Why downvote a question? It causes the user to lose reputation. Why not simply ask the person to restate and/or delete the question? I was told that this community only accepts one question at a time (in the post) whereas I asked three relating to the Title of my question. I was also told that my questions were to broad. Actually, they were very specific. And, another user did answer each of my three questions. What is the purpose of this community if one cannot ask questions? Since I lost reputation for asking questions in a community created to "answer" questions, I deleted the post, rather than "check the answer" and give another user reputation for answering questions that I lost reputation for asking. I was also told to ask a teacher or professor if I had access to one. Again, what is the point of this "exchange" if one cannot ask a question(s) and receive an answer.
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11. The point is to ask good, on-topic, in-scope questions and receive answers, which you could do if you read the help section to understand what's expected from you. 2. Someone took the time to help you and you rewarded them by deleting the question because someone else downvoted it? How would you feel if someone did that to you? Your reputation in the Stack Exchange stems from your behavior as well as the quality of your posts. Who will want to answer your questions when you respond in that way?– fixer1234Jan 16, 2018 at 0:54
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2“Since I lost reputation for asking questions in a community created to "answer" questions, I deleted the post, rather than "check the answer"” - This is called vandalizing your question, and if I cared enough, I could vote to undelete your question. Don’t ask a question and then after you receive an answer delete your question.– RamhoundJan 16, 2018 at 12:54
3 Answers
Deleted question for the benefit of low rep users:
Why is RAM so much faster? What is determining what data goes to RAM vs the Hard Drive. Such as, when working with a photoshop program, it uses a lot of RAM allowing the program to operate much faster. Secondly, RAM means Random Access Memory - therefore data must be input, stored, processed, then output. Thirdly, if data were compressed before going to RAM, would you not be using less RAM?
Why downvote a question?
Some typical reasons to downvote questions can be seen if you hover over the downvote arrow:
"This question does not show any research effort; it is unclear or not useful."
So the down voters may think you haven't done any research.
From How do I ask a good question?:
Have you thoroughly searched for an answer before asking your question? Sharing your research helps everyone. Tell us what you found and why it didn’t meet your needs. This demonstrates that you’ve taken the time to try to help yourself, it saves us from reiterating obvious answers, and above all, it helps you get a more specific and relevant answer!
Your question is also unclear:
Why is RAM so much faster?
Much faster than what? Please be specific.
RAM means Random Access Memory - therefore data must be input, stored, processed, then output.
What does this mean? It doesn't make sense. RAM is written to and read from. Processing happens elsewhere, and is independent of whether the data is stored on RAM or Disk.
Why not simply ask the person to restate and/or delete the question?
Voting is anonymous. There is no requirement to leave a comment.
I was also told that my questions were to broad.
Your now deleted "RAM speeds and data" question is indeed too broad.
From What types of questions should I avoid asking?:
You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face.
And:
Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much.
Both of those point to your question not being a good question.
what is the point of this "exchange" if one cannot ask a question(s) and receive an answer.
One of the "points" behind SuperUser is (like most other Stack Exchange sites) is to provide a repository of high quality questions and answers.
Given your reputation on https://mythology.stackexchange.com/ you clearly know how to write good questions and answers, so please apply the same diligence to your activities on SuperUser.
That includes being familiar with the content of our help pages.
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It should be noted that you can get a rep similar to the OP's purely from having edits approved, therefore bypassing the essential learning curve of asking question and posting answers. Although that might not be the case in this instance.– BurgiJan 16, 2018 at 19:03
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@Burgi It isn't. I checked. The OP has significant rep gains from upvoted questions on that site.– DavidPostill ModJan 16, 2018 at 19:06
Why downvote a question? It causes the user to lose reputation.
A question can be downvoted for any reason, or for no reason. However, keep in mind that if downvoting costs you rep, then it also costs rep to the person who did the downvote. So if someone just goes around spamming downvotes every day, they'll have a hard time getting much rep unless they are a great contributor to the community otherwise.
This is by design. The system is working as intended. The most often reason for downvoting a question is that it shows little research effort on the asker's part (Googling it, for instance).
Why not simply ask the person to restate and/or delete the question?
If the question or questions is/are fundamentally flawed (because the nature of the question shows a serious lack of research effort, or is off-topic, for example), asking someone to "restate" it won't help: they'd have to replace the body of their question with an entirely separate question to get to something acceptable for the site.
Super User's purpose isn't to just clone Wikipedia; if the direct answer of your question is available by quoting Wikipedia, it's probably not a great question.
