Maybe 300 rep would be better?

Hi there everyone. I've recently received a personal message from someone and I was told I didn't have enough rep to reply.

He was simply asking what the terms and conditions are for using some of my music in his game. I can't reply to him though and it feels rude not to be able to.

I've seen other people be whitelisted and if it's not too much to ask I'd like to be able to reply to the messages I receive.

500 reputation just to do this seems a bit much. I feel like the requirement could be lower, like say 300 rep or a certain amount of posts made, games played/commented on, time spent on the forums.

The whole reputation system isn't really explained all that well either, it's not very welcoming to new users. I understand trying to get rid of spammers and the like but are they really going to take the time to comment or add a like on peoples games?

Anyway this is just my thoughts and feedback on the matter, sorry if it's a bit harsh, I know the best on intentions were in mind when this system was put into place and I do appreciate that.

Maybe a solution should be that you can reply to PM's with the starting level rep (so lost rep removes that privilege), but you can only start a pm to someone new with 500 rep.

I think the point of the system is that a spambot would need to make many posts (more likely to get caught) before they can then spam everyone's PM's (it's easier to delete one thread than a tonne of PM's)

ut are they really going to take the time to comment or add a like on peoples games?

Yes, they definitely do sadly.

Also, if you look at the list of badges, you can get 500 rep in one day easy. Read the manual (gets points), etc...