and most entertaining finance community online. With over 1,000,000 posts to date and four million page views a month, you can be sure that your questions will get answered in our finance forums by experienced professionals. WSO also provides several services to help as you progress through your business career. We currently offer a:

The Mission.

To become the most entertaining and useful finance community in the world. Come join your fellow primates now! You can read more about WSO, and the people behind WSO, here.

Wall Street Oasis – The Premier Financial Career Resource

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Wall Street Oasis will cost you $0 and 0 bananas to join. WSO started as a community and we will continue to offer access to our forums and the wealth of information they contain to all site visitors free of charge. We've also added a couple of other free features including our Company Database which includes thousands of company reviews, interview insights and compensation data points across thousands of financial firms. Here are the links to these resources:

  • Forums
    • The Wall Street Oasis Forums, sign up for an account to start posting today!
  • Company Database
    • A large list of banks, consulting firms, and other businesses for you networking ninjas.
  • Frequently Asked Questions
    • The FAQs include both site-specific and career-related information.
  • Finance Dictionary
    • The Finance Dictionary includes a large number of terms that will be sure to help you through the interview process.

Starting with "A Look Behind the Wall", Wall Street Oasis began offering a number of professional guides and services to those users looking for a more personalized experience. These currently include:

  • Guides
    • Each guide is written by professionals with experience in that area.
  • Modeling Training
    • WSO offers modeling training through Wall Street Prep
  • Wall Street Mentors
    • Wall Street Mentors offers mock interviews, Job Search Consulting, and Rush Mock Interviews, if you're running short on time!
  • Video Library
    • Wall Street Oasis has compiled a library of Mock Interviews on video to help you prepare for yours
  • Job Search Board
    • WSO's job search board has high-quality postings for those on the hunt!
  • Resume / Cover Letter Review
    • Our experts will make sure your resume and cover letter can pass the closest scrutiny

We hope you take the opportunity to post questions and share information on our message boards. Our forums are a great source of information on a variety of topics. We also strongly urge you to check out our Guides and Services. They provide a more concise, organized, and professional look into the world of Wall Street!

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All you have to do to create a free account on WSO is click here! If you sign up, you can start collecting bananas and gaining status in the community. If you are a finance professional and develop a great reputation in the community, we may even invite you to join our Certified User group. You won't just get a gold star next to your username, but you'll also be invited to the private Certified User group to use our chat function and network with other impressive professionals.

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If you are confused by all the lingo getting thrown around Wall Street and the WSO forums, you've come to the right place. We know it can be confusing but don't worry, we are here to help! Below you will find a comprehensive list of finance acronyms for words and phrases in finance. This is a great place to start so that you can follow along in forum discussions easily.

-AM (Asset Management): Refers to the industry which manages assets, whether institutional or personal (PWM, PB)

-BB (Bulge Bracket): Generally the largest banks competing for the largest deals, notable BBs include, but are not limited to: Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, and UBS. Bulge bracket banks don't focus solely on the largest deals and very often venture into the middle market arena to vie for business

-DCF (Discounted Cash Flow):DCF is a method used to value a company or project by determining the present value of future cash flows by discounting them using the appropriate cost of capital

-DCM (Debt Capital Markets): A division within an investment bank which focuses on raising debt capital

-EBITDA (Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization): a measure of a company's operating performance. Essentially, it's a way to evaluate a company's performance without having to factor in financing decisions, accounting decisions or tax environments

-ECM (Equity Capital Markets): A division within an investment bank which focuses on raising equity capital

-FIG (Financial Institutions Group): A group within an IB or IBD, which focuses solely on companies in the general finance services sector

-FT (Full-time Analyst): An analyst working full-time at a financial services firm

-HF (Hedge Fund): HFs are usually an investment fund that is only open to a small number of large investors who pay the fund manager a performance fee

-IB (Investment Bank): This generally refers to a bank that focuses solely on investment banking, however it may also be used as shorthand for saying "investment banking"

-IBD (Investment Banking Division): This is the division of a bank that focuses on investment banking

-IPO (Initial Public Offering): An IPO is a corporation's first sale of common shares to investors on a public stock exchange. It is usually done in order to raise capital for further expansion, growth, and/or development

