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I'm running in to some Super User issues as with no reputation, you can't ask a question on Meta, nor comment on anything, so my only option to gain reputation seems to be editing previous answers to add more information. My first edit was to expand on an answer that was previously given (Question), and it was rejected saying that I should have made a comment or an answer instead (which I can't do yet).

I thought the community standard was to edit question answers to add more information, not adding additional comments/answers?

If this question was asked previously, I apologize, but I can't seem to find it in Meta.

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    @JakeGould: Apparently, yes,
    – grawity
    Commented Oct 24, 2018 at 14:01
  • @derim - You should link to the edit proposal, without that link, we can't see what you sugged and if it was handled properly.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Oct 24, 2018 at 16:05
  • @ramhound thanks for the note-- turns out not to matter in this case. It sounds like there is some disagreement on standards for editing answers as well, so I'll look around a bit more and figure things out.
    – Josh EC
    Commented Oct 28, 2018 at 13:18

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There is a difference between commenting on a question and posting a full answer.

  • Answers are full-size posts like this one. On the main site, they can be posted without any reputation requirement, and give +10 rep for every upvote they get.

  • Comments are one-liners meant to ask for clarification (either under a question or under an answer). They require rep to post, but do not generate rep themselves.

So if your edit changed so much of the original answer that it was rejected, you should have posted it as a full answer and the site should have allowed you to do this without any additional requirements – after all, this is how most people start on SE.

(That said, you do have to start on the main site before getting access to Meta.)

Although there certainly are people who have collected thousands of rep purely from offering edits – but it's not the primary method; in fact I don't think edit reviews existed at all when I first started here.

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