I was told that this community only accepts one question at a time (in the post) whereas I asked three relating to the Title of my question.
This is more-or-less a matter of opinion, or a judgment call. I've seen good, relevant questions have multiple "sub-parts" within one question before without any problems. If each sub-part is a topic that is a huge subject on its own, it's generally best to ask that separately.
And, another user did answer each of my three questions.
Sometimes the people who downvoted your question were unnecessarily harsh; sometimes the person answering your question was unnecessarily generous. Depending on exactly how good or bad your question(s) was/were, maybe your downvotes and negative experiences were not justified. Or, perhaps, they were justified, and the person who submitted an answer just wanted the reputation without considering what value his/her answer would have for the site.
Keep in mind that a community this large isn't a "hive mind" with everyone having the same opinion all the time. A lot of times, even the veteran users of this site disagree with one another about what's a good question, or what's a bad question.
A downvote could come from a completely unreasonable source, like a new member in the community who just has enough rep to cast a downvote, and doesn't really understand what makes a good question or not.
What is the purpose of this community if one cannot ask questions?
It's not questions in general that get shot down; it's questions that are perceived by a majority of users viewing your question, to be of low quality or poor topicality for the site.
Since I lost reputation for asking questions in a community created to "answer" questions, I deleted the post, rather than "check the answer" and give another user reputation for answering questions that I lost reputation for asking.
What a waste... you also get +2 rep for accepting a correct answer, and by deleting a question with an answer, you've moved yourself closer to being automatically question banned by the site algorithm. Deleting your own questions in general is a terrible idea; avoid it unless the question isn't at all salvageable.
It's also pretty childish to say "Myeh, if you're going to take rep from me, I'm not going to give it to you!" - especially when the person who took the time to give you an answer is not likely the same person who downvoted you.
I was also told to ask a teacher or professor if I had access to one.
Some questions are best suited to be answered by a professor. It really depends on what the question is exactly about.
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1Note: Down voting questions does not not give a rep loss to the down voter. Down voting an answer is -1 for the down voter..– DavidPostill ModJan 15, 2018 at 21:47
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So, your a Question and Answer site, but "beginner" questions aren't really allowed because they are not of sufficient quality. You must research your own question first. Asking the question on this site is researching it. I presumed that the site was created with those more knowledgeable than me, and also presumed they would answer the question since it is a Q and A site. However, I can see there is no purpose in staying on. You see, my beginner questions were leading up to more difficult questions that you can't find by "Googling it". But it doesn't matter.– user862589Jan 15, 2018 at 21:50
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2@Jody, beginner questions are welcome, and there are lots of them. What receives a poor reception are questions that are not clear and understandable, contain multiple unrelated questions, aren't on-topic for the site, would require a book-length answer, could have been answered with a simple search and show no effort, request opinion or shopping recommendations, and other characteristics described in the help section. Experienced users do help polish questions that are fundamentally good. But it looks like you aren't interested in feedback that would make you more successful here. Jan 16, 2018 at 0:44
@Jody / user862589: In the unlikely event that you’re still monitoring this thread: Searching Super User’s knowledgebase would be an example of doing research. When you post a question, you force people to take time to read it, understand it, and react to it. People resent being asked to spend more time on a question than the asker (you) did.
Super User has over a third of a million questions. As fixer1234 says, many of them are “beginner questions”, and a lot of them are very similar. People resent being asked questions that have been asked and answered before, and if you haven’t searched for it, you don’t know whether an answer for it is already here.
Realistically, it’s unlikely that your “question” has an answer, because it’s ambiguous, incoherent, and unfocused, as explained by David and fixer1234.
Why downvote a question?
Because it’s a way of telling you that that it needs work. If you edit your question and improve it, people can retract their downvotes and even add upvotes — and this actually does happen, although not as often or reliably as it should. It would have been nice if the downvoters had explained some of this to you before you reached the boiling point, but some people skip this step because
- they’re in a hurry (or are lazy),
- they believe that an established, experienced Stack Exchange user should know better, or
- they’re concerned about retaliatory downvotes (and this actually does happen), because votes are anonymous but comments are not.
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1My reasons for a vote are often explained by the close vote I issue. Besides as you point out, negative responses due to the feedback provided, is a huge reason feedback isn't provided. If I feel the user will be open to feedback I copy and paste the close reason into a comment.– RamhoundJan 17, 2018 at 18:00