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I've been an active participant on stackoverflow.com and meta.stackoverflow.com for a few years now. It's been a while since I've encountered rep-based permission restrictions. How am I supposed to build enough rep on meta.stackexchange.com to effectively participate? Most of my needs are handled on the site-specific meta, so I rarely have a need to actually answer or ask a question here... but I would like to up/downvote on discussion topics.

It seems weird to have to earn your way into a discussion that pertains to your site (via network-wide feature, policy, etc) when you're already 15k+ on an affected site. Worse, unlike meta.SO, I can downvote myself out of enough rep to downvote here.

So, after Martijn's comment, I realize the root of my question is this:

Why, on a meta site where upvotes and downvotes are an integral part of the discourse, am I first given the ability to "agree" and may only later earn the (limited and deteriorating) ability to "disagree"?

Which is essentially a duplicate of Why do we have a down vote rep threshold for meta?

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  • The same way you do on any other site? You participate. You already have your +100 association bonus, so the only thing you cannot yet do is downvote.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Commented Sep 29, 2014 at 21:02
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    What is "effective participation"?
    – random
    Commented Sep 29, 2014 at 21:06
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    If you find that you're not participating in the content on this meta then why do you need rep on this meta?
    – Servy
    Commented Sep 29, 2014 at 21:06
  • @canon: we do expect people to have a little more experience with this community before you can start downvoting though.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Commented Sep 29, 2014 at 21:06
  • If you want rep, then put out good ideas that you think other people might appreciate, and then wait for upvotes!
    – MTL
    Commented Sep 29, 2014 at 21:08
  • I'm still not sure what you are asking about here though. Meta.SE is a regular site, so you get reputation just like on any other regular SE site.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Commented Sep 29, 2014 at 21:09
  • @canon He didn't say that.
    – Servy
    Commented Sep 29, 2014 at 21:11
  • @canon: where did you that idea from? I am saying this site is a normal site. I didn't say anything about child metas.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Commented Sep 29, 2014 at 21:13
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    meta.stackexchange.com/questions/44188/…
    – random
    Commented Sep 29, 2014 at 21:18
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    ( Note: now you have enough rep to downvote. Congrats! )
    – MTL
    Commented Sep 29, 2014 at 21:28
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    I used to have enough rep to downvote, then... i downvoted it away.
    – Kevin B
    Commented Oct 27, 2014 at 19:31
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    Would be nice to be able express disagreement at the same cost as expressing agreement.
    – Kevin B
    Commented Oct 27, 2014 at 19:37
  • @canon The question makes it very clear that it's specific to meta.SE, and not just "SE sites in general".
    – Servy
    Commented Feb 23, 2015 at 21:12
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    I'm out of rep again. /sigh
    – Kevin B
    Commented Dec 3, 2015 at 22:37
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    It's odd that this meta site doesn't operate like any of the site-specific meta sites, in that expressing disagreement through voting is penalized.
    – faintsignal
    Commented Jul 2, 2018 at 19:00

2 Answers 2

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If you want rep, then put out good ideas that you think other people might appreciate (in questions or answers), and then wait for upvotes! It's exactly like any other SE site -- the only difference is that the topic is "making the SE network work in the best way possible."

.....there's really no other way to do it, unless you want to try for some bounty questions.

Anna Lear recommends (and I agree, just can't claim to have thought of it first) that one of the best ways to gain rep here is to help other users by tossing out good answers under the tags and . Doing this, obviously, helps other users the most. ( Besides the fact that answers give you twice the amount of rep that you get for questions, per upvote )

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    I'd say helping fellow users by answering discussion/support questions would be the easiest way to go. Questions are fine, but the return on good, helpful answers in terms of rep is a lot bigger.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Sep 29, 2014 at 21:21
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How am I supposed to build enough rep on meta.stackexchange.com to effectively participate?

You are not supposed. To participate actively you need rep. Rep is the measure of community trust, therefore the more rep you have the more priveleges you are given.

Downvotes act as normal downvotes and upvoted act as normal upvotes in the tag. If you feel that you can't get used to the voting on meta, you can answer and in this tag - questions regarding support don't need opinions, they need facts.

Most of my needs are handled on the site-specific meta, so I rarely get an opportunity to weigh in on anything here.

Then a new question is raised. Does anyone make you participate there? If you don't have an opportunity, then don't make yourself to contribute to Meta Stack Exchange.

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    There are discussions posted here which affect the sites upon which I do participate.
    – canon
    Commented Oct 27, 2014 at 20:54

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