Let's get critical: Oct 2014 Site Self-Evaluation

Question

We all love Board & Card Games Stack Exchange, but there is a whole world of people out there who need answers to their questions and don't even know that this site exists. When they arrive from Google, what will their first impression be? Let's try to look at this site through the eyes of someone who's never seen it before, and see how we stack up against the rest of the 'Net.

The Site Self-Evaluation review queue is open and populated with 10 questions that were asked and answered in the last quarter. Run a few Google searches to see how easy they are to find and compare the answers we have with the information available on other sites.

Rating the questions is only a part of the puzzle, though. Do you see a pattern of questions that should have been closed but are not? Questions or answers that could use an edit? Anything that's going really well? Post an answer below to share your thoughts and discuss these questions and the site's health with your fellow users!

Tim Nafziger · Accepted Answer · 2014-11-08 05:12:35Z

I came across the site for the first time a month ago. I was quite excited about joining in, but I found the barrier to entry (in reputation) a bit challenging. I'm not a magic player (I prefer Eurogames) and so the unanswered questions were about games I wasn't familiar with. It felt a bit fake to just come up with a question for the sake of gaining reputation. I finally came across a situation where I could post a question, which is why I'm able to post in meta what I wanted to post in October.

I understand and respect the reasons for the reputation threshold, but if there were more compelling and obvious ways for people to invest time to gain reputation, that might make for repeat customers. Once you pass 15, then the scope for participation becomes much greater and people can become active members of the community.