@ewwhite Yes, I figured that out ;) But the layout of the site and how the reputation system function as well as community ettiquette is very different from other Q&A sites. This makes the learning curve when joining a little intimidating. I actually stalked SE for over a year before signing up myself and even after signing up I still don't know all the nuances of this particular SE culture.

Vote up requires 15 reputation :) Go figure. I actually read the page on reputation earlier before posting my OP and it didn't actually explain how to gain reputation other than getting your Qs or As voted up.

@ewwhite You're absolutely right. Confession time: one reason I have not participated as much as I would have liked is because I don't fully understand the "flow of this site". It works very differently from any other forum or Q&A community I've participated in. And I confess, when I signed up I didn't read any documentation such as FAQs (documentations appears to be a lot easier to find now than it was then). Another suggestion - when new user sign up, present them with some short helpful instructions... I'll edit this into my OP with more info.

I didn't realize I could edit and flag - I thought that's why we had moderators.. Good to know. Maybe now I can get some reputation and garner some respect from the 1337 crowd. W00t. Too bad I can't edit or flag obnoxious comments like this one.

@MDMarra Just for the record, I have on numerous occasions spent hours perusing open questions on SF (and other SE sites) only to find questions that I am not qualified to answer (because I just simply don't know everything about Tomcat and Ubuntu) or questions that need more elaboration before I can give a distinguished answer - and being unable to comment I can't ask for that information. The entire reputation system as it stands now DISCOURAGES participation from new members, though I know it's intended to do the opposite.

@ewwhite I have personally found a great deal of warmth and welcome from the Spiceworks community forums. Everyone there is friendly and open and users with all levels of experience are welcome and encouraged to participate. This is not meant as an ad for SW or their forums, it is only my personal experience in answer to a question.

@lain Thank you for again illustrating my point. If SE wants to be a club for the pretentious elite of all computerdom, that's fine - I already stated I have other places to go for answers. Just don't complain when new user retention collapses and your site traffic falls to near 0. If you want more site traffic and if you want more users, you're going to have to be more accepting of new users who are a little less 1337 than you are. And chances are they admire your knowledge and experience; that's why they come here in the first place.

@MDMarra I attempted to respond directly on meta and was informed I did not have enough reputation to participate there. The entire question at hand is WHY am I (as a representative of a class of non-participatory users) not participating? My lack of participation makes me eminently qualified to make statements on this subject. Only someone who does not participate can explain why he (or others) is not participating. Anyone else commenting on the subject is only speculating.

@voretaq7 Thank you for the suggested link, it was worth reading. However my point is that many legitimate professionals who do read the documentation and who do post detailed questions are treated unfairly because the definition of "good question" is so seemingly arbitrary. Yes, this is a rant, but I (as sirex put it) wasted a great deal of time trying to present clear and concise constructive feedback while being blunt about the issue at stake. I'm sorry if my success did not meet my intentions.

@lain. Thank you for your useful and productive illustration of my point!