[ayla]

I am a novice programmer and I am always put off websites that rank users (and programming competitions for that matter). Avoiding the competition seems better than putting my relatively crappy code out there for all to see.

Would more seasoned people out there agree that a clean slate is better than a low ranking on sites like InterviewStreet (or HackerRank if it gets big)?

[rvivek]

Hi Ayla, we want to build something that has fun stuff catering to different set of programmers (hackers/programming contest enthusiasts/functional programmers, etc.) Whether it's for pride or for learning new things, we want to leave it to the user.

[mnicole]

I agree, as someone that's still just getting my toes wet, as soon as I saw the leaderboard aspect I was like "Ah, this isn't going to be my type of place.."