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Why is the privilege gap between 250 and 1000 so disproportionally large? I'm not taking about absolute difference as clearly the 5000 difference between 10000 and 5000 is larger but looking at a graph of the privileges gained up to 2500 rep, there's a disproportionally large jump from 250 to 1000.

Rep difference graph

Has the idea of adding/moving a privilege to 500 been considered? Why was it rejected?

There does seem to be a rough pattern of large increase, smaller increase between 20 rep and 2500 rep. I guess I could see this as kind of a "weeding out period" that attempts to dissuade users only in it for the rep but the rep itself (as opposed to the privileges) still increases and would partially mitigate that attempt.

Fair warning, I'm very close to 500 rep on my SO, so its entirely possible I'm biased.

Edit:

Just noticed this question. Did not see it earlier. My bad

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We just removed a privilege at 500 and have yet to come up with something to replace it with. In the works.

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    How about "the privilege to have a total rep of > 500" :-) – Rocket Hazmat Jul 16 '13 at 20:00
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Are privileges are reward or a responsibility?

If they are a reward, then adding extra privileges in makes sense. We want to encourage people to gain rep and get the rewards.

If they are a responsibility, then I think it makes sense that there are large gaps. People that have proven they know how the system works should be given more responsibility.

It is a subtle difference, but I think it is the second one. The level of reputation required for a given permission is there to prevent abuse. Adding extra privileges or reworking the spacing just to give people something to strive for is counter-productive to this goal.

About the gap

There is no point of the gap. There is no gap. It is an artifact of perception. The privileges gained at 1000 rep are such because they require 1000 rep, not because you have 750 more than the privileges you got at 250. It isn't mean to be a uniform distribution or some gradual change. It is solely meant as a reflection of how much trust the community has in you.

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    I would argue that they don't have to be mutually exclusive and say both. Also, this doesn't really address the point of the gap, more giving privileges in general – Daniel Jul 16 '13 at 20:00

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