Thanks for asking! If you're confused then I'm sure others are, too.

Cash Commons is primarily for questions and answers, secondarily for discussion. This is a bit different than a forum, which is primarily for discussion, secondarily for questions and answers.

Here's a quick run-down of how to use the site as a new member. First here's what a new member can do right off the bat:

• Ask questions. Click on the "Ask Question" button in the upper right of the screen, and ask away. The more specific your question title, the better. Also, the more specific your question, the better. Then choose some tags from the ones already in use, and then click the "Ask Your Question" button in the lower left.
• Answer questions. If you see a question that you can answer, then you can do so by typing your answer into the box, and clicking on the "Post Your Answer" button. You're also allowed to answer your own questions if you find the answers to them before someone else does! One distinction though: this is the place for answers to the question, not comments on the question or an answer. Comments are treated differently than answers, so stick to answering the question in this section.
• Accept answers to your questions. If someone responds to one of your questions and you feel that it answers your question very well, they you can accept the answer by clicking on the check mark to the left of the answer. You may only accept one answer at a time, but you may unaccept an answer to accept another one. Accepting others' answers to your questions increases your reputation by 2.

As you ask and answer questions, people who can do so will vote them up or vote them down. Upvotes increase your reputation by 10, and downvotes decrease it by 2. The higher your reputation, the more the system trusts you, and the more different ways you can contribute content and acknowledge good or bad content. Reputation is earned by the quality of your questions and answers. Admins cannot just give you reputation.

Once you have a reputation of 15 or greater, you can do the following:

• Vote up questions or answers. If a question is useful and clear, you can upvote it. (EDIT: More info on voting in this question.) If an answer is helpful, you can upvote it. You do this by clicking on the up arrow to the left of the question or answer:

• Flag offensive content. If it's offensive (contains foul language, incites violence, etc.) then you can do this.

Once you have a reputation of 50 or greater, you can do the following:

• Leave comments on questions or answers. This is the place for discussion. (Sorry it takes 50 reputation to do this, but that's the way the system's designed.) On questions, you can comment on just about anything, but one useful thing to do is to ask for clarification -- something that might help you answer the question better. On answers, you could comment to point something out that the answerer missed, to agree, or to ask a question about his/her answer.

Once you have a reputation of 100 or greater, you can do the following:

• Vote down questions and answers. At this point you can not only acknowledge good content, but you can also acknowledge bad content. Each downvote costs the downvoter 1 reputation (in addition to costing the person downvoted 2 reputation). This is to discourage massive downvoting and to encourage constructive criticism.

Hope this helps! If you have other questions, ask them and tag them with "faq".