What's in it for you?
Continued access to a curated collection of quality Q&A
Leaving aside the decaying allure of reputation and badge rewards over time, the site's chief "compensation" is simply the utility it provides to your home and professional life. That utility is largely contingent upon the quality of our Q&A. In order to maintain that quality, the site relies on people to curate content through voting, reviewing, and editing. Without that work, you'd see a precipitous degradation of quality, impacting your ability to find helpful information.
So, the question is really this: do you find the site useful enough (or trust enough in its potential) that you're personally motivated to protect its integrity?
If not, that's okay; nothing's really required of you. Certainly, much of curation (particularly the review queues) is thankless custodial work. Still, it's important for the site's health. So, if you're inclined to help, don't get discouraged when acting in good faith. Just try to understand what the system is telling you with its feedback. Make adjustments to your approach. Make use of the help resources. Bring specific problem cases to meta when necessary.
Don't let this stuff frustrate you. We're always appreciative of the work people do to make this site better.
