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If I want to ask for clarification or a follow-up question, propose a some alteration to an existing solution, or (as happened in the situation that prompted this post), answer a follow-up question already asked in the comments, generally the appropriate place to do so would be in the comments. However, as I <50 rep, I cannot comment. Is there any way for me to do that kind of thing without completely misusing the answer feature?

Also, it seems to me that it might be beneficial to have a peer review system in place for comments. It would prevent inappropriate comments (such as +1's) while allowing for new users to post truly helpful comments.

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    Adding peer review for comments would add a considerable burden on top of the existing review process. I think that pushing through to 50 Rep is not too high a bar to overcome. You can do it!
    – S. Albano
    Sep 14, 2012 at 4:46
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    Also, don't get put off with the site if this question gets a lot of downvotes (it seems to be starting to slide down a bit) - votes on Meta really mean whether people agree or disagree with a question/answer and are not an indication of whether it is a good or bad question.
    – Fluffeh
    Sep 14, 2012 at 5:22
  • Possible duplicate: meta.stackexchange.com/q/95980/168333 . Sep 14, 2012 at 5:40
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    Hmm... there are a lot of closely related posts in the search results for "comment low rep" but I wouldn't call any of them duplicates.
    – Pops
    Sep 14, 2012 at 14:05

1 Answer 1

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A user with low rep is able to comment on their own questions, which allows them some level of being able to interact, but at the same time, 50 rep isn't an insurmountable target to achieve before being able to comment on answers.

If you are having problems getting rep at an early stage, I think one of the quickest ways to get to your current goal of being able to comment is by suggesting some edits. I find that almost any edit that is helpful will get approved, even it is is as simple as correcting punctuation and/or grammar in a question or answer (there aren't too many folks who will reject a suggested edit if it isn't improving the post in even the smallest way). Each one of these gives you +2 rep and they really can fly quickly. They are also a great way to get comfortable with the site formatting and syntax to make your questions and answers shine.

On the note of reviews, there are so many things on the exchange that are already peer reviewed (such as the edits I was speaking of) that it might not be the best to put that burden on high rep users/mods to go through another list. (My daily routine already consists of reviewing 50ish question/answer suggested edits and flagged items).

I had a quick look at your SO profile and you don't have any Questions or Answers posted yet - so I encourage you to jump in and get involved. The 50 rep that you seem worried about at the moment will likely vanish in an hour (utter tops). Heck, one good answer will easily get three to five upvotes sometimes within minutes of being posted.

Rep really is easy to get - case in point, a fumbling chap like myself (I really only consider myself a tinkerer, I don't work as a programmer, I sit with the business side of our organisation working as a Senior Analyst) have been a member for under a hundred days and am sitting on over 11k rep on SO. https://stackoverflow.com/users/1450077/fluffeh?tab=summary My point is if a boob like myself can do that, I am sure that getting enough rep to post comments isn't something that you can't overcome.

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  • +1 for nicely concealed self-promotion
    – prusswan
    Sep 14, 2012 at 5:22
  • @prusswan I decided to get involved in answering questions to learn actually. I know a little PHP, but the number of questions that I can quickly google, learn about and post an answer to astounds me - but also teaches me. I couldn't ask for better - pats on the back for learning something I am interested in :)
    – Fluffeh
    Sep 14, 2012 at 5:24

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