-1

I had a question that got attention from one user. The Comments got toxic and the reputation of the question got voted into the negative range (presumably by the commenter). So I deleted it and basically asked it again and it immediately got voted negative without any rationale. Maybe it's a terrible question, but I couldn't find a duplicate and it seems reasonable to me.

Wouldn't it be great if, in order to vote something into negative territory (basically killing the question -- nobody spends time on a Q with negative rep), they had to at least edit the question or provide some rationale for killing the question?

EDIT

Well, isn't this lovely? I know re-posting is rule-breaking, I'm exemplifying my own bad behavior to make a point. The current system incentives re-posts and is not very punitive against it. I got the results I needed by doing so. You can rely on the good-naturedness of the average person and peer pressure or we can have a civil discussion about how the system can be modified. I'm merely suggesting that there be more incentives to improve on a question rather than down-vote it into tumbleweed land.

In my opinion the entire StackExchange system is getting less collaborative and more competitive and the body of knowledge it contains suffers as a result.

12
  • No prizes for guessing who the toxic/negative voting commenter might be...
    – qasdfdsaq
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 4:26
  • I didn't find the first question helpful. So I didn't find a near duplicate of the same question helpful. The comments were not "toxic" I wanted information so I could answer the question. I didn't feel like making any comments, I figured, it was a pointless endeavour. (I nearly replied with an answer even, and decided against it, because I didn't want to deal with the drama.)
    – Ramhound
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 5:36
  • Amusingly enough, I'm talking to ramhound, and I had the exact same confusion you might have had over 'network map'
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 5:54
  • Deleting and reposting the same question repeatedly is not OK, and could lead to an automated question ban.
    – nhinkle Mod
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 7:02
  • Please read and take note of What should I do if no one answers my question? instead of asking the same question again. If you have new information you should edit it into the original question instead of asking a new one.
    – DavidPostill Mod
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 9:52
  • @nhinkle See my comment to Journeyman's answer regarding my feature request's effect on rule-breaking.
    – Paul
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 12:46
  • @DavidPostill See my comment to Journeyman's answer regarding my feature request's effect on rule-breaking.
    – Paul
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 12:46
  • Forcing an edit or a comment before downvoting would kill the core principle that voting is anonymous. Note that this change has been requested many many times on meta.se and rejected. See What is the logic of downvoting a question without a comment? for just one of many examples.
    – DavidPostill Mod
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 12:51
  • @DavidPostill Understood. And I saw those posts. The new idea i thought I was bringing to the table was the idea of breaking anonymity for the special case of going from 0 to -1. Maybe a better idea would be to put a reputation floor at zero for a Q for a prescribed period of time instead.
    – Paul
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 13:00
  • @Paul You should incorporate that last comment into your question then clarify exactly what your feature request is. In order to get it taken seriously you should also be very clear on what is to be gained by the new feature (and also what any downsides would be). Think of it as a project proposal to management ;)
    – DavidPostill Mod
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 13:06
  • 1
    I vote a great deal, I use my 50 votes nearly daily, I also review a ton of answers and questions in the review queue. If I were to be forced to make a comment it would be the exact same comment every single time. LOOK, I already get serial downvoted nearly monthly for the comments I already make. That comment wouldn't indicate I downvoted by the way, I hate the idea, of being forced to leave a comment. In Feb somebody decided to downvoted 35 of my answers over at SO, because they had the reputation there, after receiving a comment here.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 14:16
  • @Paul there have been countless requests like this one over the years to make downvoting more difficult, by people who don't like that they were downvoted. It's not going to happen. Anonymous and easy voting is one of the core principles of Stack Exchange. Voting is the choice of the person casting the vote. Except in cases of vote fraud and serial up/downvoting, people are free to vote however they feel is appropriate.
    – nhinkle Mod
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 19:42

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
4

Deleting it is not the best thing to do. A single downvote means little and while it seems a little aggressive, one commenter and a downvote means little.

What you ought to have done was edit the original question as the second question was. Add more details and so on.

A downvote is not the end of the world

6
  • In my experience, a '-1' in front of a question is a stigma that gets that question ignored. I could care less about the points. What I need is an answer to my question so my team can move forward on testing our CV software on a new battery of cameras. My second objective is to improve SU with this feature request. The temptation to rule-break to get the answer you need diminishes greatly with this stigma gone. (Thank you for your answer to my wifi Q BTW)
    – Paul
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 12:39
  • @paul This is a community of volunteers and in addition not every question is answerable. You cannot expect people to even look at your question immediately just because it is urgent for you. If your need is that urgent you should be considering other avenues to getting your question answered (perhaps by paying a consultant who is an expert in Windows networking).
    – DavidPostill Mod
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 12:58
  • @DavidPostill I suppose telling everyone with urgent questions to go away is one solution. I proposed a different solution with this feature request. Thanks for your time, David. I will see myself out now.
    – Paul
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 13:06
  • @Paul I'm not telling you to go away. It is some friendly advice that really urgent questions are in some ways not so suitable for SE. It could be that an "urgent" question gets answered straight away. On the other hand some questions get answered months after they were asked ... I'm just trying to make you aware of another option to think about. cont...
    – DavidPostill Mod
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 13:10
  • @paul ... You have to remember the SE network is about building a repository of quality questions and answers. That repository is for future users as well as the askers. Askers do not always get immediate answers to their questions.
    – DavidPostill Mod
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 13:13
  • @Paul - A single downvote is meaningless. I often answer questions with a negative score, which end up helping the question, but what do I know
    – Ramhound
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 14:20

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