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I'm writing this because I'm really astonished by these tight rules. I have an account on Stack Exchange and on Super User, that is common to the Stack Overflow platform.

I really don't understand WHY a person cannot take part in the community and have the chance to upvote and comment on other questions before making questions that people consider interesting or smart.

In registration phase there are already means for avoiding computers autoregister and spam, so I don't understand the point.

I think these platforms should promote cooperation and crowdsourcing, giving the opportunity also for a person that is a newbie to say "gosh, that answer saved me from tons of headaches, everybody should see how important it is!"

I hope I won't be blamed for this OT, but I think this behaviour is far from the concept of forum and community (and I have to begin to earn reputation, in case things won't change).

Thanks for reading this.

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    meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7237/how-does-reputation-work
    – Mark Kirby
    Commented Jun 7, 2017 at 14:16
  • I totally agree with you with the fact that reputation is a good indicator and necessary for understanding quality of who answers, but I still think the constrains are too tight... I mean, upvoting good answers should be promoted, instead of lurking.
    – Kernel
    Commented Jun 7, 2017 at 14:20
  • 3
    You only need 15 rep to vote. That is one accepted answer, 3 question votes 2 answer, votes or 8 edits, it is hardly unobtainable.
    – Mark Kirby
    Commented Jun 7, 2017 at 14:23
  • 1
    I agree with @MarkKirby. I actually started my run here with editing questions and having them approved. Before I knew it, I started earning rep pretty quickly. It is a way that people here get to know and trust you with your answers, comments and questions. Don't forget that this is a Q&A site and not a forum.
    – Terrance
    Commented Jun 7, 2017 at 14:25
  • 7
    Also note that as soon as you get 200 reputation on one SE site, you will automatically get 100 reputation on all other sites you join. So you only need to pass this hurdle once.
    – terdon Mod
    Commented Jun 7, 2017 at 14:29
  • As Mark Kirby said, you only need 15 rep to vote. It'll tell you that you need 125 before the vote count goes public, but nevertheless your vote is counted. I'll admit that when I was new, I thought the 50 rep required to comment was a bit steep as well. But, it's there for good reason. It forces you to learn how the site works before you start really contributing a bunch.
    – You'reAGitForNotUsingGit
    Commented Jun 7, 2017 at 14:31
  • @AndroidDev the aim is exactly contributing to the site! Making questions that have already been answered is senseless and redundant, then when you find the right answer users ought to upvote and make them more evident. Ok for comments, but at least let me do this!
    – Kernel
    Commented Jun 7, 2017 at 14:35
  • @Kernel I think you've misunderstood my point. Of course the aim is to get users to contribute. I didn't say to not contribute. What I said was "contributing a bunch". The restrictions are there in part so that newcomers learn how to use the site before they become serious members.
    – You'reAGitForNotUsingGit
    Commented Jun 7, 2017 at 16:09
  • @AndroidDev I think you are slightly off about the voting there. All votes are recorded, even by people with no account, but you need 15 to cast "real" upvotes and 125 to cast "real" downvotes. The anonymous votes can only be seen using SEDE as far as I know
    – Zanna Mod
    Commented Jun 7, 2017 at 16:47

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I think these platforms should promote cooperation and crowdsourcing, giving the opportunity also for a person that is a newbie to say "gosh, that answer saved me from tons of headaches, everybody should see how much is important!"

Sure, but part of the design of the system is also earning rewards for participating, seeing future perks and wanting to contribute more. Gamification is the term.

At the lowest end, it blocks fleets and fleets of sockpuppet accounts. "Oh I want to be able to edit, I'll just sign up again and upvote my existing answers", and stops spammers inserting their junk into the system unchecked.

And your basis for this (nobody will contribute if they can't do stuff) isn't true either. People come here because they need help. They stay because they can help others. Reputation, voting and commenting is gravy. Every day we have new users joining up and getting stuck in.

I do understand your concern —and I've probably argued for some of the things you are in the past— but the way the site is set up for new users was a balance that I don't see changing any time soon.

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