-LBO (Leveraged Buyout): This is the method PE funds generally use to buy companies. It uses the PE firm's and the target company's assets as collatoral to take on enormous debt, generally 70% of the total value of their assets

-M&A (Mergers & Acquisitions): Refers to the act of two companies merging or one company acquiring another. This is a major part of investment banking and finance

-MBB (McKinsey, Bain, BCG): The three most respected management consulting firms, these firms focus mainly on strategy consulting

-MM (Middle Market): MMs are banks that focus mainly on middle-market deals, that is, deals that involve small- and medium-sized companies. Morgan Joseph and Jeffries are two great examples of superb middle-market banks

-PB (Private Banking): A type of wealth management catering to high net-worth and ultra-high net-worth individuals, the services they offer often go far beyond the services offered in PWM

-PE (Private Equity): This refers to the buy-side finance sector which, in the most general sense, uses a leveraged buyout to purchase a company, improves it, and sells it

-PWM (Private Wealth Management): PWM is the sector of finance that focuses on managing they money of high net-worth individuals

-SA (Summer Analyst): Generally refers to an analyst with a summer internship

-TMT (Technology, Media, & Telecom): Usually refers to a group within an IBD or a boutique IB focusing on that specific sector

-WACC (Weighted Average Cost of Capital): WACC is used in finance to measure a firm's cost of capital and takes into account the relative weights of each component of the capital structure and presents the expected cost of new capital for a firm

-WSO (Wall Street Oasis): A fantastic community of finance professionals whose goal it is to get you a job on Wall Street!

-VC (Venture Capital): A sub-sector of private equity focusing on companies in their early stages of development

Related: Common terms used on WSO

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Getting Started

Once you are logged in, you can create a new topic by selecting "All Discussions" on the top menu at the top of the page in the main navigation menu, and select a specific forum. Once a forum is selected, you will also see "Start a Discussion" green button to the right of the list of threads in that forum. We get into a lot of detail in this FAQ, so if you're still confused, please continue reading about all the ways you can create a new discussion on WSO.

  1. First method for creating a new topic (Jump to section)
  2. Second method for creating a new topic (Jump to section)
  3. Thread Customization (Jump to section)

First Method: Main Forums Page

In your address bar, go to www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums. When the page loads, you will see a "Start Discussion" button.


Second Method: Specific Forum Page

From www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums, select one of the forums (for example: I-Banking Bullpen, Monkeying Around, etc). When the page loads, again you will see a "Start Discussion" button in the top of the right column.


Thread Customization Options

There are a number of options to help you promote your thread, as well as to help organize it so that other users can find it at a later time. Being able to reference past threads is a big part of what makes WSO successful, so try and keep that in mind while you're posting!

  • Field 1: Subject

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The subject is a title for your post that everyone sees from the forum pages. Fill this in with an accurate title to ensure people are reading your topic for the right reasons.

  • Field 2: Tag

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The tag field allows you to select keywords that will be associated with your topic when people use the forums search.

  • Field 3: Forums

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The forums field allows you to select which forum you want your topic posted in. If you select "Post New Topic" from a specific forum, this will already be selected, but you can change it if you like it.

  • Field 4: Body

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The body field is where you input any content you would like to be seen in your post.

  • Field 5: Input Format

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The input format allows you to select from a number of options depending on how technically skilled you are. See the descriptions for what each option allows, but if you are a technical novice, you may want to leave it on "Filtered HTML".

  • Field 6: Upload Image

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Use this when you want to upload an image from your computer. Simply select the file, create a title (or leave blank to use file name), and then click the upload button (seen in the below picture).

  • Field 7: Upload / Post

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The "Upload" button will upload a picture, if you have selected one. The "Post" button will publish your post, so make sure everything is the way you want it before clicking.

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Before posting a new forum topic, remember there are over 1,000,000 posts on WSO, so your question has likely already been asked. Please always be sure to use WSO's search function for relevant information on the forums, Company Database and blog posts. The WSO community is more than happy to help out fellow monkeys and prospective monkeys, but doing a little due diligence goes a long way so we get less repetition on forum topics!

To help you with your search, there are a number of filter options when you selected "Advanced Filters" below the search bar. These include: Sorting (by relevancy, date, etc), Type (forum post, blog post, etc), Date (by year, and by month within that year), Forum (Investment Banking, Off Topic, etc), and Author.

