Why do privileges on some sites have different reputation requirements? [duplicate]

Question

(For the purposes of this post, disregard the beta and meta sites on the SE Network.)

We know what reputation is, right? When you reach a certain milestone of rep, you gain a privilege. What's strange for me is that the same privilege on different sites have varied/different milestones.

My most notable site, Mathematics Stack Exchange and Software Recommendations Stack Exchange has different milestones for the "create tags" privilege, where Math SE needs 1k and SoftwareRecs SE needs 300.

So why does each site have milestones different to others?

Answer 1

Because it turned out that leaving the privilege at the default level caused problems. There were too many tags created wrongly; the site complained, and the Community Team adjusted the privilege levels. For an example, see this post on Mathematics Meta: Should rep requirements for tag creation be higher?

So why does each site have milestones different to others?

Well, actually there are not that many differences, only half a dozen across the network; all exceptions are documented in the FAQ: What are the reputation requirements for privileges on sites, and how do they differ per site?

Answer 2

You ask to disregard the beta sites, but there lies the answer, it's about how many have how much reputation; for the users to be able to assist in moderation, instead of leaving it to a drive-by CM or appointed moderator to handle everything that no one has permission to do.

On older (and busier) sites there's enough traffic from people who have enough privileges to do the Review Queues, and enough experience to spot things to flag (and do so correctly).

A common stumbling block is Approve Tag Wiki Edits, at 5000 rep., where on some sites they accumulate, and pre-protempores are a couple of thousand short of being able to review; making extra work for the CM overseeing the site.

On sites where there are moderators, but too little traffic, things pile-up; and it's left for them to do work that could easily be done by others (who might well have high Flair).