i3 FAQ - Individual question feed

i3 FAQ - Individual question feedhttps://faq.i3wm.org/questions/Frequently asked questions and answers about the i3 window managerenCopyright i3, 2012Mon, 30 Mar 2015 12:58:13 +0000How to make the StackExchange-like aspect of this site more obvioushttps://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/I'm seeing a great many users here with good questions about i3, but it seems like an awful lot of us are struggling with this site because many of us cannot up-vote any questions until we first attain 10 karma points. This in turn requires that someone up-vote one our questions or answers. There is a vicious circle happening here because it seems like too few users understand about the importance of voting and answering questions in the answer field. I'd like to propose that one or more of the more karma-rich users spend some time up-voting some of us karma-poor users' questions and answers to make the use of this site more friendly to everyone. But I don't know how to make that happen. Can anyone answer my question on how to do that?Sat, 14 Feb 2015 23:54:06 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/Comment by faust for I'm seeing a great many users here with good questions about i3, but it seems like an awful lot of us are struggling with this site because many of us cannot up-vote any questions until we first attain 10 karma points. This in turn requires that someone up-vote one our questions or answers. There is a vicious circle happening here because it seems like too few users understand about the importance of voting and answering questions in the answer field. I'd like to propose that one or more of the more karma-rich users spend some time up-voting some of us karma-poor users' questions and answers to make the use of this site more friendly to everyone. But I don't know how to make that happen. Can anyone answer my question on how to do that? https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5694#comment-5694I would have upvoted this, but of course I don't have enough Karma. Like almost everyone else.Mon, 30 Mar 2015 12:58:13 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5694#comment-5694Comment by TonyC for I'm seeing a great many users here with good questions about i3, but it seems like an awful lot of us are struggling with this site because many of us cannot up-vote any questions until we first attain 10 karma points. This in turn requires that someone up-vote one our questions or answers. There is a vicious circle happening here because it seems like too few users understand about the importance of voting and answering questions in the answer field. I'd like to propose that one or more of the more karma-rich users spend some time up-voting some of us karma-poor users' questions and answers to make the use of this site more friendly to everyone. But I don't know how to make that happen. Can anyone answer my question on how to do that? https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5474#comment-5474Me upvoting more isn't going to fix the problem in the long term.Sun, 15 Feb 2015 20:52:59 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5474#comment-5474Comment by Gamonics for I'm seeing a great many users here with good questions about i3, but it seems like an awful lot of us are struggling with this site because many of us cannot up-vote any questions until we first attain 10 karma points. This in turn requires that someone up-vote one our questions or answers. There is a vicious circle happening here because it seems like too few users understand about the importance of voting and answering questions in the answer field. I'd like to propose that one or more of the more karma-rich users spend some time up-voting some of us karma-poor users' questions and answers to make the use of this site more friendly to everyone. But I don't know how to make that happen. Can anyone answer my question on how to do that? https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5476#comment-5476Thanks for your vote. :)Sun, 15 Feb 2015 23:56:07 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5476#comment-5476Comment by Gamonics for I'm seeing a great many users here with good questions about i3, but it seems like an awful lot of us are struggling with this site because many of us cannot up-vote any questions until we first attain 10 karma points. This in turn requires that someone up-vote one our questions or answers. There is a vicious circle happening here because it seems like too few users understand about the importance of voting and answering questions in the answer field. I'd like to propose that one or more of the more karma-rich users spend some time up-voting some of us karma-poor users' questions and answers to make the use of this site more friendly to everyone. But I don't know how to make that happen. Can anyone answer my question on how to do that? https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5473#comment-5473Thanks for your comment, but... you're not up-voting my questions? If you up-voted this or my other question, then I could post screenshots... and increase the odds that someone can help me troubleshoot this problem. I'm confused. With your current karma, I'm thinking that you must be able to vote..Sun, 15 Feb 2015 01:14:02 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5473#comment-5473Comment by TonyC for I'm seeing a great many users here with good questions about i3, but it seems like an awful lot of us are struggling with this site because many of us cannot up-vote any questions until we first attain 10 karma points. This in turn requires that someone up-vote one our questions or answers. There is a vicious circle happening here because it seems like too few users understand about the importance of voting and answering questions in the answer field. I'd like to propose that one or more of the more karma-rich users spend some time up-voting some of us karma-poor users' questions and answers to make the use of this site more friendly to everyone. But I don't know how to make that happen. Can anyone answer my question on how to do that? https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5472#comment-5472This is a common complaint.Sun, 15 Feb 2015 00:45:57 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5472#comment-5472Answer by Gamonics for I'm seeing a great many users here with good questions about i3, but it seems like an awful lot of us are struggling with this site because many of us cannot up-vote any questions until we first attain 10 karma points. This in turn requires that someone up-vote one our questions or answers. There is a vicious circle happening here because it seems like too few users understand about the importance of voting and answering questions in the answer field. I'd like to propose that one or more of the more karma-rich users spend some time up-voting some of us karma-poor users' questions and answers to make the use of this site more friendly to everyone. But I don't know how to make that happen. Can anyone answer my question on how to do that? https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?answer=5475#post-id-5475In the long term, I think the best way to solve this problem is for all