You're entirely welcome to participate here, and it's not hard to understand the criteria, if you read the guidelines and take the intended spirit of the site to heart. Basically, we want to have a place on the internet that's good for curious conversation and manages to escape the default outcome of internet forums, which is to decline and eventually destroy themselves.
If you take a look at these links maybe the reason why we do things this way will get a little clearer, and if not, we're happy to answer any questions from users who sincerely want to use HN as intended.
