On Stack Overflow etc it's easy to ask a random useful question, or give a useful answer to some random question. But here? I'd rather vote on an issue I care about rather than create a duplicate. Or am I supposed to first assemble 200 reps on other sites, so I get 100 rep boost here?
What is the intended path to participation on meta? Or was that lost in the game theorishly delicious reputation game?
Meta is a site like all the other main sites: it's hard to really participate just by lurking. If you want to participate: prove it. The bar is very low, just fifteen points to vote up. You can achieve this goal with just a handful of suggested edits or good-old-fashioned questions or answers.
But in a sense, you are right. On meta sites except this one, your reputation is shared with the main site and so for example you can vote on meta.programmers.stackexchange.com if you can vote on programmers.stackexchange.com. That's the normal model: even if you never ask or answer any questions, you can still participate by lurking on the per-site meta.
For historical reasons, and because meta is the meta-meta of all sites, reputation is not shared with Stack Overflow. That is a slight disadvantage but, as you mentioned, is partially addressed by earning only 200 reputation on any other site. In that case, you immediate earn these privileges:
and then even "vote down" is only 25 points away.
So you have two choices:
If you want to go the latter route you can start with this:
Is this fair? I think it is because the points are there if you are willing to work a little. So get out there are earn your fifteen points! One upvote from me.