experienced users to make a point of explaining in comments (this is the place people new to SE-like sites usually reply) to people who have karma=1 about voting. Each user has something like 30 votes that they are allowed to cast each day. It doesn't really take very long to review 30 questions or answers and cast a vote. Even skimming questions would allow one to make a quick judgment: good question/bad question or good answer/bad answer. As this site is a fairly new site with a rather large number of new users, experienced users should (IMO) mostly be up-voting all questions unless they are really poorly worded or spam. At least until the traffic starts getting to be high. In the short term, I think the best way to solve this problem is for all experienced users to cast all 30 of their votes every day so there aren't so many questions (even years old) posted by users with (still; years later) only karma=1. At this point, having such a large number of new users with karma=1 even years after posting their question is a pretty clear indication that this community is really struggling to survive. UPDATE (this is all meta-information): In light of ANOKNUSA's and Adaephon's answers, I'd like to elaborate on what I think may be a problem at this site and what I think may be a good solution to it. All I'm trying to do with this update to this answer is try to make some slight improvements in this community. I'm not trying to offend anyone or to fix what some may believe is not broken; I'm only trying to offer a new perspective and suggest some improvements. Please note my frequent use of the phrase, "I think", meaning exactly that (it's what **I** think): I'm not pointing a finger at anyone or trying to annoy or put down anyone. Just trying to suggest some improvements to this Q/A community. I apologize in advance to anyone who is offended or annoyed by these suggestions. I think i3 is by far the best wm I've encountered in 20 years of using them, and I'm sure I'll be a part of this community for many years to come, so I'd very much like to avoid offending anyone. First, I readily acknowledge that i3 is targeted at power users. And I'd also like to explain that I've been doing Linux sysadmin (mostly for my own personal servers, desktop, and laptop computers, but also on a limited basis in professional settings) every day of my life for the last 20+ years. I've also used OpenBSD and FreeBSD for various tasks. I've installed and maintained a wide range of free software tools like BIND, NFS, Apache, the Cyrus IMAP server, MIT's Kerberos5 authentication system (across MS Windows, Apple OS X, and Linux clients), OpenLDAP, Samba, Asterisk, Diaspora, and myriad other tools. Although I'm not crowing or bragging (and I readily acknowledge that I'm always learning new things and have never really allowed myself to feel like I'm an expert at any of this), I feel comfortable referring to myself as a power user. But I **am** new to i3. And I think even power users need to have a thriving community for questions and answers. I think SE has implemented a superb software suite for doing that although I think it also suffers in some ways that I won't go into here. I'm delighted to see similar tools like Askbot that are attempting to reproduce the positive aspects of SE sites in free software, and I'm glad that i3 has adopted Askbot for it's community Q/A site. However, I think even power users may miss some of the most important (and also sometimes most subtle) aspects of SE-like sites such as this one. For example, consider [Adaephon's answer](https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/#5501) to my question above. Although I don't consider myself an authority on this, I think that when a community-member's answer begins with "I would have to agree with...", the best way to contribute those thoughts in an SE-like Q/A community such as this one would be to either up-vote the answer about which he agrees, or (if he thinks that answer could be improved with some elaboration), to up-vote **and** edit that answer. And when the user who holds the number 2 position (as of 26 Feb [02015](https://longnow.org/about)) on the community people list chooses instead to submit a second answer which basically restates and elaborates on a very similar previous answer (that of ANOKNUSA), he is setting an example that other users with lower karma are likely to follow. And yet this practice of submitting a second, similar-to-another answer is discouraged on SE-like sites specifically because it spreads the useful information across several different posts (answers in this case) rather than concentrating the useful information into one answer which other active users can up-vote to the degree that they find the answer useful, thus allowing the most useful answers to become the most highly up-voted answers, thus making it easier for everyone to find those answers that are deemed most useful. All of the explicit and implicit steps described above are (IMO) at the essence of the extremely valuable features of an SE-like Q/A community. But IMO, at this particular SE-like Q/A community, because I think there are so many users (those that are very familiar with i3 **and** those that are relatively unfamiliar with i3) who are unfamiliar with all the steps required for helping the community work towards constantly concentrating the useful information into a small number of posts, and so many users who are not aware of the importance of voting (which is what marks the most useful posts so that others can find them most easily), that this particular SE-like site is not functioning as well as it could be functioning. Although I'm sure that those users on this site with the most karma probably do have the best knowledge of i3, I think that some of the karma-rich users may not be familiar enough with "best-practices" on an SE-like Q/A community. And other users with less karma can hardly be expected to learn best-practices when the karma-rich users are not using those best-practices themselves. And I think this creates a community dynamic here that seems to make this SE-like community not as effective at concentrating the most useful information as sites like StackOverflow.com and TeX.SE.com. I think this sort of information (that I've written about in this update) would probably be most well-suited to a "meta.faq.i3wm.org" site, but is there such a site for this Q/A community? If so I haven't found it despite searching google and this site. TL;DR: 1. Karma-rich users should try to understand and use themselves those practices that are widely considered best-practices (and frequent & thoughtful use of votes is one of those best-practices) on a SE-like site. 2. More users need to learn the very important differences between a discussion forum like phpBB and an SE-like Q/A community. 3. Karma-rich users should devote some time to explaining these differences to users who are new to this community and who may also be new to i3 because without such guidance, the new members of this community are unlikely to learn these differences. 