As a reader, I find SO quite useful. From the outside, however, the community appears particularly unwelcoming. For lack of a better term, it seems as though participants are walking on eggshells. Standards are enforced extremely rigorously, quite possibly to the detriment of the site as a whole.

I have not yet contributed, in no small part due to the above. I don't need SO karma to prove my knowledge in a given domain, and therefore my only reason to actively participate would be if I find it intrinsically rewarding - which does not currently appear to be the case.