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Meta SE seems to attract a much higher percentage of low quality, off-topic and spam questions than any other SE/SO site (Meta or Main) that I frequent.

I naively asked:

To help keep quality on Meta SE higher would it be viable for there to be a minimum reputation set to post here direct e.g. 1K on at least one Main site?

And then to require that all other questions arrive via migration from a per-site Meta?

There seem be some Q&As around like
Which meta am I supposed to post on? that suggest discussing/vetting ideas and issues on per-site Metas is sometimes/often preferable to posting here first.

However, I was not aware that Meta SE deliberately had its reputation to post lower than all other Meta sites in order to attract and efficiently process. Consequently, for more than three years I have not held the view that I espoused above.

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  • And for the users without 5 rep to post on a child meta? Where would they go?
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Jul 9, 2015 at 5:35
  • @psubsee2003 Wouldn't we want them to be accumulating some reputation on per-site Mains (and then support for their ideas on those Metas) before seeking to change the whole SE network via Meta SE?
    – PolyGeo
    Commented Jul 9, 2015 at 5:39
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    So a user who has an issue on a site but does not have 5 rep? Do they not have a voice at all? By treating MSE as a "high-rep members only" club, you are further isolating low rep users. Low rep users should be encouraged to participate in meta to help them learn the site. The 5 rep barrier exists on child metas as spam/off-topic prevention, but MSE should still be open to them. There is more than enough high rep users on MSE to keep the site clean
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Jul 9, 2015 at 5:43
  • Don't they need 5 to participate here too? The thought behind my suggestion is as a filter. Low rep users could still get their views/ideas here via migration but it would mean a much higher signal to noise ratio arriving here, that then needs to be processed by the "high rep users on MSE".
    – PolyGeo
    Commented Jul 9, 2015 at 5:49
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    No, there is no rep limit on MSE. See Remove Meta Privilege for MSE (only) for the reason for that "privilege".
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Jul 9, 2015 at 5:56

2 Answers 2

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Meta SE seems to attract a much higher percentage of low quality, off-topic and spam questions than any other SE/SO site (Meta or Main) that I frequent.

Great! This is a feature, not a bug. The best place for all that stuff is right here, where there are users experienced in dealing with it. Come unto us, all ye that are trolling, ranting or spamming, and we will give you rest.

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    It certainly seems to be a honey pot. If that is a significant part of its purpose then my idea has a hole shot in it.
    – PolyGeo
    Commented Jul 9, 2015 at 6:17
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    The Book of Shog, Chapter 9, Verse 3.
    – jonsca
    Commented Jul 10, 2015 at 1:58
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    @jonsca Verse 2 is "That's normally solved by deleting more", FYI
    – Braiam
    Commented Jul 10, 2015 at 2:04
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The reason it seems more off-topic/spam posts than the per-site Meta's is because it is the only meta site without a reputation barrier (despite the listed "participate in meta" privilege [see Remove Meta Privilege for MSE (only) for the reasoning]).

Anyone can ask a question here and it doesn't even require an existing account on another SE site. Yes, this means it can lead to some spam and off-topic questions, but there are a number of benefits:

  • It gives a voice to low rep users who cannot participate in their own site's child meta. While the question will probably get closed since it only pertains to a specific site, they usually will get feedback via comments and answers before that happens.
  • Bug reports/feedback from users without accounts

Echoing what I said in my comment, if you turn MSE into a "High Rep Members Only" club, you only further isolate low reputation users from contributing to improving the Stack Exchange sites.

As for the Spam/Off-topic questions - how long does it usually last? There is more than enough activity on the site to get spam nuked within minutes, and usually the off-topic questions get closed pretty quickly, and deleted not to long after that. If this wasn't happening quickly enough, it would be worth considering other options, but since we are not overrun with these types of posts, this seems to be unnecessary.

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