4. More users need to be voting (which implies that more users need to be **able** to vote; which implies that **some** up-voting needs to be happening --- I'm not saying that every single question should be up-voted; not at all. But I've seen a fairly large number of questions here that I consider to be good questions that still have zero votes, most often posted by users with karma=1). I think that's why there are such frequent reminders on SE sites to "If you found this question useful, don't forget to vote both the question and the answers up."Sun, 15 Feb 2015 23:55:37 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?answer=5475#post-id-5475Comment by Adaephon for <div class="snippet">In the long term, I think the best way to solve this problem is for all experienced users to make a point of explaining in comments (this is the place people new to SE-like sites usually reply) to people who have karma=1 about voting. Each user has something like 30 votes that they are allowed to cast each day. It doesn't really take very long to review 30 questions or answers and cast a vote. Even skimming questions would allow one to make a quick judgment: good question/bad question or good answer/bad answer. As this site is a fairly new site with a rather large number of new users, experienced users should (IMO) mostly be up-voting all questions unless they are really poorly worded or spam. At least until the traffic starts getting to be high. In the short term, I think the best way to solve this problem is for all experienced users to cast all 30 of their votes every day so there aren't so many questions (even years old) posted by users with (still; years later) only karma=1. At this point, having such a large number of new users with karma=1 even years after posting their question is a pretty clear indication that this community is really struggling to survive. UPDATE (this is all meta-information): In light of ANOKNUSA's and Adaephon's answers, I'd like to elaborate on what I think may be a problem at this site and what I think may be a good solution to it. All I'm trying to do with this update to this answer is try to make some slight improvements in this community. I'm not trying to offend anyone or to fix what some may believe is not broken; I'm only trying to offer a new perspective and suggest some improvements. Please note my frequent use of the phrase, "I think", meaning exactly that (it's what I think): I'm not pointing a finger at anyone or trying to annoy or put down anyone. Just trying to suggest some improvements to this Q/A community. I apologize in advance to anyone who is offended or annoyed by these suggestions. I think i3 is by far the best wm I've encountered in 20 years of using them, and I'm sure I'll be a part of this community for many years to come, so I'd very much like to avoid offending anyone. First, I readily acknowledge that i3 is targeted at power users. And I'd also like to explain that I've been doing Linux sysadmin (mostly for my own personal servers, desktop, and laptop computers, but also on a limited basis in professional settings) every day of my life for the last 20+ years. I've also used OpenBSD and FreeBSD for various tasks. I've installed and maintained a wide range of free software tools like BIND, NFS, Apache, the Cyrus IMAP ... <a>(more)</a></div>https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5568#comment-5568But as the comment fields are rather limited and as there is no meta-board like on SE, I decided to leave it open and also post my own answer rather than editing ANOKNUSA's. Mainly because I think the my main point differs a bit from ANOKNUSA and I did not want to infer my opinion being his.Wed, 04 Mar 2015 11:04:53 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5568#comment-5568Comment by Adaephon for <div class="snippet">In the long term, I think the best way to solve this problem is for all experienced users to make a point of explaining in comments (this is the place people new to SE-like sites usually reply) to people who have karma=1 about voting. Each user has something like 30 votes that they are allowed to cast each day. It doesn't really take very long to review 30 questions or answers and cast a vote. Even skimming questions would allow one to make a quick judgment: good question/bad question or good answer/bad answer. As this site is a fairly new site with a rather large number of new users, experienced users should (IMO) mostly be up-voting all questions unless they are really poorly worded or spam. At least until the traffic starts getting to be high. In the short term, I think the best way to solve this problem is for all experienced users to cast all 30 of their votes every day so there aren't so many questions (even years old) posted by users with (still; years later) only karma=1. At this point, having such a large number of new users with karma=1 even years after posting their question is a pretty clear indication that this community is really struggling to survive. UPDATE (this is all meta-information): In light of ANOKNUSA's and Adaephon's answers, I'd like to elaborate on what I think may be a problem at this site and what I think may be a good solution to it. All I'm trying to do with this update to this answer is try to make some slight improvements in this community. I'm not trying to offend anyone or to fix what some may believe is not broken; I'm only trying to offer a new perspective and suggest some improvements. Please note my frequent use of the phrase, "I think", meaning exactly that (it's what I think): I'm not pointing a finger at anyone or trying to annoy or put down anyone. Just trying to suggest some improvements to this Q/A community. I apologize in advance to anyone who is offended or annoyed by these suggestions. I think i3 is by far the best wm I've encountered in 20 years of using them, and I'm sure I'll be a part of this community for many years to come, so I'd very much like to avoid offending anyone. First, I readily acknowledge that i3 is targeted at power users. And I'd also like to explain that I've been doing Linux sysadmin (mostly for my own personal servers, desktop, and laptop computers, but also on a limited basis in professional settings) every day of my life for the last 20+ years. I've also used OpenBSD and FreeBSD for various tasks. I've installed and maintained a wide range of free software tools like BIND, NFS, Apache, the Cyrus IMAP ... <a>(more)</a></div>https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5567#comment-5567I usually avoid posting in a discussion like manner on this site. But the thing is that your question invites discussion and opinions rather than straight forward answers. IMHO you question would have been closed on SE for being manly opinion-based and/or off-topic (it is not about i3 but i3-FAQ)...Wed, 04 Mar 2015 10:52:02 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5567#comment-5567Answer by Adaephon for I'm seeing a great many users here with good questions about i3, but it seems like an awful lot of us are struggling with this site because many of us cannot up-vote any questions until we first attain 10 karma points. This in turn requires that someone up-vote one our questions or answers. There is a vicious circle happening here because it seems like too few users understand about the importance of voting and answering questions in the answer field. I'd like to propose that one or more of