Inexplicable Down Vote(s) on an Answer

Question

I don't want to appear whining nevertheless, I accept that for many members this must be tiresome to hear again and again, but I am beginning to understand why this community has been accused of acting unfriendly and unhelpful towards newcomers.

I can think of ten situations where an answer may be downvoted unfairly or rightly. I would like to know which one my answer falls into.

1. That an answer may not be liked is acceptable, there are hundreds of answers in EL&U which I do not actively like but I do not downvote any of them.

2. That an answer is incomplete is open to criticism but still not a good enough reason to downvote, the user should make use of the comment section and point out the error.

3. That answer may be factually correct but is written clumsily is not a reason for down-voting. Simply do not vote for it and choose a better answer.

4. That people who become peeved for whatever reason, and then retort their frustration by revenge down-voting, I hear happens, but before down-voting perhaps they should ask that person to defend themself (a new word, which I learnt on this site!). In any case, if it becomes a pattern the guilty party should be given a warning.

5. That a person has misinterpreted the wording of an answer or the poster's intentions is forgiveable and probably related to no.3 however, this should be rectified if or when the misunderstanding has been cleared up.

6. That an answer is incomprehensible to anyone who is not a linguist. I think this could justify a down-vote from a non-native speaker or anyone whose level of education is around average.

7. That an answer is nasty, vulgar and/or damaging to any member's reputation this must be downvoted and flagged immediately.

8. That an answer shows no research and is false this must be downvoted.

9. Than an answer is deliberately and knowingly off-topic.

10. The down-vote was cast by a troll. In as much as a gratuitous anonymous downvote.

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August 1 2013 P.S I'm still getting inexplicable anonymous downvotes... sigh...

Answer 1

I think John Lawler's comment may be at the heart of the downvotes. One thing I've learned on ELU is to be very careful about deeming something "incorrect" or "ungrammatical". What may be entirely inappropriate for a job application might be perfectly suitable for a blues song. Yet both are English.

Nonetheless, if that's really the reason for the downvotes, I believe they should have been explained. A comment might have been better a better response than a downvote – and it certainly would have been a better response than an unexplained downvote.

Moreover, you did an impressive job of framing this meta question. It didn't come off as whining to me, but as a carefully crafted way to encourage community introspection.

Answer 2

• It hurts to get negative response no matter what. Since you're newer here, those downvotes carry much more psychological weight. It is unfortunate that you don't get feedback on each and every vote (down -or- up) but that's not what behavior in the entire SE system is like. It's hard to read intention from a single up/down, but often that's all you get.

• Some people are more likely to downvote than others, not out of inherent evil but because there's a tool with a given purpose and people want to use it.

• You left out many possible reasons, of varying nuance, having to do with just plain reasoning or factual disagreement. In your answer, there are are many posible points of arguable disagreement, your first statement, your explanation of each instance, your use of google among them.

• 2 down votes is not a big deal. Really. Revenge and trollish downvoting is not common. If the total on that question were -2, then you'd want to think about the quality of your answer very seriously. At a net of 0, well, it's good that you're asking for feedback, and you've gotten some from tchrist and John Lawler.

• ELU is not special. it is just as unfriendly and unhelpful to newcomers as the main programming sites.

Each of these points of mine have long histories in meta questions and answers and comment threads on the main site. If you go through some of the meta questions you'll find support for them.

Answer 3

Sometimes downvotes are just that - a mystery. For whatever reason, that person didn't think your question had merit. Votes are anonymous by design, and each person can spend just as much effort thinking about them as he/she chooses.

In other words, most of the examples you've given aren't really examples of "unfair downvotes". Guidelines and advice can be given, but ultimately it's solely up to the voter's discretion.

That said, something like serial downvoting (where someone will downvote every single one of your questions/answers) and trolling (where someone will downvote a large number of posts in a short amount of time) and sockpuppeting (where someone creates a duplicate account for the sole purpose up upvoting their own posts) are examples of unfair voting, and this kind of thing is generally caught by a filter and reversed within 24 hours.

My best advice is: Don't let it stress you out, especially if the overall score on the post is still positive, and especially if they don't leave a comment (and even if they do, note that you can't assume it's the same person who left the downvote). Note also that it will take three down-votes to completely cancel out a single up-vote.

