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I want to make this clear, the idea of a reputation system on a Q/A website is foolish. Why would you create a system that prevents people from posting their ideas, comments, etc. isn't that the point of the site? To ask and answer questions freely? What made you think restricting peoples access to express them and their opinions was a good idea? For the sake of this website I would recommend removing this system, because it may make people feel like their opinions do not matter, so please remove it before it becomes a problem. If you choose not to then that's how you choose to handle it, I'm just suggesting an alternative that allows people to ask/answer questions without having to earn a right we already have, that being "freedom of speech" which the reputation system stands in the way of.

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    welcome to the site. The SE network is more than just gaming.se, and the system has been in place for many years now. Yes, there are negatives to the system, but looking at it objectively can show you that it does help people find the answers they are looking for. In regards to "opinions", that is one thing we certainly avoid here, specificity for that reason. An opinion is not right or wrong, and therefore cannot be judged properly. That's why we push people to back up said theories and opinions with facts, so that can be judged as useful, or helpful, or not. – Ben Dec 31 '18 at 3:12
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    'Freedom of Speech' doesn't apply here. It means the government can't arrest you for what you say, it doesn't mean anyone else has to listen to it, nor is a site compelled to host it. As for the rest: our model is 'Ask questions, get answers, no distractions', as described on our tour page. Even with the base 1 reputation point, you can still do the most fundamental part of our site which is ask and answer questions. Commenting unlocks at 50 rep, which is not much: 5 upvotes across questions or answers. Everything else you can unlock is just housework: voting, editing, reviewing etc. – Robotnik Dec 31 '18 at 3:27
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    "Freedom of Speech" is about a citizen's relationship with the government. It isn't a law that forces private entities to do whatever you want. – Nelson Dec 31 '18 at 6:56
  • Plus, you can already ask questions and post answers - what you can't do without a very easily gained 50 rep is offer random comments (such as this one). – Shadur Dec 31 '18 at 14:01
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    Cross Sans, I didn't understand the purpose of it at first when I joined a little over a year ago, but it is a great way to filter out trolls and other people who would come in and ruin the site with awful posts. Also a great way for making sure new users who haven't been around here long are i charge of the site. It would be mayhem. – The Mattbat999 Dec 31 '18 at 14:06
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    I'm the resident malcontent here and even I disagee with this post. – You're bad and should feel bad Dec 31 '18 at 23:56
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Arqade, and StackExchange in general, is a site that squarely focuses on quality questions and answers. It is by definition a Q&A site.

There are two main purposes for the reputation system here.

  • Discerning quality: Good questions that show research effort get upvoted. Good answers that actually answer the question and are of good quality are also upvoted. Questions that show no research or are unclear are downvoted; same with answers. This allows visitors to the site to easily distinguish the quality from the crap. It is designed in such a way that the askers and visitors find exactly what they're looking for - good quality answers to a question they have.
  • Permissions and moderation: This site is moderated by the community, as in fellow users to the site. If the site was structured to allow anyone to moderate content, a lot of griefing could easily take place, which would overall reduce the quality of answers. This is why you unlock privileges as you gain reputation: ask good questions and author good answers, you gain a better understanding of how the site works, and thus are entrusted to do more. This also helps filter out garbage content, such as spam or intentionally damaging edits.
  • For more information on these, see why voting is important.

Another thing to note is that Arqade is not a traditional forum. The purpose of this site is not for opinions and discussions - again, it is for questions and answers. On this site, your opinion does not matter - it is your knowledge, expertise, and experience that does.

You are welcome to say whatever you'd like on this site, but you are still subject to following the rules of asking. This is very similar to almost any website - no matter what site you're on, if you continually post garbage you'll get banned. The only difference is that on StackExchange sites, the rules of what garbage is are quite a bit different than traditional forums. Most forums don't count open-ended discussions as off-topic, but it is here. It takes some getting used to, but overall it provides a focus that other sites can't provide.

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