the more karma-rich users spend some time up-voting some of us karma-poor users' questions and answers to make the use of this site more friendly to everyone. But I don't know how to make that happen. Can anyone answer my question on how to do that? https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?answer=5501#post-id-5501I would have to agree with ANOKNUSA: Not having enough karma to vote does not prevent to use this site. You can ask questions and you can give answers. You can even reward other users by accepting answers to your question (and get 2 karma yourself in return). The bar for up-voting on this page (10 karma) is already lower than the bar on StackExchange (15 reputation). Also you get 10 karma for an upvote on a question here while you only get 5 reputation on StackExchange. So you need only a single up-vote or an acceptance to get up-voting permissions here. And yes, not that many users have voting permissions, 414 out of 24795 or 1.67% (see also [this answer for some older statistics](https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4821/lower-the-bar-for-voting/?answer=4830#post-id-4830), compared to about 23% on StackOverflow (about 3662200 Users, 820008 with up-voting permissions). But I think this is mostly the case because not that many users have posted anything here. 1113 questions for 24795 users make an average of 0.045 questions per user. Compared to an average of 2.4 questions per user (8880950) on StackOverflow this is a big difference, not only in absolute numbers. Even if you take into account the answers (1557) this makes only an average of 0.1 posts per user. So if one completely ignores that many users posted more than one question or answer at a maximum 2670 users have done anything which even could be awarded with karma points. But in fact a third (521) of all answers were posted by the top 10 users, 300 of them by the top 3 users alone. So it is probably more relistic All other statistics aside, I think **the most important - and the only that should count - is** that 998 of 1113 questions, nearly 90 %, have been answered at least once. A lot of the rest had to be closed for some reason or got at least comments. And that is what this site is about, users providing answers about *i3* to others that need them. The karma system comes second. It is a nice - and important - motivation but not the main purpose of this site. It is also a saveguard against spammers and other undesirables. For it to remain a motivation and saveguard every up-vote including the first one, needs to be earned by showing you want to contribute to this page, by posting good questions and answers. Handing out up-votes like candy for mediocre to bad posts (which, by the way, would be heavily down-voted, flagged, closed and deleted on StackExchange) just to increase the numbers of users that can vote does not really motivate me. Would I like to receive more up-votes? Yes, of course. But then again I reached 10 karma (up-voting rights) within one day, 50 karma (down-voting rights) within 10 days, 200 karma (any permission mentioned in [this FAQ's FAQ](https://faq.i3wm.org/faq/) within a month, 500 karma (I think there are a few more permissions that are not mentioned to be had) in 3 months, 1000 in just about 7 months and got to second spot on the People list just about my first anniversary. So I do not think that I have any reason to complain. So I personally do not think that it is that hard to get anywhere on this site, but you have to work for it. Just like you have to work for it on StackExchange. I think, each question and answer should be voted on on its own merrits, independet of the posters karma level. Questions that are or could be relevant to other users should be up-voted. If the poster clearly put some work in it, it probably should be up-voted, too. It just being the first question of a user is not a reason for an up-vote. If the question can be answered by just cursory reading the User's Guide it probably does not deserve an up-vote either. Earning karma for answers is easier, if you answer the questions to the poster's satisfaction, your answer will probably be accepted, 15 karma points. Up-votes will happen depending on the quality of the answer (Does it actually help? Are there explanations?). That all being said, would increasing the number of people being able to vote really significantly increase the number of people actually voting? Even if so, would it achieve anything but increasing the number of votes going around? Would it improve the quality of questions and answers? Would it increase the number of questions that are answered or the number of questions asked or even the number of users actually posting anything? **TL;DR** - The bar for up-voting is already lower than on StackExchange at one single up-vote or acceptance. - Only 414 users out of 25k may vote, but then there are only 2670 questions and answers with a lot of them by a small group of users. So it is unlikely that more users "deserve" to vote. - This site is about answering questions, not about farming karma. (90 % of questions have been answered.) - Karma is for motivation and thus should be earned by posting good questions and answers, not just by showing the ability to post anything. - The karma system is also a safeguard against spammers and other undesirables, one is supposed to work for permissions on this page to show one wants to contribute in a positive way. - Good post should be rewarded and they already are. If you work for it, it is really not that difficult to get karma. - Just increasing the number of people able to vote is unlikely to improve anything with exception of the number of votes cast. **STL;SDR** (still to long, still didn't read) It is not broken, do not try to fix it. Thu, 19 Feb 2015 08:54:35 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?answer=5501#post-id-5501Comment by Gamonics for <div class="snippet">I would have to agree with ANOKNUSA: Not having enough karma to vote does not prevent to use this site. You can ask questions and you can give answers. You can even reward other users by accepting answers to your question (and get 2 karma yourself in return). The bar for up-voting on this page (10 karma) is already lower than the bar on StackExchange (15 reputation). Also you get 10 karma for an upvote on a question here while you only get 5 reputation on StackExchange. So you need only a single up-vote or an acceptance to get up-voting permissions here. And yes, not that many users have voting permissions, 414 out of 24795 or 1.67% (see also <a href="https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4821/lower-the-bar-for-voting/?answer=4830#post-id-4830">this answer for some older statistics</a>, compared to about 23% on StackOverflow (about 3662200 Users, 820008 with up-voting permissions). But I think this is mostly the case because not that many users have posted anything here. 1113 questions for 24795 users make an average of 0.045 questions per user. Compared to an average of 2.4 questions per user (8880950) on StackOverflow this is a big difference, not only in absolute numbers. Even if you take into account the answers (1557) this makes only an average of 0.1 posts per user. So if one completely ignores