My comment was unclear. Yes, people who are solely interested in writing about one topic are prevented from participating if that topic doesn't meet the notabil

My comment was unclear. Yes, people who are solely interested in writing about one topic are prevented from participating if that topic doesn't meet the notability criteria. When I said that it "doesn't prevent anyone from participating", I was only considering the editors who are interested in writing about a wider variety of topics. For better or worse, Wikipedia frowns on editors who are only interested in editing articles on one topic. There's a page for that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Single-purpose_account https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Single-purpose_accou... This is because these editors usually have a conflict of interest, and must make an extra effort to keep their writing free of bias. Policies aimed at improving the quality of articles also tend to reduce participation. It's a trade-off, and I don't know that the optimal balance would be.