Am I really forced to ask a question before gaining reputation to vote up answers that I find helpful?

I've used StackOverflow for years in my JavaScript development, and I see myself as a pro. But I always find my questions already been asked and answered, therefore never had the need to ask any questions, but I still want to vote up stuff that I find helpful. But I have not enough reputation to do so.

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    If you see yourself as an expert, perhaps you should try answering some questions – Ral Zarek Jul 5 '13 at 9:13
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    If you can't get reputation from asking questions, maybe you could get it by answering them? Since you do see yourself a professional, maybe you could answer some questions on stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/javascript – Dave Chen Jul 5 '13 at 9:13

You are not forced to ask. Best way is to answer other questions. Help other people, not just hunt for answers that helps you. and in case of old questions and answers addressing your problems, you can always suggest an edit if you see something worth clarification, or post another answer, that uses more recent technology.

  • But on some sites it seems you don't have a way to start participating. For example, in this post: wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/45692/… I wanted to add a comment to one reply, but I require 50 reputation for that. I tried to upvote an answer, but I require 15 reputation for that. Then I tried to add an answer telling which answer worked for me (was a hideous bug) but I need 10 reputation for that. So I have no way to start participating without asking questions before, which seems to not require any reputation. What should I do there? – FLC Sep 3 '13 at 16:13
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    @conan you tried to post a comment as an answer - you shouldn't, and that's exactly why some questions are protected. Start participating by answering questions that have no answers or that you can provide different, not yet published answer. Look on the list of unanswered questions - if you know Wordpress, probably you can answer at least one of the 6432 unanswered ones. That's what I did on Drupal. Worked like a charm. – Mołot Sep 4 '13 at 6:00


Have you considered answering some questions? Answers get twice as many points as questions. Plus you get that warm and fuzzy feeling that comes with helping your fellow programmer :)


There are several ways to gain reputation on Stack Overflow - not all require asking a question.

Suggesting edits on posts (questions and answers) can gain you 2 rep when accepted. 5 of those and you have 11 rep :)

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    And 7 of those will give exactly 15 rep required to upvote. – Mołot Jul 5 '13 at 9:15

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