that many users posted more than one question or answer at a maximum 2670 users have done anything which even could be awarded with karma points. But in fact a third (521) of all answers were posted by the top 10 users, 300 of them by the top 3 users alone. So it is probably more relistic All other statistics aside, I think the most important - and the only that should count - is that 998 of 1113 questions, nearly 90 %, have been answered at least once. A lot of the rest had to be closed for some reason or got at least comments. And that is what this site is about, users providing answers about i3 to others that need them. The karma system comes second. It is a nice - and important - motivation but not the main purpose of this site. It is also a saveguard against spammers and other undesirables. For it to remain a motivation and saveguard every up-vote including the first one, needs to be earned by showing you want to contribute to this page, by posting good questions and answers. Handing out up-votes like candy for mediocre to bad posts (which, by the way, would be heavily down-voted, flagged, closed and deleted on StackExchange) just to increase the numbers of users that can vote does not really motivate me. Would I like to receive more up-votes? Yes, of course. But then again I reached 10 karma (up-voting rights) within one day, 50 karma (down-voting rights) within 10 days, 200 karma (any permission mentioned in <a href="https://faq.i3wm.org/faq/">this FAQ's FAQ</a> within a month, 500 karma (I think there are a few more permissions that are not mentioned to be had ... <a>(more)</a></div>https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5544#comment-5544I think this also contributes to people using this site like a discussion forum as (IMO) you did in your answer here by reiterating ANOKNUSA's answer rather than submitting an independent answer. I mean no offense, and I'm loving i3, but I do think this site could be improved if more people...Thu, 26 Feb 2015 16:27:44 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5544#comment-5544Comment by Gamonics for <div class="snippet">I would have to agree with ANOKNUSA: Not having enough karma to vote does not prevent to use this site. You can ask questions and you can give answers. You can even reward other users by accepting answers to your question (and get 2 karma yourself in return). The bar for up-voting on this page (10 karma) is already lower than the bar on StackExchange (15 reputation). Also you get 10 karma for an upvote on a question here while you only get 5 reputation on StackExchange. So you need only a single up-vote or an acceptance to get up-voting permissions here. And yes, not that many users have voting permissions, 414 out of 24795 or 1.67% (see also <a href="https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4821/lower-the-bar-for-voting/?answer=4830#post-id-4830">this answer for some older statistics</a>, compared to about 23% on StackOverflow (about 3662200 Users, 820008 with up-voting permissions). But I think this is mostly the case because not that many users have posted anything here. 1113 questions for 24795 users make an average of 0.045 questions per user. Compared to an average of 2.4 questions per user (8880950) on StackOverflow this is a big difference, not only in absolute numbers. Even if you take into account the answers (1557) this makes only an average of 0.1 posts per user. So if one completely ignores that many users posted more than one question or answer at a maximum 2670 users have done anything which even could be awarded with karma points. But in fact a third (521) of all answers were posted by the top 10 users, 300 of them by the top 3 users alone. So it is probably more relistic All other statistics aside, I think the most important - and the only that should count - is that 998 of 1113 questions, nearly 90 %, have been answered at least once. A lot of the rest had to be closed for some reason or got at least comments. And that is what this site is about, users providing answers about i3 to others that need them. The karma system comes second. It is a nice - and important - motivation but not the main purpose of this site. It is also a saveguard against spammers and other undesirables. For it to remain a motivation and saveguard every up-vote including the first one, needs to be earned by showing you want to contribute to this page, by posting good questions and answers. Handing out up-votes like candy for mediocre to bad posts (which, by the way, would be heavily down-voted, flagged, closed and deleted on StackExchange) just to increase the numbers of users that can vote does not really motivate me. Would I like to receive more up-votes? Yes, of course. But then again I reached 10 karma (up-voting rights) within one day, 50 karma (down-voting rights) within 10 days, 200 karma (any permission mentioned in <a href="https://faq.i3wm.org/faq/">this FAQ's FAQ</a> within a month, 500 karma (I think there are a few more permissions that are not mentioned to be had ... <a>(more)</a></div>https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5545#comment-5545...(1) understood about voting, and (2) had adequate karma to be able to vote, and (3) if the comment field was longer. (e.g. bitcoin.SE.com's comment field length is 600 characters). But I acknowledge I'm new here, so I'll refrain from "farming karma." And I'll try using TWiCEiRC too.Thu, 26 Feb 2015 16:52:34 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5545#comment-5545Comment by Gamonics for <div class="snippet">I would have to agree with ANOKNUSA: Not having enough karma to vote does not prevent to use this site. You can ask questions and you can give answers. You can even reward other users by accepting answers to your question (and get 2 karma yourself in return). The bar for up-voting on this page (10 karma) is already lower than the bar on StackExchange (15 reputation). Also you get 10 karma for an upvote on a question here while you only get 5 reputation on StackExchange. So you need only a single up-vote or an acceptance to get up-voting permissions here. And yes, not that many users have voting permissions, 414 out of 24795 or 1.67% (see also <a href="https://faq.i3wm.org/question/4821/lower-the-bar-for-voting/?answer=4830#post-id-4830">this answer for some older statistics</a>, compared to about 23% on StackOverflow (about 3662200 Users, 820008 with up-voting permissions). But I think this is mostly the case because not that many users have posted anything here. 1113 questions for 24795 users make an average of 0.045 questions per user. Compared to an average of 2.4 questions per user (8880950) on StackOverflow this is a big difference, not only in absolute numbers. Even if you take into account the answers (1557) this makes only an average of 0.1 posts per user. So if one completely ignores that many users posted more than one question or answer at a maximum 2670 users have done anything which even could be awarded with karma points. But in fact a third (521) of all answers were posted by the top 10 users, 300 of them by the top 3 users alone. So it is probably more relistic All other statistics aside, I think the most important - and the only that should count - is that 998 of 1113 