Also make sure to read through our FAQ sections as many of the most common questions are answered in the FAQs. It is a work in progress, so check back regularly for more information!

Relevant Discussions on Wall Street Oasis:

Related: How do I start a discussion or ask a question on WSO?

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Under the last comment on every discussion there is a text box with "Post New Comment" in large letters above it. Write what you wish to write and then click the "Add Comment" button to contribute to the discussion! You also have the option to select whether or not to have notifications emailed to you in the event of a reply to your comment. For our more technologically advanced users, there is also an "Input" option, where you can select more formatting options. For example, if you want to embed a video, you would select "Full html" before clicking the "Add Comment" button so that the video or image displays properly.

Another way of replying is by clicking the "quote" button on a specific comment you'd like to reference in your reply. This will also notify the person you quoted that they have a response. See the Related link below form more information on how to quote a user's post.

Relevant Discussions on Wall Street Oasis:

Related: Can I quote, bookmark or forward a comment or discussion?

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My Feed is a feature on WSO that allows you to stay up to date on the members and companies that you want to track. To see your My Feed table, you can click on Recent and click on the My Feed tab, or go directly there from the Recent drop down at the top of the page.

In order to start following users, all you have to do is login to WSO and click on the blue "+" icon next to their username anywhere on the site. From that point forward, you will start to see all comments and posts made by that user in your My Feed table.

In order to start following specific companies, all you have to do is login to WSO and click on the blue "+" icon next to any company name in our Company Database. From that point forward, you will start to see all Compensation data points, company reviews and interview insights made about that company user in your My Feed table.

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Editing Your Profile

Changing your password is a fairly simple process. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Click on your username in your account bar at the top right of the site.

2. Click on the edit tab.

3. The third and fourth text fields are titled "Password" and "Confirm Password". Enter the new password and retype it in the "Confirm Password" field.

4. Scroll down to the bottom of the page. Under the text field containing WSO's Terms & Conditions of use is a "Save" button. Click it.

Related: How do I change my username?

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We greatly prefer that our members maintain the same username to make identifying people easier, but we understand that sometimes a member would like to change their username to something more anonymous.

Depending on the circumstances, we may do it. If you are sure that you would like to change your username, e-mail [email protected] with your request.

We try to process these requests within 24 hours, but sometimes it may take longer. If you haven't heard from us in 3 days, send another email. If you don't think you have a good reason for changing your name, then we probably don't either, but hey, it never hurts to ask!

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The "Account" section under the "Edit" tab in your user profile allows you to decide how you interact with WallStreetOasis.com, from your email address and time zone to receiving notifications. To get to the Account section, click your username in the top right hand corner of the website. Now click the "Edit" tab, and you will see this automatically opens the Account section. Please keep in mind our User Guidelines, particularly when uploading your profile avatar and adding a signature.

IMPORTANT: You MUST click the "Save" button at the bottom of the "Edit" section for the changes you've made to take effect.

  • Account Information
    • E-mail Address: Change your email address for notifications and administrator contact
    • Password: Change your password (Note you must re-enter your password in the "Confirm Password" box below)
  • Signature Settings
    • Signature: You may use this field to create a signature which is displayed at the bottom of every post
    • Input Format: This option, below the "Signature" box, allows you to customize your signature even more by changing the input settings
  • Picture
    • Delete Picture: Check this box to delete the picture that accompanies your posts
    • Upload Picture: Click "Choose File" and select the picture you would like to use as your profile picture. Please note that you may see your old picture even after uploading your new one. To fix this, either refresh the page or clear your browsing data
  • Comment Follow-Up Notification Settings
    • Receive Node Follow-Up Notification E-mails: Check this box to receive email notifications when additional replies have been posted to a topic / blog post you've created. You cannot disable this for individual posts
    • Receive Comment Follow-Up Notification E-mails: Check this box to receive email notifications when additional replies have been posted to a topic / blog you've commented on. You may disable this for individual comments
  • Messaging and Notification Settings
    • Default Send Method: The default notification method is Mime Mail, this cannot be changed
    • Default Send Interval: Choose what intervals you'd like to receive your notifications at (ie- immediately, every 2 hours, etc)
    • Autosubscribe: Automatically subscribes you to any thread you create or comment on
  • Contact Settings
    • Personal Contact Form: This allows other users to contact you via email without showing them your email address. Keep in mind that if you send another user a message using the contact form your email address will be visible to them
  • E-mail Settings
    • Plaintext E-mail Only: Select this option if you do not want to receive emails with graphics and styles, only plain black and white
  • Locale Settings
    • Default Time Zone: Select the time zone you would like displayed throughout the site
  • Privatemsg E-mail Notification
    • Receive e-mail notifications for private messages
    • There is also a section here to turn off certain types of private messages here as well as My Feed e-mail notifications.
  • Terms & Conditions of Use
    • Accept Terms & Conditions of Use: When you signed up for an account with WSO you checked a box that said you accept our terms and conditions for the use of this site. You cannot uncheck this box
  • CLICK THE SAVE BUTTON