The converse: Should it be necessary to explain every single upvote too? No. All an upvote means is that, for whatever reason, that person thinks that this question was well put and deserves attention/responses.

Answer 4

Generally a down vote means the voter thinks the answer is not a good answer to the question. Often people will explain why they down voted in a comment without explicitly saying they down voted. Often they won't bother. Yes, what makes it a good answer or not can be subjective, but that's why we have votes rather than right/wrong flags.

I know a lot of people are sensitive to being down voted, like it is some kind of personal insult or something. I find it helpful to think of the SE sites as conferences or salons where attendees discuss topics and a down vote of my answer is just someone else saying "I disagree" or simply shaking their head. It's not unfriendly or unwelcoming to disagree, it's just a sign you've entered a debate where people have opinions.

If you want feedback on how to improve your answers, that's what the comments are for. The answer you link to has comments from 3 people explaining why they do not like your answer and only 2 down votes so I wouldn't call the down votes "inexplicable".

Answer 5

Kudos on the zillions of great answers and comments.

I want to take what I hope might be a slightly different tack here, for the purpose of making this point: Votes are SUPPOSED to be meaningful and relevant. It seems to me that there is a good reason for voting, one that is being obscured by all the hullabaloo over misguided and inappropriate voting. I believe votes were instituted for the specific and valuable reason to render the voter's opinion that the answer contributes something constructive to the discussion. That's it, nothing more. Notice what happens when you hover your cursor over a voting arrow. You get "This answer is (or is not) useful." Useful. You don't see, "I don't agree," "I don't like this answer," "I'm in a bad mood today," or gee whiz, any other reason at all to cast a vote. In fact, I would like to think I just might have enough integrity to see an answer with which I disagree, but which I nevertheless believe contributes something genuinely useful to the discussion, and that I would then UPVOTE it. (Yes, I have done this.) Could we try not to lose sight of how simple and useful votes could actually be?

And by the way, Mari-Lou, you're one of our best. Keep it up.

Answer 6

I landed on the English page when I recently found stackexchange. I think from the mods to the newbies, it is a positive environment that is out to really help others. I have not checked out many other SE sites but the one I did was philosophy. Now that site is quick on the down voting and very critical of not following the rules. For such deep thinkers, you think ego would enter their thoughts. It's not that I've even experienced this but I've seen some ostracized for a question or an answer. I like what was stated above about helping or constructive criticism through a comment rather than racking em with down votes. Thanks for keeping it real here. I get in a rush and my English may need an edit or two after I post it. Thankfully there is a level of understanding and I am not chastised for catching my mistake and editing it. If there was a category that could/should be critical of writing in proper tense, etc. it would be this one. I would say that there certainly is a place and a reason for down votes. If nothing else it keeps people in check; a sort of deterrent I suppose.

Answer 7

When I first came to the site I got a lot of downvotes because I was using corpus data to answer questions. Maybe you're getting heat from anti-corpus types since you used google hits as part of your argument. Try using COCA data next time. They'll still downvote... honni soit qui mal y pense. Also they don't like you to answer questions which are unworthy in the first place. The question you answered got closed, so downvoting the answer will help to ratify the closure decision.

Answer 8

Ultimately, I think that if down-votes required a comment to be provided - this would deter gratuity and provide the OP with constructive criticism.

Edit: Just to embellish this rather brief answer based on my comments. If comments are not required for down-votes (an therefore help the community), I think that removal of down-votes would encourage answers to be voted on merit. Consider this scenario:

There are 2 answers to a question. 100 people respond by either up-voting, down-voting or both. Both answers receive 50 up-votes, meaning that they are equal in terms of being considered good answers. The first answer receives 10 down-votes from 10 of the people who up-voted the other answer, so one answer is ahead by 10 points.

What does this mean? It means that those who "bother" to down-vote have more power over the perceived best answer and 10 points have been taken away from people who cast their votes. Of course, everyone can down-vote the other answer too, but it means that everyone should down-vote every answer that they do not up-vote to make it all even!

Add to this that you need a certain reputation to down-vote, you lose a point each time you down-vote and therefore those with the highest reputation can be more blasé about down-voting those who have just started out.

In the end though - this scoring system underlies the SE sites, so what can be done in reality?