questions, nearly 90 %, have been answered at least once. A lot of the rest had to be closed for some reason or got at least comments. And that is what this site is about, users providing answers about i3 to others that need them. The karma system comes second. It is a nice - and important - motivation but not the main purpose of this site. It is also a saveguard against spammers and other undesirables. For it to remain a motivation and saveguard every up-vote including the first one, needs to be earned by showing you want to contribute to this page, by posting good questions and answers. Handing out up-votes like candy for mediocre to bad posts (which, by the way, would be heavily down-voted, flagged, closed and deleted on StackExchange) just to increase the numbers of users that can vote does not really motivate me. Would I like to receive more up-votes? Yes, of course. But then again I reached 10 karma (up-voting rights) within one day, 50 karma (down-voting rights) within 10 days, 200 karma (any permission mentioned in <a href="https://faq.i3wm.org/faq/">this FAQ's FAQ</a> within a month, 500 karma (I think there are a few more permissions that are not mentioned to be had ... <a>(more)</a></div>https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5543#comment-5543Well, I can't comment in a meaningful way on your very thoughtful answer because the comment field is so severely limited (to 300 characters) in this site.Thu, 26 Feb 2015 16:26:00 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5543#comment-5543Answer by ANOKNUSA for I'm seeing a great many users here with good questions about i3, but it seems like an awful lot of us are struggling with this site because many of us cannot up-vote any questions until we first attain 10 karma points. This in turn requires that someone up-vote one our questions or answers. There is a vicious circle happening here because it seems like too few users understand about the importance of voting and answering questions in the answer field. I'd like to propose that one or more of the more karma-rich users spend some time up-voting some of us karma-poor users' questions and answers to make the use of this site more friendly to everyone. But I don't know how to make that happen. Can anyone answer my question on how to do that? https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?answer=5499#post-id-5499I'll be frank: The best way to earn karma on this site is to ask or answer interesting questions that aren't already covered in the excellent i3 documentation, or can't be figured out with a simple web search. i3 is hands-down the best documented and one of the most popular window managers I've used, and I've used over a dozen. This site should serve as a forum and repository for the more interesting things that can be done with i3, not a dumping ground for the same old mundane and inane queries. Karma typically comes from questions that garner lots of views or lots of votes. As you may have noticed, you can even earn karma by showing some initiative and posting an answer to your own question. As it is many questions are asked here that have already been answered here, or have answers in the i3 User's Guide, or can be answered with a two-minute web search. A fair number of questions have little or nothing to do with i3. i3 is aimed first and foremost at *power users*, those willing to invest time and effort into learning more about how to get the most out of their systems. Getting the most out of i3 means a little creative thought and some homework. I personally think this site should reflect that in how people earn posting and moderating privileges. Not having karma doesn't keep people from posting here. It poses a barrier to spammers and to people who are more liable to simply post a question and then twiddle their thumbs while waiting for an answer, people likely to take more than give. It encourages people to think carefully about their issue and figure out how to properly articulate it, to communicate with people as best as possible. The only real barrier to entry here is the need to exercise a little patience and self-motivation.Thu, 19 Feb 2015 01:20:48 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?answer=5499#post-id-5499Comment by faust for I'll be frank: The best way to earn karma on this site is to ask or answer interesting questions that aren't already covered in the excellent i3 documentation, or can't be figured out with a simple web search. i3 is hands-down the best documented and one of the most popular window managers I've used, and I've used over a dozen. This site should serve as a forum and repository for the more interesting things that can be done with i3, not a dumping ground for the same old mundane and inane queries. Karma typically comes from questions that garner lots of views or lots of votes. As you may have noticed, you can even earn karma by showing some initiative and posting an answer to your own question. As it is many questions are asked here that have already been answered here, or have answers in the i3 User's Guide, or can be answered with a two-minute web search. A fair number of questions have little or nothing to do with i3. i3 is aimed first and foremost at power users, those willing to invest time and effort into learning more about how to get the most out of their systems. Getting the most out of i3 means a little creative thought and some homework. I personally think this site should reflect that in how people earn posting and moderating privileges. Not having karma doesn't keep people from posting here. It poses a barrier to spammers and to people who are more liable to simply post a question and then twiddle their thumbs while waiting for an answer, people likely to take more than give. It encourages people to think carefully about their issue and figure out how to properly articulate it, to communicate with people as best as possible. The only real barrier to entry here is the need to exercise a little patience and self-motivation. https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5692#comment-5692This issue has been viewed 323 times - if that's even accurate. You guys need to stop flattering yourselves and get real. You don't have the traffic to implement this format.Mon, 30 Mar 2015 12:49:06 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5692#comment-5692Comment by faust for I'll be frank: The best way to earn karma on this site is to ask or answer interesting questions that aren't already covered in the excellent i3 documentation, or can't be figured out with a simple web search. i3 is hands-down the best documented and one of the most popular window managers I've used, and I've used over a dozen. This site should serve as a forum and repository for the more interesting things that can be done with i3, not a dumping ground for the same old mundane and inane queries. Karma typically comes from questions that garner lots of views or lots of votes. As you may have noticed, you can even earn karma by showing some initiative and posting an answer to your own question. As it is many questions are asked here that have already been answered here, or have answers in the i3 User's Guide, or can be answered with a two-minute web search. A fair number of