Related: What do all the options under "Edit Profile Info (Monkey Stats)" do?
Relevant: What are the toolbar options in "My Account"?

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The Monkey Stats section of your profile is where you can share some personal information with other users and allow you to get your profile complete percentage to 100%. To get to the Monkey Stats section, click your username in the top right hand corner of the website (in your account bar). Now click the "Edit" tab and you will see this automatically opens the Account section. Next to the underlined Account section is one called "Monkey Stats"...click it.

Note: When you put information on your profile, anyone can see it. Many of our users choose to remain anonymous, which is fine. Keep in mind that unless a user is a Certified User, their background (Industry & Status) has not been verified by WSO.

IMPORTANT: You MUST click the "Save" button at the bottom of the "Edit Profile Info" section for the changes you've made to take effect.

  • Industry: Which industry you work in
  • Status: The level you are at your firm (1st/2nd/3rd year Analyst, Director, etc). Keep in mind some industries such as Equity Research, where you start as an associate and move up to an analyst, use different terminology
  • Self Explanatory: Sex, College/University, Degree & Major, GPA, GMAT, Location, Birth Date
  • How did you first find WallStreetOasis.com?
  • CLICK THE SAVE BUTTON!

Relevant: What do all the options under "Edit Profile Info (Account)" do?
Relevant: What are the toolbar options in "My Account"?

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Click your username in the top right corner of the website to be taken to your profile. The page it takes you to is the "View" tab, which allows you to see what your profile looks like to other users on WSO. You profile contains tabs to all of the customizations available, and includes: View, Edit, Notifications, Track and Community.

  • View
    • Overview: The "View" option is automatically pulled up when you click on your username.
    • Features: This option allows you to see your profile as others do and get a snapshot of your status including the number of banana points and silver bananas you've collected.
    • View My Blog: This will take you to your blog posts. If you don't have a blog, feel free to try it out by clicking "Post New Blog Entry"
    • View My Groups: Any group you join will show up in your Groups.
  • Edit
    • Introduction: This tab takes you a variety of options that allows you to customize your WSO experience as discussed in previous FAQs.
  • Notifications
    • Overview: This shows you the status of your subscriptions and how many you currently have. You have multiple options including: administer your subscriptions, edit your notification settings, temporarily disable all your subscriptions, and cancel all your subscriptions
    • Subscriptions: Lists your current subscriptions with a number of options for editing them
    • Group: This shows your Group subscriptions and gives you options for if/how you'd like to receive them
  • Track
    • Track Posts: You can track your created threads and replies by selecting this option. Note that it is not in the chronological order of the threads you've commented on, but rather which thread that you've commented on has been replied to most recently by any user.
  • Community
    • Friends: Lists the members you are currently friends with - this ensures their posts will end up in your My Feed tab under the Recent navigation menu.
    • Sent: These are friend requests that were sent and are still pending.
    • Received: Requested friendships still pending.
    • Following: this page lists the users you are following. Any content created by a user you are following will show up under you My Feed table.
    • Follower: This page lists the users that are following you. Any content created by you will show up in their My Feed table.
    • Accepted: Lists the people who have accepted your invitation to WSO
    • Pending: These are people you've sent an invitation to join WSO, but have not yet responded. If the Status says Deleted, that means the user account has been terminated from WSO
    • Expired: If an invite is not accepted within 30 days, the invitation will expire
    • New Invitation: You can send someone an invitation here. The site will automatically fill in your email address, but it will let you create the Subject and Message you'd like to send

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Other WSO Features

The groups on WSO allows members with a similar background or interest get together on their own message board and discuss topics and network. There are hundred of different groups created by WSO members, so we encourage you to search through our WSO Group section for groups that may interest you.

