I don't see what are the significant barriers? You can still comment, post new links and articles and read like anyone else. If whatever you say has merit, then nobody will care what your score is in the hacker news game.
If you run HN with "showdead" you'll see the cruft that gets killed. This stuff actually really represents a real danger to every online community.
Point is, there are real people who edit HN, and these people use karma score as a major determining factor when deciding whether or not to mark as dead.
This is aside from the typical flame or personal insult... that anyone can and will do, even those with high karma scores. ;-)
"... I don't see what are the significant barriers? ... If whatever you say has merit, then nobody will care what your score is in the hacker news game ..."
I think rantfoil is saying it is easy to get "tripped-up" on the unwritten or obscure rules. I guess the "Turing-like" test to participation is understanding how "hackers" think.