questions have little or nothing to do with i3. i3 is aimed first and foremost at power users, those willing to invest time and effort into learning more about how to get the most out of their systems. Getting the most out of i3 means a little creative thought and some homework. I personally think this site should reflect that in how people earn posting and moderating privileges. Not having karma doesn't keep people from posting here. It poses a barrier to spammers and to people who are more liable to simply post a question and then twiddle their thumbs while waiting for an answer, people likely to take more than give. It encourages people to think carefully about their issue and figure out how to properly articulate it, to communicate with people as best as possible. The only real barrier to entry here is the need to exercise a little patience and self-motivation. https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5691#comment-5691Not everyone has time or the desire to play with the q/a facility so they can build enough "karma" to differentiate issues that matter. But according to the prevailing logic, it means their upvote feedback should be ignored.Mon, 30 Mar 2015 12:48:36 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5691#comment-5691Comment by Gamonics for I'll be frank: The best way to earn karma on this site is to ask or answer interesting questions that aren't already covered in the excellent i3 documentation, or can't be figured out with a simple web search. i3 is hands-down the best documented and one of the most popular window managers I've used, and I've used over a dozen. This site should serve as a forum and repository for the more interesting things that can be done with i3, not a dumping ground for the same old mundane and inane queries. Karma typically comes from questions that garner lots of views or lots of votes. As you may have noticed, you can even earn karma by showing some initiative and posting an answer to your own question. As it is many questions are asked here that have already been answered here, or have answers in the i3 User's Guide, or can be answered with a two-minute web search. A fair number of questions have little or nothing to do with i3. i3 is aimed first and foremost at power users, those willing to invest time and effort into learning more about how to get the most out of their systems. Getting the most out of i3 means a little creative thought and some homework. I personally think this site should reflect that in how people earn posting and moderating privileges. Not having karma doesn't keep people from posting here. It poses a barrier to spammers and to people who are more liable to simply post a question and then twiddle their thumbs while waiting for an answer, people likely to take more than give. It encourages people to think carefully about their issue and figure out how to properly articulate it, to communicate with people as best as possible. The only real barrier to entry here is the need to exercise a little patience and self-motivation. https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5542#comment-5542And when I wanted to ask a question that required posting an image, I was unable to do so before gaining 10 karma points. Thus, having low karma did prevent me from participating in a meaningful way here. It also prevented me from being able to VOTE which is the essence of any SE-like site.Thu, 26 Feb 2015 16:16:01 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5542#comment-5542Comment by Gamonics for I'll be frank: The best way to earn karma on this site is to ask or answer interesting questions that aren't already covered in the excellent i3 documentation, or can't be figured out with a simple web search. i3 is hands-down the best documented and one of the most popular window managers I've used, and I've used over a dozen. This site should serve as a forum and repository for the more interesting things that can be done with i3, not a dumping ground for the same old mundane and inane queries. Karma typically comes from questions that garner lots of views or lots of votes. As you may have noticed, you can even earn karma by showing some initiative and posting an answer to your own question. As it is many questions are asked here that have already been answered here, or have answers in the i3 User's Guide, or can be answered with a two-minute web search. A fair number of questions have little or nothing to do with i3. i3 is aimed first and foremost at power users, those willing to invest time and effort into learning more about how to get the most out of their systems. Getting the most out of i3 means a little creative thought and some homework. I personally think this site should reflect that in how people earn posting and moderating privileges. Not having karma doesn't keep people from posting here. It poses a barrier to spammers and to people who are more liable to simply post a question and then twiddle their thumbs while waiting for an answer, people likely to take more than give. It encourages people to think carefully about their issue and figure out how to properly articulate it, to communicate with people as best as possible. The only real barrier to entry here is the need to exercise a little patience and self-motivation. https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5548#comment-5548True, and I think that's ok; perhaps even a good thing (not sure how big a problem spam is here). But it also prevented me from posting images that were necessary to [my question](https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5463/i3-is-disappearing-text-from-my-urxvtc/)Thu, 26 Feb 2015 19:04:58 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5548#comment-5548Comment by ANOKNUSA for I'll be frank: The best way to earn karma on this site is to ask or answer interesting questions that aren't already covered in the excellent i3 documentation, or can't be figured out with a simple web search. i3 is hands-down the best documented and one of the most popular window managers I've used, and I've used over a dozen. This site should serve as a forum and repository for the more interesting things that can be done with i3, not a dumping ground for the same old mundane and inane queries. Karma typically comes from questions that garner lots of views or lots of votes. As you may have noticed, you can even earn karma by showing some initiative and posting an answer to your own question. As it is many questions are asked here that have already been answered here, or have answers in the i3 User's Guide, or can be answered with a two-minute web search. A fair number of questions have little or nothing to do with i3. i3 is aimed first and foremost at power users, those willing to invest time and effort into learning more about how to get the most out of their systems. Getting the most out of i3 means a little creative thought and some homework. I personally think this site should reflect that in how people earn posting and moderating privileges. Not having karma doesn't keep people from posting here. It poses a barrier to spammers and to people who are more liable to simply post a question and then twiddle their thumbs while waiting for an answer, people likely to take more than give. It