Hey admins/mods this is for you!

Question

Please read this before you close this! I know you will.

How am I supposed to add comments if I only have 6 rep. Please don’t tell me to just add comments to reply to people. I cant, I don’t think that the comment system is unfair, especially if we are supposed to reply with our rep. Not to be rude or anything. I get that you don’t want spammers commenting willy nilly, but come on. One more thing: Will a Ubuntu LiveCD be affected by a BIOS virus? That is not actually a general security question.. He/she was asking if the Ubuntu live CD would get a virus from his/her infected BIOS. The person was curious if it was safe to use Ubuntu. You may have not have seen it that way, but I did. Will you please unhold the question. I know that this question will be deleted as fast as I post it but please, take a second to think deeper about the question, and the commenting system. I have an idea for the comments actually, if people spam the comments, disable chat for them. It is as easy as that. Just an idea. Take it or leave it.

"Please don't use answers section to respond to other answers. With a little more rep, you can leave comments for such purposes." – jokerdino♦ 12 hours ago

Jokerdino, It is hard to earn rep, and 50 is a reasonably high amount to say just get more rep. I'm just saying. I already said my ideas of what you could do to fix that up a little bit.

"This is a theoretical "what if" game, that doesn't accept the simple truth of "don't use a system you can't trust". Therefore close voting on this." – LiveWireBT 13 hours ago

Ya LiveWireBT, I will admit it was a "what if", but I was providing backup for the "if" part of it, just like It tells you to when adding an answer.

"This is a general question on computer security not really related to Ubuntu. You should ask on security.stackexchange.com." – psusi 5 hours ago

Ya there are better choices for asking this question psusi but it was a Ubuntu question. So I don’t see the point in that but ok, you guys are the bosses.

I hope this does not upset anyone. I was just telling the simple truth through my eyes, I'm not mad and please don’t get mad at me. This is just a simple complaint that I wanted to be easy for everyone to see. To see if the rest of the community will agree or disagree. I may be plum out of luck, but at least I got my opinion in. That's the great thing about America, the right to speak our minds.

One last thing, why cant we add our own tags?

Answer 1

How am I supposed to add comments if I only have 6 rep.

You both acknowledged the reason we have the limit and ignored it in the same breath. Earning 50 reputation is not hard. Answer a few questions if you can, but if you can't, suggest some edits. There are literally tens of thousands of posts that could be improved.

Running Live Ubuntu DVD. Virus That is not actually a general security question.. He/she was asking if the Ubuntu live CD would get a virus from his/her infected BIOS.

Okay, so edit it up so other people understand it, like Seth did. That would have earnt you a couple of rep too.

... That's the great thing about America, the right to speak our minds.

Nope. Something I've seen in a few places online but it really doesn't apply on a private website. You have no constitutional right to have your speech broadcast on this site.

We're happy to bear your complaint though.

One last thing, why cant we add our own tags?

Creating new tags (ones that don't exist) currently requires 300 reputation.

Answer 2

How am I supposed to add comments if I only have 6 rep. Please don’t tell me to just add comments to reply to people. I cant, I don’t think that the comment system is unfair, especially if we are supposed to reply with our rep.

We all got past that level (well, I didn't because I used my U&L account and got the association bonus) so why you can't? Here is one of the most easy places to win the reputation where there are lots of questions and little answerers. If you have nice answers don't worry reputation will come naturally. If you still believe that is too difficult there are another 100 SE sites and once you get enough reputation you get 100 reputation in any site you log in with the same account.

Jokerdino, It is hard to earn rep, and 50 is a reasonably high amount to say just get more rep. I'm just saying. I already said my ideas of what you could do to fix that up a little bit.

50 rep are only 5 upvotes on an answer, 10 on questions, 25 awesome edits or 25 answers accepted in case that you ask questions. Always you could get a bounty, and the minimum is 50 reputation. Or just 3 accepted answers + one upvote in a question. What is the cost? Time and knowledge.

Hey admins/mods this is for you!

Admins are employees of SE. Mods are elected, and do what the community (as whole) ask them to do. We gave them power to do what we can not. The question was closed by the community, ie 5 users with more than 3000 reputation + someone that flagged it + someone that took the flag in consideration (this last two are in case someone with close votes didn't vote it to close).

That's the great thing about America, the right to speak our minds.

You better read this: http://meta.askubuntu.com/a/7320/169736 . If you follow the rules and keep on topic, we don't have a problem. If you are just ranting please, go somewhere else. Those are our rules (more like the rules of Stack Exchange Network). We don't want to listen what we don't want to listen. Point.

One last thing, why cant we add our own tags?

Why can't you delete someone else tag?

---

About the question itself: I don't think is unclear. I don't believe that the close reason was appropriated. If I had come across with the question I would ask (in comments): is there an underlying circumstance why you ask this question or you are asking for curiosity? Trough I believe the question is clear, I don't see any real use case in modern systems with UEFI getting infected with virus (or so I hope). BIOS viruses are vestiges of an obsolete era. Modern hackers use Social Engineering and target a wide audience. Nobody will take the time to make a virus for a BIOS as it takes painstakingly amounts of time to make that it affects the most amount of systems (I believe someone will ask me to add that as an answer on the question, through I believe most of it is an opinion based answer).

Final note:

The decision of reopening (or unholding) the question is a privilege of the community too. Ultimately, the community will decide the fate of the question.

_{No TL;dr for this one either}

Answer 3

Why do I need reputation to comment/vote/edit/close/add tags/etc?

I can appreciate that you have the exact need for which comments are designed. Asking questions and an answering take no reputation at all, but there are other features we ask folks to forgo until they have a bit more experience with the site. That's why they are restricted by reputation.

Comments fill a very specific purpose which is not immediately apparent until you have a bit of experience the site. It's not just a spam thing. Our experience has been that new users tend to treat comments like miniature forums and chat rooms — which they are not — until they have the experience to know how to use them properly.

The minimal reputation requirement is a way to show that a user has that experience before they can use that feature. It's the same philosophy of why we delay the ability to voting, edit, close question, add new tags, etc... simply asking folks to hold off using those features until they have a bit more experience with the site.

Answer 4

I agree with the priveleges restrictions. Those restrictions are the difference between a useful site and unmitigated chaos. However, i understand it can be frustrating, especially as a new user i wanted to vote up things that helped me. Also as a linux noob Im not going to be answering much, just issues that ive fixed on my own puter.

The "add a comment" restriction doesnt need to be so high, except that it has to compensate for inviting comments!

Robert Cartiano wrote:

Our experience has been that new users tend to treat comments like miniature forums and chat rooms — which they are not — until they have the experience to know how to use them properly.

This is the expected outcome of suggesting "add a comment", which is a well established english phrase, with a well established meaning ie - say what you think about this. Anyone can add a comment - and they do!

However, this isnt actually what is wanted from users, what is required is a contribution to develop the question or answer, so that it is more useful as a solution to peoples problems.

Its kind of like saying "Add a fish, if you have enough reputation to realize that you should actually add a dolphin".

So, i recommend scrapping the phrase "add a comment" and replacing it with something like "add to/develop the question/answer", thereby inviting what is really required.

Answer 5

I completely agree with Dalton. The rules on StackExchange need to change.

Dalton is very right about comments. Reputation is very hard to earn here.

I am shocked Dalton was not downvoted or the question closed.