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The guidelines on asking a good questions are known: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/how-to-ask

The question that remains is if these should be used to up-vote and down-vote questions or should not be taken into account.

I tend to up-vote questions that I think are interesting, clear and make me research and learn something new.

Also I tend to more easily up-vote questions that someone down-voted and that I wouldn't mind seeing an answer to or can not find anything wrong with.

What is the common practice in EL&U community regarding down-voting the questions and also is up-voting if you disagree with someone's down-vote? (even though the down-vote was explained)

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  • Relevant (note the phrasing, a 'problem' ;]): meta.stackexchange.com/questions/93356/…
    – z7sg Ѫ
    Jun 8, 2011 at 16:34
  • so long as you are voting based on the merits of the question as you see them, and not a knee-jerk reaction to other votes, it's fine.
    – Jeff Atwood
    Jun 11, 2011 at 10:05
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    @Jeff: Can you explain that a bit? Is it kosher to tilt toward upvoting if the question is currently negative?
    – MrHen
    Jun 13, 2011 at 15:01

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Voting to counteract someone else's vote is dodging the purpose of the voting system: To register community opinion on a question or answer. Meta-voting is gaming the system by thinking that your opinion matters more than someone else's opinion.

Still, it is pretty common... so your mileage may vary with regards to ends justifying means and so on. I see it as equivalent to downvoting something because you don't like the author of the post.

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    That being said, on a more personal note, feel free to ask me in chat for details or if you think I should revoke any particular vote. Dialogue is more likely to have a positive effect than counter-voting.
    – MrHen
    Jun 8, 2011 at 18:32
  • You cannot revoke a vote without editing the question/answer. Also because some people were gaming the system.
    – z7sg Ѫ
    Jun 8, 2011 at 19:26
  • Mmm... okay, revoke should an edit occur
    – MrHen
    Jun 8, 2011 at 19:28
  • I agree with you about the dialogue, just saying it's a pity the restriction exists. Also I don't always comment on my downvotes because I've found myself caught up in arguments over it in the past.
    – z7sg Ѫ
    Jun 8, 2011 at 19:55
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    I posed question here to question my attitude as well - I don't mind changing it or modifying if convinced by arguments. Re chat, I am not so often on chat, but will do so that next time I have a meta-comment that can be resolved over chat and have no significance for the question itself.
    – Unreason
    Jun 9, 2011 at 0:37
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    @z7sg: downvotes without comments are rude (unless the problem is blatant, for example a question that is purely spam). If you don't want to get caught up in an argument, leave your comment and then don't respond to any contradiction... usually someone else will take over if the argument's worth having... and if it's not, well... :-)
    – psmears
    Jun 14, 2011 at 19:02
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Voting a question (or an answer) is subjective; what you find interesting and worth of up-voting could be thought to be worth a down-vote for somebody else.

If you are systematically up-voting an answer or a question just because it has been down-voted from somebody else, then I would find that wrong; your vote should not be conditioned from the vote of other users.
I can understand, for example, if you think that down-voting a question four times has been excessive, and you up-vote it to balance the situation.

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    No, definitively not systematic. That would be pity vote: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/93356/… It is more about some questions that I would not otherwise up-vote on. So I basically vote to set it to 0 (because I think it should be at least 0).
    – Unreason
    Jun 9, 2011 at 20:09
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    @Unreason Still, your vote should not be influenced from the other users' vote. if you are up-voting after reading the question, then that is fine; if you are voting just because the question has a down-vote, then I would not say it is what I would do.
    – apaderno
    Jun 9, 2011 at 20:15
  • it is not voting before reading, just based on -1 vote. It is after reading. Still, I recognize that for similar qestion I might or might not up-vote if it was not -1.
    – Unreason
    Jun 9, 2011 at 21:25

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