How can I participate?

Question

I want to participate here at AskUbuntu and am compelled to contribute based on information that is not being found in many of the discussions but because of the absolute strict and high bar set by the moderators, I am unable to make those contributions and provide ample and necessary help that is the prime value and directive of the open source community. Gatekeeping is not a value of the FLOSS community.

While I completely appreciate and respect those participating here, you all are also missing out from other very experienced people that can also provide real answers to many very arcane problems kinda instantly.

I am new here and after reading the rules, regulations and policies find myself at a loss because I probably would be providing more answers than questions. Plus, for any questions I do have that are already listed in this database, I cannot gain any points as my question is automatically rejected.

So, there is no real endgame here except to peruse the vast database of questions and invent new questions that have not already been asked. Why would I spend my time doing that when I am trying to get answers and be part of a discussion to do that? My job doesn't pay me enough to do that. I need to get real actual paying work done. Spending hours to build some unique and restrictive reputation does not produce any results.

Am I missing something here?

Answer 1

The 50 reputation limit to comment is in place to help prevent misuse of comments.

Comments are considered "second class citizens" on Stack Exchange. They aren't meant to be permanent in any light whatsoever. They are only there for short discussions relating to the content of the answer/question. If we let anyone comment the amount of spam we get would be immense, and since comments aren't meant to be permanent there is no way to detect spam and prevent it/handle it.

In general, it really isn't hard to get 50 reputation. Approved edits get you 2 reputation, answer upvotes get you 10 reputation and question upvotes get 5 reputation.

The 5 reputation required to post on meta only applies to meta. This is, again, to prevent spam and misuse. 5 reputation is insanely easy to get.

While I completely appreciate and respect those participating here, you all are also missing out from other very experienced people that can also provide real answers to many very arcane problems kinda instantly.

It doesn't require any reputation to answer questions, so if they have an answer they can and should post it (note that special questions that receive too many non answer answers and spam can be "protected". Protected questions require 10 reputation to answer, but again, that is insanely easy to get).

Plus, for any questions I do have that are already listed in this database, I cannot gain any points as my question is automatically rejected.

Question automatically rejected? We have a few small quality blocks in place, but I've never hit one myself. You must have been asking pretty bad questions to hit that block.

To sum up, Ask Ubuntu (and all Stack Exchange sites) are not forums, like many users think, and these checks are in place to keep our quality high and prevent spam and abuse. They may look hard, but they really aren't.

If you don't have time to get a little reputation, how do you have time to provide good answers and participate in any "discussion" needed to answer them?