encourages people to think carefully about their issue and figure out how to properly articulate it, to communicate with people as best as possible. The only real barrier to entry here is the need to exercise a little patience and self-motivation. https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5547#comment-5547The restriction on images keeps SPAM away; forces users to articulate their questions; and helps keep users from asking inane questions about the interface that are answered in the User's Guide (What's this red line in the window? What are these characters in the titlebar? Where'd my worspaces go?)Thu, 26 Feb 2015 18:44:09 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5547#comment-5547Comment by Gamonics for I'll be frank: The best way to earn karma on this site is to ask or answer interesting questions that aren't already covered in the excellent i3 documentation, or can't be figured out with a simple web search. i3 is hands-down the best documented and one of the most popular window managers I've used, and I've used over a dozen. This site should serve as a forum and repository for the more interesting things that can be done with i3, not a dumping ground for the same old mundane and inane queries. Karma typically comes from questions that garner lots of views or lots of votes. As you may have noticed, you can even earn karma by showing some initiative and posting an answer to your own question. As it is many questions are asked here that have already been answered here, or have answers in the i3 User's Guide, or can be answered with a two-minute web search. A fair number of questions have little or nothing to do with i3. i3 is aimed first and foremost at power users, those willing to invest time and effort into learning more about how to get the most out of their systems. Getting the most out of i3 means a little creative thought and some homework. I personally think this site should reflect that in how people earn posting and moderating privileges. Not having karma doesn't keep people from posting here. It poses a barrier to spammers and to people who are more liable to simply post a question and then twiddle their thumbs while waiting for an answer, people likely to take more than give. It encourages people to think carefully about their issue and figure out how to properly articulate it, to communicate with people as best as possible. The only real barrier to entry here is the need to exercise a little patience and self-motivation. https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5541#comment-5541Thanks for your answer. While I agree wholeheartedly with your GENERAL philosophy on how people should be using this site, I disagree with some points. For example, "As you may have noticed, you can even earn karma by showing some initiative and posting an answer to your own question." Not true 4me.Thu, 26 Feb 2015 16:12:38 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5541#comment-5541Comment by ANOKNUSA for I'll be frank: The best way to earn karma on this site is to ask or answer interesting questions that aren't already covered in the excellent i3 documentation, or can't be figured out with a simple web search. i3 is hands-down the best documented and one of the most popular window managers I've used, and I've used over a dozen. This site should serve as a forum and repository for the more interesting things that can be done with i3, not a dumping ground for the same old mundane and inane queries. Karma typically comes from questions that garner lots of views or lots of votes. As you may have noticed, you can even earn karma by showing some initiative and posting an answer to your own question. As it is many questions are asked here that have already been answered here, or have answers in the i3 User's Guide, or can be answered with a two-minute web search. A fair number of questions have little or nothing to do with i3. i3 is aimed first and foremost at power users, those willing to invest time and effort into learning more about how to get the most out of their systems. Getting the most out of i3 means a little creative thought and some homework. I personally think this site should reflect that in how people earn posting and moderating privileges. Not having karma doesn't keep people from posting here. It poses a barrier to spammers and to people who are more liable to simply post a question and then twiddle their thumbs while waiting for an answer, people likely to take more than give. It encourages people to think carefully about their issue and figure out how to properly articulate it, to communicate with people as best as possible. The only real barrier to entry here is the need to exercise a little patience and self-motivation. https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5546#comment-5546My mistake. You receive karma if you answer your own question *and* the answer receives an up-vote from another user. Otherwise people could just farm karma.Thu, 26 Feb 2015 18:39:45 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5546#comment-5546Comment by faust for I'll be frank: The best way to earn karma on this site is to ask or answer interesting questions that aren't already covered in the excellent i3 documentation, or can't be figured out with a simple web search. i3 is hands-down the best documented and one of the most popular window managers I've used, and I've used over a dozen. This site should serve as a forum and repository for the more interesting things that can be done with i3, not a dumping ground for the same old mundane and inane queries. Karma typically comes from questions that garner lots of views or lots of votes. As you may have noticed, you can even earn karma by showing some initiative and posting an answer to your own question. As it is many questions are asked here that have already been answered here, or have answers in the i3 User's Guide, or can be answered with a two-minute web search. A fair number of questions have little or nothing to do with i3. i3 is aimed first and foremost at power users, those willing to invest time and effort into learning more about how to get the most out of their systems. Getting the most out of i3 means a little creative thought and some homework. I personally think this site should reflect that in how people earn posting and moderating privileges. Not having karma doesn't keep people from posting here. It poses a barrier to spammers and to people who are more liable to simply post a question and then twiddle their thumbs while waiting for an answer, people likely to take more than give. It encourages people to think carefully about their issue and figure out how to properly articulate it, to communicate with people as best as possible. The only real barrier to entry here is the need to exercise a little patience and self-motivation. https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5690#comment-5690Seriously, this elitist "You can spend more time on a dead q/a site begging for points attitude" is so counterproductive that it alone justifies me abandoning the product.Mon, 30 Mar 2015 12:48:16 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5470/how-to-make-the-stackexchange-like-aspect-of-this-site-more-obvious/?comment=5690#comment-5690