I don't think these points are particularly fatal, and they don't exactly make it hard per se to participate, just a little discouraging at times. I take issue

I don't think these points are particularly fatal, and they don't exactly make it hard per se to participate, just a little discouraging at times. I take issue with his issue number one because I think the blame is placed on new people FAR too often online. The way new people are treated on pretty much every online community I've been a part of has been horrible, often downright pointlessly mean. If we want SO askers to have good manners its our duty to explain our customs. When I answer a question from a new person I try to welcome them to SO or applaud their question (if novel), and if they worded it poorly I might answer what I think they meant and suggest better wordings to get help faster in the future. Reputation is a bit of a sore point for a lot of people. I only hound two tags (canvas and html5) which are relatively unpopular, so my reputation will never be as great as someone who simply peruses the JavaScript tag and gives offhanded answers to very simple questions. A very detailed, analytical answer to a difficult problem in an unpopular tag will see one or zero upvotes compared to a flippant 5-second solution in a popular tag. This can be discouraging, and I'm not really sure if it needs fixing or not, or how it could be done. I symapthize with the autor, but at the end of the day I choose to stay on SO in spite of all its woes because the gratitude of the answerers[1] alone is more than enough for me. [1] http://i.imgur.com/POZmt.png http://i.imgur.com/POZmt.png