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I've been looking around, seeing lots of posts getting a few downvotes on completely regular questions.

Some examples:

What's a metaphor/expression for "confirmation"?

What is the appropriate preposition which can be used with the word "server"?

EDIT: My examples got upvoted back to 0.

I don't understand why these posts are getting downvoted. Does someone not like them? Did they not have correct grammar? Did some guy think downvoting these would be "funny"?

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    [1/2] Voting is anonymous (for a good reason!) so we can never know with certainty why one post or another received a downvote or two. When a post attracts a handful or more of downvotes (say, a net negative score of -4 or less), then it's usually pretty easy to identify the specific aspects of that post which are to blame. For your 2nd example, I'll speculate that questions on prepositions which would be obvious to any native speaker without formal training tend (i.e. Qs which belong on ELL) to get downvoted as for being "too basic", in order to discourage further, similar, distractions.
    – Dan Bron
    Apr 28 '15 at 19:51
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    [2/2] Arguably, such posts should instead be close-voted as "general reference", which embeds an explicit pointer to English Language Learners. I'm actually surprised your first example got downvoted, as janoChen's questions are typically welcomed warmly. But, as I said, it's best not to draw too many conclusions or make too much of a few downvotes; they represent only the whims of a couple, unknown, users.
    – Dan Bron
    Apr 28 '15 at 19:53
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    As a newbie, I have been quietly suspecting something like that, namely downvoting for fun. Not so quietly since this morning, when (according to the rep-tracker icon) an Answer was docked 15 rep in one go, without impacting the rep figure with the arrows left of the post itself. I don't understand this, looks like a swingeing fine rather than downvotes (not a multiple of 2), and I don't think I deserved it.
    – David Pugh
    Apr 29 '15 at 15:09
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    Because unfortunately, the average quality of questions on this site is abysmal. 99% should be closed, and many should be downvoted.
    – curiousdannii
    Apr 30 '15 at 1:03

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