At least two members of the private beta who'd like to participate mentioned getting a message:
You must have at least 5 reputation on ExpressionEngine to ask a question.
Is this indeed the case? Seeing as we're trying to promote the site and help committed members get active in the private beta, this would be a significant obstacle.
If there is such a limit, what is the simplest way for the user to gain enough reputation to ask a question?
It looks to me as though the 5 rep minimum only applies to Meta, not the main site.
Remember that the most basic functions (asking and answering) require no reputation at all, so you can build up reputation simply by asking and answering questions and reputation is awarded to you through the community vote.
- Source
I'm wondering whether a lot of the users having problems have not fully activated their accounts. There do seem to be a huge number of zero rep users and I think a new user should have 1 rep by default (which grants quite a lot of permissions while in beta).
"Simplest" way is to get active on other SE sites, I think. But then you run into that annoying "link up your account" issue. That had me confused for a while...
