How do I get points? (or, point restrictions are overboard!)

[Scott Beeson]

I've been a member of the community for almost 6 months now.  According to my profile I still have 0 points.  Until I have 25 points I can only post and comment 3 times in 24 hours.  This kind of sucks.  If I post a question I can only comment twice before I have to wait 24 hours.  I'm not waiting a day to fix an issue if I can avoid it.  How am I supposed to earn points?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

It's because of the vulnerabilities to spam that Answers has suffered.  The team are working on it, but one of the original problems was 100s of questions and comments by a new account.  "Limit users when they have low karma" reduces the impact, but it is not effective against the accounts being created, and that's the current problem.

Anyway, to get points, ask questions, get them voted up or answered, answer questions and have your answers voted up because they're helpful, or accepted because they're right.  Almost all your activity counts.

p.s. check your points now...

[Scott Beeson]

So after 6 months and a dozen questions I still had zero points but one upvote earns 15?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yeah, that's a bit rough, and why I think the rules should be tweaked a bit when they get on top of the "create account" issue. I'd be awarding points for the first handful of questions from a user that get a response (other than "delete spam user"), because if they get a response, they must be a question worth answering. I upvoted this one simply because you're right. The points system is trying to block spam, but it's a bit hard on new genuine users.

[Pete B]

I can't make more than one post or comment in 24 hours until I earn 3 points. This is not helpful and makes interacting with someone over an issue (like this one) very difficult. 

Screen Shot 2015-12-07 at 5.16.59 PM.png

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

On the good side, it prevents Answers being rendered unhelpul by spammers.

[Pete B]

Fair enough. Spam is a problem, I agree, but it's just frustrating when you're just getting started.