Likes here mean "this helped", not "I agree". People like posts that argue against them, and that is deliberate. The strength of my opinion here exceeds the strength of my evidence.
The question in the title: What happens after your first post: likes, trust levels, and why none of it matters much — what changed since I will give what I have already checked below so nobody repeats it.
I want to check my reasoning rather than get a conclusion.
My current understanding is set out below in the order I arrived at it. I think step two is the weakest part and I would like that examined first.
Worth knowing early: the archive is not retrospectively corrected. A topic from two years ago was accurate when written and may not be now. Every post carries its date for that reason.
That matches what I have seen, for whatever a single anecdote is worth.
The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.
One thing that took me a while to notice: the search box indexes maintained documents as well as topics, and documents carry a review date. If a document and a five-year-old topic disagree, the document is the one somebody has looked at recently.
The number is defensible. The precision I gave it is not.
Likes here mean "this helped", not "I agree". People like posts that argue against them, and that is deliberate.
The strength of my opinion here exceeds the strength of my evidence.
The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.
If that is already documented somewhere, ignore me and link it.
On the reading order question specifically: start with the how-to-ask materials in this category, then read the one to three subcategories where your main questions live. The rest will be discoverable by tag once you understand the structure.
Noting that the question and the thing people usually mean by it are different.
Reading rather than contributing, but this is the most useful thread I have found on it.
Thank you for the correction. I would rather find out here than later.
Off-topic posts that do not belong here belong in the Lounge instead. You are not in trouble if a moderator moves your post — they are just routing it to the right place so people who want to read it can find it.
Worth one more sentence than it usually gets.
The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.
The interesting part of this is the exception, and I do not understand the exception.
On the reading order question specifically: start with the how-to-ask materials in this category, then read the one to three subcategories where your main questions live. The rest will be discoverable by tag once you understand the structure.
Written from notes rather than memory, which is why the numbers are specific.
The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.
The category structure looks heavier than it is. There are twenty top-level categories and you will use three of them. Find those three, mute the rest for a month, and come back to the others when a question sends you there.
Trust levels accumulate over time and they give you access to small things like the ability to edit your own posts without a timestamp. They are not a status symbol and they do not make you more right. Someone at trust level zero with a good question gets better answers than someone at trust level four with a bad one.
That is a description of practice, not a recommendation of it.
Welcome. Two practical notes from staff. Your first few posts are rate-limited, which is an anti-spam measure and not a comment on you, and it lifts on its own. If you hit it and have something to add, edit the post you already made.
It is the sort of thing that seems obvious in retrospect and was not at the time.
Reading back through, this was answered upthread and I missed it. My fault.
Worth knowing early: the archive is not retrospectively corrected. A topic from two years ago was accurate when written and may not be now. Every post carries its date for that reason.
None of the above is medical advice and I am not qualified to give any.
Introducing yourself is fine and requires no question. Post in this subcategory, describe the context that matters for why you are here, and lurk for a bit before posting technical questions. That order works well.
The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.
Reading the guidelines before you post is genuinely worth the twenty minutes. Not because you will break one, but because the rules explain why the place reads the way it does.
The claim is narrower than it sounds, and deliberately so.
The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.
Adding it in case it saves somebody the afternoon it cost me.
Reading the guidelines before you post is genuinely worth the twenty minutes. Not because you will break one, but because the rules explain why the place reads the way it does.
The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.
A guess, clearly labelled as one.
Welcome. Two practical notes from staff. Your first few posts are rate-limited, which is an anti-spam measure and not a comment on you, and it lifts on its own. If you hit it and have something to add, edit the post you already made.