Hey Everyone, If you don't know. StackOverflow requires that you have 50pts of rep to be able to leave a comment on someones question.<p>So for example. John Smith has posted a question about a PHP error:<p>"Hey guys, i'm getting an unspecified variable error on line 66, can you help me?"<p>To which my comment would be:<p>"Could you please post the some code?"<p>However, having less then 50pts makes this impossible. I then have to leave it as an answer, which not only seems to anger everybody on SO for not being a proper answer but also isn't what an answer section is used for.<p>So, What are you thoughts about this process? Do you agree or disagree? Care to elaborate?
It's a trade-off. They're trying to avoid bad comments, spam, etc. It really doesn't take much to get to 50 points -- just a tiny bit of participation. But that requirement increases the likelihood that you're a real person, probably not some troll, and willing to participate in the community in reasonably sane manner. It reduces the amount of moderating that is needed, and makes the community better as a whole, I think. I think it's perfectly reasonable.
There was a thread on meta.stackoverflow.com about this earlier this year: <a href="http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/252133/50-reputation-points-to-make-comments" rel="nofollow">http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/252133/50-reputation...</a>