Creating a group is very simple. Hover over the "Groups" link on the top toolbar (under the WSO banner) until the dropdown menu appears. When it appears, select "Create New Group". Select the parameters you'd like, fill out the necessary information, hit "Save" and voila, you've got yourself a group.

To join a group all you have to do is click the "Groups" link on the top toolbar and scroll through the groups until you find one (or more) that interest you. If a group gives the option to "Join" under the Join Link column, then it is an open group and you do not need an invitation. For a moderated group, you'll see the option to "Request Membership". The groups that say "Invite Only" under the Join Link column are, surprise, invite only. You'll have to contact the administrator of that group to gain access. The Closed groups are invite only as well, but once you join that group only an administrator may grant you permission to LEAVE that group.

Viewing your groups is another simple task. Hover over the Groups link in the top toolbar, wait until the dropdown shows, then click "My Groups". Alternatively you can click on "My Account" and then click on the "View My Groups" button. From there you can create new discussions, reply to discussions and connect with other WSO users!

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The private messaging feature allows you to connect privately with other members of the WSO community. To access your messages, look in the very top left corner of the website. You will see an envelope with a number next to it. The number represents how many unread messages are currently in your private inbox.

Click the icon or the number and you will be brought to your private messages. You have the option to message one or multiple people at a time attach files and filter your message by sender and particpants.

Features

  • Inbox: Your inbox is where your new messages and current private message conversations are located. It is ordered chronologically, from newest to oldest. There is an option to search the subjects of your private messages or to search for a person you've been communicating with under the "Filter Messages" option directly above the messages in your box. There are check boxes next to each message or conversation, if you click one or more of those and scoll down, you have the option to mark read, mark unread or delete the messages you've selected using the "Action" function.
  • Sent Messages: The tab directly to the right of your Inbox shows all the messages you have sent. It has the same features as the Inbox.
  • All Messages: This tab, to the right of "Sent Messages", shows all the messages and communications you've had that you haven't deleted. It has all the same features as the inbox.
  • Write New Message: The furthest right tab allows you to create new messages. Just fill in who it is going to, the subject, the message, click send and you're done!

Alternative Methods

Another way to send a private message without going to your inbox is by clicking on a user's name to go to their profile. The middle button allows you to send that user a message, and you can add more recipients if you like. Or if you read a comment on the site and want to send that user a private message, you can click the small blue "pm" icon at the bottom of each comment.

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To create your own blog post (all users by default have a blog on WSO) click your username in the top right corner of the website. You should now be on your profile page, with an option to "View My Blog". Click that button. The next page will say you have not created any blog entries, and underneath it will give you the option to "Post a new blog". Click that, and away you go!

Alternatively, you can select the "Create Blog Entry" drop down option under the "Forums" menu at the top of the site.

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Rankings

A Certified User is a highly valued member of the community that works or has worked in the industry and title indicated on their profile (verified by the WSO team). All Certified Users will have a star next to his/her username every time they post a comment so that users new to the site will know that the comment is being made from a reputable source. They will also have access to the private Certified User group and private chat room.

The criteria to gain Certified User status is as follows:

  1. The user has proven he/she works in the specified field in their profile through e-mail verification to [email protected]. Please send your username AND password.
  2. The user has demonstrated superior knowledge in that specified field and given helpful advice to other users
  3. The user has displayed maturity, patience and a willingness to help other prospective monkeys with limited or no experience
  4. The user continues to display maturity and does not get into meaningless debates on school or company rankings (certification can be revoked) and does not post inflammatory or inappropriate comments

Note: Under rare circumstances, users that demonstrate superior knowledge and a desire to help can gain Certified User status very quickly, while other members will have to improve their reputation with the site administrators & moderators to become certified.

If you believe you deserve to be certified and have not been yet, you can always e-mail [email protected] to make your case or just have us review your account.

Every time you contribute to WallStreetOasis.com you get bananas! The more bananas you collect, the higher your ranking in the community. The more helpful your posts the more silver bananas you will likely collect which will help you race up the ranks quickly. The left chart shows you the number of bananas you get for each activity, and the right shows you the ranking you get for your banana count. :

activity*banana
post comment1
post topic2
post weblink5
post resume10
invite a friend5 WSO Credits
invite a friend
who registers
10 WSO Credits
create a group10
  
bananaranking
0 - 15Chimp
16 - 29Senior Chimp
30 - 65Monkey
66 - 99Senior Monkey
100 - 174Baboon
175 - 249Senior Baboon
250 - 374Orangutan
375 - 499Senior Orangutan
500 - 749Gorilla
750 - 999Senior Gorilla
1,000 - 1,999King Kong
2,000 - 3,999Neanderthal
4,000 - 5,999Senior Neanderthal
6,000 - 9,999Almost Human
10,000 - 19,999Human
20,000 - 49,999The Pro
50,000+The Addict

* Note: You can also gain or lose Banana Points any time a user with WSO Credits awards you Silver Bananas (+3 Bananas) or throws Monkey Shit at you (-1 Banana). Good luck!




Read the criteria on how to become a Certified User.


WSO Credits are a form of currency introduced to our community so that users can reward or punish authors based on the content they contribute. Users that have WSO Credits have the power to vote on any piece of content that any user submits to the community (forum, blog post, etc.).

If a user with WSO Credits finds a particular post very helpful, they can use a WSO Credit to reward the user who wrote the post with a Silver Banana. This will give that author 3 extra banana points which helps them move up in rank and they will also be notified the next time they log in!

If a user with WSO Credits finds a particular post stupid, unhelpful or annoying, they can use a WSO Credit to punish the user who wrote the post by throwing Monkey Shit at them. Any user that gets Monkey Shit thrown at a post they authored will lose 1 banana (becomes inedible) and be notified the next time they log in! This obviously implies they will also have a harder time moving up the ranking system if they get a lot of shit thrown at them.

Once you have WSO Credits, all you have to do to reward or punish other users is click on the small Silver Banana or Monkey Shit icons below the profile image in any post. You won't see these icons until you have WSO Credits to spend.


How do I get WSO Credits?

There are three ways to get WSO Credits:

1. You can be rewarded with free WSO Credits based on your contributions to the community. If moderators think you have been helpful to other users, you may receive WSO Credits with no warning. The decision to reward WSO Credits will be at the sole discretion of the site administrators and moderators.

2. You can invite your friends to join the community. For each invite sent you will earn 5 WSO Credits and every time someone you invited registers you get an additional 30 wso credits. The users you invited will also be given 5 WSO Credits to start off when they join.

3. You can support the community by paying for WSO Credits using the Paypal button below. When you purchase WSO Credits through Paypal, please include your user name in the notes of the order so we can credit your account fast. This is a great way to reward the user that helped you with some great advice (with a Silver Banana) or throw Monkey Shit at the users that add no value...and at the same time help us to continue improving WSO. ****WARNING / NOTE: we reserve the right to undo any silver bananas awarded or monkey shit thrown if we suspect abuse of the system. Abuse includes using your credits to reward or punish only a few users to try and manipulate the rankings. If abuse is found and all of your votes are undone, your payment will not be refunded and your IP will be blocked.****

WSO Credit Options

Why Did You Introduce This?

The primary reason we introduced this system is because we wanted to encourage high quality content instead of just quantity. Under the old system, a user could gain bananas regardless of the quality of their advice. Now, the best users will jump higher in rank faster as they collect silver bananas, and the worst users will have a harder time. In other words, the rankings will be much more meaningful.

The second reason is that we thought it would be fun to increase user interaction and get feedback on how other users view your advice. You will notice next to the "reply / quote" links on each post a small # of votes. If this # is positive, that means the piece of content has received more silver bananas. If that number is negative, that means that more monkey shit was thrown at that post.

So what are you waiting for? Grab some WSO Credits, award some Silver Bananas and throw some Monkey Shit before you get hit yourself.

Enjoy!
Patrick